Alcoholics Anonymous Play Bill W. and Dr. Bob to Return Off-Broadway

Bill W. and Dr. Bob, a play based on the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, is coming back to the off-Broadway stage. A revival of the 2007 production that ran at New World Stages will begin performances July 8 at off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse. Directed by Seth Gordon, Bill W. and Dr. Bob is co-written by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey. Opening night is scheduled for July 16. Casting will be announced shortly.

The play is based on the lives of Alcoholics Anonymous founders William Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith and their wives, Lois Wilson and Anne Smith, who created Al-Anon. Set in 1929, Bill W. and Dr. Bob tells the story of Wilson, a New York stockbroker who crashes with the stock market and becomes a hopeless drunk. Smith, a surgeon from Ohio, has been an alcoholic for 30 years, often going to the operating room with a hangover. Through an astonishing series of events, Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet and form a relationship, each helping to keep the other sober.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob opened at off-Broadway’s New World Stages on March 5, 2007, starring Patrick Husted as Dr. Bob Smith and Robert Krakovski as Bill Wilson. The show ran for 132 performances before closing on June 10, 2007. The play has been produced throughout the United States, Australia, Canada and England.