Weekly Margin 2025, W17: Dead Outlaw, 七月半遗愿清单 Of Ashes and Souls, Miscast 2025

 4/22/25: Dead Outlaw

What: The Broadway transfer of the Off-Broadway hit by Itamar Moses, David Yazbek, and Erik Della Penna, inspired by the true story of Elmer McCurdy, an inept criminal whose preserved corpse endured a legacy longer and stranger than his thirty-one years of life.

And? This Broadway season's musicals is a continuing chain of "what an odd idea for a musical!" Some of them are successes, like the gem of Maybe Happy Ending or the delightfully silly Operation Mincemeat. Some disappeared quickly, like Swept Away. Some are still stubbornly kicking around, like Redwood. This one had a much-celebrated Off-Broadway run at the Minetta, which I missed, so I am grateful it got a transfer so I could see it. It's strange. It's good, I think, but yes another unusual show to land on Broadway this season. And not just because of the unusual subject matter (Andrew Durand spends half the show in perfect stillness, propped up in his display coffin), but also because of the way the story is told: a band jamming onstage in a little hut (lovely lighting by Heather Gilbert) with the lead singer telling us the story, periodically reminding us this is all true, and stepping into the story as bandit Jarrett, who lures Elmer into his gang to be the safecracker. The scenes happen in the spaces around the rotating hut, but the music remains the centerpiece of the action. The production is also a lovely showcase for a number of talented performers often relegated to thankless supporting roles: particularly Thom Sesma, but also Eddie Cooper and Dashiell Eaves.

Andrew Durand, Julia Knitel, and the band of Dead Outlaw.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

4/25/25: 七月半遗愿清单 Of Ashes and Souls

What: Zihe Tian & Shall See Theater present the world premiere of Zijun (Neil) Wang and Zihe Tian's comedic horror story about a group of influences in a haunted house during the Hungry Ghost Festival, attempting to discover what caused the fire that killed eight people twenty-five years earlier.

And? full review here.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• MCC's Miscast 2025 concert.

Margin Notes: 七月半遗愿清单 Of Ashes and Souls

七月半遗愿清单 Of Ashes and Souls

Seen on: Friday, 4/25/25.

Plot and Background

Zihe Tian & Shall See Theater present the world premiere of Zijun (Neil) Wang and Zihe Tian's comedic horror story about a group of influences in a haunted house during the Hungry Ghost Festival, attempting to discover what caused the fire that killed eight people twenty-five years earlier. This is the debut production of Shall See Theater.

What I Knew Beforehand

That it would be in Mandarin. I was, as Sondheim said, both excited and scared.

Thoughts:

Play: It feels so rare to see an original story these days, and this one is delightfully original. Nine online influencers (gamers, amateur sleuths, and other personalities) have all gathered during Zhongyuan Festival (Hungry Ghost Festival) at a haunted mansion, determined to discover what caused the gas fire a quarter of a century ago, and find themselves in a time loop, stuck in the last hour of this day when the veil parts, and the spirits of the dead may cross over to inhabit the living. As one by one each influencer is taken over by another spirit, we step closer to the truth and the past, and a reconciliation among the dead for what went wrong that day when all seemed about to finally go right. Playwrights Zijun (Neil) Wang and Zihe Tian have crafted a script that is both tense and funny, and increasingly engaging as the audience comes to understand the story being told (it is, I admit, a bit overwhelming at the top, at least for a non-Mandarin speaker). Moreover, Wang, who also directs the show, crafts a coherent arc across the scene-jumping script. I will say, for future revisions, the countdown to the reset doesn't quite make sense in execution of the story--or at least, it was unclear to me if we were seeing multiple resets or just the one hour; if it's just the one hour, the timestands slated at the top of each scene don't match the flow of time as we or the characters are experiencing it. This is nitpicky, but it was distracting in the moment.

Weekly Margin 2025, W16: Genius, The Last Five Years, Canaan Unremembered, Floyd Collins

4/14/25: Genius

What: The Lucille Lortel hosts a benefit reading of a new musical adaptation of Patrick Dennis's novel, about a celebrated film director who flees creditors and the IRS for Mexico where, when he encounters bestselling author Patrick Dennis, devises a scheme to make a new movie and pay off his debts.

And? It's okay. Some of the songs are fun, but there's still a ways to go before it has the sharpness needed to be the kind of musical farce it wants to be. But it was a treat to see the incredibly talented and charismatic Douglas Sills in a leading role again: confident, clear-voiced, and as polished as if he'd been working on this role for weeks and not the 25 hours the director told us. Also making delightful comic turns were Lesli Margherita, Natascia Diaz, and Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda.

