‘Best Line Wins’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival

By Arnold Saltzman

Best Line Wins, a comedy by playwright Beth Kander, premiered at the Contemporary American Theater Festival on July 11, 2026, with rapid lines and continuous laughter delighting the festival audience. 

Best Line Wins follows the career of the memorable comic duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May, who rose to fame in the 1950s, split in the 1960s, and reunited later in life after each had established solo careers. By focusing on the duo’s lives offstage, the play makes a broader, more difficult point: that timing is an essential element not only in comedy but also in the personal lives of May and Nichols. Elaine May was born into a culture that recognized her great talent, only to be told by her partner that she was difficult, even as he said he worshiped her. 

Nichols and May first worked together at Chicago’s Compass Theater (the predecessor to the famed Second City improv company). In many ways they seem an unlikely pair of actors, yet that is precisely why audiences loved their performances.

Kander’s play tackles the trajectory of their professional careers, which included successive and exciting new shows throughout the ’50s and ’60s, until at the height of their success, Nichols reveals he has been offered a chance to work in Hollywood with the best comic talent of that time. May is shocked that he accepted this opportunity without having shared this development. She experiences this as a continuation of being talked over on radio programs, being cast aside by the male partner who is moving on, while she is perceived as difficult. This is delivered in a heartfelt, convincing manner by Lori Vega, whose portrayal of May is funny, effective, and energetic from the start. Her portrayal of May is revealing and insightful, suggesting that there needs to be some difficult truth, even pain, in comedy, such as the lit cigarette that accidentally burns her thigh while the couple of comics make out in their classic “Teen Age Love” scene.

Nichols, played by Riley Shanahan, is given a realistic portrayal; nevertheless, I wish he had been directed to be more difficult and less accommodating as a character. This would have done more to accentuate the conflict between the duo as they went their separate ways. However, Shanahan gave a nuanced performance, convincingly expressing his admiration for May’s unique talent and eventually recognizing his own great talent for film. The play’s director, Jessica Kubzansky, crafted an effective arc, complete with energetic delivery and a convincing suggestion that Nichols and May more than liked each other.

Kander’s play is masterfully structured to accentuate the drama in their reunion after many years, when Nichols and May reunited professionally to write one of the funniest works for stage or screen, the hit 1996 film The Birdcage (Nichols produced and directed, and May wrote the screenplay).

A few things that didn’t work for me included the red dial-up phone on stage, which Elaine May answers rudely at the show’s opening and then hides at another point. If one is trying to make the point that she is not difficult, this gives the opposite impression. Giving Nichols a stronger edge would also help balance the characters. Vega’s May creates a firecracker of a character, while Shanahan gives a thoroughly convincing portrait of Mike Nichols, but the conflict brewing between the two would have been even more impactful had their characters been given these defining attributes more clearly. All in all, though, playwright Kander has given us an effective and entertaining new work about this legendary comedy team, as well as an in-depth understanding of the cultural realities women still experience.

The Contemporary American Theater Festival is currently the only American theater festival dedicated to new plays, and it is doing a great service for American theater in the process. Peggy McKowen, the festival artistic director, has given us five new works this season worthy of many theaters around the country, and deserving the support of the DMV region and national recognition.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Best Line Wins: A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May and Mike Nichols plays through August 2, 2026, presented by the Contemporary American Theater Festival, performing in the Frank Arts Center on the campus of Shepherd University, 260 West Campus Drive, Shepherdstown, WV, in repertory with four other plays. Tickets, priced at $75 ($67 for seniors and $65 for students), are available online. Times, dates, and ticketing information for the full festival may be found on the CATF website or by calling the CATF box office at 681-240-2283.

Content Warnings: Adult language, situations.

Best Line Wins: A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May and Mike Nichols
A World Premiere
By Beth Kander
Directed by Jessica Kubzansky

CAST
Riley Shanahan*: Mike Nichols
Lori Vega*: Elaine May

PRODUCTION TEAM
Michael B. Raiford***: Scenic Design
Benjamin Gantose: Associate Scenic Design
Ann Closs Farley***: Costume Design
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew***: Lighting Design
Christian Frederickson: Sound Design
Mona Kasra***: Projections Design
Lindsay Eberly: Production Stage Manager
McCorkle Casting, Ltd.: Casting Director
Aaron D. Anderson**: Fight Director
Shea-Mikal Green*: Intimacy Director

*Actors Equity Association
** Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
*** United Scenic Artists

SEE ALSO:
‘Best Line Wins’ brings new life to iconic comics Mike Nichols and Elaine May (interview with Beth Kander, Jessica Kubzansky, and Peggy McKowen by Arnold Saltzman, July 9, 2026)
Contemporary American Theater Festival announces casts and creative teams for 2026 mainstage season (news story, June 20, 2026)

Arnold Saltzman, a frequent reviewer for Opera Wire, has reviewed for the Washington Jewish Week and National Catholic Reporter. Rabbi/Cantor Emeritus in Washington, DC, composer of four symphonies, three operas (and libretti) — currently working on an opera, Dona Gracia Mendes, with author/librettist Naomi Ragen.