STAGE

Two plays that flopped in New York are delighting critics and audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Edward Albee’s “The Man Who Had Three Arms” and Michael Cristofer’s “The Lady and the Clarinet,” which were New York flops in the early 1980s, have won the Scotsman newspaper’s coveted Fringe First awards, given weekly to the best of the Fringe’s many openings during the festival’s three weeks. However, not every unsung American play has its reputation restored in Scotland. Beth Henley’s “The Wake of Jamey Foster,” a short-lived Broadway entry early this decade, got mixed-to-poor reviews at this year’s Fringe, and David Rabe’s “Hurlyburly,” a Broadway success, was denounced in the Scotsman as “exploitative, bad-mouthed, and boring.” The 422 plays being offered in the 43rd annual Festival Fringe include a number of American classics and Broadway hits, from “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” to more recent works, including “Agnes of God” and “Night, Mother.”