The Boston Dip: A Comedy, in One Act

Mrs. Mulligrub has some explaining to do. When the respectable Mrs. Mulligrub engages a handsome French dancing master to teach her the latest sensation, the Boston Dip, she has no idea her jealous husband is hidden behind the curtains, watching. What follows is a Victorian comedy of errors: misinterpreted notes, jealous rages, and two daughters caught in the crossfire of their parents' theatrical suspicions. George M. Baker, the mastermind behind the American stage hit 'The Boston Dip,' delivers exactly what the title promises: rapid-fire farcical chaos where everything is (almost) resolved in the final act. The play captures a specific Gilded Age anxiety, that terror of appearing unashionable, of one's spouse slipping from respectable bounds, of daughters making unsuitable matches. It's a time capsule that still crackles: the desperate pursuit of the newest dance, the French-inflected names meant to signal sophistication, the class performance underlying all respectable society.