Beane's Bon Mots

With his new play Mr. and Mrs. Fitch opening at Second Stage, Douglas Carter Beane paid a visit to Theater Talk’s studio at CUNY TV -- and the laughs and one-liners flowed effortlessly, both off- and on camera.

His newest play is about married gossip columnists, portrayed by John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle. Theater Talk co-host Michael Riedel comments that they “are still trying to live in an era that’s ended,” mirroring Beane’s own surprise at the state of New York City when he first arrived in 1977.

A native of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania who listened to Noel Coward CDs at the library and dreamed of life in New York City, he arrived in New York at a time when it was overrun with trash in the streets, street crime, and an out-of-control “Club Kid” scene full of drugs, sex and murder. (A bright side to today’s New York: “You can use a credit card in a cab!”)

Addressing the ever-shifting critical evaluation of his work, he marveled at the news that his plays are being taught at Colgate University (“I couldn’t get into Colgate!”) and how he was now “the toast of London” with excellent notices for his play, The Little Dog Laughed. Acutely aware of the “build ‘em up/tear ‘em down” strain in American life, he admits that what he loves about theater “is that you can never get too big … Just wait!”