First Night

This was my first full-length play, and it has been produced many times over the past few years. The setting is a Mom & Pop-type video store, the time is New Year’s Eve. Danny Fleming, mid-thirties, is about to close up for the evening when into the store pops a woman he believes he remembers from grammar school. What he remembers most is that this woman went away to be a nun. Why is she there? Why does he care? As the story unfolds, we find out the answers to these and many other questions. And, I hope, we learn a lot about life and love and how simple each can be if only we didn’t make things so difficult for ourselves. The photo above is from the 1986 production of the play, featuring Phil Kilbourne and BeeBee Horowitz, directed by Joan Courtney.

Cast:

Danny Fleming, mid-thirties

Meredith O’Connor, mid-thirties

Setting:

A small, downtown video store

Press:

"A lovely riff of magic...touch it for yourself." Kevin Kelly, the Boston Globe

"What a delight!...Just as Fred Astaire was able to dance with a hatrack and make it look good, so playwright Jack Neary is able to sidestep the clichés and find the humor and the heart in this touching little encounter." The Los Angeles Times

"FIRST NIGHT has considerable charm, zest, imagination and expertise." Variety

"Neary is a pro at rib-tickling; snappy one-liners pop from his pen like firecrackers...FIRST NIGHT demonstrates that Neary loves and understands the wayward workings or ordinary people’s minds and hearts. His humor caresses his subjects, never wags a finger at them." The Boston Herald

"A crisp and neatly starched little heartwarmer." Newsday

"FIRST NIGHT is a valentine that leaves the audience cheering." New York Law Journal

"FIRST NIGHT is a rollicking tongue-in-cheek comedy. A delightful evening full of surprises." WVOX Radio, New York.

Available by contacting:

Samuel French, Inc.

Bakers Plays