Best Theater of 2024: Here We Are Again

 Last year I didn't write a lot because I was too heartbroken. This year I won't write a lot because I spent seven of the past twelve months trying to sort out my antidepressant cocktail and I feel like the summer months didn't actually happen. I'm honestly having a hard time in general remembering this past year.

Luckily (I guess?) I keep a running list of what I see, including marking those that stand out to me at the time. This year I saw 101 pieces of theater, with only three of them being repeats within the year, so 99 unique pieces of theater. Of those 99, 46 were plays, 45 were musicals, and 7 were streaming. 

Here are the ones that stuck to my ribs, in chronological order of when I saw them.

Weekly Margin 2024, W50: Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now!

12/09/24: Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now!

What: The three original female stars of Hairspray on Broadway (Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler, and Laura Bell Bundy) reunite to sing songs from their respective canons, and look back over their careers and friendship.

And? Sometimes a little too loud but mostly a good time, and a great reminder of just how much talent was packed into the original cast of Hairspray (remember how Shoshana Bean was just in the ensemble?). As an added bonus, Hairspray composer and co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and his husband were in the audience the night I attended. They brought on his husband Lou to stand in for Link during "I Can Hear the Bells," and even convinced Marc to come onstage and play a cut song from the show. A very sweet moment.

Laura Bell Bundy, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Kerry Butler.
Photo by Russ Rowland.

Weekly Margin 2024, W49: The Roommate, Eureka Day, The Merchant of Venice

 12/03/24: The Roommate

What: Jen Silverman's new two-hander starring legends Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow, about Sharon, a rather sheltered woman "retired" from being a wife and living alone in a house in Iowa, who takes in a roommate, the sharp-witted Robyn from the Bronx.

And? The two of them are great. The play runs a bit thin, such that it feels long at only 90 minutes. Apparently if I'd turned into Schubert Alley instead of jetting to 8th Ave when the show let out, I'd have caught Tom Francis doing his thing for the second act opener of Sunset Blvd. Ah well.

Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow as Robyn and Sharon. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

12/04/24: Eureka Day

What: MTC presents Jonathan Spector's play about the parent board of directors of an elite private elementary school in Berkeley, California in 2018 facing a mumps outbreak.

And? It's telling to see this play, now. Not because the vaccination debate at the heart of the conflict feels naive in the face of what we know will come in 2020/2021, but because at this point the hypocrisy within the progressive movement is so stark that we wonder how we didn't clock the warning signs much, much earlier. Well, that's not entirely true. I've been aware of what I thought were quiet pockets of antisemitism within progressive spaces for about a decade, but I classified them as outliers, not basic foundational stones to what is happening now across American campuses, especially in the crunchiest of crunchytowns, Berkeley, California (there's a telling nod to that early on in this play when, after a spirited discussion of whether or not to include "transracial adoptee" in the ethnicity drop-down menu for student registration, they recall that they had previously turned down including Jewish as an ethnicity, because "that's not what this is for."). /digression

But the play isn't about the Jewish question so much as it's about what happens when you take progressive principles to the extreme: if you allow every viewpoint to be equally valid, so as not to offend anyone, what you actually have is a platform without principles. As an exasperated Carina, new to the board, explains, not all viewpoints are actually equally valid, not when it comes to actual facts and certainly not when it comes to the safety of their kids.

For all that it's dealing with serious issues, the play is also pretty hilarious. Starting with Todd Rosenthal's scenic design, which places grown adults having important discussions on tiny children's chairs in the school library, a library whose walls are peppered with progressive slogans that feel increasingly reductive as the show goes on: these are children playing a game they neither understand nor have a wish to understand. They don't want the world to be nuanced and textured: they want variety without difficulty. They want the simplicity of a slogan. And the comic highlight of the night is a livestream discussion the board conducts with parents chiming in on chat, which quickly devolves into show-stopping chaos, cursing, and the well-placed emoji.

Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, and Bill Irwin
as Eli, Carina, and Don. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

Weekly Margin 2024, W48: The Hills of California, Gypsy, King Lear, A Christmas Carol, Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway: New York State of Mind, Sunset Blvd., Maybe Happy Ending, Cult of Love, The Corn is Green

11/25/24: The Hills of California

What: The Broadway transfer of Jez Butterworth's new play about four sisters and their strong-willed single mother. In the 1950s, we see her training the four of them to be a harmonic singing group a la The Andrews Sisters; in the 1970s, we see them as adults with disappointed dreams gathering to sit vigil as she lies dying upstairs.

And? A Jez Butterworth play is always worth my time. While this didn't steal my breath the way The Ferryman did, it still boasts a wealth of top-notch performances, including from the star of both, Laura Donnelly, who doubles here as matriarch Veronica and the grown version of her eldest, Joan. Many of the story beats are ultimately familiar for narratives like this: disappointed dreams, bitter resentments, betrayals revealed, and estrangements confronted. But it's all still very well executed by director, designers, and cast.

Nancy Allsop, Nicola Turner, Laura Donnelly, Lara McDonnell, and
Sophia Ally as Young Gloria, Young Jill, Veronica, Young Joan, and
Young Ruby. Photo by Joan Marcus.

11/26/24: Gypsy

What: The much-anticipated revival of the Sondheim/Styne/Laurents classic about the rise of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, and her rocky relationship with her mother, Madame Rose; this time with living legend Audra McDonald in the lead and acclaimed director George C. Wolfe at the helm (and possibly the first major production that doesn't include the recreation of any Jerome Robbins choreography?).

