Miss Abigail Co-Authors Ken Davenport and Sarah Saltzberg on Their Chicken Wing-Fueled Collaboration

About the authors:
When it comes to the stage, Ken Davenport and Sarah Saltzberg, co-authors of off-Broadway's Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage, have just about done it all. He is a Broadway producer (Oleanna, Speed-the-Plow, the upcoming Godspell) and she is known to Broadway audiences as the precocious Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He co-conceived and produced off-Broadway’s Altar Boyz, and she can be seen in the Broadway-themed improv show Don't Quit Your Night Job, which she co-created and co-produces. They combined their formidable talents to co-write—and, in Davenport’s case, produce and direct—Miss Abigail, currently at the Downstairs Cabaret Theater at Sofia's starring TV’s Jan Brady, Eve Plumb, as the title relationship guru. Below, this talented duo share their secrets for a happy and successful and partnership. Here’s a hint: It has a lot to do with chicken wings.

Ken: Our collaboration on Miss A started late one night while I was shopping on Amazon.com . . .

Sarah: . . . and eating buffalo wings, no doubt.

Ken: This is true. And somehow I stumbled upon this book called Miss Abigail’s Guide for Dating, Mating & Marriage. And, well, it was just screaming out to be a show. The title sounded fun. It came with a built-in character. And it was about a subject that everyone in the world needs a little help with at some point in their lives. So, I put down my wings and called the funniest girl I knew.

Sarah: When Tina Fey didn’t take Ken’s calls, he called me. He told me to read the book, which is a collection of excerpts from dating and etiquette books from the turn of the century until about 1970. Really fun titles like How to Win and Hold a Husband and How Foods Can Help You To Have Lovely Hair. I laughed through the entire thing . . . and honestly, I picked up a few tips along the way, so I knew that we could create something special.

Ken: I rarely like to work alone. And I also love working with actors who write. Writing a show is not like writing a novel. It needs to be worked out on its feet. And that’s easy with folks like Sarah.

Sarah: Ken and I were working together on another project, in which I was playing an older woman, when he called about Miss A. He asked if I wanted to write the show with him and also play Miss Abigail, and I agreed immediately.

Ken: Actually, the first few readings of Miss A were held in my office, with Sarah playing Miss A and with me playing her young Mexican assistant, Paco.

Sarah: Not many people know this, but Ken does a killer Mexican accent. He gets the trills and everything. I call him Ken “Antonio Banderas” Davenport.

Ken: Let’s stay on track, por favor (said with a Mexican accent).

Sarah: (Squeals.)

Ken: Eventually I said something to Sarah that every actress in New York dreams of  hearing: “You’re too young for the role.”

Sarah: Say it again. Say it again.

Ken: In all seriousness, when I told Sarah that I thought we should look at someone more age appropriate, she took off her acting hat, put on her writing hat and said, “You’re right.” That’s not an easy thing for an actor to say. And that’s what makes Sarah a great collaborator.

Sarah: We knew that we could get laughs with any aged actress in the role, but we also wanted to make sure that we weren’t just a Saturday Night Live sketch. We knew with an actress more appropriately suited to the role, the piece could have that much more heart.

Ken: This show came together faster than anything I ever worked on. We only started working on it in December 2009. We’re both a little OCD and we’d work seven or eight-hour stretches after the workday, into the morning, drinking copious amounts of coffee and Coke.

Sarah: Ken also single handedly kept the commercial buffalo chicken wing business afloat, as they’re one of three things he eats. We did this probably twice a week for four months. It was awesome.

Ken: And the wings were great. Famous Amadeus on Eighth Avenue. Mmmmm.

Sarah: Then we were invited to perform the show at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa in June for our “out-of-town” tryout. What an incredible opportunity that was! I think I speak for both of us –

Ken: I wound up paying a hefty fine to the ASPCA the last time you spoke for both of us.

Sarah: Fair enough. I speak only for myself when I say that developing a show is one of the greatest joys of my life.

Ken: Oh, I agree with that.

Sarah: Well, it’s too late now! The show came together very quickly in Tampa, and audiences were having a ball from the very first performance. Ken directed and did an amazing job, but we still made a lot of changes and there were sections we thought we might never get right.

Ken: That’s the true test of a collaboration . . . and, frankly, of any relationship. Can you get through the tough stuff?

Sarah: Fortunately, when you love what you’re writing and have a partner that you click with, it never feels like work.

Ken: And that’s exactly how it is with me and Tina.

Sarah: Hey!

Ken: I love doing that.

Sarah: Ken, look . . . a wing!

Ken: Where?

Sarah: Now we’re in New York, and we have the wonderful Eve Plumb and Manuel Herrera performing the show!

Ken: Jan Brady is in our show! I still can’t get over it.

Sarah: It’s so wonderful to see couples and singles of all ages come to the show and just laugh.

Ken: The other night we had a couple in the audience that had been married for 58 years. It was incredibly sweet. Miss Abigail asked them what the secret was to their long marriage was and the husband answered, “Do what you’re told.”

Sarah: And then they made out during the part where we teach people how to kiss! I loved that.

Ken: Yeah, me too.

Sarah: I’m hungry. Let’s go get some chicken wings.

Ken: YES!

Sarah: But only if you promise that we’ll write another show together.

Ken: I’m deleting Tina’s number from my cell phone right now.