NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� If you're ever tempted to offer playwright Theresa Rebeck an idea for a new play, maybe hold off. She has quite enough of those as it is.
鈥淎 play is like a license to explore things that my curiosity is really piqued by. I have a lot of curiosity," she says. "I have a lot of things on my mind and a lot of curiosity.鈥�
This fall, New York City has become Rebeck's playwriting playground. She's directing her own work , and her starring Danny DeVito and his daughter Lucy.
鈥淚 Need That鈥� is Rebeck鈥檚 21st professional production in New York and her fifth on Broadway, making her easily the most-produced female playwright of her generation on Broadway.
鈥淎 friend of mine said to me one time, 鈥榃ell, there鈥檚 no question the muse is with you.鈥� And I thought, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 an interesting way to put it,鈥欌�� says Rebeck, laughing.
鈥淒ig,鈥� a , opened just before rehearsals began in earnest for 鈥淚 Need That鈥� a dozen blocks away, and Rebeck was shuttling between the two shows.
Fate brought these two plays together, a combination of the pandemic and waiting for stages to open. Both plays, at their heart, explore the fraught relationships between fathers and daughters. There's even a moment in 鈥淚 Need That鈥� when two of the three characters talk about gardening, an obvious theme of 鈥淒ig.鈥�
鈥淭he productions overlapped in a way that was startling," says Rebeck.
"Somebody asked me at one point what I was trying to say about father-daughter relationships. And I was like, 鈥楢ctually, nothing.鈥� They were not meant to be presented as a block. I don鈥檛 mind that they are. But I wrote them seven years apart.鈥�
Rebeck's plays often contain mysteries 鈥� stolen money, a secret stamp collection, an inheritance, a personal lie 鈥� as well as fast, funny and profane dialogue. She wants there to 鈥渂e blood on the floor. I want it to be a visceral experience.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 always a sort of muscularity to the storytelling,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ore and more I鈥檓 overlapping comedy with tragedy, but most of my plays are comedies. And I think there鈥檚 also a sound to the language that is recognizable.鈥�
Rebeck, who created the for NBC, is the kind of playwright who writes for actors, and she was in her element giving notes to the cast of 鈥淒ig鈥� before a recent performance.
She congratulated one actor for finding her way through a scene, another for her 鈥減ure" approach. She applauded a third for his decision to tuck in his shirt onstage, which created peals of laughter. She suggested to another that she let a scene hang 鈥� 鈥淕ive it a little air.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 it, mostly. I felt strongly that the whole week was, to my mind a triumph,鈥� she told the group. "It鈥檚 a big lift this play, and there's an emotional availability that everyone has to provide and you guys are wonderful, just great.鈥�
鈥淒ig,鈥� set in a dying plant store in a dying urban neighborhood, made its premiere in 2019 at the in Vermont. But Rebeck is not averse to tweaking her script right up until opening night in New York.
When Megan, the neighborhood screw-up, mocks the shop owner's passivity with a customer, the line was: 鈥淲ow. Put your heart into it. Get behind it. Sell those plants.鈥� Rebeck had initially used 鈥渇lowers鈥� instead of 鈥減lants,鈥� but changed it back after 鈥渇lowers鈥� triggered laughter.
鈥淔lowers is better,鈥� she says after the note session. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great not to be precious about your stuff, to just go, 鈥橭K, I was wrong about that. Do it this other way.' I have no idea why 'flowers' is a funnier word."
Her previous Broadway works include starring Katie Holmes, 鈥淏ernhardt/Hamlet鈥� with Janet McTeer, 鈥淪eminar鈥� with , and 鈥淢auritius鈥� with F. Murray Abraham and Bobby Cannavale.
Other highlights include her dark comedy "Mad House" starring and Bill Pullman last year in London's West End, and her play 鈥淒ownstairs,鈥� starring Tim Daly and Tyne Daly, premiering off-Broadway in 2018. Her play 鈥淥mnium Gatherum鈥� was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Rebeck says her writing respects the audience, with dialogue and characters hoping to engage immediately with the folks in the seats.
鈥淚t鈥檚 inviting to an audience. It鈥檚 not something that says to the audience, 鈥楾his is what we鈥檙e doing here. You come to us.鈥� I don鈥檛 do that,鈥� she says.
Another hallmark of a Rebeck play it that while it may go into darkness, there is always a light.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of nihilism going on right now," she says. "I understand, obviously, why it鈥檚 become prevalent, but it鈥檚 not what I do.鈥�
She marinates in ideas. "I Need That,鈥� which is about a father who is a hoarder and his daughter trying to save him, was partly triggered by her own experience moving her aging parents and by her thoughts on clutter.
鈥淚鈥檝e been puzzling through issues of how people relate to their stuff 鈥� why it鈥檚 so easy for some people to keep a handle on it and other people not so much,鈥� she says. "And that overlapped with what I was facing with my brothers and sisters in terms of my parents."
As you might expect, Rebeck has more work on the horizon 鈥� plenty of rewrites and updates on plays already gestating, and a new musical she is birthing with Cyndi Lauper.
Though Rebeck is well-versed in TV 鈥� writing for such shows as 鈥淟aw & Order: Criminal Intent鈥� and 鈥淣YPD Blue鈥� 鈥� she considers herself a playwright first and wants to see more plays produced.
鈥淚鈥檓 always like, 鈥榃hy are they always developing musicals?鈥� It costs a fortune. It doesn鈥檛 cost a fortune to develop a straight play, and people like them,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important for people to be doing straight plays on Broadway.鈥�
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Mark Kennedy is at
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