And? I don't think I need to tell anyone who reads this blog that Audra always lives up to the hype, but I'm saying it anyway. I think there will probably be some that point out she's not the usual voice type for the role: not brassy or belty enough. I can't say that I or anyone else around me minded, not with that powerhouse onstage. The thing is, we all know Audra McDonald's voice is extraordinary; I think what sometimes gets forgotten is that her acting is just as extraordinary. Let us not forget that three of her record six Tony wins were for performances in plays. I've seen her do Shakespeare and Hansberry, McNally and Adrienne Kennedy. The woman's got the range. And her Rose is different than others I've seen--more tunnel-vision drive than brassiness, and a dedication to making her children stars (whether they want it or not) that has no depth too low to stoop, no height too high to scale. Her performance of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" is a terrifying scream of denial and delusion to which Herbie and Louise can only stand silent witness. But she can turn on a dime to a sweet romantic crooning whenever she sings to Herbie. And of course the aria: "Rose's Turn." No shade to Bette, Bernadette, Patti, or Imelda (or the Roses I haven't seen), but this is the first "Rose's Turn" to make me cry. The collapse is so complete: all her delusions melt away to force her to confront that her secret dream of her own stardom was never achievable. Even as we the audience see that Audra's is a talent unmatched, we have also the double-vision that Rose's dreams are for a world that doesn't exist anymore and her refusal to see that truth makes her pathetic. It's awful. It's euphoric. It's tragic. It's everything Sondheim wanted the song to be. As the audience applause fades, Rose continues to bow to a crowd only she can hear, tears streaming down her face.

I doubt I'll be the only one reviewing this production to focus most of the energy on Audra, but it's rather hard not to. I will also say that so much of the arc of Act Two depends on the strength of the actor playing Louise and her ability to track her arc of growing strength and pride. Joy Woods is wonderful in the role: terrified wide eyes desperate for her mother to see her and love her, but also the gradual growing confidence of a woman who knows her own mind. Hearing her duet with Jordan Tyson (both fresh from starring in The Notebook) is thrilling. George C. Wolfe's production isn't necessarily reinventing the wheel but it reflects his intelligence as a director, as well as his gift at nuance: he's able to layer on commentary on colorism to this production without hanging a lantern on every moment (June is noticeably lighter-skinned than Louise; and the young Black Newsboys are swapped out for strapping white Farmboys). It's also important to note that some past directors have tried so hard to reinvent the wheel with Gypsy that they put too much stuff onto it--hats on hats. Wolfe trusts the strong writing of Laurents, Sondheim, and Styne, and his performers, to speak for themselves.

Audra McDonald and Joy Woods as Rose and Louise. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Weekly Margin 2024, W47: McNeal, Ruddigore, Left on Tenth, Gatz

11/22/24: McNeal

What: Lincoln Center presents a new play by Ayad Akhtar about a celebrated writer grappling with the rise of AI and the corruption of his own integrity as a writer.

And? I haven't read the reviews but the vibes I'd picked up led me to believe I'd either be bored or disdainful of this production. So maybe with those managed expectations, I had a better time than expected? It's an interesting and complex character study of someone I'd never want to meet in real life: someone who goes from borrowing liberally from other people's real-life stories, to borrowing liberally from an unpublished manuscript, and finally to asking AI to borrow liberally on his behalf and say it's his. If you ask me why a man who would do this is so openly critical of AI, calling it the end of true creative works, I point you to his rampant self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies. Design-wise, I still haven't figured out what story the scenic design is telling, nor fully have I figured out some of the elements of the staging (I was telling myself a different story than the one the play ultimately told), but the lighting design is a clever and sneaky lens to what is going on in the show. Ultimately we're left with an unresolved ambiguity. Sometimes that makes for satisfying theater, something you can go out into the night debating (see: this season's Job); here, it felt like maybe the show itself didn't know the answer and was hoping we might help.

Robert Downey Jr. and Brittany Bellizeare as Jacob McNeal and Natasha
Brathwaite. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

11/23/24: Ruddigore

What: NYGASP presents the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta about the Bad Baronet.

And? An absolute delight. This production has a lot of their stalwart regulars in the principal roles, and they are each of them in wonderful voice with good comic delivery. The score for Ruddigore is full of great songs, and it's a real treat to hear them sung so well.

The company of an earlier production of Ruddigore by NYGASP. Photo by
William Reynolds.

Weekly Margin 2024, W46: Drag: The Musical

11/13/24: Drag: The Musical

What: A new musical about two competing Drag clubs across the street from each other: their rivalry, the bitter history behind their founders, and the encroaching threats to their little paradises by gentrificiation and the IRS. Oh, and countless fantastic costumes, wigs, tea, reads, shade, and celebrations of the world of Drag.

And? I'm not immersed enough with the Drag world to fully engage with it on that level. As a piece of theater, it's fine. (my friends I went with are more in that world, and they had a damn blast at the show, for what it's worth) The stuff with the nephew Brendan is really effective (kinda mad I went to a Drag show and then had to have feelings about the fate of queer kids in America, but here we are), and my god the costume and wig work (especially everything worn by Popcorn/Luxx Noir London). And it was fun to see the very talented Nick Adams again.

Alaska and Nick Adams as Kitty Galloway and Alexis Gilmore, with the cast
of Drag: The Musical. Photo by Michael Bezjian.

Weekly Margin 2024, W45: A Wonderful World, Ragtime, Swept Away

11/04/24: A Wonderful World

What: A new bio/jukebox musical about Louis Armstrong and the four women he married.

