Dr. Cook's Garden is one of several Levin works which put issues of medical, scientific, and technological ethics at the fore. (Among them The Boys from Brazil, Sliver, The Stepford Wives, and above all This Perfect Day.)

We find it fascinating that Levin wrote Dr. Cook immediately after Rosemary's Baby – given the role that Dr. Sapirstein played in that work. (No tannis root in this garden, however.)

Levin's Opening night ticket

Not one to hold a grudge, Levin consented to work with George C. Scott a second time. (See our General Seeger NOT-SO-FUN FACT.) Despite this background, Scott abandoned his director's post over issues with star Burl Ives – leaving Levin to finish directing the play himself.

But the issues didn't stop there, unfortunately: Burl Ives himself did not show for the final rehearsals and previews. (His understudy Seymour Penzner filled in – with whom Levin was quite pleased.) Only after producer Saint Subber threatened Ives with a lawsuit did the Silver and Gold singer surface for the final run-through and opening.

“For the lead in Dr. Cook’s Garden, I had [imagined] an intense, driven actor – in my wildest dreams, perhaps Fredric March. Instead we got Burl Ives, who was so laid-back and so folksy. We needed someone demonic or satanic, really!”
    —Levin (Opera News, 1997)

• The below podcast discussion about the play from the (unfortunately, seemingly now-defunct) American Century Theatre