45 Scenes of Bad Sickness Chronicles a Writer’s Harrowing Journey Through COVID

“I was looking forward to the next adventure. Instead, the next adventure found me.”

In the Summer of 2022, acclaimed playwright Robert Liebowitz began feeling distinctly unwell. “It started with a pain under my ribs,” he explains. “I didn’t think anything of it.” Within days he was in the ICU, fighting for his life.

45 Scenes of Bad Sickness is Liebowitz’ chronicle of the 3 months he spent in COVID hell; and he plays himself, literally reliving the entire traumatic experience on the stage every night. He is engaging, funny, heartbreaking, and endearing as he chronicles his living nightmare. He contracts pneumonia; his kidneys cease to function; and his legs atrophy to the point that he will have to learn to walk again—provided he ever makes it out of the hospital. He desperately longs to take a shower in his own home. His white hair and beard grow to the point where he thinks he looks like Moses. As things get ever grimmer it gets harder to fight—and yet he does, eventually getting all the way back both physically and mentally. The scenes where he takes his first unassisted steps in months, followed by his return home—60 pounds lighter and forever changed—are incredibly heartwarming and life-affirming.

Composer Stephen Cornine provides poignant musical accompaniment throughout. The scene number, from 1 through 45, appears on a pad at the front of his piano, and the actors take turns flipping the numbers and announcing the theme/first line of the next scene. Each opening line is then repeated by Liebowitz, as he enters the next phase of his battle and recovery.

The actors (including Jessica Kate Jordan, Charles Meckley, Monica Mist, Masaya Okubo, Kirstin Wolf, and Ronnie Zeidel in his theater debut) take turns playing different roles. Depending on the day/scene they are doctors, nurses, specialists, physical therapists, and Liebowitz’ visiting loved ones. They even get opportunities to sing, and beautifully so. Wolf, an ebullient Soprano, opens and closes the show with a duet and solo piece at the piano with Cornine.

Many true-to-life characters cameo throughout. Meckley is his son Andrew, who reminds him to cooperate with his healers. Jordan is a specialist from the south who appears for a hot minute to tell Liebowitz why she thinks he’s managed to stay alive when so many haven’t. Mist is his devoted girlfriend Lauren who is finally allowed to visit after many weeks, bringing love and snacks. Meckley and Zeidel are a comedic double-act as they give Liebowitz the most annoying sponge bath ever administered.

Liebowitz himself is astonishing. It cannot be easy to literally play out the most horrific period of his life over and over, and yet he does, with dignity, humor, and a philosophical point of view that is well worth taking on board for everyone who dares to stare down the abyss and live to tell about it.

45 Scenes of Bad Sickness is directed with gusto by Joanna Newman and runs at The Little Church through June 2 2024.