And? It's still previews, so things could tighten up a bit. Right now it feels like it's between two shows: the generic biomusical where the main character narrates to the audience (the absolute laziest of telling, not showing), and a more compelling different lens, where the phases of his life are charted more by the four women he loved, and who he was with each of them. The scenic design by Adam Koch & Steven Royal is appealing, and the performances of Jennie Harney-Fleming, Dionne Figgins, and Darlesia Cearcy are fantastic. I went on a night that alternate James T. Lane was on for Armstrong, so while I can't give a verdict on James Monroe Iglehart in the role, I can say that James T. Lane is absolutely, well, wonderful.

11/07/24: Ragtime

What: New York City Center Encores! series gala presentation of the Ahrens, Flaherty, and McNally masterpiece.

And? It's more complicated to talk about this show than I thought it would be, especially after discussing it with the friends I attended it with. My friend who is a person of color pointed out that for Black people especially, the show is trauma porn. Much as I have always adored the show, that conversation was a stark reminder that this is a show for white people to see: Black people don't need to be told that Black people deserve dignity, humanity, and survival. Even if Coalhouse and Sarah get some of the best songs in this tremendous score, they also both die horrible deaths, leaving behind an infant child to be raised by parents who can never understand the experience of growing up Black in America.

Another friend of mine was coming to the show fresh: they didn't know the source material, the score, or the story. So while I was crying my little face off, they were thrown by just how many things were going on in one show. "It's a lot" sums it up pretty succinctly. I had the luxury of watching the show already having everyone's full arcs in my head; my friend was at sea over whose story it was.

And it all got me thinking. The buzz around this show is so loud that another Encores-to-Broadway transfer rumor has taken over the theater community. Who can blame them? This was a show with a perfect original cast album and a deep bench of talent in its original cast, cut short due to a certain embezzling producer. Its first Broadway revival was okay, but a bit of a letdown. But here we have Joshua Henry, the only performer I can think of who stands ready to take on the mantle previously worn by Brian Stokes Mitchell in the part: both men tremendous actors, full of charisma and power, and voices that can shake the walls of the theater. If nothing else, I'd like Mr. Henry to finally win his Tony. If something else, I'd also love an album of him singing Coalhouse's songs.

But. I wonder if this is the right time for this or not, especially in light of the election results this week. Part of why I wept through the act one finale when I saw the show was because it seemed like we'd made so little progress in over a century. "Til We Reach That Day" sings of a day that, over a century later, has still not yet been reached. Additionally, I'm concerned that if they transfer this production they will leave it as is, much like the recent Into the Woods revival. Don't get me wrong, I loved the revival when it played at City Center. But that's still officially a concert setting. There need to be additional steps taken to make it a full production. Michael Arden's production of Parade was able to toe this line, expanding and further developing its staging while still keeping the spirit of what it had at City Center.

The staging of what's playing right now at City Center is fine for a concert. But it is not a full production staging, and for a show this complex and full, with such an ensemble of players, we need strong staging and vision. We need the ambition of a civilization ready to call a shooting in 1906 the "crime of the century," though the century still has, as the show says, "94 years to go!" We need that staging not only to do the show itself justice, but to also do right by the audience members who don't already know and love the show. This production isn't ready for that yet.

But damn if we aren't lucky to have both Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz here to breathe new life into Coalhouse and Tateh. There aren't words for how full the performances of these two men are, and after only ten days of rehearsal.

Nichelle Lewis and Joshua Henry as Sarah and Coalhouse Walker, Jr.
Photo by Joan Marcus.

Weekly Margin 2024, W44: Death Becomes Her

11/02/24: Death Becomes Her

What: A new musical adaptation of the classic camp film about the lengths to which two women will go to win the love of a mediocre man.

And? It's ultimately a bit uneven, but act one is a lot of fun -- super campy, three leads with fantastic comic delivery, and songs cleverer than expected. It does start to lose a bit of steam after they've gotten to the reveals of the special effects designs to match the body mutilation we're all waiting for. Unfortunately Michelle Williams, while a great vocalist, seems very uncomfortable in this space, moving stiffly with a frozen face, but as long as we can focus on the clowning of Megan Hilty, Christopher Sieber, and the incomparable Jennifer Simard, we're in good hands. Also, when you go, make sure to read Megan Hilty's bio in the Playbill. I promise you won't regret it.

Weekly Margin 2024, W43: Tammy Faye, Maybe Happy Ending, Jason Robert Brown at Carnegie Hall

10/22/24: Tammy Faye

What:  The Broadway transfer of the West End musical about Tammy Faye Bakker, with songs by Elton John and Jake Shears.

And? I was so deeply bored. Katie Brayben was great though.

10/23/24: Maybe Happy Ending

What: The English translation of a hit Korean musical. Set in a future time in Seoul, two "retired" obsolete generations of Helperbots (sentient androids) go on a road trip to seek one of their former owners.

And? I adored it. What an absolute darling treat of a show, genuinely funny and heartwarming. It examines not only our willingness to dispose of technology for the newest and fastest, but also how one who has been discarded can both live and die with dignity. Ably directed by Michael Arden (ugh I love him) with an electric and sleek scenic design by Dane Laffrey (and wonderfully vivid video and projection design by George Reeve), the show is light and color and a softer side of sci-fi. As the two leads, Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen do wonderful work: Criss has fully commitment to the stilted physicality of his older model droid, whereas Shen, while much closer to passing for human, still maintains the precision of an artificial being.

