Margin Notes: The Panic Defense

The Panic Defense

Juan C. Ortiz as Brianna/Benny and
Keith R. Beck as Daniel.
Photo courtesy of the production.

Seen on: Monday, 11/09/26.

Plot and Background

Writer/director Sam Affoumado's new docu-drama examines the "gay panic" and "trans panic" legal strategies. Focusing on four specific murder victims, each killed either for their gender identity/expression or their homosexuality, Affoumado attempts to give voice to these people who were silenced forever. Though inspired by docu-plays like The Laramie Project and The Exonerated, this play eschews verbatim text for the imagined senses of selves of the four real-life victims, as well as brief reenactments of the moments leading up to their murders.

Thoughts:

The press release and auteur statement discuss an examination of legal strategies that weaponize prejudices against queer identities in courtrooms, and indeed places the audience in the position of jury, with the two attorneys addressing the audience first to set the stage for us. What follows, though, is less testimony than character study. The four victims--Brianna, Mike, Travis, and Maxine--have alternating monologues, all still addressing the audience directly, as they explain who they are, who they would like to be, and what they want out of life. Each narrative ultimately shows the lead-up to the murders, but does not end there, returning to the characters themselves. Affoumado's true intent, stated goal aside, is to show the real complex humanity of these people before they get flattened out by defense attorneys into vaguely menacing symbols, threatening enough to provoke their attackers into violence. Though we do eventually hear brief testimony from each attacker, their victims remain present to contradict the lies told about them and about their final moments. In the play's epilogue we learn the ultimate sentencing of the murderers (ranging from life imprisonment, to a few years' sentencing, to a not guilty verdict), hear final moments of hope from each victim, and then the production honors victims from this past year with a slideshow of their photos, names, and date and nature of their deaths. The list is damningly long.

Weekly Margin 2026, W45: School Girls, Love Me, Downstate, A Ghost in Your Ear, The Visitors, In Clay

11/03/26: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play

What: The long-awaited Broadway production of Jocelyn Bioh's celebrated play, first mounted Off-Broadway in 2017 by MCC. Now hosted by MTC, this revival production returns us to Ghana in 1986 as a cadre of teenagers anticipate a pageant that could launch one of them into stardom by becoming Miss Ghana.

And? This is an exuberant production. It definitely feels bigger than the 2017 one, in many ways. The performance space is bigger, of course, but it's also brighter, airier: this version of the school is clearly better funded, as evident in both the scenic and costume design. The humor feels bigger, but perhaps that's because it's aimed at a bigger audience. The production also, of course, features bigger names this time around, including a Tony winner and several nominees (it does also feature a number of young actresses making their Broadway debut, which I love to see). Denée Benton gives a delicious turn as Paulina, the school's resident Regina George: elegant, casually cruel, aggressively masking her insecurities. Jasmine Amy Rogers as her foil, new girl Ericka, brings her signature sweetness to the role, which makes her climactic turn into a mirroring cruelty all the more satisfying. As the presiding Headmistress Francis, Heather Alicia Simms has tremendous gravitas and warmth as she is forced to make impossible decisions regarding the future of her charges. It's excellent to see this play again, though I'm still navigating my thoughts on the look and feel of this production over MCC's.

Denée Benton as Paulina, Jordan Rice as Mercy, Nia Otchere-Sarfo
as Gifty, Lucia Aremu as Ama, Erin Morton as Nana, and
Heather Alicia Simms as Headmistress Francis.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

11/05/26: Love Me

What: Deaf West and Soho Rep present Drew Michael's solo show, a mix of standup and memoir about his struggles to learn how to love himself and to acknowledge his loss of hearing.

And? It needs some editing, but goddamn what a finish. Drew Michael knows how to stick the landing for sure. The sound and headphone concept, as designed by Daniel Kluger and executed in collaboration with Listen Technologies and Renaissance Recording, NYC, is really quite something. The audience is issued headphones, which we wear for the majority of the performance, and through it we hear not only the intrusive (and deeply disruptive) thoughts of Drew, but also the muffled sound of all speakers around him: we are able to experience, even if only for an hour, what it is to try to exist in a hearing world that doesn't attempt to accommodate Deaf individuals. The release, then, as the piece winds down (and it's powerful enough that I don't want to spoil it), is immensely satisfying and moving, and worth the visit.

Weekly Margin 2026, W44: Everybody Rise!, Horsegirl & Cowdaddy

 10/27/26: Everybody Rise!

What: Steven Carl McCasland's cabaret, a celebration of beloved female characters in the musical theater canon (as well as Steven's birthday).

And? Disclosure: Steven is a good friend of mine. But I think I'm still correct in saying this was a marvelous night. The performance was originally scheduled to take place about a month earlier, but had to be postponed due to the rainstorm and flooding taking over the city (in this case, a literal rain date performance). Not the worse for wear, we still delivered Steven a sold-out audience. Or perhaps he delivered us. McCasland has a strong voice and fearless persona, and you can hear and see his joy in performing in every moment of this cabaret, as well as his deep affection for these songs. His set list is a mix of standards, interesting mash-ups, a few tongue-in-cheek lyric rewrites, lesser-known works, and a (borrowed) gently-orchestrated "Everything's Coming Up Roses." And I don't believe it's a spoiler to note that his encore is the song from which the title of his night comes: "The Ladies Who Lunch," from Company.

