4/21/26: What Happened Was ...
What: Audible's Minetta Lane Theatre presents a revival of Tom Noonan's two-hander about an awkward first date between two coworkers who both feel a bit at sea in a life that hasn't turned out how they thought it would.
And? Great performances from both Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong, particularly Strong's reading of her character's grim and explicit "children's story." I appreciate that the play doesn't attempt to land on a sweet button that has not been earned by the preceding moments. Instead, it chooses to highlight the persisting loneliness of both characters, whether or not they will ultimately be able to cross their divide to find companionship in each other.
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| Corey Stoll as Michael and Cecily Strong as Jackie. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade. |
4/22/26: Every Brilliant Thing
What: Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe's one-person interactive show, currently starring Daniel Radcliffe (but soon to be starring Mariska Hargitay), about a young man's attempt to reckon with his mother's recurring uncompleted suicides and his own depression, by making a list of "every brilliant thing" that makes life better. A number of audience members are drafted, to either read out individually numbered brilliant things (number one is ice cream), or to play characters in the young man's life, including father, spouse, and a nice couple in a hospital who give him a juice box (which he promptly returns because he doesn't like it).
And? Radcliffe is everything charming, a ball of energy whose battery never seems to peter out, even when getting into the heavier parts of the story. But in all honesty, even with its purportedly heavy topic, the play itself never feels that heavy. The concept/conceit of the show is exciting, but suffers in execution (it's often hard to hear the brilliant things being called out by audience members, and the audience-character-stand ins are, of course, inconsistent). And the whole thing just lacks a certain heft for it to really follow me home. I'm not saying I needed the gut punch of Macmillan's other work, People, Places and Things, but PPT knew how to land satisfyingly. EBT has a lighter heart than PPT, but it should still be able to land satisfyingly. It was a fine time, but not a great time.
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| Daniel Radcliffe. Photo by Matthew Murphy. |
4/24/26: Becky Shaw
What: 2nd Stage presents a revival of Gina Gionfriddo's play about a frankly fucked up family whose various damages, dependencies, and toxic dynamics are brought to the forefront when one of them is set up on a blind date with the titular character who is either a naif and perpetual victim, or a sociopath and master manipulator.
And? If you try to treat any of these characters as real people, they'll stop making sense, but if you let that go, you're in for a feast of mess, comedy, tension, heartbreak, and more mess. Stellar cast, including understudy Collin Kelly-Sordelet stepping in for Patrick Ball. Linda Emond, cool as an ice cream cone in full denial that she is melting in the hot sun, is a delight. I took a while to warm to Alden Ehrenreich's deliberate style as Max, the adopted family fixer, but he won me over by the end. And Madeline Brewer, as the titular Becky Shaw, is sweet and secretly sharp, delivering lines with the smile of a waif even as she threatens to destroy the person in front of her. I also want to highlight the scenic design by David Zinn, which feeds us a wall of anonymous doors and black- and gray-palette decor, only for a transformation so satisfying, the man in front of me started applauding.
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| Alden Ehrenreich as Max and Madeline Brewer as Becky. Photo by Marc J. Franklin |
Streaming Theater
- Wilma Theater's The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.
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