Weekly Margin 2026, W14: Beaches, The Balusters

3/30/26: Beaches

What: A new musical adaptation (with lyrics and co-written book by Iris Rainer Dart, the original novelist of Beaches) of the beloved 80s film about two best friends whose wildly different personalities and paths lead them to connect, disconnect, and ultimately unite in their lifelong affection for each other. It's also the movie that gave us "Wind Beneath My Wings."

And? It's fine. The score isn't memorable and the script is serviceable, but the performers are excellent, particularly Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett as the adult versions of Cee Cee and Bertie, and Samantha Schwartz and Zeya Grace as their childhood counterparts. Also of note: the rarity of a musical with only two male performers (it's a small cast in general, but that's still impressive). Sadly, another show with an unimaginative use of projections and screens.

Jessica Vosk as Cee Cee and Kelli Barrett as Bertie.
Photo by Trudie Lee.

4/01/26: The Balusters

What: MTC presents David Lindsay-Abaire's new play about the Neighborhood Association of a community of houses in a historically preserved neighborhood, as they struggle with maintaining the faithfulness to the aesthetic against the ever-changing progress of time: here encapsulated in the need for a stop sign on an otherwise preserved esplanade, and the controversial installation of non-historically accurate balusters (porch railings).

And? Honestly just a fantastic night out -- good, messy fun. The play accomplishes a fantastic feat of a true ensemble work where every performer gets a chance to shine, where every character has admirable qualities and more despicable ones. There are no heroes here, but nor are there villains. These people are a damn mess, and it makes for very good theater. It's hard to talk about standout performances, but Marylouise Burke (who also starred in the original play version of Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo) is an absolute dotty gem, delivering even the simplest lines with her own unique spin. And the two primary antagonistic forces, Richard Thomas as the board president and ardent advocate for preservation and Anika Noni Rose as the newcomer ready to stir things up, are perfectly polarized: each with an ironclad conviction that they are on the correct side of the argument, each cunning enough to try to outwit the other.

Weekly Margin 2026, W13: The Unknown, Trash

3/25/26: The Unknown

What: Studio Seaview presents David Cale's new one-man show starring Sean Hayes, about playwright Elliott struggling with writer's block who finds himself the object of fixation by an actor rejected from the casting of his last play. As the details surrounding this actor become more convoluted, Elliott finds himself equally fixated on his stalker.

And? David Cale is truly adept at writing a showcase monologue (he also wrote the wonderful Harry Clarke, played with seedy charm by Billy Crudup), and this one showcases Sean Hayes very well. Deliberately murky while luring the audience further into the mire with every twist, Cale's play is excellently set off by the subtle but chilling design work of director Leigh Silverman's team. Under Cha See's stark, tight lighting, set pieces by Studio Bent appear and disappear as if conjured from Elliott's imagination. Elliott's hand drifts into shadow and reemerges holding a glass of whiskey. What was the brick backwall of the space now has a looming apartment door. And Caroline Eng's sound design, chilling and subtle, delicately cinches the audience in closer to Elliott's increasingly fractured sense of reality. Is he imagining Joey? Is Joey imagining him? What is true and what is hallucination and what is just hopeful dreaming? Though the play deliberately leaves the ending ambiguous as to whose story we've been watching, it's enough to hear the audience slowly filing out, eagerly debating what the truth could be.

Sean Hayes. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

3/27/26: Trash

What: Perelman Performing Arts Center hosts Out of the Box Theatrics's new play by and starring James Caverly and Andrew Morrill. Two Deaf roommates, at odds with each other and with the hearing world, argue over whose responsibility it is to take out the trash, as well as unpacking the reasons for why things have become such a mess: the trash of their own lives and baggage, and the literal stinking trash can in the kitchen.

And? The storytelling conceits here are fascinating. I was talking to a friend about the challenge of presenting Deaf theater to a largely hearing audience: the need to always accommodate the hearing audience, all the while mainstream theater often offering very limited means of accommodating a Deaf audience. This, then, is reclaiming the narrative by nature of who is telling it: a play written by and starring two Deaf men, and presented by Out of the Box, whose mission is to center stories about marginalized identities, with a focus on people with disabilities. At the performance I attended, at least half of the audience was either Deaf or fluent in ASL. And a huge chunk of the play is communicated only in ASL or the occasional handwritten message on a dry erase board.  I could say that this means I am not the primary audience, and I'm probably not; but the truth is, while I don't always grasp the nuance of a particular moment in the way the Deaf audience members do, I am still able to follow the characters' conflicts and emotional journeys. And then there's the slightly fantastical device: a jukebox rescued from an arcade. While outsiders observe that it's odd for two Deaf men to keep blasting music, for the audience, every dollar fed to the jukebox (here embodied by Chris Ogren in a smart black suit) awakens an English-speaking interpreter for the characters signing onstage. For the hearing audience, we are temporarily admitted into the conversation. For the Deaf audience, not much has changed. The show isn't for me, but it is letting me visit. In this way, it's a very generous invitation to the hearing world into what is often a very isolated community, as Deaf people are largely excluded from a mainstream society unwilling or unable to learn their language. One of the questions of the play is if it's worth the bigger lift on the part of ostracized Deaf to try to assimilate as much as possible into an audist world, or if it's better to live where they won't be treated as children or second-class citizens, as people not worth hearing. That's the macro. The micro is how Tim and Jake can bridge their own communication divide, as well as trying to wrangle a lifetime of baggage weighing them down.

Andrew Morrill as Tim, James Caverly as Jake, and Chris
Ogren as Jukebox. Photo by Rebecca J. Michelson.

