BWW Reviews: BILL W. AND DR. BOB at Shades Repertory Theater

Bill & Bob's Excellent Adventure

Bill W. and Dr. Bob

Shades Repertory Theater

Haverstraw, NY

Directed by Kathleen Koster

Starring: Stavros Adamides, Moira Box, Brian Maffitt, Brady Amoon, Frank Hughes, Christina Orfanoudakis. And featuring Scott Staton as the pianist

A show about the two guys that started AA? That sounds like fun - right? Actually it is a lot more fun than one might expect. Shades Repertory Theater has a winner on its hands.

"Bill W. and Dr. Bob" follows a straight forth and relatively simple narrative as it tells the tale of the origins of AA's progenitors. The plot holds few great surprises, but there is a great deal of charm and self-deprecating humor throughout.

The story begins in the roaring 20's with Bill Wilson (Frank Hughes), a New York stockbroker who always seems on the verge of a really big sale that invariably falls through. It's made clear from the very first scene that he has a passion for liquor that he can't control, and when the market crashes, it takes him along with it, sending him into a period of helpless drunkenness.

Meanwhile, in beautiful downtown Akron, Ohio, Dr. Bob Smith (Brian Maffitt) is another hopeless case; his hands shake and he needs sedatives to operate and alcohol to sleep. Both men have seemingly tried everything - particularly religion - and everything has failed them.

Strong acting is hyper-critical to such a play to keep the characters from becoming uninteresting stereotypes. In this production the acting took things to the next level and even made them appealing.

The highlight of the evening was Brian Maffitt's touchingly vulnerable performance as Dr. Bob. Mr. Maffitt broke hearts as Dr. Bob gives up every scrap of his pride and dignity, showing show just how frightened he really is. When he finally agrees to reveal his problem to the world - a problem he'd spent a lifetime hiding and which threatens to destroy his practice - he has the entire audience rooting for him.

The Wilson that Mr. Hughes portrays is not as sympathetic a figure. He routinely shuts out his wife, even leaving her alone in New York for long stretches of time while he endeavors to figure out a solution to his problem. He is an inelegant and slick salesman throughout and only seems likeable and endearing when he is paired with the good doctor. Mr. Hughes keeps Bill W alive with frantic almost manic energy, as he plows along through disappointment after disappointment, searching for that elusive answer.

The two men seek a way to test their process while at the same time manage to keep themselves sober. They win some and lose some, and the same goes for their long suffering spouses who have to try to deal with the constant ups and downs. Despite the fact that the wives get some of the best lines in the show and in spite of some fine and spirited performances by the actors, the scenes between the wives, Brady Amoon (Bill's wife) and Moira Box (Bob's), are predictable (the playwright make it clear, it's really the boys' show).

The vast multitude of supporting characters are deftly handled by Stavros Adamides and Christina Orfanoudakis, who are in a near perpetual state of character (and costume) change. This economical casting decision paid off as Adamides and Orfanoudakis brought just the right of nuance to each of the myriad characters they portrayed.

Director Kathleen Koster did a superb job keeping the action agile and buoyant, expeditiously moving the action across the three staging areas to fine effect. The play itself has a very long (too long) lead up to the point where the two men meet and begin their crusade. Only when they begin their new work do the characters grow into real, round and ultimately interesting and endearing figures. More time spent on what the process actually is and how it came about would have been far more satisfactory than the "flash of white light," and the "wind blowing right through me," which in 2015 sounded hopelessly clichéd. Nonetheless, in spite of these obstacles, "Bill W. and Dr. Bob" works, and is successful on a number of levels because of the timelessness of the message and the strength of the performances.

Pianist Scott Staton provided a wealth of charming and era-appropriate underscoring and incidental music (with the possible exception of the slightly awkward placement of Irving Berlin's upbeat "Cheek to Cheek" immediately following one of show's most mournful moments).

Bill and Bob end the evening on a hopeful and emotional note, each going their own way, but eternally linked and indelibly etched into history.

The production is easily the highlight of the Shades season. At the time of this writing, the show was breaking attendance records at the theater - very encouraging news - and one hopes to see more shows of this caliber at Shades in the near future.

"Bill W. and Dr. Bob"

The Shades Repertory Theater

64 New Main Street

Haverstraw, NY

Peter Danish

Rockland Editor

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