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David Lindsay-Abaire

DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE

  (1969 - )
Nationality:    USA
facebook     email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC  represented by John Buzzetti

David Lindsay-Abaire was most recently awarded the 2008 Ed Kleban award as America's most promising musical Theatre lyricist. Prior to that, he received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Rabbit Hole, which premiered on Broadway at MTC's Biltmore Theatre. Rabbit Hole also received five Tony award nominations, including Best Play, and the Spirit of America award. His newest show, Shrek the Musical (book and lyrics) premiered at Seattle's 5th avenue Theater, and opened on Broadway. His other works include Fuddy Meers, Kimberly akimbo, Wonder of the World, High Fidelity, and a Devil Inside,among others. In addition to his work in Theatre, Mr. Lindsay-abaire wrote the screenplay for the Newline feature Inkheart,and Sony Picture's upcoming Spider-Man 4.He is also currently at work on screen adaptations of his plays Rabbit Hole for 20th Century Fox, starring Nicole Kidman, andKimberly akimbo for Killer Films and DreamWorks. He is a proud New Dramatists alum, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Juilliard School, as well as a member of the WGa and the Dramatists Guild Council.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of David Lindsay-Abaire's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Baby Food         Betty Boop - the Musical         Crazy Eights         Devil Inside         Dotting And Dashing         Fuddy Meers         Good People         High Fidelity         History Lesson         How We Talk In South Boston         Kimberly Akimbo         Our War         Rabbit Hole         Shrek the Musical         Snapshot         Snow Angel         That Other Person         Wonder Of the World

Baby Food

Synopsis:
a contemporary comedy about an off-kilter couple desperately searching for godparents for their newborn infant. Little do they know that the friends they've chosen are less than adventurous Diners and on the verge of a divorce.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2007   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Betty Boop - the Musical

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Music And lyrics by Andrew Lippa

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Crazy Eights

Synopsis:
When Connie comes home late one night, she finds her parole officer waiting in her apartment with a torte and a long list of questions. the interrogation/courting dance that follows is complicated by the after-hours arrival of Connie's charming card-playing buddy.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2007   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Devil Inside

Synopsis:
Mrs. Slater has waited fourteen long years to tell her son, Gene, the truth. and when he wakes up on his twenty-first birthday, she greets him with the customary banners and good wishes, and then gets to the point. "Your Father was murdered. He was stabbed in the back and his feet were lopped off and thrown into a drainage ditch." Thus begins a comic and twisted journey of obsession and revenge. Gene would rather focus his attentions on Caitlin, a passionate literature major, than avenge the death of his 400-pound Father who was killed in the Poconos Mountains while walking cross-country to lose weight. Caitlin barely notices the naive young man and is, herself, obsessed with her Russian Lit professor, a tormented genius who thinks he's living in a Dostoyevsky novel. Suddenly, a mysterious woman named Lily stumbles into the family-owned laundromat, and is instantly struck by the pain etched into Mrs. Slater's face. Lily, in turn, is living with an absurdly dull appliance repairman who has taken to writing children's stories to jazz up his boring life, which gets progressively and horrifyingly thrilling the further he gets pulled into the unraveling events. Set in New York's Lower east Side, this frantic dark comedy, satirizes elements of nineteenth-century Russian novels, complete with seizures, hallucinations, a flooding city, nightmares, train wrecks and suicide, all wrapped around a murder mystery with a Rube Goldberg-like plot.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dotting And Dashing

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1999

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fuddy Meers

Fuddy Meers
Claire has a rare form of psychogenic amnesia that erases her memory whenever she goes to sleep. This morning, like all mornings, she wakes up a blank slate. Her chipper husband comes in with a cup of coffee, explains her condition, hands her a book filled with all sorts of essential information, and he disappears into the shower. a limping, lisping, half-blind, half-deaf man in a ski mask, pops out from under her bed and claims to be her brother, there to save her. Claire's info book is quickly discarded, and she's hustled off to the country-house of her mother, a recent stroke victim whose speech has been reduced to utter gibberish. Claire's journey gets even more complicated when a dimwitted thug with a foul-mouthed hand puppet pops up at a window, and her driven husband and perpetually stoned son show up with a claustrophobic lady-cop that they've kidnapped. every twist and turn in this funhouse plot bring Claire closer to revealing her past life and everything she thought she'd forgotten. It's one harrowing and hilarious turn after another on this roller coaster ride through the day of an amnesiac trying to decipher her fractured life. This poignant and brutal new comedy traces one woman's attempt to regain her memory while surrounded by a curio-cabinet of alarmingly bizarre characters.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Overlook Press 2001   978-0739414736

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Good People

Good People
Welcome to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo. . . where this month's paycheck covers last month's bills. . . and where Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break, Margie thinks an old fling who has made it out of Southie might be her ticket to a fresh new start. But is this apparently self-made man secure enough to face his humble beginnings? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out. With his signature humorous glow, David Lindsay-abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY 10036     03 Mar 2011

Organisations:
Manhattan Theatre Club

1st Published:
Theatre Communications Group, 07/01/2011
Nick Hern Books, London (2014) >>>    978-1559363938

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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High Fidelity

High Fidelity
Rob Gordon, a Brooklyn record shop owner in his thirties, always observing rather than participating in life, obsessively makes top five lists for everything. When his girlfriend Laura leaves him, he goes through a painful re-evaluation of his life and lost loves (with a little help from his music) andslowly learns that he has to grow up and let go of his self-centered view of the world before he can find real happiness.

