Bad Habits is play by Terrence McNally.
The comedy is composed of what originally were written as two one-act plays set in sanatoriums. In Dunelawn, a doctor allows his patients to indulge in all their bad habits as means of finding happiness. In Ravenswood, a serum is used to provide a cure. The cast of eight actors (6 male, 2 female) all perform in each act, albeit as completely different characters.
Under the auspices of the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play premiered on February 4, 1974 at the off-Broadway Astor Place Theatre, where it ran for 96 performances. The Robert Drivas-directed cast included F. Murray Abraham, Paul Benedict, and Doris Roberts. On May 5, the production moved uptown to the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 177 performances. The cast was joined by Cynthia Harris.
A revised version of the play opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club on February 27, 1990, starring Nathan Lane, Kate Nelligan, Robert Clohessy, and Faith Prince. This version switched the names of the sanitariums to the arrangement mentioned above and added an extra scene to the beginning of Dunelawn, along with numerous other minor changes.
Bad Habits won the Obie Award as Distinguished Play for the 1973–1974 season.
Famous quotes containing the words bad and/or habits:
“Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The only ones who are really grateful for the war are the wild ducks, such a lot of them in the marshes of the Rhone and so peaceful ... because all the shot-guns have been taken away completely taken away and nobody can shoot with them nobody at all and the wild ducks are very content. They act as of they had never been shot at, never, it is so easy to form old habits again, so very easy.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)