The Little Dog Laughed

by Douglas Carter Beane

This is a comedy for a cast of four, 2 men and 2 women. The Yes, we love the cinema for its great auteurs, its glorious faces and its daring images. But in this tabloid age where big stars go on Oprah and jump around like heartsick schoolboys, what we really love is all that dish! The players here include a hard-driving Hollywood agent, her budding screen idol client, a sexy young drifter, and the drifter's naive, needy girlfriend. The Little Dog Laughed follows the adventures of Mitchell Green, a movie star who could hit big if it weren't for one teensy-weensy problem. His agent, Diane, can't seem to keep him in the closet. Trying to help him navigate Hollywood's choppy waters, the devilish Diane is doing all she can to keep Mitchell away from the cute rent boy who's caught his eye and the rent boy's girlfriend (wait, the rent boy has a girlfriend?). Will there be a happy ending as the final credits roll?

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, LGBT, Read For School

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2007

About the author

Douglas Carter Beane has written the screenplays for To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar; Advice From a Caterpillar (Best Film, Aspen Comedy Festival, Best Feature, Toyota Comedy Festival) and Skinner's Eddy. His plays include As Bees In Honey Drown (Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award, Drama Desk Best Play Nomination); The Country Club (LA Times Critics' Choice & Dramalogue Awards); Music From A Sparkling Planet; Advice From A Caterpillar (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination); White Lies; Devil May Care and Old Money. His new musical, The Big Time (with music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen) was just produced by Drama Dept. The Little Dog Laughed which transferred from Second Stage Theatre was his Broadway debut. Beane wrote the book for Xanadu, a stage musical adaptation of the 1980 film of the same name, adding new plot twists and humor parodying the original movie. Beane won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. In 2011, Beane was hired to 'doctor' the book for the musical Sister Act alongside Bill and Cheri Steinkellner for which he was nominated for a Tony. Beane wrote the book of the Broadway Musical Lysistrata Jones and rewrote the book for a new adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. The Nance, a new play for Lincoln Center, starred Nathan Lane and directed by Jack O'Brien. Beane has also revised the libretto for the Metropolitan Opera's new production of the operetta Die Fledermaus which will be performed in 2013- 2014. Beane is currently the artistic director of the Drama Dept. Theater Company in New York.

Reviews

[Doug]

Update: 1/2026:

My OG review below still holds - the play came up in convo with my bestie t'other day, so I felt a reread was in order. STILL very, VERY funny - but now even more dated - g-d bless J. Bailey, M. Bomer, N. P. Harris and all the other out queer actors for making the subject of a scared closeted Hollywood star passe!

OG review: I actually saw the original NY production, which I remember enjoying tremendously (although I was there for the infamous performance at which star Julie White missed her call time and the play started an hour late!) ... and also read it back then too. Reading about White recently impelled me to re-read this for a lark, and it still holds up fairly well, although it is surprising how dated some of it has become in just a short ten years... Still, there are some very, VERY funny lines, and each of the four characters gets their chance to shine ... should be done more at the local/community level.

[Javier Fernandez]

...but I didn't.

[Yourfiendmrjones]

It is a deceptively lightweight play. From the end of the first act through the end, the playwright ramps up the stakes in such subtle ways, the reader doesn't realize until the end how many times the knife has gone in. Just great.

[Martin Denton]

Douglas Carter Beane's play The Little Dog Laughed is ostensibly about what Beane calls the last taboo--being gay in Hollywood. But it's really about us, and our post-1984 polity and world. Funny, sure; and a little bit scary.

At the center of the play is a movie star named Mitchell. He's an up-and-comer, but he's not quite there yet: a big, important film is what he needs to propel him into the rarefied universe of Tom Cruises and Johnny Depps. And his agent--supportive-to-the-point-of-suffocating Diane--has found the property, a serious and critically-acclaimed New York play. Problem one, that the play is heavily gay-themed, is easily fixed, in rounds of arduous negotiations whose result will be the wresting of artistic control from the (bought-off) playwright. Problem two is more, well, problematic: not only is Mitchell gay, but he's actually thinking of inching out of the closet. And an openly gay actor can't star in a gay-themed film.