Helen J. Shin and Darren Criss as Claire and Oliver. Photo by
Matthew Murphy.

Margin Notes: Honeyland

Honeyland

Abby Goldberg and Anika Buchanan, front, as Fran and
Helen. Photo by Thomas Mundell, Mundell Modern Pixels.

Seen on: Sunday, 10/20/24.

A young man in military uniform strides through the jungle in Vietnam. By the next scene, he is gone. Mike's three best friends--Helen, Fran, and Tom--all gather to spread his ashes, reconnect, and remember their time together: through political protests, theater troupes, road trips, drug use, and other iconoclastic moments of the 1960s, the four of them attempt to navigate their early twenties with seemingly endless possibilities but ultimately disappointing realities.

Or at least, that's how the show starts out. Most of the songs are flashbacks to these remembered times, and the connecting "present-day" dialogue, stilted from the first, quickly peters out until Fran is tasked with introducing the context for each song ahead of its performance. The result is that one feels that not only is the show only half-written, but also that the writers changed their mind about what kind of show they were writing midstream, and didn't bother to revise the earlier parts. Unfortunately that underwritten nature extends to the characters within the show as well. It can feel silly to call out male writers in musical theater, since they already comprise ninety percent of musical theater writers, but these two fully failed their female characters here: Helen's character notes are that she was in relationships with both men, had a child (whom we don't meet), and sings a song about being a 60s girl with Fran. Fran has even less, becoming instead the de facto narrator and introducing each song, but with no story of her own. It's a real disservice to her portrayer, Abby Goldberg, whose soulful eyes and clear singing voice deserve material worthy of her instrument. When she laments in the final scene that she feels "like [her] life is incomplete," I wrote in my notes, "because the writers gave you nothing."

Weekly Margin 2024, W42: Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, Bad Kreyòl, Street Theater, Good Bones, Honeyland

10/14/24: Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song

What: The latest from Alessandrini.

And? Uneven, as they all ultimately are, but it was worth it to see Danny Hayward perform "Wilkommen" as Joel Grey, Alan Cumming, and Eddie Redmayne with pitch-perfect accuracy.

Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Danny Hayward, and Chris Collins-Pisano. Photo by
Carol Rosegg.

10/15/24: Bad Kreyòl

What: Signature and MTC jointly present Dominique Morisseau's newest play about the reunion of two estranged cousins--one Haitian-born and running a high-end clothing boutique; the other a first generation Haitian American who is trying to reconnect to her roots in her father's homeland.

And? It's basically impossible to go wrong with a Dominique Morisseau script. Her work is always interesting, her characters always fully drawn, and the conflicts built in real, human ways. And adding Pascale Armand as one of the leads? Our cup runneth over.

Andy Lucien and Kelly McCreary as Thomas and Simone. Photo by
Matthew Murphy.

Margin Notes: Street Theater

Street Theater

Greg Seage as Jack. Photo by Richard Rivera.

Seen on: Thursday, 10/17/24.

Plot and Background

The Other Side of Silence, celebrating its 50th year, presents a seminal work by its founder, Doric Wilson. TOSOS has a long history of producing this play, starting with its New York premiere in 1982 and including when the company relaunched in 2002. This a new staging (though still done in a runway style), a satirical look at queer culture in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, in the hours leading up to the Stonewall Riots. Trans sex workers, anarchists, a leather daddy and a hippie, Vice cops, cruisers, and more populate the intersection of Christopher and Sheridan Streets, all looking for something to make their day a little more survivable. Doric Wilson himself was a participant in the Stonewall Riots, and wrote this as a record of the people he knew at that time.

What I Knew Beforehand

I kind of can't believe this was my first time seeing a Doric Wilson play, but what a way to start! I knew he was part of the early Off-Off-Broadway movement from my readings on Caffe Cino. And I knew some of the history of Stonewall.

Thoughts:

Play: This was fantastic and I loved it. It's genuinely funny and ultimately genuinely galvanizing. The arc of people who are used to being put down, marginalized, targeted by law enforcement, realizing they don't have to be used to that, and shouldn't be used to that, and that they have some control over whether that pattern will continue to perpetuate. This play is clearly built for runway staging, as if we the audience are the buildings lining the scrap of street on which these characters all intersect, semidormant witnesses to this seminal day. The characters don't know that Stonewall Inn is about to become a historic landmark of queer liberation, but we do. Co-directors Mark Finley and Barry Childs keep the action moving at a brisk pace, including utilizing the risers behind one side of the audience as a sort-of ghost space: the larger unseen audience on this moment (it's possible I'm reading something into a happenstance fact of the space, but hey, a theatrical experience is a collaboration between the storytellers and the receivers of that story, and this is the story I saw). Doric Wilson's play is fast, funny, and raw, and absolutely worth everyone's time. It's rather remarkable TOSOS has been able to take this particular iteration on tour, but then, as Co-Director Mark Finley said in his pre-show speech, "It takes a village to do the Village."

Weekly Margin 2024, W41: Sump'n Like Wings

10/09/24: Sump'n Like Wings

What: Mint Theater presents Lynn Riggs's play about the tense dynamic between a mother and her grown daughter facing the limited life choice available to a woman in the 1910s.

And? Good costume design by Emilee McVey-Lee. The play itself was not for me.

