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The Hot L Baltimore
The guests at a rundown hotel meet and interact with one another over the course of a day.
74 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1973
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121 people want to read
About the author
Lanford Wilson
52 books26 followersLanford Wilson was an American playwright, considered one of the founders of the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 23, 2011
Speaking of art (and life?) Lanford Wilson once said, "None of us are taking the risks we should be. It's never chancy enough, never risky enough."
I read that Wilson himself hustled, and the dialogue he gives his prostitutes sings with "the natural poetry in speech. I think of it very much as writing music and telling the story at the same time."
At Chicago's Steppenwolf the actors (especially Kate Arrington and de'Adre Aziza) carried us back in time to the Hot(e)l Baltimore. A play about loss, longing, and manufactured families, the moments of togetherness and hilarity echo like brave cries against the inevitability of age and death. The seventies are gone, Lanford himself is now gone, but as he says, "The theatre, evanescent itself, and for all we do perhaps itself disappearing here, seems the ideal place for the representation of the impermanence of our architecture. . . . To me the Hot L Baltimore is a play about losers refusing to lose. To me they're brave people. They're survivors."
I read that Wilson himself hustled, and the dialogue he gives his prostitutes sings with "the natural poetry in speech. I think of it very much as writing music and telling the story at the same time."
At Chicago's Steppenwolf the actors (especially Kate Arrington and de'Adre Aziza) carried us back in time to the Hot(e)l Baltimore. A play about loss, longing, and manufactured families, the moments of togetherness and hilarity echo like brave cries against the inevitability of age and death. The seventies are gone, Lanford himself is now gone, but as he says, "The theatre, evanescent itself, and for all we do perhaps itself disappearing here, seems the ideal place for the representation of the impermanence of our architecture. . . . To me the Hot L Baltimore is a play about losers refusing to lose. To me they're brave people. They're survivors."
April 2, 2025
2019: Really haven’t read this since I was in it in 1982 at Boston College. I think the play is much better than the celebrated Tally plays or even his more recent ones, like BURN THIS.
Funny how rereading a play you were in some 35+ years ago still can evoke nostalgic emotion.
2025: I enjoyed rereading this some 40+ after I did it in 1982. I certainly found it more meaningful and subtle than some of the plays I’ve read recently. Great characters.
Funny how rereading a play you were in some 35+ years ago still can evoke nostalgic emotion.
2025: I enjoyed rereading this some 40+ after I did it in 1982. I certainly found it more meaningful and subtle than some of the plays I’ve read recently. Great characters.
November 23, 2016
I read this because I remember the sitcom base on it from the seventies. Conchita Farrell was in the TV show, too, as well as the original stage production. The play is kind of sad and doesn't go anywhere. It's sort of about not being committed to anything and just letting everything slip by in life.
July 17, 2015
As the action unfolds, the residents, ranging from young to old, and from the defiant to the resigned, meet and talk and interact with each other during the course of one day. The drama is of passing events in their lives, of everyday encounters and of the human comedy, with conversations often overlapping into a contrapuntal musical flow. Each character emerges clearly and perceptively defined in the resulting mosaic, and the sum total of what they are — or wish they were — becomes a poignant, powerful call to America to recover lost values and to restore itself in its own and the world's eyes.
April 10, 2008
I actually haven't read it, but I've seen the play. Close enough eh?
May 12, 2022
Like Fifth of July, Lanford Wilson writes about characters just hanging around and talking but I don't give a shit either way because they are terrible characters.
Coincidentally, Wilson almost saves both plays midway when something resembling a plot begins to emerge but he abandons it. What a waste of time.
Coincidentally, Wilson almost saves both plays midway when something resembling a plot begins to emerge but he abandons it. What a waste of time.
October 14, 2008
the representative of human suffering in the appropriate language.
January 23, 2012
Seemed to be missing something
August 22, 2013
I had forgotten just what an extraordinary play this is. Wilson really is the most humane of all of our great playwrights.
December 28, 2016
A fun and entertaining peek into this little world
March 24, 2018
Humorous with heart
March 29, 2021
I remember when Hot l Baltimore was on Broadway. Then it made its way to TV for only a few episodes before it was cancelled. This was back in the day when plays did not necessarily follow a formulaic path to success.
Hot l Baltimore, the play, does not follow any expected path. Rather, Lanford Wilson introduces the audience to a group of misfits living in an old hotel scheduled for demolition. As the play progresses, we get to know each character through their dialogue rather than from what happens to them. Wilson was a master of dialogue. There is a cadence to his writing and he knows how to shine a light on those quiet, private areas of all our lives that make us human and interesting as hell.
I recently watched a performance of Wilson's play, Fifth of July. It's one of my favorite plays of all time. Seeing the play again after so many years, I realized that here is a playwright I need to read more of so I ordered three of his plays online: Hot l Baltimore, Fifth of July and Talley's Folly which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize. Reading up on Wilson's life, I am now wanting to order more of his plays such as The Madness of Lady Bright, Balm in Gilead, The Gingham Dog and The Rimers of Eldritch.
In this day and age what passes for literature is unoriginal pap guaranteed to massage our political egos, mediocrities that make us feel good about ourselves as we passively feel bad for people living lives more unfortunate than our own. These works of literature allow us to feel bad for others from the comfort of our well-appointed homes. Wilson's plays deal with people on the periphery of life. He brings them to life in all their roughness, honestly portraying them rather than using them as symbols of what's wrong with society. It's that honesty and that sense of personal integrity he imparts to his characters that distinguishes him as a master playwright. I admire the writing in Hot l Baltimore and the people who live there. A great read I highly recommend.
Hot l Baltimore, the play, does not follow any expected path. Rather, Lanford Wilson introduces the audience to a group of misfits living in an old hotel scheduled for demolition. As the play progresses, we get to know each character through their dialogue rather than from what happens to them. Wilson was a master of dialogue. There is a cadence to his writing and he knows how to shine a light on those quiet, private areas of all our lives that make us human and interesting as hell.
I recently watched a performance of Wilson's play, Fifth of July. It's one of my favorite plays of all time. Seeing the play again after so many years, I realized that here is a playwright I need to read more of so I ordered three of his plays online: Hot l Baltimore, Fifth of July and Talley's Folly which won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize. Reading up on Wilson's life, I am now wanting to order more of his plays such as The Madness of Lady Bright, Balm in Gilead, The Gingham Dog and The Rimers of Eldritch.
In this day and age what passes for literature is unoriginal pap guaranteed to massage our political egos, mediocrities that make us feel good about ourselves as we passively feel bad for people living lives more unfortunate than our own. These works of literature allow us to feel bad for others from the comfort of our well-appointed homes. Wilson's plays deal with people on the periphery of life. He brings them to life in all their roughness, honestly portraying them rather than using them as symbols of what's wrong with society. It's that honesty and that sense of personal integrity he imparts to his characters that distinguishes him as a master playwright. I admire the writing in Hot l Baltimore and the people who live there. A great read I highly recommend.
November 21, 2019
Difficult to READ, especially when the script has 2 people talking at the same time and their lines are in columns. I can sense what emotions that the author is trying to evoke, and I'd probably enjoy SEEING it performed. I was young when the short-lived TV show aired, but I somehow knew that it was scandalous. ;)
September 24, 2022
Confusing
July 20, 2023
A slice-of-life play -- one set, lots of characters, overlapping dialogue. Feels kind of dated now.
Read
October 2, 2025Read for Realism... not sure if I liked it
June 6, 2013
read with Portland Playreaders
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews