Beth Kander is a USA Today best-selling novelist and longtime dramatist. Described as a “genre-defying author and playwright” (Oxford American), her writing style blends warmth, wit, and solid punches to the gut. Her work often explores identity, transitional moments in life or society, and how worlds old and new connect—or collide.
CATF: How were you introduced to Elaine May and Mike Nichols?
BK: When I was still in my 20s, I acted in a production of “Dinner with Friends.” My stage husband, James, commented that the delivery on one of my lines was “such an Elaine May delivery.” I responded, “I don’t know who that is.” I didn’t really know. So he introduced me to Nichols and May and then made me promise to write a play about them. This play has been on my radar to write for about 18 years.
Do you identify with Elaine May on some level?
Personality-wise, we’re very different, but profile wise, we’re very similar. We both grew up in theater families, Elaine in vaudeville and touring around with her performer father. My mom is a director who ran a youth Shakespeare troupe, so I grew up doing Shakespeare. Elaine and I were both second-generation Americans. My paternal grandparents were both immigrants from the same part of the world as Elaine’s family; two Jewish families that found ourselves here. Elaine got her start in Chicago, which is where I live. The Compass Players that she and Mike Nichols helped found became Second City, where I took classes when I first got to Chicago about a decade ago. I am not a very starstruck person, but if I ran into Elaine May on the street, I would probably just pass out.
Why is this play called, “Best Line Wins”?
“Best line wins” — whoever comes up with the best idea, that wins, and we all agree on it — is a guiding principle I used being in an improv troupe. That line is actually from my own life, but I felt like it also really resonated for Nichols and May. There are moments in the play when they’re in a fight and one of them lands such a great zinger that the other can’t be mad. The best line wins, even if it isn’t mine.
Full interview available here.