Because alcoholic (and drug) rehabilitation has gotten so upscale and 'trendy' (what with a stream of celebrities getting press attention at every step of the way), it is easy to forget there was a time when no discernable help was available. In the early thirties, Bill Wilson, a successful New York stockbroker was headed to hell in a hand basket. His alcoholic tendencies had become full-blown with the stock market crash. His wife, Lois was at her wits end with putting up with his benders. Meanwhile in Ohio, Dr. Bob Smith has been a life-long closet drinker despite his fame as a successful surgeon (although his "shaky scalpel" is well known in the area). His wife, Anne has basically turned to religion for solace. How these two dissimilar men meet and form the association which has helped millions of drunks, Alcoholics Anonymous, is the story of this play.

Conceivably, the element which most united the two men is their mutual distrust of organized religion and the power of God to help human frailty. This may have had something to do the temperaments of the men. Bill was basically self-absorbed and has an ego "the size of the Chrysler Building" as Bob once complains. Bob, himself, is solid Vermont stock and is stubborn as the day is long. He even resists the efforts of the Oxford Group, a pre-AA religious organization in helping him stay sober. It is through a series of accidents that the two men discover the power of one drunk helping another is the true secret of a sober life. Or as Bob puts it near the end of the play "Let's not louse this thing up - let's keep it simple".

Keeping it simple also seems to be the motto of the production. The set of shifting panels (Anita Fuchs) is rudimentary at best, conveying various meeting rooms and hospital wards. Co-authors Stephen Bergman (a playwright) and Janet Surrey (a psychologist) have crafted a script that sticks to the facts and despite some humorous passages feels somewhat dramatically inert. Rick Lombardo's direction is equally unobtrusive. Robert Krakovski as Bill W. feels a little too wooden for someone in the depths of alcoholic despair but Patrick Husted is wonderfully comical as the cantankerous Dr. Bob. Marc Carver provides ample support as a variety of doctors, drunks and the newly sober. Rachel Harker as Lois and Kathleen Doyle as Anne breathe as much life as they can into characters that are one-dimensional. However, the clunky-ness of the proceedings is beside the point. While the production itself may not be dramatically satisfying, it still concerns itself with one of the biggest success stories of the twentieth century.

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