Mommies Dearest
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In true 90s fashion, Mom’s the Word grew out of a support group. Six actors in Vancouver had agreed to meet every Saturday and talk about their experiences as mothers, and as they shared their thoughts and feelings a script began to take shape. In 1998 the group performed the piece at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, where it was so successful that it spawned an Australian production with a new cast. Mum’s the Word, as it was then titled, ran for over a year in Melbourne and toured Australia for two more. “It’s a show that all women are going to love,” predicts Michael Sampliner, one of the New Yorkers mounting the Royal George production. Earlier this year Sampliner resigned from the giant talent agency International Management Group, where he was vice president of the arts and entertainment division, to go into business with his wife, producer Lisa Albright; the couple are backing Mom’s the Word themselves, in partnership with the New York office of London-based Backrow UK Productions.
Dinner’s Off
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Dan Machnik.
