NEW YORK (AP) ¿ Family battles don't get more bruising that the verbal fisticuffs on display in "August: Osage County'', Tracy Letts' riveting dissection of one Oklahoma clan's bleak, brutal descent into disintegration.

The savagery displayed by these folks, particularly the matriarch, is venomous, with no relative spared. But don't be put off by the rancour. Their fights are often incredibly funny. That gives you some idea of the gutsy scope of Letts' astonishing creation which had its strike-delayed premiere this week at Broadway's Imperial Theatre.

The production, which arrived in New York from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is mammoth in many ways. It's a full, three-act evening, more than three hours in length. And there are 13 characters, each one getting Letts' full attention. He creates a parade of memorable people spanning several generations of unhappiness and unfulfilled dreams.

Set in a rambling country house during a sweltering summer, "August: Osage County" deals most profoundly with loss. An academic and poet, portrayed by Dennis Letts (yes, the playwright's father), appears in the play's opening scene, hires a Native American housekeeper and then disappears. Now his family must pick up the pieces.

Chief about these survivors is his profane, pill-popping wife, Violet, wracked with mouth cancer but still possessing the family's most vicious tongue. Deanna Dunagan transforms the woman into a harridan of the first order. It's a mesmerizing portrait of a person who knows how to hurt those closest to her and is willing to do so.

Violet inflicts the greatest damage on her three daughters, played with striking individuality by Amy Morton, Sally Murphy and Mariann Mayberry.

All are superb.

Each daughter has her own vulnerabilities that the mother is able to exploit.

Morton, in particular, delivers an amazing portrait of a woman whose own marriage has fallen apart.

Her husband (Jeff Perry) has found a younger woman and her defiant, 14-year-old daughter (Madeleine Martin) seeks solace in pot.

What's extraordinary about Letts' creation of these women is that you can see the mother in each of her daughters ¿ but he doesn't stint the other characters either.

One of the many pleasures of this production, which has been directed with precision by Anna D. Shapiro, is the opportunity it gives members of Steppenwolf's esteemed acting ensemble.

There is a joyously blowzy portrait by Rondi Reed as the matriarch's sister. And an equally potent performance by Francis Guinan as the sister's long-suffering husband.

Guinan has a particularly hilarious moment, saying grace at a family meal that turns into a major bloodletting event.

To his credit, Letts is able to sustain the vitriol ¿ and surprises ¿ well into the third act, when the middle daughter (Murphy) and her perpetually belittled cousin (Ian Barford) may have to face some uncomfortable truths.

Watching all this emotional unraveling is the housekeeper (Kimberly Guerrero), who maintains an almost nonjudgmental, stoic presence while the household collapses.

Yet the playwright balances the harshness of the situation with a compassion for these people.

It's an honest compassion that doesn't teeter into sentimentality as the play reaches its lonely conclusion, an ending that seems exactly right.

Letts' previous plays have embraced a wide range of styles. "Killer Joe" and "Bug" (both seen in New York) are more overtly violent ¿ at least in the literal sense, while his "Man From Nebraska'', which deals with a mid-life crisis of faith, is positively reflective in its examination of one man's bewilderment.

This latest effort will inevitably be compared to such classic examinations of dysfunctional families and spouses as Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" We will have to wait and see. But one thing is clear. "August: Osage County" has introduced a major playwright to Broadway.