Weekly Margin 2026, W12: Monte Cristo, Our House, My Joy is Heavy, The Wild Party

3/18/26: Monte Cristo

What: The York Theatre presents a new musical adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic novel about revenge and love.

And? full review here.

Norm Lewis as Villefort. Photo by Shawn Salley.

3/19/26: Our House

What: The Other Side of Silence presents Barry Boehm's new play, about elder queer couple Andy and Stanley hosting their nephew Brendan and his fiancé Gene for their upcoming wedding. When smalltown bigotries of racism and homophobia rear their ugly heads, old griefs and new pains are exposed.

And? This play is very difficult to watch, not because of its quality but because of its content. Though Andy and Stanley survived the worst of the AIDS crisis, with Andy a vocal and passionate fighter with ACT UP, they've settled into the family home in a rather small town with no queer community to speak of. And while they're frustrated by the harassment of local young men pelting their yard with walnuts, the underlying awareness of the danger facing Gene, a Black gay man, is felt not just by the audience but by the family onstage. And we all hate that we're right. So it's a difficult play to watch. But it's worth watching. Christopher Borg is particularly affecting as Andy, a mix of loving joy and fiercely bitter anger and heartbreak at what he and his community have lived through, and continue to live through. His final moments, a grief and reconciliation with his husband Stanley is well-earned. Also quite powerful is Jalen Ford as Eugene: quiet and sweet, but carrying an additional burden none of the others in his almost-family can seem to understand. Ford's performance is understated and honest and lived in, which makes it all the more horrible when he's attacked. Scenic designer Evan Frank builds a lovely backyard space for the action, with a fence strung with festive lights. It's notable that this feels more real than the back facade of the house, particularly with its importance to the family: a skeletal structure, with only half its siding covering the inside. But then, what we see is that perhaps a house isn't enough protection from the outside hostility, when the walls aren't as solid as we think.

Christopher Borg as Andy, Nancy Slusser as Paula, CJ DiOrio
as Brendan, and Jalen Ford as Eugene. Photo by Mikiodo.

Margin Notes: Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo

Seen on: Wednesday, 3/18/26.

Adam Jacobs as Edmund and Sierra Boggess
as Mercedes. Photo by Shawn Salley.

Plot and Background

The York Theatre presents the world premiere of Peter Kellogg and Stephen Weiner's new musical adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Edmund, an honest sailor, is framed for treason on the eve of his wedding, and sent to prison for eighteen years. His fiancée Mercedes, believing him dead, marries his rival Fernand to cover her pregnancy. While in prison, Edmund is educated by fellow prisoner Abbe in languages, arts, and swordcraft, as well as the location of a hidden fortune; when he escapes, he uncovers the treasure on Monte Cristo, then uses his newfound wealth and knowledge to build his new persona as the mysterious titular count, and wreak revenge on the three men who wronged him.

Thoughts:

Originally released in serialized form before its publication as a novel, The Count of Monte Cristo is a complex web of treachery, revenge, and a twisted quest for justice, stuffed with a large cast of characters tracing morally ambiguous journeys. A two hours and change musical can't manage all that and still be coherent. Peter Kellogg and Stephen Weiner's musical adaptation seeks coherency by condensing and combining a number of auxiliary characters while cleaning up some of their acts: Edmund's allies, though played for laughs, stand on the side of right without treachery. Edmund doesn't teach someone how to poison her family. He also doesn't help rescue a number of past allies from financial ruin, but there's a lot going on in the novel, and it's better to narrow things down to the core parts of his arc. This is the correct move, but unfortunately in execution the reader's digest version of events, while following story beats, fails to thrill beyond what now seem like a very pedestrian narrative. Sweeney Todd this is not. (They also, incidentally, change the ending of the story, but they're not the first adaptation to make this change.)

That doesn't mean they're not trying. Stephen Weiner's score aspires toward the lushness of a tortured romance, but struggles to balance that against the more traditional sidekick character numbers, which indulge in an earthier old-fashioned musical comedy style. I think that tension might be the real struggle within the show at the moment: whether or not this is an old-fashioned musical comedy with a soupçon of camp, or a sweeping and ballad-full romantic musical drama, a la other pop musical writers like Webber and Wildhorn (incidentally, Wildhorn has also penned an adaptation of the novel, though it's played more internationally than domestically). If you go in expecting the latter, you'll be disappointed; however, if you go in open to the comic stylings, particularly of Danny Rutigliano, doing double duty as both Edmund's mentor (Abbe) and sidekick (Caderousse) and making a meal out of both, you might fare better. This is especially evident in Kellogg's lyrics. In the more romantic numbers, his lyrics tend toward a looser pop sensibility of songs that could be easily removed from context and played elsewhere; however, for the more comedic numbers, the lyrics must be specific to be funny, and are thus much more grounded in the circumstances of character and moment. 

Weekly Margin 2026, W10: Destination, Dust of Egypt

3/05/26: Destination

What: 4 Girls Film Productions in association with Jarrott Productions present George Ayres's new play. Howard Wright, a retired architect in an assisted living facility, facing only a year left of his life, embarks on a journey to declare his love for "the one that got away" after her engagement is published in the local newspaper. Meanwhile, his daughter wrestles with the what-ifs of her own lost love amidst a struggling marriage.

And? full review here.

3/06/26: Dust of Egypt

What: The Real Artists LLC presents Karin Abarbanel's new play about legendary activist Sojourner Truth. An adult Truth looks back on her youth, when she was newly emancipated from enslavement and fighting in court to rescue and liberate her son Peter, who was illegally sold across state lines from New York to Alabama.

And? full review here.