Mitchell is, apparently, aware of his orientation, but he's also aware that his orientation has to remain not just a secret but a thing to be constantly denied. He generally satisfies his physical needs with what Diane coyly calls "rent boys" (we Americans call them hustlers). But one particular boy--an earnest young prostitute named Alex--brings to Mitchell heretofore unfelt feelings of something akin to love. The movie star, keenly in touch with the crazy paradoxical loneliness of his situation, suddenly things he's found a helpmeet, a partner.

What the heck is Diane going to do?

The brilliance of Beane's play lies largely in the answer to that question, which I will not even hint at here. Figuring in Diane's masterful machinations, though, is the play's fourth character, Ellen, the young woman with whom Alex has heretofore been living and in love (or at least puppy love). The ending is like something out of a fairy tale, one written by Karl Rove and Louella Parsons. The sheer gall of the resolution feels almost apocalyptic.

[Jordan Muschler]

Damn delightful and wonderfully constructed. Beane is a fantastic writer of one-liners and a raunchy style of humor, but he finds the heart and drama in each moment, too.
Wonder what this would look like to be produced now—some of the tension between public-facing queerness and celebrity certainly feels less high-stakes than it did in the mid-2000s, but still common enough that it could work. Would love to direct it someday to interrogate that question—and have a lot of fun making people laugh along the way.

[James Brautigam]

This wasn't bad. I didn't like how to the dialogue was presented. I understand how the words are supposed to be witty, but it wasn't my thing. The characters do have some good moments, especially Diane, but that's about it.

[Steve]

Eh. There's good ideas here but The Little Dog Laughed is the shortest two-act play I've ever read. It needs more meat.

[Theo Chen]

i liked this play! i think it's funny and complicated and i like the zippyness and the wit of the dialogue.

[Blanca]

Fun but quite dated! Read for work. Satire was incredibly engaging but trite at times.

[Ashton E.]

I really enjoyed this and how a tragic ending could be so lighthearted. I love the characters voices and how ironic they are with one another and the absurd choices they make.

[Nathan Fosbinder]

My favorite play. I hadn’t revisited it in a while and it still holds up. Devastating and hilarious.

[lilyyb.3]

what a silly little play

read it again!!
much funnier this time around this is gonna be so fun

[LaChelle]

I absolutely loved this play. It gave me a whole new perspective on understanding the nursery rhyme, "Hey, Diddle Diddle." I guess the little cute songs they teach you to shut up have real meaning in life.

[Joshua]

Sardonic and biting, this satire of sexual politics in the Hollywood system is wry and well observed. The denouement can be seen as a tad trite, and too easily wraps up the loose ends Beane has left, but the satire is clear and effective, and hilarious to boot.

[Scott]

It was a quick read that I have been going back thinking about a lot. I like funny, yet poignent playwrites.

[Hilary]

I saw this production in New York and it was one of the best plays I've ever seen. It is a truly compelling story.

[Jacki Murphy]

Very, very funny, and a great source if you are looking for contemporary monologues - there are only four characters (two men and two women) and they are all very long-winded.

[Grace Edwards]

Darkly funny with complex characters, however not much actually happened. More character study than narrative. Enjoyable, but a bit static

[Leonard]

Damn. Loved it. The characters are both unpredictable and familiar, their actions despicable, enviable, understandable. Can't wait to hear it aloud.

[Bobby Sullivan]

It was...okay. A little contrived, maybe, unless this is based on a real life story... Truth is stranger than fiction, after all. Ultimately a sad story, since Mitch goes right back in the closet.

[Karissa Barber]

Probably apt at the time, but feels dated in 2025

[Colie!]

A fun little read. Decent source for comedic monologues, but beyond that...

[notgettingenough]

A fun night's theatre.

[Aaron Thomas]

Downer. Has some good moments, but this is not very theatrical. Probably would make a nice movie.