The Tale of the Allergist's Wife

by Charles Busch Narrated by Estelle Harris, Richard Kind, Full Cast

Overview

A raucous comedy from one of America's most outrageous playwrights! New York dilettante Marjorie Taub, a middle-aged doctor's wife, is hooked on culture - mornings at the Whitney, afternoons at MOMA, evenings at BAM. Plunged into a mid-life crisis of Medea-like proportions, she's shaken out of her lethargy by the reappearance of a fascinating childhood friend. The New York Times says, "The Allergist's Wife earns its wall-to-wall laughs."

Includes an interview with playwright Charles Busch.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Amy Aquino, Estelle Harris, Richard Kind, Dileep Rao and Jobeth Williams.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Busch's 2000 play transfers perfectly from the stage to audio, largely because the small casts is so larger than life (bordering on caricatures) that the characters don't need to be seen to be understood. As the title character, Amy Aquino's slightly nasal, tortured voice embodies this Jewish housewife's angst, and Richard Kind does an excellent job of conveying her husband's artless but endearing self-importance with his carefully chosen words and deliberately sonorous tone. Seinfeld's Estelle Harris, as Aquino's mother, steals many scenes with her screeching voice and rants about bowel movements. The appreciative audience clapping and laughing enhances the comedy. On the final track, a surprisingly mild-mannered Busch discusses the real-life model for the allergist and how the wife developed from a character he created when he was starting out as an actor. (Jan.)

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JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile

A middle-aged doctor's wife who's read all the hip books and seen all the trendy plays is experiencing a mid-life crisis when a childhood friend shows up at her door. The references in this novel are all of New York City. The accents are very New York, and the hypochondriac mother who lives down the hall is quintessential New York. But the laughs are universal, and the acting is superb. Amy Aquino, Richard Kind, Estelle Harris, and JoBeth Williams inhabit their characters so completely, and with such presence and expression, that listeners will feel that they’re right in the story, drinking wine and discussing Nietzsche in a Manhattan condo. B.P. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170307623
Publisher:	L.A. Theatre Works
Publication date:	07/01/2007
Edition description:	Unabridged

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