Dada Woof Papa Hot

by Peter Parnell

Dada Woof Papa Hot, the new play by Peter Parnell, smartly captures the urban parent experience at this head-spinning cultural moment—as well as what comes after #LoveWins.


It's a fall night in New York City, and two couples that recently met at a parents' group are out to dinner at the hot new restaurant. Alan and Rob, and Scott and Jason find plenty of common ground as gay couples raising kids in the city, and a play date with the children is set. As their friendship develops, the conversation deepens from after-school pick-up to the cracks in their marriages—struggles which are mirrored in the relationships of their straight friends as well.


Dada Woof Papa Hot had its Off-Broadway premiere at Lincoln Center Theater starring Patrick Breen, John Benjamin Hickey (Tony Award-winner for The Normal Heart), Alex Hurt, and Steven Plunkett and was directed by Scott Ellis.

Genres: Plays, Drama

66 pages, Paperback

About the author

Peter Parnell is an American playwright, television writer, and children's author whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, and television. He adapted The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Theatricals and is known for stage plays such as Trumpery, QED, and The Cider House Rules, the latter earning him several awards. He has worked as a producer and writer on TV series including The West Wing, The Guardian, and BrainDead. With his husband, psychiatrist Justin Richardson, he co-authored the acclaimed and frequently challenged children's book And Tango Makes Three, which has received multiple literary honors. Parnell is Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Reviews

[Daniel]

I want more from queer representation than this by-the-numbers in every way portrait of gay people tamed by marriage. From form to subplot (cheating, oh my; it does bad things to relationships! Yay monogamy), this is really a pretty conservative take on parenting and family structures; only interesting (a bit) in its meditations on complicated emotions of parental jealousy that come up for those queer couples where one parent is the biological parent.

Read The Argonauts instead!

[Doug]

Although the topic is trendy (gay parenting), the execution is a bit off. The dialogue just rings too much like 'dialogue', not as how actual people would speak ... and although the foreword makes clear it is at least semi-autobiographical, it seems to follow a schematic as far as hitting all the points the author wishes to make, which blunts the impact.

[Aaron Thomas]

Talk talk talk. Zzzzzzzzzz. As far as I'm concerned this isn't even theatre. It's just a series of conversations. Like reading Plato but gayer. Well, actually just like reading Plato.
This would probably have made an interesting memoir or something. But as a play? I was not interested. (Extra points off for the painful whiteness of all the characters, a whiteness made all the more colorable through Parnell's insistent racialization of most of the characters who didn't appear onstage – the Tibetan nanny, the Jamaican caregiver, the Haitian entrepreneur, the East Asian violin instructor...)

[Joseph]

An important play dealing with gay marriage and raising children. Anyone who is a parent, gay or straight would be able to relate. A must read for most!

[Nick K]

A great topic to explore. But the dialogue seems a bit false. It never felt fully real. Maybe with good actors it can be a thoughtful night of theater.

[Nico]

People in the US sure do love casual racism.

[Steve]

Interesting premise and read. It's all about kids and child rearing, without the kids! (unless you count the offstage voice). Your classic drama about family and adultery but with gay couples.