A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Vanities

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  3w

Jack Heifner's bittersweet comedy – an astute, snapshot-sharp chronicle of the lives of three Texas girls – is a provocative, hilarious vehicle for three strong female actors.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period
  • Suggested Use
    • Cutting Approved for Competition
    • UIL Approved
    • Competition or audition material
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14 - 18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • Nominee: 1976 Drama Desk Award for Best New Play

Details

Summary

This bittersweet comedy is an astute, snapshot-sharp chronicle of the lives of three Texas girls. In 1963, Joanne, Kathy, and Mary are aggressively vivacious cheerleaders. Five years later in their college sorority house, they are confronting their futures with nervous jauntiness. In 1974, they reunite briefly in New York. Their lives have diverged and their friendship, which once thrived on assumptions as well-coordinated as sweater sets, is strained and ambiguous. Old time banter rings false. Their attempts at honest conversation only show they can no longer afford to have very much in common.

History
Vanities premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on January 15, 1976. The production then transferred to the Chelsea Theatre Center (now the Westside Theatre) where it opened on March 22, 1976 and closed August 3, 1980, running for 1,785 performances. Directed by Garland Wright, the original production featured Kathy Bates, Jane Galloway and Susan Merson.
JOANNE
KATHY
MARY
  • Time Period 1970s, 1960s
  • Setting A gym, 1963. A sorority, 1968. A New York apartment, 1974.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features No intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

“Unnervingly funny... Fast moving, sneakily stinging dialogue.” – Newsweek
“Uncommonly attractive.” – New York Magazine

Videos

  • Jack Heifner on Vanities youtube thumbnail

    Jack Heifner on Vanities

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $130 per performance

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Authors

Jack Heifner

Jack Heifner is the author of over thirty plays and musicals produced in New York, Los Angeles and theatres around the world. He is best known for the play version of Vanities, which ran for five years in New York, is published by Samuel French, and became one of the longest- ...
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