SOURCE: A review of The Member of the Wedding, in The New Yorker, Vol. XXV, No. 47, January 14, 1950, pp. 44, 46, 49.

In the following review Gibbs praises the theatrical production of The Member of the Wedding, but faults the attempt to condense the entire novel into a three-act play.

The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers' dramatization of her novel, is unquestionably the first serious new play of any consequence to reach Broadway this season. It has a good many touching and rather difficult things to say; it often has a queer, fantastic wit, not unlike Saroyan's; occasionally it reaches something very close to poetry; and it is illuminated by a magnificent performance by Ethel Waters and two remarkably spirited ones by Julie Harris and a seven-year-old boy named Brandon De Wilde. In spite of all this, however, I'm afraid that the piece at the Empire isn't entirely satisfactory from a...