Highlights of the evening:

• The smirking sweetness of Sondheim's "The Boy From ..." with perfect delivery of the titular's boy's origin, slightly different on each repeat.
• The out and out belt on Smash's "They Just Keep Moving the Line."
• "Times Like This" (Lucky Stiff) drawing big teardrops from me, paired with the equally heartbreaking "Far From the Home I Love" (Fiddler on the Roof).
• And then immediately after those two, the brassy yelling of "Murray!" as he launched into "Just One Step" from Songs for a New World.

Streaming Theater

• Wilma Theater's Horsegirl & Cowdaddy.

Weekly Margin 2026, W43: The Ask, Bitcoin Bad Boy, Fish

10/20/26: The Ask

What: A new two-hander from Matthew Freeman about a meeting between a fundraiser for the ACLU and a wealthy donor who has been reconsidering her contributions based on what she perceives as shifting priorities incompatible with the organization's core mission.

And? The main crux here is the generational (and ultimately cultural) divide between a Boomer liberal and a Gen Z leftie, both believing passionately in the mission of the organization but at odds for the priorities of advocacy within that. And it's not that it's an uninteresting topic--the question of past fights won or lost weighed against current battles still in the trenches is one worth exploring. But it's not explored in the most interesting manner here. There's not a tremendous amount of insight offered for the full lives of either character outside the broad sketches of their demographic. There's tension in how fundraiser Tanner has to shape their responses to donor Greta, cognizant the entire time that hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line for how this conversation concludes. But it's not really enough when I'm not invested in the characters, and neither side of the argument is going to effectively win over an audience member on the other side of the debate. There's some empathy to be gained, in understanding how each character believes what they believe (and very fine performances from Marilu Henner and especially Shannon Purser), but it's not enough and ultimately just feels like I'm reading a well-structured (and respectful) comments section.

Marilu Henner as Greta and Shannon Purser as Tanner.
Photo by Joan Marcus.

10/21/26: Bitcoin Bad Boy

What: As part of Chain Theatre's Factory Series, Inferno presents Ben Schiller's sequel to the 2024 Happenstance. Newly released crypto-coder Charlie must decide between embracing the more lucrative and corrupt side of cryptocurrency or insist on transparency and freedom.

And? full review here

Foreground: Gianna Hoffman as Sallie.
Background: Jack Orrico as Dan and Gloria
Sangirardi Jung as Barbara. Photo courtesy
of the production.

10/22/26: Fish

What: Melis Aker's play about a teenage girl who, trying to bypass her mother's efforts to see if her brother was recruited into a terrorist organization, begins catfishing ISIS members into sending her money.

And? The unfolding narrative is interesting, even if the performances are, by and large, not subtle (and the accent work unfortunately inconsistent). Emma Finckel's scenic design, the shiny tile panels of a swimming pool that turn strikingly modular depending on scene location, is excellent, simple, and smart.

Yasmin Ranz-Lind as Karya. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Margin Notes: Bitcoin Bad Boy

Bitcoin Bad Boy

Foreground: Gianna Hoffman as
Sallie. Background: Jack Orrico as
Dan and Gloria Sangirardi Jung
as Barbara. Photo courtesy of the
production.

Seen on: Wednesday, 10/21/26.

Plot and Background

As part of Chain Theatre's Factory Series, Inferno presents Ben Schiller's sequel to the 2024 Happenstance. At a Bitcoin World conference in Vegas, Charlie Schwagg--newly released from prison after writing a code that constituted money laundering--is hailed as a liberated hero of cryptocurrency. However, with his release contingent on his selling certain talking points in his keynote speech, notably those in service of a corrupt politician, his crisis of conscience leads him to instead flee the city, expose the truth, and bring the news to the world not only online but also to a stadium audience in New York. Playwright Schiller used his decade of experience in crypto journalism to inform Charlie's two poles: a "free" market of cryptocurrency about to be regulated and dismantled, and the hope of something purer and cleaner, a return to the free without any malingering corruption.

Thoughts:

Play: Well, it's a lot. It's a lot of moving pieces and a lot of players with questionable motives, from Charlie's parasitic and opportunist brother and parents, to two aggressive fans-slash-muggers in a parking lot, to the strong-arming from the power suit-wearing politician, to Charlie's redemption in the form of his spiritually-inclined ex-girlfriend. When Crypto Czar points out the flickering neon lights of Vegas to Charlie, he asks him what that looks like to him. Charlie responds, "Hell?" "No," Butch replies, "that's freedom." At the center of it all, Charlie seems more a shiftless wavering soul rather than an anchor, a core around which the other characters orbit. Perhaps that's the point: it is only when he finally crystalizes his beliefs that his posture transforms from a constant side-to-side shuffling to standing tall and still. That being said, I'm not sure the arc is fully earned. The scenes tend to meander both within the moments as well as the fade from one space to another. The family's transformation from using Charlie to supporting him moves too quickly to absolve them of their corruption, and a reconciliation never makes it onstage. Girlfriend Sallie's redemption of Charlie, meanwhile, feels as shapeless as her hippy-dippy world view (she's absconded from Burning Man to rescue him, based on a psychic revelation). I suspect some of these relationships are more rewarding for an audience already familiar with these characters from Happenstance, but coming at them fresh with only this play leaves me with a lot of unknowns. That being said, while the emotional resonance of the relationships runs on the light side, playwright Schiller does an admirable job of catching the viewer up on the backstory itself. The most strikingly drawn conflict and tension of this play lies between Charlie and politician Butch, whose villainy is clean-cut and merciless. But with his absence from the final reckoning, the weight of that conflict reaching its climax with more a whimper than a bang.