27 Plays & Musicals About Best Friends
Happy National Best Friend’s Day to our number one pals, buddies, mates, chums, cronies and sidekicks! Across literature and entertainment, we are presented with best friend pairs in all phases of life conquering the world together. Best friendship is complex and diverse yet universal. From the page to the stage, we have seen best friends on the bleachers at Rydell High to a cold castle in Denmark.
Today we celebrate all our supportive, hilarious, and all-around wonderful best friends. Check out these 27 fantastic plays and musicals that highlight the importance and challenges of best friendship across many worlds.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end. 14m, 2f
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
In Waiting for Godot, two wandering tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, wait by a lonely tree, to meet up with Mr. Godot, an enigmatic figure in a world where time, place and memory are blurred and meaning is where you find it. The tramps hope that Godot will change their lives for the better. Instead, two eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other’s rope. The results are both funny and dangerous in this existential masterpiece. 4m, 1b
Nice Fish by Louis Jenkins, Mark Rylance
On a frozen Minnesota lake, the ice is beginning to creak and groan. It’s the end of the fishing season, and two old friends are out on the ice, angling for something big; something down there that is pure need. Something that might just swallow them whole. 4m, 1f
Heathers The Musical by Kevin Murphy, Laurence O’Keefe
Based on the classic 1989 film, Westerberg High is ruled by a shoulder-padded, scrunchie-wearing junta: Heather, Heather, and Heather, the hottest and cruelest girls in all of Ohio. But misfit Veronica Sawyer rejects their evil regime for a new boyfriend, the dark and sexy stranger J.D., who plans to put the Heathers in their place — six feet under. 8m, 9f
Peerless by Jiehae Park
Asian-American twins M & L have given up everything to get into The College. So when D, a 1/16th Native American classmate, gets “their” spot instead, they figure they’ve got only one option: kill him. A darkly comedic take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth about the very ambitious and the cut-throat world of high school during college admissions. 2m, 3f
The Odd Couple by Neil Simon
This classic comedy opens as a group of the guys assemble for cards in the apartment of divorced Oscar Madison. And if the mess is any indication, it’s no wonder that his wife left him. Late to arrive is Felix Unger, who has just been separated from his wife. Fastidious, depressed, and none too tense, Felix seems suicidal, but as the action unfolds, Oscar becomes the one with murder on his mind when the clean freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilarious results as The Odd Couple is born. 6m, 2f
The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls indoor soccer team warms up. From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigates big questions and wages tiny battles with all the vim and vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors. A portrait of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for nine American girls who just want to score some goals. 10f
Jasper in Deadland by Hunter Foster, Ryan Scott Oliver
Jasper is lost in the living world. When you’re failing classes, kicked off the swim team, and your family is on the skids, life can feel like it’s going to hell. Yet, in all the disappointment, Jasper has his best friend, Agnes. In one night of teenage passion, Jasper and Agnes consummate a years-long friendship. But in the morning Agnes is gone, telling Jasper to meet her at their cliff. When he arrives there’s no sign of his best friend, only a swirling vortex to another world in the water below. Jasper dives into Deadland. 5m, 4f
Friend Art by Sofia Alvarez
Molly and Kevin are engaged, they have “normal” jobs. Kevin and Nate have known each other since they were kids. Nate used to be famous once. He just broke up with Lil, who does performance art, and she used to work with Molly, who wanted to be an actress a long time ago. These relationships come to a head when Kevin decides he no longer wants the regular life he convinced Molly to live with him. Friend Art asks how late is too late to give up on your dreams, when are you really a grown-up, and what the hell are you supposed to say when walking out of friend’s truly terrible performance? 2m, 2f
Antlia Pneumatica by Anne Washburn
A group gathers at a remote ranch in the Texas Hill country to mourn the loss of a friend they haven’t seen in years. As the group mines through their pasts, it may be more than just the loss of a friend that binds them. The past and present begin to blur in Anne Washburn’s haunting exploration of friendship and loss. 2m, 4f
Angry Fags by Topher Payne
Bennett is really trying to keep it together right now. He broke up with his boyfriend and moved in with his best friend Cooper. It’s election season, and he’s the speechwriter for Georgia’s only gay state senator, who’s engaged in a bloody campaign against a conservative darling. Then Bennett’s ex is attacked in the parking lot of a gay bar. Bennett and Cooper are informed by a police detective that the assault can’t be classified as a hate crime. Because in Georgia, hate crimes against homosexuals don’t legally exist. Their frustration and fear eventually turns to rage, as they realize that “acceptance” simply isn’t enough. They’re still living in a society that relegates them to second-class status. They’re not respected. They’re not feared. It’s time for that to change. 4m, 3f
Significant Other by Joshua Harmon
Jordan is single, and finding Mr. Right is much easier said than done. While surrounding himself with his close group of girlfriends it comes to pass that the only thing harder than looking for love is supporting the loved ones around you. 3m, 4f
The Mystery of Love & Sex by Bathsheba Doran
Deep in the American South, Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She’s Jewish, he’s Christian, he’s black, she’s white. Their differences intensify their connection until sexual desire complicates everything in surprising, compulsive ways. An unexpected love story about where souls meet and the consequences of growing up. 3m, 2f
The Flick by Annie Baker