4/16/25: The Last Five Years

What: Jason Robert Brown's semi-autobiographical musical about his first marriage finally makes its Broadway debut. This is the one where she's living the story backwards, he's living it forwards, and they meet in the middle, when they get married.

And? We should start with Adrienne Warren. She is fan-flipping-tastic. A rich throaty voice, Disney princess eyes, and full conviction in her character. Even when she's just standing there listening, she's riveting and heartbreaking. Nick Jonas next to her is ... okay. He's sipping a delicate cocktail of low expectations, almost no dialogue, and being directed within an inch of his life. He moves well, and so he shines when he's got a dynamic song to perform, especially when he does high vocal riffs (his lower register remains weak). But when he's abandoned to the more staid serious songs, he crutches on leaning forward as his only tool to show he really means it.

This production breaks from the others I'm aware of, by sometimes having the other player present during their partner's song; perhaps they are borrowing from the film adaptation's success with that move (thinking specifically of the camera holding on Anna Kendrick's reaction to Jamie's "If I Didn't Believe in You"). The difference, though, is that the film was grounded in a clear reality (I am ignoring anyone who comes in yelling about musicals not being grounded in any reality, you're deliberately missing my point), and the stage show exists in a much more amorphous and flexible space. Beyond that, the show is already written with some overlap (Jamie taking phone calls during Cathy's songs, etc.), and those moments are clearly taking place in their individual character's time, not the time of the song they're interrupting. When either character remains onstage in the same costume to receive a song from a different time, that clarity becomes muddled. It also steals some of the power away from "The Next Ten Minutes," the one time the two characters are actually in sync. When Cathy was already onstage for the entirety of "The Schmuel Song" five minutes ago, her entering to duet with Jamie on their wedding doesn't feel like the momentous moment it should. It feels instead like the director was afraid of letting the show be what it is, and still exist on Broadway--a tiny two-person chamber musical in one of Broadway's biggest theaters (oops). I've seen this show done Off-Broadway (revival, not original), and in concert staging (JRB/Lauren Kennedy, and Joshua Henry/Cynthia Erivo), and honestly it doesn't need a lot of pyrotechnics to sell it. It just needs two powerful performers who have both the acting and singing chops.

I also don't understand why the side lighting was so loosely aimed that it kept illuminating the first few rows of the orchestra (including a bored-looking usher). I even saw an audience member have to hold their hand in front of their face to block the light. And I don't really know what the set design was doing, if it was doing anything.

Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas as Cathy and Jamie in the aforementioned
"Schmuel Song." Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Weekly Margin 2025, W15: The Devil's Due, Smash: The Musical, Humpty Dumpty, Real Women Have Curves

4/07/25: The Devil's Due

What: The Tank presents a new play by Meron Langsner about Johanna, a young physicist, who conjures Doctor Faustus and Mephistophilis in her quest for knowledge, and must face the question of whether scientific discovery can be "pure" when in the hands of those who would corrupt its intentions.

And? Due to a few behind-the-scenes challenges, the performance I saw was a semi-staged reading, though in full costume and still utilizing key props. While the first act had a bit of unevenness as a result of this, the cast found their stride, and act two was fantastic. Doctor Faustus's curse after death is to corrupt the brilliant scientific discoveries that have come since his life, and he fears that his influence here under Johanna's summoning will finally bring about the end of life on earth (a valid concern for us here in 2025). I found myself thinking about the development of AI, and the wonders that it could achieve, but how often it is corrupted to replace thinking and processing in people ourselves. Are we drifting ever closer to energy sources kept in gooey pods? Were the Wachowski sisters right? Or is there still a chance for us to redeem ourselves? Without giving too much away, I will say that this play discusses the idea of hope quite a bit--the last thing in Pandora's Box, the thing that keeps Faustus going even as he is wracked with pain, the thing that drives Johanna to keep tempting fate (and the devil) to keep seeking knowledge and discovery. Hope that there is a better we can be, a better we can do. It's hard to choose hope right now, has been hard for years. But I'm grateful playwright Langsner chose hope here. Also marshmallows.

4/08/25: Smash: The Musical

What: A new stage adaptation of the cult favorite TV show, a backstage musical about trying to adapt Marilyn Monroe's life into the musical Bombshell.

