Baby With the Bathwater
- Written by Christopher Durang
- Directed by Jerry Zaks
Christopher Durang is a playwright whose plays include A History of the American Film (Tony nomination, Best Book of a Musical, 1978), The Actor’s Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (Obie award; off-Bway run 1981-83), Beyond Therapy (on Broadway in 1982, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow), Baby with the Bathwater (Playwrights Horizons, 1983), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Public Theatre, 1985; Obie award, Dramatists Guild Hull Warriner Award), Laughing Wild (Playwrights Horizons, 1987), Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays at Manhattan Theatre Club, 1994, including the Tennessee Williams’ parody, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls), Sex and Longing (Lincoln Center Theatre production at the Cort Theatre, 1996, starring Sigourney Weaver), and Betty’s Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons, 1999; Obie award). (As of November 2005)
His most recent works are Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, which premiered at City Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2002. And the musical Adrift in Macao, with music by Peter Melnick and book and lyrics by Durang, which premiered at New York Stage and Film in summer 2002, and is under option for off-Broadway 2003-04.
Durang is also a performer, and acted with E. Katherine Kerr in the N.Y. premiere of Laughing Wild, and with Jean Smart in the L.A. production. He shared in an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo; and with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson has performed his crackpot cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne at the Criterion Center, Caroline’s Comedy Club, Williamstown Summer Cabaret, and the Triad, winning a 1996 Bistro Award.
In the early 80s, he and Sigourney Weaver co-wrote and performed in their acclaimed Brecht-Weill parody, Das Lusitania Songspiel, and were both nominated for Drama Desk awards for Best Performer in a Musical.
In 1993 he sang in the five person off-Broadway Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, with Julie Andrews at the Manhattan Theatre Club. And he played a singing Congressman in the Encores presentation of Call Me Madam with Tyne Daly at City Center.
In movies, he has appeared in The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher’s Wife, Housesitter, and The Cowboy Way, among others.
He has a B.A. from Harvard College, and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama.
In 1995 he won the prestigious three-year Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award; as part of his grant, he ran a writing workshop for adult children of alcoholics. In 2000 he won the Sidney Kingsley Playwriting Award.
Grove Press publishes several of his plays. Smith and Kraus recently published two new collections: Christopher Durang: 27 Short Plays and Christopher Durang: Complete Full-Length Plays (1975-1995). Grove has recently published Betty’s Summer Vacation.
Since 1994 he has been co-chair with Marsha Norman of the Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.
He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.
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 Raymond, Frasier 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.
Featuring
Fran Brill
Leslie Geraci
Dana Ivey
William H. Macy
Keith Reddin
Keith Reddin is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Yale Drama School. His plays include: LIFE AND LIMB, LIFE DURING WARTIME, THE INNOCENTS' CRUSADE (published by DPS), RUM AND COKE, HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING, BIG TIME, NEBRASKA. Mr. Reddin's MAYBE, starring Vanessa Redgrave, which he adapted from a contemporary Russian play written by Alexander Shatrov, had its world premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester England in April 1993. He has adapted other plays by Soviet playwrights: Alexander Buravsky's THE RUSSIAN TEACHER, and Mikhail Bulgakov's BLACK SNOW which had its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in May 1993. It won the Joseph Jefferson Award - Best Play 1993. Film credits include: THE PLAYWRIGHT'S CINEMA (TNTMovie),THE HEART OF JUSTICE, and a film adaptation of his play BIG TIME forAmerican Playhouse. Mr. Reddin has been awarded the Charles MacArthur Fellowship (1983), an NEd Playwriting Fellowship (1984), the San Diego Critics Circle Award for Best New Play (1989 & 1990), the Joseph Kesserling Award (1990) and a Drama League Award ( 1990). His play ALMOST BLUE had a workshop production at Arena Stage and his BRUTALITY OF FACT had its NJ premiere at 12 Miles West in 1997. He just finished his latest play ALL THE RAGE for the Goodman Theatre.
Creative Team
Loren Sherman
Scenic DesignerRita Ryack
Costume DesignerJennifer Tipton
Lighting DesignerJonathan Vail
Sound DesignerEsther Cohen
Production Stage Manager
Photo of William H. Macy, Fran Brill, and Dana Ivey by Gerry Goodstein
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.