Baby With the Bathwater

Jerry Zaks

JERRY ZAKS has received four Tony Awards, four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, and an NAACP Image Award nomination for his national tour of The Tap Dance Kid. He has directed more than 30 productions in New York, including Guys and Dolls (Tony Award), Six Degrees of Separation (Tony Award), Lend Me a Tenor (Tony Award), The House of Blue Leaves (Tony Award), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Tony Award nomination), Smokey Joe's Cafe (Tony Award nomination), Anything Goes (Tony Award nomination), La Cage Aux Folles (Tony Award, Outstanding Musical Revival), The Foreigner (Obie Award), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Little Shop of Horrors, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Bad Friend, The Front Page, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Assassins (Drama Desk nomination), Wenceslas Square, Sister Mary Ignatius, Beyond Therapy and The Civil War. He also directed the Old Vic's production of The Philadelphia Story in London (starring Kevin Spacey), as well as the award-winning film Marvin's Room (starring Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton). Mr. Zaks served as resident director at Lincoln Center Theater from 1986-1990 and is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. He has also directed episodes for the long running hit comedies Everybody Loves RaymondFrasier and Two and a Half Men. A graduate of Dartmouth with an MFA from Smith, he received the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater in 1994 and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999. Since 1990 he has been proudly affiliated with Jujamcyn Theaters.

Reviews
  • “Nanny – a warped Mary Poppins as played by Dana Ivey – believes that cuddling children only spoils them. She gives the baby a rattle made of asbestos, lead and Red Dye No. 2. … Daisy proves a fuller creation than the outrageous facts suggest. Watching the character undergo therapy, we feel the pain that leads him to have more than 1,700 sexual partners, that makes it impossible for him to find an identity or a name. A playwright who shares Swift’s bleak view of humanity, [Durang] conquers bitterness and finds a way to turn rage into comedy that is redemptive as well as funny.”

    — Frank Rich, New York Times