About the Play:

Social Security is a full-length comedy by Andrew Bergman. Aging parents, rebellious college kids, sibling rivalries, and baby boomers facing a mid-life challenge are the basis for this hysterical, grown-up comedy by Andrew Bergman, the screenwriter behind such comedy classics as Blazing Saddles and Honeymoon in Vegas. Social Security will leave you roaring with laughter.

Social Security centers around an art-dealing Manhattan couple, trendy, childless Barbara and David Kahn, whose life and marriage seem near perfect. That is, until their domestic tranquility is upended when Barbara's sourpuss sister Trudy deposits their 70-year-old mother Sophie on the couple's doorstep. Trudy and her daringly dull husband Martin head to Buffalo in a desperate effort to "rescue" their sexually precocious college freshman daughter (who never appears but who is a substantial force in the play nonetheless). Barbara and David introduce Sophie to suave, elderly artist Maurice Koenig who is the art dealer's best client. The comic and romantic sparks really begin to fly fast and furious when he offers to paint Sophie's portrait and soon begins to brighten her life in ways she never expected in her twilight years. He's pretty surprised, too. Written by one of Hollywood's top comedy screenwriters, Social Security will benefit your spirits and keep you laughing.

Social Security premiered in 1986 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and had a one-year run on Broadway in New York City. It was directed by the great Mike Nichols. It's been a popular and a favourite play for regional and community theatre productions ever since.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"Just when you were beginning to think you were never going to laugh again on Broadway, along comes Social Security and you realize that it is once more safe to giggle in the streets. Indeed, you can laugh out loud, joyfully, with, as it were, social security, for the play is a hoot, and better yet, a sophisticated, even civilized hoot." — The New York Post

About the Playwright:

Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. After writing just one stage play, the critically acclaimed Broadway comedy Social Security, he received his first screenwriting credit for the Mel Brooks blockbuster farce Blazing Saddles. He went on to write such other memorable comedies as The In-Laws, Fletch, Soapdish, and The Freshman, which were all nominated by the American Film Institute as among the greatest comedies of all time. He also wrote and directed Honeymoon in Vegas.