The Bedwetter, Kreeger Theatre, Arena Stage, Washington, DC

 

Emerson Holt Lacayo (Abby), Elin Joy Siler (Amy), Aria Kane (Sarah), and Alina Santos (Ally) in Sarah Silverman's The Bedwetter at Arena Stage through March 16. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.

The title gives away the secret bubbling underneath the surface in The Bedwetter, a new musical by Emmy-winning writer, actress, and stand-up comic Sarah Silverman. It manages to be delightfully funny, insightful, and sometimes poignant, driving home a universal theme that we never seem to get enough of: be who you are. Paradoxically, perhaps, it is a musical about a particular child that may well be too adult for children under 16 or so. If you are familiar with Silverman’s comedy, you understand; if not, after 100 minutes with preteen Sarah, you will have a partial explanation of how she created the persona we know.

Little Sarah, age 10, is negotiating some very grown-up issues. It is the 1980s in a small town in New Hampshire. After her parents’ recent divorce, Sarah is adjusting to life in a new town and new school under new circumstances. She faces the changes with an optimistic attitude, at first, seeing something good about now having two homes, and gamely trying to make new friends, whose WASP-y home lives are very different from her own (Jewish) family. The Silvermans could well be a textbook example of a dysfunctional family unit.

Sarah’s father is a foul-mouthed discount clothier (operating and advertising “Crazy Donny’s Factory Outlet”) who provides additional “services” to many among his female clientele. Her mother Beth Ann suffers severe depression and perhaps other mental maladies: she is unable to leave her bed, much less the house, but still considers herself to be a good mother, despite never being able to show up for her daughters’ events. Beth Ann retreats into a world of television and film trivia. Sarah has an older sister, Laura, who has more successfully assimilated in her new surroundings. In typical older-sister fashion, she wants to be completely disassociated from her younger sister outside the confines of their home. There’s also Nana, her grandmother on her father’s side, who has taught Sarah how to make the perfect Manhattan and ensures that she gets lots of practice and plenty of praise for her bartending expertise. Bartending for Grandma is a skill not shared by many 10-year-olds.

She fairly horrifies her new teacher, Mrs. Dembo, by freely using words she has heard from her father and which seem quite normal at home, but are decidedly not acceptable for a fifth grader at school.

All of that would be enough to try to overcome, but she also tries desperately to keep her big secret from her three new friends (who seem to be trying her out on a trial basis), first during a sleepover at a friend’s house and then, most humiliatingly, when Nana comes in from the grocery store and, unaware that Sarah’s friends are visiting, throws a package of Pampers across the floor in front of them.

Sarah’s dad tries to help, taking her first to a hypnotist and then a psychiatrist who thinks what she really needs is Xanax, which (predictably) does not solve the problem.

Aria Kane (Sarah) and Darren Goldstein (Donny) in The Bedwetter at Arena Stage. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.

In a tender heart-to-heart song between father and daughter (“When I Was Nine”), Sarah reflects on how much easier her life was just a year earlier. Donny convinces her that, while she isn’t like her friends (who are performing “The Rose” as part of a middle school talent show), she is her own person with her own talents. She finds inspiration in an unlikely source: a hallucination or dream of her idol, Miss New Hampshire in the Miss America contest. Miss New Hampshire was once a student at her own McKilvey Middle School and had sat in Mrs. Dembo’s class just like Sarah. She tells Johnny Carson on national television that she is a bedwetter, too. Little Sarah joins Miss New Hampshire and Carson in a rousing rendition of “The Bedwetter,” before, with self-assurance, she strides onstage in the middle school talent show and there launches her career as a stand-up comic.

Add to the proceedings dancing Xanax tablets, 1980s TV talk show host Phil Donahue interviewing Sarah’s bedridden mother, and hokey television commercials for Crazy Donny’s Factory Outlet and Manchester Toyota. The show’s premise and treatment seem wholly improbable, but the show is infused with such total sincerity that it comes together beautifully.

