The Twilight of the Golds is a play by Jonathan Tolins. After fifteen previews, the Broadway theatre production, directed by Arvin Brown, opened on October 21, 1993 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 29 performances. The cast included Jennifer Grey as Suzanne, Raphael Sbarge as David, and David Groh as their father. The play had received good reviews while in preview in California but was "largely clobbered" when it reached Broadway.[1]
Tolins adapted his play for a television movie with a "completely different ending".[2] The film was directed by Ross Kagan Marks that was screened at the January 1997 Sundance Film Festival [3] prior to its broadcast in March. The cast included Jennifer Beals as Suzanne, Brendan Fraser as David, Garry Marshall and Faye Dunaway as their parents, and Jon Tenney as Suzanne's husband, with John Schlesinger and Rosie O'Donnell in supporting roles created for the film.
Beals tied with Alfre Woodard for the Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. Dunaway was nominated for the CableACE Award for Supporting Actress in a Movie or Miniseries and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries, and the film was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Made for TV Movie.
The controversial dramedy tackles the issue of fictional genetic testing that would determine the sexual orientation of an unborn child. When Suzanne Gold-Stein discovers her son is destined to be gay, she considers aborting the fetus, much to the dismay of her gay brother David, whose sexual orientation has never been fully accepted by his conservative family. In the film version, Suzanne chooses to have the baby, though this leads to a break-up with her husband, who does not wish to raise a gay son.