Joy Avigail Sudduth, Lukey Klein, Julia Brothers, and Mariah Lee as Hattie,
Boy Huntington, Mrs. Baker, and Willie Baker. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Weekly Margin 2024, W40: Vladimir, Cellino v. Barnes

10/01/24: Vladimir

What: MTC presents the world premiere of Erika Sheffer's play about a journalist covering the Second Russian-Chechen war during the rise of Putin, as more and more suppression of truth takes over the news media.

And? Even though the play is called Vladimir and the content is about a journalist and an accountant trying to uncover a governmental embezzlement scandal that could be traced back to the top of the Russian government, it's also very clearly about now, today, in America, with the death of truth and facts in news media coverage. The show ends on a melancholy note, not one particularly infused with hope, but with determination: it's worth it to try to save your home from decay. I left the show with a sick feeling in my stomach, which I assume is the intent.

Norbert Leo Butz and Francesca Faridany as Kostya and Raja. Photo by
Jeremy Daniel.

10/02/24: Cellino v. Barnes

What: A fantasy comedy about the rise and fall of the partnership of injury lawyers Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes.

And? I don't know whether to call this show delightfully stupid or stupidly delightful. I had a fantastic time, laughing loud and long more than once. What a good time at the theater!

Eric William Morris and Noah Weisberg as Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes.
Photo by Marc Franklin.

Weekly Margin 2024, W39: The Counter, Fatherland

 9/24/24: The Counter

What: Roundabout presents Meghan Kennedy's new play about a waitress in a small-town cafe, her regular morning customer, and the bargain the two strike.

And? This was lovely. I clocked a number of Chekhov's guns being placed strategically through the character piece, sure we were headed for heartbreak. And then, out of the foggy morning--hope. Such a small gift, hope. Such an important gift. The cast is very well directed by David Cromer (though that's not a surprise), but I want to specifically highlight the subtle work of sound designer Christopher Darbassie: the ambient noise is so subtle you don't even realize it's going until it will fully cut out for these hidden monologues delivered in utter stillness of sound. Remarkable moments. So glad I saw this. I needed a taste of hope.

9/25/24: Fatherland

What: City Center hosts Stephen Sachs's docuplay about a young man who turns his father in for his participation in the January 6th insurrection, told verbatim from public statements, transcripts, and evidence.

And? Eh. It didn't do enough to lift it out of just being a re-enactment of his court testament. Thanks to Tectonic, Anna Deavere Smith, the Civilians, and the recent verbatim plays from the Vineyard, the bar's pretty high for what kind of transformative work you can do, even using pre-set words.

Ron Bottitta and Patrick Keleher as Father and Son. Photo by Maria
Baranova.

Weekly Margin 2024, W38: Safety Not Guaranteed, Yellow Face, The Very Hungry Caterpillar

9/18/24: Safety Not Guaranteed

What: BAM presents the world premiere of a new musical adaptation of the 2012 film, as part of their Next Wave 2024 & Emerging Visions series.

And? It's possible there's a good show underneath this. I can't tell right now. Even at just under two hours, the show feels overlong. I don't think it's currently well-staged, or particularly well-designed (except maybe Sarita Fellows's costume design), and whoever was in the booth the night I saw it rarely managed to turn performers' mics on in time for their dialog (granted, I saw the second preview, so hopefully this will improve). I also couldn't hear a lot of the lyrics over the the sound of the onstage band. Devotees of this blog will know how ornery I get about the misuse of a thrust stage. BAM Harvey has a lovely curving stage, with an equally curving audience hugging it. Why, then did I keep seeing crew members idling in the wings or pre-setting set pieces ten minutes before the next scene transition? Hide your crew, my dudes. No matter what kind of staging you're directing--proscenium, thrust, alley, arena, immersive--I think it is an absolute failure of directing craft to not spend rehearsals constantly moving through the entire range of where the audience will be, to make sure that everyone has a dynamic and interesting stage picture. If you sit dead center, you're ensuring a good view for fifteen people.

Also, I was under the impression this show was featuring an entirely new score by Ryan Miller (lead singer for the band Guster). So my jaw dropped when, at the eleven o' clock confrontation number, the two leads started belting out "Two Points For Honesty." My entire self flashed back to teenage me listening to a mixtape from my friend Malcolm.

Just. What?

9/20/24: Yellow Face

What: Roundabout's Broadway production of David Henry Hwang's semiautobiographical matryoshka doll of a play.

And? I think if it were just the riff on inadvertently casting a white character in an Asian role, and then that actor adopting that stolen identity to then become an activist, the play might have gotten tired, but DHH manages to spin some fascinating twist and foils within the play, confronting his own conflicted feelings about his own activism, as well as his imposter syndrome. Solid, great work all around, and a brilliant way to recover the lost work of his flop play, Face Value.

Weekly Margin 2024, W37: A Meal, Our Class

 9/13/24: A Meal

What: HERE Arts presents LEIMAY's immersive installation meal slash performance experience.

And? Throughout the three-hour evening, I keep re-evaulating what space I think I'm in, what world I'm witnessing. The preshow is ritualistic and features mason jars of the best tasting tea I've ever had (if all tea tasted like this, I might actually like tea). Then there is the singing by the two cantors and the slow but deliberate movement of the rest of the cast as they condition the space and build the first table. Then the audience group is split and escorted to different parts of the transformed space--for A Meal inhabits not just the ground floor mainstage space, but also the lobby and smaller black box theater below. Here there are more installations in isolated spots of light, and projections, and performers so still they might be statues. Here there is both the grotesquerie of food preparation and the loving care of building a meal. Here there is a commentary on limits of resources, on accumulations of waste. Here there is also a tray of sushi and an arepa cart, and a vendor singing of his wares.

