Billy Van Zandt
Billy Van Zandt
Billy Van Zandt and his writing partner, the late Jane Milmore, are two of the most often produced playwrights in the world. Together for 46 years, they wrote and starred in 23 plays together, including the international hit comedy You’ve Got Hate Mail; off-Broadway’s tribute to slapstick comedy Silent Laughter; cult favorite Drop Dead; the Marx Bros. inspired musical A Night at the Nutcracker and the summer stock perennial Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. Billy’s solo play The Property Known as Garland, starring Adrienne Barbeau, broke box office records at off-Broadway’s Actors’ Playhouse. The plays have been produced in thousands of theatres worldwide, including two productions directed by Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (“Billy and Jane are funny, outrageous, off-the-chart writers/performers”) and one by film legend Burt Reynolds.For television, these award-winning writers have produced over 300 hours of television comedy, including Newhart; Martin, which won them a People’s Choice Award; The Hughleys, which won them a Prism Award; Suddenly Susan for Brooke Shields; Daddy Dearest for Don Rickles and Richard Lewis; Anything But Love for Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis; The Wayans Bros. and I Love Lucy: The Very First Show, which earned them an Emmy nomination.
As an actor, Billy made his film debut in Jaws 2 and has co-starred with Lucille Ball, Tim Hutton, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Giancarlo Esposito, Evan Handler, Karl Malden, Mrs. Maisel, That Girl Lay Lay, a shark named Bruce and the crew of the USS Enterprise.
Billy lives in Los Angeles when he’s not touring the world in the last Van Zandt/Milmore musical, The Boomer Boys Musical. His hilarious book Get in the Car, Jane (Adventures in the Television Wasteland) is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. His new book about their plays, Because It’s Funny!, is on sale now. Visit him at vanzandtmilmore.com.
Perform Billy Van Zandt
View all-
Lie, Cheat, and Genuflect
Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, ComedyLie, Cheat, and Genuflect
Billy Van Zandt , Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 4f, 4m
"A bright play that should not be missed." - Asbury Park Press
The Buckle brothers, Billy and Tom, are in big trouble: Tom's infallible eye for slow horses has drained away all of Billy's savings and he has borrowed from loan shark Pizza Face Petrillo, who now wants his money back or else! There's plenty of money in grandfather Buckle's will, but these two black sheep are pretty sure they'll never see any of that. What else to do but dress Billy up as a nun and have him pose as their cousin who is to inherit the entire fortune?
-
Merrily We Dance and Sing
Multiple Authors
Full-Length Musical, ComedyMerrily We Dance and Sing
Billy Van Zandt , Jane Milmore , Ed Alton
Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4f, 11m
Merrily We Dance and Sing is a slapstick, madcap musical farce. While a small-town community theater performs an original operetta The Naughty Boy, an escaped serial killer gets loose in the theater – eventually hiding from the local police on the stage – which forces the actors to improvise new plot lines, rewrite dialogue, and take the opportunity to invent their own happy endings.
-
Playing Doctor
Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, ComedyPlaying Doctor
Billy Van Zandt , Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3f, 5m
"Wonderful... wacky comedy... will undoubtedly become standard dinner theatre fare across the country... contains more wit than is usual in sex farce." - Asbury Park Press
Rob Brewster's parents are very, very proud of their son the doctor. What they don't know is that Rob has used all the money they gave him for medical school to live on as he as has pursued his fledgling writing career. Inevitably, Rob's day of reckoning comes when his parents arrive for a visit.
Shop Billy Van Zandt
View all
The Property Known as Garland
Billy Van Zandt
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy
The Property Known as Garland
Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1f, 1m
Merrily We Dance and Sing
Multiple Authors
Full-Length Musical, Comedy
Merrily We Dance and Sing
Billy Van Zandt , Jane Milmore , Ed Alton
Full-Length Musical, Comedy / 4f, 11m
Also available as:Playing Doctor
Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, Comedy
Playing Doctor
Billy Van Zandt , Jane Milmore
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3f, 5m
