hello, my name is Bill W. (...and I'm an alcoholic)

MOST PEOPLE'S LIVES POSSESS THEIR FAIR share of drama; an alcoholic's contains more than most.

Gary Kimble and Richard Davus Springle in "Bill W. and Doctor Bob." Gary Kimble knows this firsthand.

A recovering alcoholic, Mr. Kimble

directs and stars in "Bill W. and Doctor Bob." The play about the men who founded Alcoholics Anonymous opens Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Myers.

Staged in the Off-Broadway Palm black box venue, the play tells the story of Bill Wilson, a New York stockbroker who lost his money in the crash of 1929, and Bob Smith, an Ohio surgeon. It also tells the story of their wives, Lois Wilson and Anne Smith, who started Al-Anon.

When it played Off-Broadway in New York, The

New York Times called it "an insightful new play" and NYTheatre.com dubbed it "the sleeper hit of the season."

Mr. Kimble saw it four times, and he hastens to assure local audiences that it's not "preachy" or didactic. "It absolutely has a wide appeal," he says.

ERIC RADDATZ/ FLORIDA WEEKLY Gary Kimble as Bill W. and Richard Davus Springle as Dr. Bob. "It's about two very ordinary people who are drunks, and who discover, or have revealed to them, what to do about their common problem and how to solve it.

"It's a play about hope and redemption, and transformation, perseverance, not giving up. Ultimately, I suppose, it's about faith… about how these ordinary people end up doing, by grace and mercy, something extraordinary that changes the world forever… In a sense, it ushers in the age of Oprah."

Understanding the humor

"Bill W. and Doctor Bob" is set during a period in American history not unlike today. In addition to the economic difficulties of the Great Depressions, Mr. Kimble says, "There was great despair in the nation, a general lack of hope."

And alcohol plagued a large part of the population.

"Before they knew it was a disease, they thought it was a moral weakness," Mr. Kimble says. "In this world of 1935, if you had this problem, you were shunned by your family, quickly locked away into an asylum and forgotten about. And that's how you lived out your days. To admit that you had it brought a great deal of shame and fear."

Bonnie Knapp, Richard Davus Springle, Stephanie Davis and Jim Hefferman. The play, however, is not devoid of humor.

"It's hilarious," Mr. Kimble says. "It's dark, but very funny.

"There's a passage in 'The Big Book of AA,' and I'm paraphrasing, that people are often jarred by the raucous laughter and conviviality one will find in an AA meeting. (The book explains that) this is common among people who have survived a shipwreck, because they have survived this horrendous thing and they have that as a common bond.

"There's great laughter. Someone will talk about a very dark thing, and everyone laughs. It's because everyone identifies, and they feel free from it. It can't hurt them anymore."

A whole new audience

"Bill W. and Doctor Bob" is highly unusual fare for the Broadway Palm, which typically stages musicals.

Mr. Kimble recalls Tom Prather, cofounder of the family-owned theater, asking him one day if he had heard of the show.

Mr. Kimble said yes.

Then Mr. Prather said, "Do you think we should do it?"

And Mr. Kimble said yes again.

Mr. Prather asked, "Who would come?"

And Mr. Kimble replied, "A whole new audience, that's for certain."

And while the show hasn't opened yet, that's already proving to be true.

Mr. Kimble has been talking it up at various AA meetings, and the theater is selling blocks of tickets for groups of up to 20.

And numerous people have called to volunteer their services for the play. "A number of people involved in various 12-step programs are involved in the production," and they're finding a great deal of support for the show, Mr. Kimble says.

He acknowledges that not only was the subject matter a risk for the theater, the timing was, too. "They've never been able to sell a play successfully in late August/September," he says.

But "Bill W. and Doctor Bob" has sold effortlessly, he adds. "Groups are coming — church groups, educators, therapists, therapists bringing patients."

The play, which was written by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey, is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by AA World Services.

After this run, Mr. Kimble would like to take the show to Broadway Palm's sister theater in Arizona, and then maybe take it on a small tour of cities around Florida.

"We're thinking of maybe eventually riding this pony back to New York and opening it in a 99-seat black box theater," he says. "It was in a 450-seat theater the last time (it played in New York), and it sold well. But it had an enormous budget for advertising." At the time, he adds, the authors thought there might have been a different way to do it.

The Broadway Palm's grassroots way of marketing the show "is working very well for us," he adds. "Instead of doing this through media, we're spreading the word through the right community."

They plan to donate a portion of ticket proceeds to the YANA Foundation, which stands for You Are Not Alone. Owned by a private nonprofit, it's a local clubhouse where approximately 12 meetings take place every day. Thousands of people have gained sobriety through attended YANA meetings, Mr. Kimble says.

"A lot of young people are remanded there through halfway house programs and court programs, and they wind up getting clean," he says. "It's a profound thing to watch. They do great work there."

The foundation has the opportunity to purchase land across the street; Mr. Kimble hopes the theater will be able to give them a significant contribution toward the purchase.

A close call

A familiar face to Broadway Palm audiences, Mr. Kimble just finished playing Capt. Hook and Mr. Darling in "Peter Pan," and last season portrayed the sheriff in "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." He's toured nationally and internationally and has performed with Paul Lynde, Maxine Andrews, Kitty Carlisle-Hart, Tommy Tune and Mickey Rooney.

But he almost didn't make it to rehearsals for "Bill W. and Doctor Bob."

While visiting family in Ohio, he was in what could have been a fatal car accident. The accelerator stuck, and he crashed into a stationary, half-ton steel-loading bulldozer — at 100 mph — when he decided to hit the bulldozer rather than crash into other cars filled with people.

Mr. Kimble went through the windshield and suffered lacerations to his face, broken ribs and a broken sternum.

"I am feeling blessed and highly favored," he says. "I have some aches and pains. The miracle of this experience is not lost on me."

Still, he's recovering so rapidly that he'll portray Bill W. as planned, with Scott Moreau playing a younger version of the character in flashbacks.

Robert David Springle will play Doctor Bob.

Mr. Kimble and Mr. Springle performed together in the award-winning world tour of "My Fair Lady," with Mr. Springle playing Pickering to Mr. Kimble's Henry Higgins.

"We're great old friends," Mr. Kimble says. "When I hit bottom… I looked like an animal and was living in abject squalor, my heart had stopped, and I was unable to function at all, it was this man who picked me up off the floor and got me to rehab.

"And when I got out, it was Richard who walked me to AA meetings and sat outside the door so I wouldn't run away.

"I am very excited to play Bill to his Bob… It's a full-circle moment 13 years later to play this role, and direct him. I love him like a brother."

Mr. Springle and his wife, Bonnie, nursed Mr. Kimble back to health. "Everything I have today I owe to them and to AA," he says. "I'm very proud to say that I am in recovery and I attend 12-step meetings. They have transformed my life and restored my life to sanity."

Mr. Kimble is thrilled to have his personal and professional lives overlap in "Bill W. and Doctor Bob."

"To have these different worlds come together — the power of theater, the ministry and entertainment — to carry the message of spiritual sobriety and healing in such a direct way, through my art form, just puts me over the moon," he says. "It doesn't get any better than that."

if you go

>> "Bill W. and Doctor Bob" >> When: Aug. 27-Sept. 26 >> Where: The Off-Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 1380 Colonial Blvd. >> Cost: $35 for dinner and show, $20 for show only