It's a lot. It's many things. The costume design is flowing and sharp. The sound baths--a combination of recorded sound and the voices of the cantors--are hypnotic and lovely. It's a bit too long. But I'm glad I went.

9/14/24: Our Class

What: Classic Stage Company hosts the Manhattan transfer of the production that ran at BAM last year.

And? a repeat visit of a show that remains mostly intact from its last iteration. Still disturbing, still worth seeing, and still with audience members so unnerved they leave midshow. When I saw it last time I went with a gentile friend who was so shocked at the content of the show, that people would do this to their own neighbors and former friends. I, who have long known the history of pogroms, had no words to lighten the weight of that knowledge for her. This time, I went with a Jewish friend, who remarked with angry passion (I paraphrase), "It's not just a history play, this is what's happening now, here, in America, with lies being told about immigrants, with attacks in the streets. This play is about 2024." It's both, of course. That's how good art works. Maybe the actual goal is to not let ourselves becomes resigned to the monstrosity of humankind, but to keep being appalled, so we do not normalize the monstrous. We cannot afford to keep dehumanizing other humans. We're all we've got.

Stephen Ochsner as Jakub Katz. Photo by Pavel
Antonov.

Weekly Margin 2024, W33: Oh, Mary!, Life and Trust

8/13/24: Oh, Mary!

What: Cole Escola's irreverent play about Mary Todd Lincoln.

And? There's definite talent onstage, but the show isn't for me. I don't like queerness, addiction, or mental illness being treated as punchlines. I also don't like being twenty minutes ahead of the play in terms of plot twists.

Cole Escola as Mary. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

8/17/24: Life and Trust

What: Emursive Productions's newest venture, an immersive promenade adaptation of Faust.

And? It's taken me a long while to finally do my write up of this. That's largely due to Personal Zelda Stuff, but it's partly due to my struggle to wrap my head around this production. Which isn't necessarily a complaint. If there's one word to describe Life and Trust, it's ambitious. The space in the Financial District they've built is stunning in scope: opulent and expansive, with high Deco ceilings and that sense of giddy excess right before the stock market crash of 1929. This production features a different sort of prologue to Sleep No More: a visit with banker Conwell on the eve of the collapse of his empire, before we travel back in time to see his rise when he was a young man eager to make his deal with the devil. Then for the next few hours we are in the type of immersive experience we may remember from Sleep No More. And yet it is not like that. At Sleep No More I described the experience as wandering through someone else's nightmares. But at the same time, I had enough of a grip on the story of Macbeth to be able to place myself within the narratives I followed. I knew where I was. 

Here, for the most part, I did not. Part of that was because I deliberately was not following young Conwall, as he tended to have the biggest crowd chasing him (I'm a different person now than the Zelda who was able to be at the front of the crowds following Macbeth or Boy Witch. 2020 has made me crowd averse in general. What's also true is that audiences for immersive shows have changed considerably since Sleep No More first arrived in New York. Everyone is savvy now, and everyone is vying for the front of the pack. It's exhausting.). I spent my evening following characters who seemed to have less of a crowd chasing them. If the crowd increased, rather than fight for a spot, I would wander off to another area. This is where I really want to compliment the designers' ambitions. There are so many different environments and worlds in this space, so many places to explore. Hidden pathways behind curtains, strange nooks and installations--I didn't mind that I was often on my own.

However, I will say that this strategy left me ready for the evening to end ahead of its actual ending. If I had been more aggressive about following characters, this might not be true. As for the characters I did follow? I have no idea who any of them were. Truly. At sea, me.

My big complaint though I must reserve for the grand finale (not part of the cycle). It's a shallower space than the ballroom at the McKittrick, and the central platform is not raised enough to accommodate for this. All this to say, I was too short to see what was going on on the central platform, and looked at the side platforms instead. So there was probably more story here I missed as well. Alas.

 Another sign of the ambitious nature of this production is in the expansion of what is asked of the performers. The athletic dancing and melancholy speechless performances continue here, but they are further enhanced with acrobatics and a bit of illusion magic (escapes and teleportations). Oh, and that player piano! I loved it.

Will I go see this ten or more times, as I did with Sleep No More? Probably not. The tickets are double the cost of what they were back then, and I'm not as fascinatedly in love with it as I was then. But I'm glad I saw it, and it is worth experiencing.

The cast of Life and Trust. Photo by Jane Kratochvil.

Weekly Margin 2024, W36: See What I Wanna See

 9/05/24: See What I Wanna See

What: Out of the Box Theatrics presents Michael John LaChiusa's musical adaptation of three stories by Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Act one is a riff on "Rashomon," transporting the events to New York in 1951. Act two follows a disillusioned priest in the aftermath of 9/11, fabricating a miracle with astonishing results.

And? What a fantastic show. I'd gotten the cast album for the Original Off-Broadway Cast years ago and listened to it, but out of context it was a hard-to-follow album. Now I can't wait to go back and really listen to and enjoy LaChiusa's muscular score. This show circles around the idea of truth, and if and when it matters for truth to be known. In act one, the audience is never granted a definitive version of the "truth" of what happened that night, with three different people claiming responsibility for a death; but one could theoretically parse something out of each character's testimony to see what could be real. In act two, the final truth is one that only the Priest knows. Does it matter that no one else knows, if it regains him his faith? But then again, doesn't Christian faith by definition not require proof? (asking as a heathen).

Truly marvelous cast for this chamber musical, which has been reconfigured with a cast of AAPI performers to reclaim its Japanese lens, including the use of both Bunraku and shadow puppets. It's hard to pick a standout when everyone is so good, but I'm going to do it anyway: Ann Sanders is a national treasure and it's time everyone acknowledged it.

Weekly Margin 2024, W30: Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty Sided Tavern

7/28/24: Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern

What: The improv RPG where the audience gets to vote on characters and choices, now under the official auspices of the D&D label.

And? Good silly fun!

The cast of Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern. 
Photo by Bronwen Sharp.

Weekly Margin 2024, W29: JOB, Home, Suffs

7/17/24: JOB

What: The Broadway transfer of Max Wolf Friedlich's two-hander play about a therapy consultation for a woman placed on leave from a job to which she's desperate to return.

And? I really want to respect the playwright's wish to not spoil certain elements of the play (there was a talkback the night we attended), but I'll say this is excellent and tense theater that keeps you on your toes and questioning whether anything you're seeing or hearing is real. I thought it was great.

Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon in the Off-Broadway run, as Loyd and 
Jane. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

7/18/24: Home

a repeat visit

7/20/24: Suffs

a repeat visit

Weekly Margin 2024, W28: Hilma

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Wilma Theater's Hilma.

Weekly Margin 2024, W27: Cats: The Jellicle Ball

7/05/24: Cats: The Jellicle Ball

What: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about cats, reimagined for the drag Ballroom culture.

And? Believe the hype. This is my favorite musical theater production I've seen so far in 2024. It's so life-affirming, defiant, and joyous. Everyone in that space is in the same world together (a rarer thing than it sounds), waving fans, screaming, clapping, stomping, and roaring to their feet repeatedly over the talent on that runway. The production pays beautiful homage to Ballroom culture and its history, including honoring its Founding Mothers, and casting real Ballroom performers in the show (including Junior LaBeija, member of The Iconic House of LaBeija and MC in the Paris is Burning doc, as Gus the Theatre Cat) alongside performers with more traditional stage experience (including the legend himself, André De Shields, as Old Deuteronomy). Much like my experience last week with A Little Night Music, I found myself investing anew in a show I thought I knew all the ins and outs of. But with this new lens of Ballroom, the dynamics around Old Deuteronomy, Gus, and Grizabella deepen in such a powerful way that I suddenly, at the bitter old age of *cough*, have an emotional connection to this strange show.

It's a bit like the Deaf West revival of Spring Awakening, whose lens added new depths that felt almost inevitable and required for the show to work: now, in a Ballroom setting, with each cat's song part of their runway competition, Cats finally works for me in thrilling, vivid clarity. I kinda wish it would run ... okay, not "now and forever," but certainly a bit longer.

The cast of Cats. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

Weekly Margin 2024, W26: A Little Night Music in Concert

 6/29/24: A Little Night Music in Concert

What: David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center hosts a concert staging of the musical adaptation of Smiles of a Summer Night. 

And? Sublime. I understand from reading online that the concert was on shakier ground earlier in the week (line flubs, etc), but it was in fairly good shape by Saturday night, when we saw it (I don't know if I'll ever not be anxious during a performance of "Liaisons," either for tempo or lyric reasons). Not every casting decision was ultimately ideal, but a lot of the important stuff worked really well. I don't think that I've ever been as invested in Desiree and Fredrik as a couple, as I was by Susan Graham's and Ron Raines's rendering of them. I cried during both "Send in the Clowns" and its reprise (and due to antidepressants, I'm not crying at the theater nearly as often as I used to). The star of the night is probably still Ruthie Ann Miles in the meaty role of Countess Charlotte--she's precise and perfect, delivering every line and lyric like succulent bites in a transporting meal. We do not deserve her (but aren't we lucky she's here?). Also marvelous were Jin Ha as Frid (they restored Frid's cut song and Ha sang it beautifully) and Cynthia Erivo as Petra (that high note in "Miller's Son"!). But what really struck me as well is how much it matters that the liebeslieder singers are well-cast. They often feel like an afterthought (especially in casting), but they have to be good--so much of their performance carries us through the thinner second act. These five are in marvelous voice, good concert with each other, and making real choices that help add more dimension to the lyrics. Thank you Ellie Fishman, Leah Horowitz, Jonathan Christopher, Andrea Jones-Sojola, and Ross Lekites.

Leah Horowitz, Jonathan Christopher, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Ross Lekites,
and Ellie Fishman as the Liebeslieder Singers. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Weekly Margin 2024, W25: Titanic, Follies in Concert

6/18/24: Titanic

What: New York City Center Encores! series presents the Maury Yeston and Peter Stone musical about the ill-fated ship.

And? This cast is unreal. So rich in talent that you can't imagine even if it got itself a commercial transfer, that the whole cast would journey with it. It's a gift to hear this score with this many glorious voices, though a show like this you really do feel what you're missing by having a concert staging rather than a full staging. Glad I finally got to see this done professionally, after all this time (I'd seen a high school production ages ago, but we don't need to count that).

A.J. Shively, Emilie Kouatchou, Jose Llana, Chuck Cooper, Brandon
Uranowitz, Andrew Durand, and Samantha Williams as Charles Clarke,
Caroline Neville, Thomas Andrews, Captain E.J. Smith, J. Bruce Ismay,
Jim Farrell, and Kate McGowan, with the cast of Titanic.
Photo by Joan Marcus.

6/20/24: Follies in Concert

What: Transport Group presents a star-studded concert of the Sondheim/Goldman musical about nostalgia and faded dreams.

And? Apparently this concert sold out within an hour of the tickets going on sale. I feel a bit bad I didn't clock how lucky I was when I bought my ticket, but don't think I took it for granted once I was there in beautiful Carnegie Hall. Preshow, I even broke from my usual sit-there-quietly-and-read to talk with fellow patrons, knowing we were all equally excited to be there, and enthusiastic about theater.

Hosts Ted Chapin (author of Everything Was Possible) and Kurt Peterson (Young Ben in the original Broadway cast of Follies) kept the night flowing between songs with some choice anecdotes as well as brief context for each song (and introducing each performer, as the program did not indicate who would be performing what, outside of the Mirror dancers). It feels foolish to try to pick highlights from such a special night, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Full list of who performed what is below as well.

Highlights:

• Seeing Michael Bennett's original choreography for the Mirror dance in "Who's That Woman" -- show-stoppingly good (and standing ovation worthy), and I finally understand what makes that song so special.
• Norm Lewis and Nikki Renée Daniels sounding heartbreakingly beautiful as they duetted "Too Many Mornings." How lucky we are to hear them sing.
• Thom Sesma reminding us how charming and charismatic he always is.
• Michael Berresse's emotional dance/breakdown in "The Right Girl," so effective that everyone onstage applauded as he slowly walked off.
• Jennifer Holiday doing what she does best with "I'm Still Here."
• Seeing the kids from Kimberly Akimbo (three of the teens, one of the understudies) be adorable with the Loveland quartet "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"/"Love Will See Us Through."
• Kurt Peterson wielding John McMartin's original cane as he graduated to play Old Ben and sing "Live, Laugh, Love."
• Kurt Peterson's final anecdote: when he spoke to Hal Prince days before his passing, Prince said that Follies was his favorite show (and McMartin his favorite Ben); then in a private Zoom reunion of Follies, Sondheim said that it was his favorite score; and finally, the actor who originated Young Buddy said to him that he hoped his tombstone said "Here lies Harvey Evans. He was in Follies." There wasn't a dry eye after that.

Michael Berresse performs "The Right Girl." Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Borrowing the collected list from my friend Michael Dale (who sourced his list from Seth Christenfeld):

Act One

Weissmann monologue: Hal Linden

"Beautiful Girls": Christian Mark Gibbs

"Don't Look at Me": Katie Finneran and Marc Kudisch

"Waiting for the Girls Upstairs": Thom Sesma, Stephen Bogardus, Barbara Walsh, Carolee Carmello, Grey Henson, Ryan McCartan, Julie Benko, and Hannah Elless

"Rain on the Roof": Klea Blackhurst and Jim Caruso

"Ah, Paris": Isabel Keating

"Broadway Baby": Adriane Lenox

"The Road You Didn't Take": Alexander Gemignani

"In Buddy's Eyes": Christine Ebersole

"Who's That Woman?": Karen Ziemba with Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Ruth Gottschall, JoAnn M. Hunter, Dana Moore, Michele Pawk, and Margo Sappinton, as well as Lauren Blackman, Julianna Brown, Jessica Chambers, Candice Hatakeyama, Alicia Lundgren, Abby Matsusaka, and Erin N. Moore (original Michael Bennett choreography, restaged by Mary Jane Houdina)

Act Two

"I'm Still Here": Jennifer Holiday

"Too Many Mornings": Norm Lewis and Nikki Renée Daniels

"The Right Girl": Michael Berresse (choreography by Mary Jane Houdina, based on the original staging by Michael Bennett)

"One More Kiss": Harolyn Blackwell and Mikaela Bennett

"Could I Leave You?": Beth Leavel

"Loveland": Vocal Ensemble with two unnamed soloists speaking the unsung lines

"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow": Fernell Hogan and Olivia Elease Hardy

"Love Will See Us Through": Nina White and Miguel Gil

"Buddy's Blues": Santino Fontana with Lauren Blackman and Sarah King

"Losing My Mind": Kate Baldwin

"Lucy and Jessie": Alexandra Billings

"Live, Laugh, Love": Kurt Peterson

Weekly Margin 2024, W24: The Great Gatsby, Suffs, Uncle Vanya, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

6/11/24: The Great Gatsby

What: A new musical adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic about class, wealth, and excess in 1920s New York.

And? Meh. I don't think this production has made up its mind whether it takes place in the 1920s or the 2020s. Baz Lurhmann knows how to toe that line; here it just feels like they're afraid to make a strong choice. What I always found striking about Fitzgerald's novel is the charismatic but enigmatic figure of Gatsby, how the world seems to mold itself around him. Here, there's a void in both the writing and the performance of the role that never convinces me he's anything extraordinary--he's just a man out of touch with reality, who never got over his first love. Of course, the writing here is also mostly lacking Fitzgerald's gift with prose, except when it directly quotes the novel.

The projection design is good.

Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

6/12/24: Suffs

What: The Broadway transfer of Shaina Taub's musical about Alice Paul and her allies' fight for women's suffrage in the U.S.

And? This is a great example of how much a work can improve when you're unafraid to really dig into rewriting and reshaping a piece. This show is worlds better than what I saw at the Public, which then felt overbloated and dull. It's still not a fantastic show, but it's a much better show. It's solid, it's entertaining, and it's chock-full of talented performers. I'm glad I gave it a second chance so I could see how much it's improved.

Shaina Taub, center, as Alice Paul, with the cast of Suffs. Photo by Joan Marcus.