Bad Habits

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Bad Habits is play by Terrence McNally.

The comedy is composed of what originally were written as two one-act plays set in sanatoriums. In Dunelawn, a doctor allows his patients to indulge in all their bad habits as means of finding happiness. In Ravenswood, a serum is used to provide a cure. The cast of eight actors (6 male, 2 female) all perform in each act, albeit as completely different characters.

Under the auspices of the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play premiered on February 4, 1974 at the off-Broadway Astor Place Theatre, where it ran for 96 performances. The Robert Drivas-directed cast included F. Murray Abraham, Paul Benedict, and Doris Roberts. On May 5, the production moved uptown to the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 177 performances. The cast was joined by Cynthia Harris.

A revised version of the play opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club on February 27, 1990, starring Nathan Lane, Kate Nelligan, Robert Clohessy, and Faith Prince. This version switched the names of the sanitariums to the arrangement mentioned above and added an extra scene to the beginning of Dunelawn, along with numerous other minor changes.^[1]

Bad Habits won the Obie Award as Distinguished Play for the 1973–1974 season.

Summary

Dunelawn

Wheel-chaired marriage counselor Dr. Jason Pepper treats his patients in a country club setting complete with a clay tennis court and freely flowing cocktails. Roy and April Pitt arrive as they play opens; they are recently-married movie stars who are already seeking couples therapy because of their frequent bickering. Anal-retentive Harry Schupp has been at Dunelawn for three months, and on this day his wife Dolly decides to drive up to encourage him to come home. Hiram and Francis are old friends of questionable sexuality who have been at Dunelawn since it opened years ago, content to stay indefinitely courtesy of Francis' family fortune. Meanwhile manservant Otto mixes the drinks, carries luggage, and keeps the grounds. Over the course of the play the various couples meet, interact, argue, and even wrestle, with Dr. Pepper encouraging them to do whatever feels good. Very little has changed by the end of the day, except that Harry has decided to return home while Dolly is going to check in.

Ravenswood

A day in a rehab centre that deals with various "bad habits". The three patients that are introduced through the dialogue are an alcoholic, a drag queen and a perverted sadistic deluded man. Doctor Toynbee the man in charge of the centre is described throughout as a great man, a saint, revered by everyone in his presence. The doctor has developed a “serum” that is meant to help get rid of his patience’s flaws and worries. However, it lasts momentarily and the effects don’t seem to eliminate any amount of the patients’ previous bad habits as a sign of gradual elimination of their bad habits. The play is over the course of a sunny afternoon at the centre. Bruno a worker who helps out Ruth Benson and Becky Hedges, the nurses, and tends to the garden and hedges brings the patients out one by one, where the nurses are giving patients serum, some sun and some fresh air. As he goes back and forth he “leers” at Hedges, attempting to seduce her. As they wait for Bruno to bring along the next patient, we learn about the two nurses, their own bad habits, past lives, regrets and their striving for reformation. We learn of the trigger for their quest, men, at least in Ruth Benson’s case one man, Hugh Gumbs.

References

External links

• Bad Habits at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Bad Habits at the Internet Broadway Database
• New York Times review from March 1990