Musical / 9m, 6f / Various Sets  A hilarious take off on American films, especially from the 1930s through the 1970s. The principals play a variety of characters. There is a Cagney Bogart Dean Brando type-- and a Fonda Stewart Peck Perkins type. The women, too, are types-- basically Bette Davis, Loretta Young and Eve Arden. The parts they play are wild parodies from many Hollywood genres; a silent tearjerker, slum idyll, gangster epic, courtroom melodrama, chain gang social justice thriller, screwball comedy, Busby Berkeley backstage musical, war propaganda canteen musical-- not to forget "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane" and a variety of minor genres. "Christopher Durang has written one of the funniest, zaniest, most entertaining plays of the last decade...What we see is the American way of life reflected through a distortion mirror...It's true that Durang has serious points to make...but this is no message play, thank goodness. Most everything in it is pure, unadulterated, uproarious fun....[Durang's] witty comedy about the movies is a splendid, constantly surprising treat." - Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner "A grand popular entertainment. A significant act of film criticism as well as wise social commentary. Mr. Durang has the waggishness of four Marxes and the malice of Jonathan Swift. Through the history of the American film, we see a history of America - the turn from patriotism to cynicism, from optimism to sensationalism...The clown-sharp company of comic actors strikes precisely the correct stance - total conviction and not camp...A History of the American Film is an A-movie, a glorious montage of myth-America. - Mel Gussow, The New York Times

A history of the American film (A Bard book)

Durang, Christopher

Avon/Books

Darkly humorous plays deal with suffering, fear, intolerance, family ties and therapy

Christopher Durang Explains It All for You

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

The Marriage of Bette and Boo

Never have marriage and the family been more scathingly or hilariously savaged than in this brilliant black comedy. The marriage of Bette and Boo brings together two of the maddest families in creation in a portrait album of family life’s uncertainties and confusion. Bereaved by miscarriages, undermined by their families, separated by alcoholism, assaulted by disease, and mystified by their priest, Bette and Boo, in their bewildered attempts to provide a semblance of hearth and home, are presented with a poignant compassion that enriches and enlarges the play, and places Christopher Durang squarely in the forefront of American dramatists.

GROVE PRESS

Offers a darkly humorous look at a marriage marred by miscarriages, alcoholism, and the interference of inlaws

Comedy 
Christopher Durang
Chacrters: 4 male, 2 female 
Interior Set
 (Set may be simply suggested.) 
Bruce and Prudence are deeply into therapy. Prudence's macho therapist is urging her to be more assertive while Bruce's wacky female therapist wants him to meet women by placing a personal ad. She does not fully comprehend that Bruce has a male lover who is not pleased by Bruce's desire to date a woman: Prudence. Bruce doesn't know how to handle poor nervous Prudence and Prudence doesn't know what to make of her unpredictable new boyfriend. They do learn to live beyond therapy in this delightful Off Broadway hit that moved successfully to Broadway. 
"Offers the best therapy of all: guaranteed laughter." Time. 
"Filled with off beat laugh lines, wry observations on the contemporary urban psyche and situations that range from farcical to absurd." Women's Wear Daily.

Beyond Therapy

Concord Theatricals

Full Length, Musical / 4m, 3f /Unit Sets Nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Music Set in 1952 in Macao, China, ADRIFT IN MACAO is a loving parody of film noir movies. Everyone that comes to Macao is waiting for something, and though none of them know exactly what that is, they hang around to find out. The characters include your film noir standards, like Laureena, the curvacious blonde, who luckily bumps into Rick Shaw, the cynical surf and turf casino owner her first night in town. She ends up getting a job singing in his night club - perhaps for no reason other than the fact that she looks great in a slinky dress. And don't forget about Mitch, the American who has just been framed for murder by the mysterious villain McGuffin. With songs and quips, puns and farcical shenanigans, this musical parody is bound to please audiences of all ages. "And there are of course those songs... Melnick demonstrates an affinity for melody and old-fashioned showmanship that link him to his grandfather, Richard Rodgers..."- Matthew Murray, Talkin' Broadway.com "... with a drop-dead funny book and shamefully silly lyrics by Christopher Durang and lethally catchy music by Peter Melnick. A Drift In Macao lovingly parodies the Hollywood film noir classics of the 1940's and 50's..." - Michael Dale, Broadwayworld.com

Adrift in Macao

Melnick, Peter Rodgers

Melnick, Peter

Romance

Musical / 9m, 6f / Various Sets A hilarious take off on American films, especially from the 1930s through the 1970s. The principals play a variety of characters. There is a Cagney Bogart Dean Brando type-- and a Fonda Stewart Peck Perkins type. The women, too, are types-- basically Bette Davis, Loretta Young and Eve Arden. The parts they play are wild parodies from many Hollywood genres; a silent tearjerker, slum idyll, gangster epic, courtroom melodrama, chain gang social justice thriller, screwball comedy, Busby Berkeley backstage musical, war propaganda canteen musical-- not to forget "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane" and a variety of minor genres. "Christopher Durang has written one of the funniest, zaniest, most entertaining plays of the last decade...What we see is the American way of life reflected through a distortion mirror...It's true that Durang has serious points to make...but this is no message play, thank goodness. Most everything in it is pure, unadulterated, uproarious fun....[Durang's] witty comedy about the movies is a splendid, constantly surprising treat." - Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner "A grand popular entertainment. A significant act of film criticism as well as wise social commentary. Mr. Durang has the waggishness of four Marxes and the malice of Jonathan Swift. Through the history of the American film, we see a history of America - the turn from patriotism to cynicism, from optimism to sensationalism...The clown-sharp company of comic actors strikes precisely the correct stance - total conviction and not camp...A History of the American Film is an A-movie, a glorious montage of myth-America. - Mel Gussow, The New York Times

A History of the American Film (French's Musical Library)

Marvin, Mel

Baby with the bathwater, and, Laughing wild: Two plays

Christopher Durang explains it all for you: Six plays

Grove Weidenfeld

Winner of the 2013 Tony Award® for Best Play Winner of the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Play Winner of the Drama League Award for Best Production of a Play Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Play Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production Winner of the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play Nominated for six Tony Awards®, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is one of the most lauded and beloved Broadway plays of recent years. Vanya and his adopted sister Sonia live a quiet life in the Pennsylvania farmhouse where they grew up, but their peace is disturbed when their movie star sister Masha returns unannounced with her twenty-something boy toy, Spike. A weekend of rivalry, regret, and raucousness begins!

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Durang, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Durang, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Durang, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A history of the American film (A Bard book)

Christopher Durang Explains It All for You

The Marriage of Bette and Boo

The Marriage of Bette and Boo

Beyond Therapy

Adrift in Macao

A History of the American Film (French's Musical Library)

Baby with the bathwater, and, Laughing wild: Two plays

Christopher Durang explains it all for you: Six plays

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike