Theater: “The Bedwetter,” new musical by Sarah Silverman
One thing for sure about Sarah Silverman: she doesn’t hold back. In June 2007, she hosted the MTV Movie Awards during which she commented on the upcoming jail sentence of Paris Hilton, saying: "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail. As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it is wrong, too. I just worry she is going to break her teeth on those things." Hilton was in the audience.
Sarah is Sarah, which is why she lasted only 18 weeks on SNL. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer, explained, "I could see how it wouldn't work at SNL because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn't disappear into the character—she makes the character her."
Her wacky new musical “The Bedwetter” gives Sarah all the room she needs to be herself. Based on her 2011 book (which I read on a plane and which made me laugh so hard I was almost ejected), it tells the true-to-life tale of her crazy childhood in Bedford, NH.
Young Sarah (played by the amazing 14-year-old Zoe Glick) lives part time with her father, “Crazy Donnie” (Darren Goldstein), who, when he isn’t selling discount clothing, is seducing all the local housewives. Her sister Laura (Emily Zimmerman) is a 16-year-old beauty queen who shuns her nerdy sister. Sarah lives the rest of the time with her divorced mom Beth Ann (Lauren Marcus), a depressive who sits in bed all day and watches old movies on TV. Meanwhile her grandmother (Bebe Neuwirth) likes her Manhattans strong and plentiful, and depends on Sarah to make them.
Sarah tries to make friends in town but nobody seems to cotton to this nerdy smart-mouthed kid. One neighborhood mom asks Sarah, “So how did you like living in New York?” Sarah: “I’ve never been to New York.” The mom: “We assumed you were, because you’re Jew—“ then cuts herself off.
What crimps Sarah’s attempts at friendship is her bedwetting problem, which her girlfriends discover while watching the Miss America pageant during a neighborhood sleepover. She becomes a pariah and is subsequently taken to a hypnotist and a psychiatrist (played by the hilarious Rick Grom), both of whom fail to solve her problem. A meet up with Miss New Hampshire (Ashley Blanchett) however may provide a way out.
As you might expect, Sarah Silverman is just as uninhibited in her lyrics as she is in her routines. There are more F-words and C-words and just plain naughty words than you’ll ever hear in “The Book of Mormon.” The music is by Adam Schlesinger who sadly never saw the show come to fruition—he died in April 2020 from COVID during the third week of rehearsals.
So yes yes yes to “The Bedwetter” at Atlantic. You’ll laugh so hard, you may want to wear a pair of Depends just in case. Not to worry—wetting the bed doesn’t doom you to failure. Seems to have worked out for Sarah Silverman just fine.