About the Play:

Romantic Comedy has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Romantic Comedy is a full-length comedy by Bernard Slade. A successful playwright meets the love of his life – on the day of his wedding to someone else! Although the marriage proceeds, the next decade is a riot of laughter as he struggles to reconcile his relationships with the two women in his life. With romance and comedy baked right into the title, Romantic Comedy is a story of where friendship ends and love begins.

Romantic Comedy looks at the subject of human bonding, relationships and soul-mates. Frustrated but talented playwright Jason Carmichael, a successful co-author of Broadway romantic comedies, is facing two momentous events: he is about to marry the attractive and politically ambitious Allison St. James, and his writing partner of many years has just announced that he's moving to Hollywood to write screenplays. Enter aspiring playwright P. J. Craddock, a longtime Carmichael fan who has submitted a script for his consideration. Surprise! P. J. turns out to be Phoebe, an intelligent young woman with a creative mind who's also old-fashioned. Quicker than a flash, Jason acquires a talented and adoring collaborator in the shy Phoebe. The two soon become a hot writing team, whose timing – it turns out – is perfect on stage, but amusingly out of whack in their love life. The story take's place in Carmichael's apartment throughout the play. Jason and Phoebe produce hit after hit for 10 years, until inevitably, Jason's marriage falls apart as his bewildered wife divorces him and goes into politics. And Phoebe, with whom he is in love but doesn't realize it, marries an aggressive roving journalist and moves to Paris. Totally lost without Phoebe at his side, Jason goes into a professional, financial and physical decline. Even his wise-cracking, peace-keeping agent Blanche Dailey and pushy Hollywood actress Kate Mallory can't snap him out of it. Jason's world is dark, indeed until a newly chic Phoebe unexpectedly returns, solo and successful and the story roars to its conclusion. Romantic Comedy is an affectionate piece about writing and friendship and the trials and tribulations of falling in love with someone completely unavailable.

Romantic Comedy premiered in 1979 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and ran a year on Broadway in New York City. Its Canadian premiere was in 1980 at The Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 female, 2 male

What people say:

"A darling of a play...zesty entertainment of cool wit and warm sentiment." — New York Post

"An utterly disarming, lighthearted confection about love, friendship and theatrical trauma." — Women's Wear Daily

"Bernard Slade's script is slick and funny.... There are also some really clever visual gags throughout the play." — BBC

About the Playwright:

Bernard Slade Newbound (1930-2019), known professionally as Bernard Slade, was a Canadian playwright and long-time Hollywood TV-sitcom writer. He began his career as an actor performing in over 200 plays on stage, radio and television in regional theatres around Toronto and on camera for the CBC. He moved to Hollywood in the mid-1960s, and was soon writing episodes of such classics-to-be as Bewitched. Credited as creator, writer, story editor and producer of eight series, including The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family, he was considered one of the true heavyweights in Hollywood. By the mid-1970s, he turned his comedic genius to the stage writing more than a dozen plays, including three Broadway hit shows like his phenomenally successful Same Time Next Year, Tribute and Romantic Comedy, which were all turned into Hollywood features.