The National Tour of
Bill W. and Dr. Bob

by Samuel Shem & Janet Surrey

Told through laughter and tears, the amazing story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous and their fateful relationship to keep one another sober “one day at a time”

This critically acclaimed version tells the amazing story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who founded Al Anon. During the roaring '20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze. In '29, both he and the market crash and he becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. His family has tried everything to no avail. Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune, Bill and Bob meet on Mother's Day of 1935. The two men form a relationship which keeps each sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others. Richly textured with the ragtime and jazz of the era, the play tells a magnificent American success story.

"A deeply human, audience embracing tale."-Variety

"One of the best plays of the year."-San Diego Union Tribune

"Inspiring." Boston Globe.