In the Boom Boom Room

"In the Boom Boom Room" (sometimes referred to simply as Boom Boom Room) is a Tony nominated play by David Rabe. It made its Broadway debut at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York, on November 8, 1973, after first being performed at Villanova University, where Rabe was then teaching.

The play revolves around Chrissy, a somewhat naive young woman who comes to Philadelphia with dreams of stardom as a dancer. Desperation leads her to take a job as a topless go-go dancer at a sleazy nightclub called Big Tom's Boom Boom Room. While working there, she explores love and sex with a variety of unsuitable men and women, forms a friendship with a gay neighbor, and tries to resolve troubling issues in her life. These issues include vague memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, and a difficult relationship with a cold-hearted mother who'd wanted to abort Chrissy.

Rabe's play seemed shocking when it debuted because it dealt openly with a number of topics (homosexuality, abortion, incest) that had rarely been featured in mainstream theater.

The original cast featured Madeline Kahn in the role of Chrissy, Robert Loggia as her abusive truck driver boyfriend/husband Al, Charles Durning as her father Harold, and Mary Woronov as a lesbian dancer named Susan.