Notes:
Music by Tom Kitt; lyrics by Amanada Green; book by David Lindsay-abaire. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby

1st Produced:
Imperial Theatre, New York     2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts Inc   -

Music:
Original cast recording: Ghostlight (8-4421) 2007

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  10            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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History Lesson

Synopsis:
It's Maggie's last day as a park ranger, and she has an arsenal of made-up historical facts to unload on her helpless listeners. This piece is part of Snapshot, an anthology of short plays. To perform this piece independently, click "add to Shopping Cart" above. To perform this piece as part of the full-length collection, go to Snapshot.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
3-7 min Comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  1 female

Further Reference:
-

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How We Talk In South Boston

Synopsis:
a scathingly funny short play about a blue collar Irish Catholic family coming to terms with their absurd prejudices and their equally insane Boston accents.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
10-15 min Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  5 males, 2 females

Further Reference:
-

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Kimberly Akimbo

Synopsis:
Set in the wilds of suburban New Jersey, a hilarious and heart-rending play about a teenager with a rare condition causing her body to age faster than it should. When she and her family flee Secaucus under dubious circumstances, Kimberly is forced to reevaluate her life while contending with a hypochondriac mother, a rarely sober father, a scam-artist aunt, her own mortality and, most terrifying of all, the possibility of first love

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2003   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Our War

Synopsis:
While the plays that took the perspective of participants were some of the most crisp, the last kind of play in the evening, plays that look at today with the eyes of the present (but through the lens or with the lighting of the Civil War), hit the hardest. Most of them use the Civil War as a way to talk about race in America, from Ken Narasaki's thoughts on racism that isn't divided into Black and White to Lydia Diamond's chastisement of White liberal guilt. - http://dctheatrescene.com/2014/10/28/war-arena-stage-resounding-success/

Notes:
An esteemed collection of American playwrights, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and Olivier Award, creates a dynamic new theatrical event reflecting on the repercussions of the U.S. Civil War. Through a rich tapestry of short monologues, a core ensemble of gifted actors, accompanied by notable Washingtonians such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Chris Matthews, explorethrough diverse perspectivesthe historical memory and present-day reverberations of the U.S. Civil War. Our War, commissioned by Arena Stage for the National Civil War Project, uses the power of live theater to bring new understanding to the shades of Blue and Gray that define one of the most significant periods of American history.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
monologue

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole
Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. RaBBIT HOLe charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Biltmore Theatre, NY     02 Feb 2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Theatre Communications Group, 07 Jun 2007
Nick Hern Books, London (2016) >>>    978-1559362900

Music:
a CD (8184CD) with cue sheet of the sound design and original music by John Gromada is available through the Play Service 2007

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
full length Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shrek the Musical

Synopsis:
based on the story and characters created by William Steib and the popular animated film.

Notes:
book And lyrics by David Lindsay-abaire; music by Jeanine Tesori

1st Produced:
Broadway Theatre, NY     2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Snapshot

Synopsis:
a photograph captures and documents a single moment in time and space -- a snapshot of history, of a reality bounded by the photo's frame. But what lies outside, beyond, behind the photograph? and what stories, memories, or associations does an image of place inspire? In this multi-writer project from Actors theatre of Louisville, a diverse assortment of talented playwrights encounter and transform Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, 1969, a compelling image of the monument by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. their thought-provoking scenes and monologues range from delightful comedy to utterly serious tragedy, each approaching the photo's themes through a new lens. To perform the entire collection, click "add to Shopping Cart" above. To perform an individual piece independently, click on its title below:

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
80-100 min Drama/Comedy

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  11            Other:  11 males, 11 females (4-25 actors possible: 2-15 males, 2-15 females)

Further Reference:
-

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Snow Angel

Synopsis:
When the quiet town of Deerpoint, Vermont is hit by the biggest blizzard in 107 years, a mysterious girl named eva steps out of a snow bank and into the lives of 15 confused teenagers who are asked to help her in her search. What eva's searching for -- and who she truly is -- becomes a mystery that baffles, divides, and energizes the teens of Deerpoint. Told through journal entries and interactions among the students over the course of a single snow day, Snow Angelis a funny and eerie tale of teen angst, discovery, and the power of believing.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
60-80 min Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  8            Other:  8 males, 8 females

Further Reference:
-

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That Other Person

That Other Person
Tonight is the night Ginge and Kevin are going to tell their respective spouses the marriage-shattering secret they've been keeping from everyone. But their bomb-shell gets put on the back-burner when a gorgeous peeping-tom, with secrets of her own, falls in the pool and nearly drowns.

Notes:
In 1995, A group of writers, directors And Actors gathered on Manhattan's Lower east Side for what was supposed to be A one-time-only event: write, direct, produce And perform new plays with the span of 24 hours. More than A decade And just over 300 plays later, the 24 Hour Plays have been produced on Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, Chicago And Across the globe.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2007
Playscripts, Inc - New York   978-0970904690

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy/Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wonder Of the World

Wonder Of the World
Nothing will prepare you for the dirty little secret Cass discovers in her husband's sweater drawer. It is so shocking that our heroine has no choice but to flee to the honeymoon capital of the world in a frantic search for the life she thinks she missed out on. It's a wild ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel of laughs as Cass embarks on a journey of self-discovery that has her crossing paths with a blithely suicidal alcoholic, a lonely tour-boat captain, a pair of bickering private detectives and a strange caper involving a gargantuan jar of peanut butter, all of which pushes her perilously close to the water's edge.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Manhattan Theatre Club
131 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019     2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    978-0822218630

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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