The real, adult Sarah Silverman, with playwright Joshua Harmon, adapted Silverman’s The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee into the book of this cleverly original musical, with lyrics by Silverman and composer Adam Schlesinger and additional music and lyrics by David Yazbeck. Preteen angst, family dysfunction and secrets, and acceptance of what makes her different help us understand the Sarah Silverman we know today. Its overriding theme is always pertinent: be unapologetically just who you are, or, as they sing in Shrek the Musical, “Let your freak flag fly.”

Aria Kane (Sarah),Ashley Blanchet (Miss New Hampshire) and Rick Crom (Carson) in The Bedwetter. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.

The cast is perfection. Aria Kane bounces onto the stage as Sarah and takes charge: she is a bundle of earnest energy, sly humor, downright slapstick, preteen angst, and irreverence. It is completely plausible that she will grow into Sarah Silverman. Unlike many child actors playing children, she is entirely believable as the preteen she plays. Emerson Holt Lacayo, Alina Santos, and Elin Joy Seiler, as Sarah’s would-be friends Abby, Ally, and Amy each create distinctive child characters who are just as real as Sarah. Avery Harris as older sister Laura convincingly moves from disdainful (after all, her song about Sarah is titled “I Do Not Know This Person”) to protective in a realistic sister relationship.

Shoshona Bean, a two-time Tony and Grammy nominee, is the most recognizable theatre “name” among the cast (thanks to numerous Broadway appearances, most recently in Alicia Keys’s Hell’s Kitchen and having replaced Idina Menzel as Elphaba in Broadway’s Wicked). Bean’s role as the almost-totally-bedridden Beth Ann requires a subtle performance, which she imbues with warmth. Her two songs, “There for You” and “You Can’t Fix Her,” are delivered with such heart, Bean’s performance convinces us that, despite any mental issues she might have, Beth Ann is a caring mother. On the other hand, Darren Goldstein as her ex-husband and Susan’s father Donald is decidedly brash and consciously crude in a bloviating performance that could easily go “over the top,” but doesn’t. His final scene with Sarah brings out the sentiment and drives home his devotion to her, despite all of the bluster. 

Avery Harris (Laura), Shoshona Bean (Beth Ann), and Aria Kane (Sarah) in The Bedwetter. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography.

Liz Larsen’s Nana appears to be unaware of how differently she treats Laura (her favorite) and Sarah, who she says is special “to me” (implying, not to everyone else). She also manages to be somewhat elegant and endearing despite the character’s heavy drinking. Alysha Umphress is imperious as teacher Mrs. Dembo, particularly as she reminisces about having once taught Miss New Hampshire, contrasted with her initial shock at Sarah’s casual cursing. As Miss New Hampshire, Ashley Blanchett exudes a self-assured and un-self-conscious beauty pageant class, proving a worthy hero for Sarah as a fellow bedwetter. The program lists Rick Crom as Dr. Grimm and Dr. Riley, but he also makes brief appearances doing spot-on impressions of 1980s talk show icons Phil Donahue and Johnny Carson.

Presiding over the production is director Anne Kauffman, who previously staged the musical (with a different cast) off-Broadway in 2022. Kauffman is aided and abetted by choreographer Danny Mefford and an outstanding design team. Set designer David Korins evokes and moves us between scenes set in numerous locations, including a school classroom and hallway, doctors’ offices, Beth Ann’s bedroom, and Nana’s hospital room, shifting easily from one to the next, with set pieces appearing and disappearing as needed. Kay Voyce’s costume designs are character and period appropriate. Japhy Weideman (lighting), Lucy MacKinnon (video), and Tom Watson (hair and wigs) make expert contributions. Opening night, there appeared to be some glitches with the sound design (by Kai Harada), which interfered with the ability to understand some lyrics, but these should be remedied for additional performances.

Since it has already appeared off-Broadway, I don’t know where The Bedwetter goes from here - but I hope it goes somewhere. The show, especially as presented and performed by this company, deserves a wide audience. It continues in the Kreeger Theatre at Arena Stage through March 16. 

Emerson Holt Lacayo (Abby), Alysha Umphress (Mrs. Dembo), Elin Joy Siler (Amy), Aria Kane (Sarah), and Alina Santos (Ally) in The Bedwetter. Photo by T Charles Erickson Photography,