And? It's pretty strange, actually. It's not until the finale that Smash itself becomes a musical. It would probably call itself a backstage musical, but I'd be more inclined to call it a play with music--every song (except the finale) is diegetic, and nearly all of them are from the show-within-the-show Bombshell. As such, while some of them have some emotional resonance for the meta-character singing them, they're all still tied to the bombastic musical comedy energy of a show we only ever see pieces of. Sure, the songs are fun, but they're also a bit emotionally inert as a result. They do get to show off Stro doing what she does best though. And while I did miss getting to hear Brooks Ashmanskas sing, his comedic timing is unparalleled, and he earned some huge laughs.

It is interesting to see how the soapy hijinks and backstabbing viciousness of the TV series are adapted for this musical adaptation: dynamics are changed, with characters becoming different archetypes, and new elements introduced (I say archetypes because they don't bother to make Karen a real character so much as the sweet and wholesome perpetual understudy waiting for her Sutton Foster moment). It took until near the end of the first act for the show to actually surprise me, but I enjoyed that surprise very much.

tl;dr the show's kind of a mess, but it's a benevolent mess, and there's a lot of real talent onstage.

Robyn Hurder, Caroline Bowman, and Bella Coppola as Ivy, Karen, and Chloe.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Margin Notes: Humpty Dumpty

Christina Elise Perry, Gabriel Rysdahl, Marie Dinolan,
and Kirk Gostkowski as Nicole, Troy, Spoon, and Max.
Photo by Matt Wells.

Humpty Dumpty

Seen on: Wednesday, 4/09/25.

Plot and Background

The Chain Theatre presents the New York premiere of Eric Bogosian's 2002 play about a vacation "off the grid" is thrown fully off the grid when there is a mass power outage, the range of duration of which is unknown.

What I Knew Beforehand

I have seen and reviewed a number of Chain productions over the years; and I knew some of Bogosian's work.

Thoughts:

Play: It's chilling how current a play from over twenty years ago feels, particularly one so fixated on the technology available at that time: Palm Pilots, cell phones with patchy signals (that were not yet smartphones), and wall-mounted landlines and fax machines. As the characters, in the wake of both Y2K and 9/11, get distracted by cell phone calls, crab about increased TSA guidelines, and idly discuss the chances of another plague wiping out millions, there's a certain grimness to the Greek Tragedy of it all. We in the audience know the distant future, even as we don't know the immediate future awaiting these characters. What caused this blackout? How long will it last? And, even more grimly for us city-dwellers watching, the keen awareness that while out in nature these characters have some access to fresh food, those in the city would be cut off from supplies much more immediately. We remember the short-supply panic of March 2020.

So all this feels both prescient and immediate, and brings back memories of that isolation and uncertainty. Director Ella Jane New crafts the dynamics of the group with agility, maintaining the lines of tension as the dangers, both outside and in, increase.

Weekly Margin 2025, W14: John Proctor is the Villain, Vanya, Iolanthe, The Threepenny Opera, Pirates! The Penzance Musical

4/01/25: John Proctor is the Villain

What: A new play by Kimberly Belflower, about the high school English class of a small Georgia community in 2018, currently rocked by a recent #MeToo revelation about one of the student's parents, the return of another student after an unexplained six-month absence, and the reading of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

And? Parts of it are perhaps a bit on the nose (the title does rather give the game away, considering the payoff for it doesn't hit until two-thirds in), but perhaps that's appropriate for a play set entirely in a high school classroom. It still packs a hell of a punch, helped largely by a rudely talented ensemble (able to authentically bring back what it was like to be a teen girl who just wanted to have her inside jokes with her friends), and an epic climactic sequence. It was a great modern read on what is a standard high school text (raise your hand if you were also in your high school's production of it?). Is it an overly simplified read of Proctor? Probably, but that's also a very teenage thing, that absolutism. In any case, the larger sentence should be "John Proctor is the villain in Abigail's story." My friend that I saw it with remarked as we were leaving that the people who needed to see this play probably wouldn't (she made a similar remark when we left Prayer for the French Republic, and she was right). But in this case, I replied, "I needed to see it." Today, now, this year, I needed to see it.

What is true that the primary audience will probably be there for Sadie Sink, star of Stranger Things. Good news, she's fantastic, as is the rest of the less-famous cast. 

4/03/25: Vanya

What: The Lucille Lortel hosts the New York transfer of the London hit, Simon Stephens' one-person adaptation of  the Chekhov classic, starring Andrew Scott.

And? I forget sometimes how terrible most of the sightlines are at the Lortel. Oh well. Andrew Scott is heartbreaking and funny and astonishing and wonderful, and the adaptation is interesting, but it is still Chekhov, who's not my favorite. Still glad I saw it, as Andrew Scott is always worth seeing live.

Andrew Scott. Photo by Marc Brenner.