In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world. 3m, 1f
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog
After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today’s world. 1m, 3f
Grease by Warren Casey, Jim Jacobs
Here is Rydell High’s senior class of 1959: duck-tailed, hot-rodding “Burger Palace Boys” and their gum-snapping, hip-shaking “Pink Ladies” in bobby sox and pedal pushers, evoking the look and sound of the 1950s in this rollicking musical. Head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their “Summer Nights” as the rest of the gang sings and dances its way through such songs as “Greased Lightnin’,” “It’s Raining on Prom Night,” “Alone at the Drive-In Movie” recalling the music of Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley that became the soundtrack of a generation. 9m, 8f
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas by Carol Hall, Larry L. King, Peter Masterson
This happy go lucky view of small town vice and statewide political side-stepping recounts the good times and the demise of the Chicken Ranch, known since the 1850s as one of the better pleasure palaces in all of Texas. Governors, senators, mayors, and even victorious college football teams frequent Miss Mona’s cozy bordello until that puritan nemesis Watchdog focuses his television cameras and his righteous indignation on the institution. 13m, 4f
Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 and 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks
Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose whether to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. As his decision brings him face-to-face with a nation at war with itself, the loved ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return… only to discover that for Hero, free will may have come at a great spiritual cost. 8m, 2f
A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking by John Ford Noonan
This two-character comedy takes place in suburban Westchester County, New York kitchen of Maude Mix, who is having a tough day: her husband is off on a weekend spree with his secretary and she can’t get rid of the pesky neighbor who has just moved up from Texas. Hannah Mae Bindler badgers Maude into friendship and the two eventually join forces against their errant and erring husbands. 2f
A Steady Rain by Keith Huff
Joey and Denny have been best friends since kindergarten, and after working together for several years as policemen in Chicago, they are practically family: Joey helps out with Denny’s wife and kids; Denny keeps Joey away from the bottle. But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a harrowing journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlifes. 2m
Imaginary Friends by Marvin Hamlisch, Nora Ephron, and Craig Carnelia
Novelist Mary McCarthy’s notorious statement on the Dick Cavett Show calling playwright Lillian Hellman a liar exploded into one of the most famous of all literary feuds. This surreal farce portrays these two literary lionesses battling it out in hell. It chronicles a compelling story of two women shaped by their different but equally unsettled childhoods, their looks (one was a beauty, one was not) and the men in their lives while it brilliantly examines to great comic effect the concept of truth in fiction: Who can you believe? Interspersed throughout are witty songs that enable the ensemble to comment on the action. 3m, 6f
Taking Flight by Adriana Sevahn Nichols
First there was Mary and Rhoda, then Thelma and Louise, and now Adriana and Rhonda, two loveable and unforgettable friends. One, searching for the goddess and her shamanic roots, the other, planning her epic “Godfather meets the Mists of Avalon” wedding, until 9/11 changes everything, leaving one in a hospital bed and the other intent on doing whatever it takes to save her friend. 1f
The Four of Us by Itamar Moses
The Four of Us follows Ben, whose first novel vaults him into literary stardom, and his friend David, a struggling playwright, who is thrilled by Ben’s success…and crushed by it. From the dreams of aspiring youth to the realities of adulthood, this poignant two-man comedy explores friendship and memory, the gap between our hopes and our lives, and the struggles between our egos and our capacity to love. 2m
Jewtopia by Bryan Fogel, Sam Wolfson
Jewtopia tells the story of two 30 year old single men, Chris O’Connell and Adam Lipschitz. Chris, a gentile, wants to marry a Jewish girl so he’ll never have to make another decision. Adam Lipschitz, a Jew, wants to marry a Jewish girl to please his family, but can’t get a date to save his life. After meeting at a Jewish singles mixer, Adam and Chris form a secret pact. Chris promises that he will help Adam find the Jewish girl of his dreams and show him “Jewtopia”, but only if Adam will help Chris shed his gentile-ness and bring him undercover into the Jewish world. Stereotypes collide, cultures clash and chaos ensues! 4m, 3f
Geek! by Crystal Skillman
With pissed-off Pikachus, steam punk armies, stood-up Sailor Moons and roller-blading monsters on the prowl, it’s easy to get lost in the Inferno-esque anime convention where the fans, the otakus, and the geeks prowl. But to score a rare meeting with their comic book idol, teenage outcasts Dayna and Honey will take on obsessive magic players, Jedis and elfs, cosplayers and convention guards — through all nine flights of Ohio’s Dante’s Fire-Con. But when the dark nature of their quest breaks through the fantasy of these girls cos-playing — they find that no game can mask the deep loss they’ve recently shared … unless they truly discover who they are. 2m, 4f
The Joke by Sam Marks
It’s 1965 and two comedians, “Steady Eddie” & “Doug the Mug,” knock ’em dead every night in the Catskills. Punchlines and cheap shots fly — on stage and off — as Doug and Ed battle for the spotlight over a decade, pushing each other to the cusp of a new direction of stand up comedy. With their personal and professional lives uncovered at center stage, Eddie and Doug must find a way to laugh it off while staying at the top of their game. 2m
Extinction by Gabe McKinley
Two college buddies whose annual outing of male-bonding and debauchery veers precipitously off course when unmet expectations spiral into a volatile showdown. A darkly funny drama exploring the evolution of friendships — and the lengths to which we go to save them from falling into extinction. 2m, 2f
