Bab (play)

Bab is a 1920 play by Edward Childs Carpenter, based on a 1916 series of magazine stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart, collected into book form in 1917. It is a four-act comedy that leans towards farce, with five scenes, two settings, and eleven characters. The action of the play takes place over four weeks time in late Spring. The story concerns events in the life of Barbara "Bab" Archibald, a "sub-deb", a girl in the year before she makes her debut in society.

The play was produced by George C. Tyler and Arthur Hopkins, staged by Ignacio Martinetti, with Helen Hayes as the female lead. It had tryouts in Boston and Baltimore then premiered on Broadway during October 1920. It ran three months on Broadway and could have gone longer, but was forced to go on tour by prior scheduling and a lack of unteneted Manhattan theaters.

It had been preceded by a 1917 trilogy of silent films based on the Bab stories, all now lost.

Characters are listed in order of appearance within their scope.

Lead

Supporting

Featured

Off stage