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Bill W. and Dr. Bob

"Wonderful uplifting new play...a joyous drama of triumph and survival of the humor spirit...filled with humor and grace."

Examiner

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1930s, 1950s, 1940s / WWII
  • Target Audience: Adult, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Alcohol

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, Professional Theatre

  • Accolades:
  • Winner! 2010 Best Play - Regional Drama Festival, British Columbia, Winner! 2007 Performing Arts Award from the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence
Newly revised edition! From the author of the best-selling novel, The House of God, this critically acclaimed version which played Off Broadway in 2007, tells the amazing story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who founded Al Anon.

During the roaring '20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze. In '29, both he and the market crash and he becomes a hopeless drunk.

Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. His family has tried everything to no avail.

Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune, Bill and Bob meet on Mother's Day of 1935. The two men form a relationship which keeps each sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others.

Richly textured with the ragtime and jazz of the era, the play tells a magnificent American success story. For more information, please visit the official website at www.billwanddrbob.com.

REVIEWS:

The play deals with relationships...The playwrights, through the script, don't attempt to teach, nor are they judgmental. They explore each man's relationship with his wife, with each other and in the final scenes, their relationship with other alcoholics. You don't have to be an alcoholic or a member of AA or Al

Anon to enjoy Bill W. and Dr. Bob

Inspiring.

Boston Globe

s traditional opening and closing. However, what happens between those brief scenes is mesmerizing drama...This is a good, strong story that is well written' –Talkin' Broadway'A deeply human, audience embracing tale.

Variety

Top Cleveland Theatre Stories of 2010, Great Shows at the Cleveland Playhouse: Bill W and Dr. Bob. A sober but far from somber telling of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous...a surprisingly fun and funny play...an intimate, balanced and intoxicating portrayal of the teamwork and tensions between the men who took the first 12 steps together...a metaphor for the AA phenomenon: The light of truth shining through the testimony of one drunk's experiences to another, a phenomenon that Bill W. and Dr. Bob makes sparkle.

Tony Brown The Plain Dealer

Wonderful uplifting new play...a joyous drama of the triumph and survival of the humor spirit...filled with humor and grace.

Examiner

The just-concluded theater season was the biggest at Cleveland Play House in more than a decade...it was the nightcap that put the Play House over the top: a production of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, a play about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. The show sold more than six times the anticipated number of tickets, resulting in the venue's biggest season finale in 20 years.

Cleveland Scene

One of the best plays of the year.

San Diego Union Tribune
  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Parts for Senior Actors, Flexible casting, Expandable casting

BILL W. - Wide range of emotions; Loud, proud, headstrong, extroverted, an idealist
DR. BOB - Wide range of emotions; Grumpy, depressed, joking, inspired
ANNE - A kindly, good-hearted, motherly figure living in Ohio
LOIS - Cold, doubting, lonely, New Yorker. Wishes she had children
MAN - Plays multiple comedic and dramatic roles
WOMAN - Plays multiple comedic and dramatic roles

Name Price
Bill W. and Dr. Bob Script Order Now

Newly revised edition! From the author of the best-selling novel, The House of God, this critically acclaimed version which played Off Broadway in 2007, tells the amazing story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who founded Al Anon. During the roaring '20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze. In '29, both he and the market crash and he becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. His family has tried everything to no avail. Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune, Bill and Bob meet on Mother's Day of 1935. The two men form a relationship which keeps each sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others. Richly textured with the ragtime and jazz of the era, the play tells a magnificent American success story.For more information, please visit the offical website at www.billwanddrbob.com.

$24.95