''In the Boom Boom Room'' is a play by
David Rabe
David William Rabe (born March 10, 1940) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 ('' Sticks and Bones'') and also received Tony award nominations for Best Play in 1974 ('' In the Boom Boom Room''), ...
. The play follows a young
go-go dancer
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...
who has a difficult relationship with her parents.
Plot summary
Chrissy arrives in 1960s
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
with the dream of becoming a successful dancer. Desperation leads her to a job at a sleazy
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
called Big Tom's Boom Boom Room. While working at the nightclub, she explores love and sex with a variety of unsuitable partners of both genders and forms a friendship with a
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
neighbor. She tries to resolve troubling issues in her life, including her mother who had wanted an
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
and memories of
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
by her father .
Production history
The play was first written and performed, in two acts, at
Villanova University
Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Penns ...
in 1972. Rabe was teaching at Villanova and the play's director, Robert Hedley, was chair of the theatre department.
Prior to staging the play at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
the following year, Rabe added a scene and several speeches to the first act, expanding it considerably. As a result, the play was divided into three acts, to Rabe's dissatisfaction.
The play opened on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
at the
Vivian Beaumont Theater
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Bro ...
on November 8, 1973 and closed on December 9, 1973, after 37 performances and 16 previews. Directed by
Joseph Papp
Joseph Papp (born Joseph Papirofsky; June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created ...
, the cast included
Madeline Kahn
Madeline Gail Kahn ('' née'' Wolfson; September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress, comedian and singer, known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including '' What's Up, Doc?'' (1972), ' ...
as Chrissy,
Robert Loggia
Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...
as her husband Al,
Charles Durning
Charles Edward Durning (February 28, 1923 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, television shows and plays.Schudel, Matt (December 26, 2012) "''In real life and on the screen, he played countless role ...
as her father Harold, and
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov (born December 8, 1943) is an American actress, published author and figurative painter. She is primarily known as a " cult star" because of her work with Andy Warhol and her roles in Roger Corman's cult films. Woronov has appeared ...
as a dancer named Susan. The creative team included
Santo Loquasto
Santo Richard Loquasto (born July 26, 1944) is an American production designer, scenic designer, and costume designer for stage, film, and dance.
His work has included the films ''Big'', ''Radio Days'', '' Cafe Society'', ''Blue Jasmine'', ''D ...
(
scenic design),
Theoni V. Aldredge
Theoni V. Aldredge (August 22, 1922 – January 21, 2011) was a Greek-American stage and screen costume designer.
Biography
Born Theoni Athanasiou Vachliotis in Thessaloniki in 1922, Aldredge received her training at the American School in Athe ...
(
costume design
Costume design is the creation of clothing for the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the arti ...
), and
Martin Aronstein
Martin Aronstein (November 2, 1936 – May 3, 2002) was an American lighting designer whose Broadway career spanned thirty-six years.
Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Aronstein attended Queens College in Flushing, New York. In 1957, following ...
(
lighting design
In theatre, a lighting designer (or LD) works with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create the lighting, atmosphere, and time of day for the production in response to the text while keeping i ...
).
[''In the Boom Boom Room''](_blank)
''Playbill Vault
''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's ...
''. Accessed May 15, 2015.
The production was nominated for the 1974
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first yea ...
, but lost to
Joseph A. Walker's ''
The River Niger
''The River Niger'' is a play by Joseph A. Walker, first performed by New York City's Negro Ensemble Company off-Broadway in 1972. The production made its Broadway debut with a transfer to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 27 March 1973 for a run ...
''. Also nominated for a Tony were Kahn (
Best Actress in a Play) and Aronstein (
Best Lighting Design, Play or Musical). Kahn won the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.
[
Papp then presented the play at ]The Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...
in a production directed by Robert Hedley and starring Ellen Greene
Ellen Greene is an American actress and singer. She has had a long and varied career as a singer, particularly in cabaret, as an actress and singer in numerous stage productions, particularly musical theatre, as well as having performed in many ...
, Helen Hanft
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, G ...
, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...
, Fred Grandy
Fredrick Lawrence Grandy (born June 29, 1948) is an American actor who played "Gopher" on the sitcom ''The Love Boat'' and who later became a member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Iowa. Grandy was most recently th ...
, and Tom Quinn. It opened November 20, 1974 and ran for 31 performances. Baayork Lee
Baayork Lee (born December 5, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author.
Early life and career
Lee was born in New York City's Chinatown, to an Indian mother and Chinese father. She started dancing ...
choreographed this production. The production was nominated for the New York Drama Critics' Circle
The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 22 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization is best known for its annual awards for excellence in theater.Jone ...
Award for Best American Play.
The play was restored to its original two-act structure when it was revived Off-Broadway at the South Street Theater by the Australian Orange Tree Company in 1985. Jerrold Brody directed the production, with Liz McDonald as Chrissy. Reviewing the 1985 production for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Herbert Mitgang Herbert Mitgang (January 20, 1920 – November 21, 2013) was an American author, editor, journalist, playwright, and producer of television news documentaries.
Life
Born in Manhattan, he graduated with a law degree from what is now St. John's Uni ...
wrote, "he play
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
comes encumbered with a history. But viewed for the first time on its own modest terms on a bandbox stage, it is full of dramatic fury."
The two-act version of the play was published by Grove Press in 1994.
References
{{reflist
External links
In The Boom Boom Room on the Internet Broadway Database
''In the Boom Boom Room'' at the Lortel Archives
1972 plays
Broadway plays
Plays by David Rabe
Fiction set in the 1960s
Plays set in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia in fiction
Plays about abortion