Joy Behar, a comedian and Emmy Award-winning co-host of ABC-TV’s “The View,” will bring her newest comic creation, “My First Ex-Husband,” to Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater for a five-day run beginning Monday evening at 8 and continuing through July 19. The show arrives on the East End after its world premiere at the MMAC Theater in Manhattan in January.
The play consists of eight monologues, performed by a rotating cast of stars from theater, television, and film, not unlike “Love Letters” or “The Vagina Monologues.” In addition to Ms. Behar, Bay Street’s production will feature Susan Lucci, Veanne Cox, and Jackie Hoffman.
“What prompted me to write this is my natural curiosity about relationships,” Ms. Behar said by phone. “I remember over the years with some of my girlfriends who have been divorced we would talk about what happened. As you get older, you re-evaluate and re-examine what happened, and you realize how much you had to do with it and how much they had to do with it.” After a pause, she added, “I’m just nosy, I guess.”
Ms. Behar said she interviewed 14 or 15 people. To arrive at the final eight monologues, “I had to pick the ones that were different from each other. You have a lot of adultery, for example, so you don’t want to keep repeating yourself.”
She stresses that the characters are not composites, citing one woman who was married to a semi-mobster only to discover she was a lesbian. “They are true stories,” she said, though filtered through the lens of Ms. Behar’s literary and comedic talent.
In reviews of the Manhattan production, People magazine called it “as relatable as it is outrageous,” while Digital Journal said the stories “exuded razor-sharp wit, charm, and charisma.”
Ms. Behar made it clear that the actresses are not playing the divorced women but rather telling their stories. While they know the material, “I like them to read it a little bit because that’s part of the shtick, you’re not the person, you’re reading their story.”
An earlier version of the play sold out at Bay Street Theater last summer, but she has added several monologues that were not in last year’s show. “I’m always looking at it to see what I can do with it,” she said.
In addition to “The View,” Ms. Behar has starred in two HBO specials, was a regular on the series “Baby Boom,” and appeared in Woody Allen’s Amazon series “Crisis in Six Scenes.” Her film credits include Nora Ephron’s “This Is My Life” and Mr. Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” and she wrote and performed in her own solo show, “Me, My Mouth and I” at the Cherry Lane Theater.
Ms. Lucci has played Erica Kane for more than 40 years on ABC’s daytime drama “All My Children.” She took home the Emmy Award on her 19th nomination, earning the longest standing ovation in television history.
Recently seen in “Only Murders in the Building,” “Night Court,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Ms. Hoffman was nominated for an Emmy for the role of Mamacita in FX’s “Feud: Bette and Joan.”
Ms. Cox has appeared on Broadway in “An American in Paris,” “La Cage aux Folles,” and “Company,” for which she received a Tony nomination. Her many television credits include “Seinfeld,” “Law & Order,” and “NCIS: New Orleans.”
The production is directed by Randal Myler and produced by Rose Caiola and Cyrena Esposito.
Performances at Bay Street will take place Monday at 8, Wednesday at 7, next Thursday at 2, Friday, July 18, at 8, and July 19 at 4. Ms. Behar will join Ms. Lucci, Ms. Cox, and Ms. Hoffman onstage on Monday and July 18 and 19. Tickets range from $89.99 to $139.99.
The play will be performed at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Aug. 2, and will travel to Boston in September and London in November.
