Weekly Margin 2026, W4: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Murder at Midnight

1/21/26: Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

What: The Broadway transfer of the West End two-hander musical about a young British man visiting New York for the first time to attend the wedding of a father he's never met, and his antics with the sister of the (much younger than the groom) bride.

And? It's cute. It's definitely cute. Both actors are doing good work (nice to see Christiani Pitts again). I like Soutra Gilmour's seemingly simple but magic box surprise of a scenic design. Several of the songs in the second half are clever. But I was not in a good headspace when I saw this--which is not the show's fault--so I found a lot of the humor unimpressive, the plot turns predictable, the first half of the score unsurprising, and the piece as a whole not unusual enough to transcend any of that. Someone said to me it's being described as this season's Maybe Happy Ending, and I can see that, in terms of a small-cast chamber musical telling a sweet story of two polar opposite people on a quest learning to appreciate each other. But Two Strangers slides closer to a number of movies I've already seen, whereas MHE surprises in staging, scenic and projection design, clever lyrics and earned character arcs, and ultimately managing to skirt a number of predictable archetypes of this type of story to show us something new.

Two Strangers doesn't show us something new, even if it is charming enough at what it's showing us. I don't want to come down to hard on it. But I think it got overhyped for me, and then with my brain being what it was when I saw the show, I was underwhelmed.

Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty as Robin and Dougal.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

1/22/26: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

What: The Off-Broadway revival of Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn's adorable musical about, well, what the title says, and the oddball kids who compete.

And? A perfectly fine and fun revival, if not particularly transformative. The sweet and tart nature of the show remains intact, as well as the humor. And it's good to hear this score live again. I had hoped to catch Justin Cooley, a delight in Kimberly Akimbo, but he was out; luckily, his understudy Jahbril Cook did excellent and endearing work. The contemporary script updates were mostly fun, and a good way to keep surprising people who already know the show well from its original run. I particularly enjoyed a number of the women in the cast: Jasmine Amy Rogers (Miss Betty Boop herself!) is an endearingly earnest Olive without being cloying, Leana Rae Concepcion's Marcy is a hilarious taut wire until her euphoric explosion in my favorite song in the show, "I Speak Six Languages," and the always excellent Lilli Cooper is polished, wryly funny, and in excellent voice as the bee's emcee Rona Lisa Peretti. My one real beef with this production is the missed opportunity seized by the original production. When this show first arrived on Broadway back in the aughts, it featured three principal roles played by larger bodied actors. It was great representation of three talented performers (and their talented understudies and replacements--I got to see Josh Gad), and there were no jokes made about their size. With this revival cast, there is none of that, and it's a damn shame.

The company of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Photo by Joan Marcus.

Streaming Theater

• Original Theatre's Murder at Midnight.

Best Theater of 2025: Another Year End, Another List

Hello hello and it's time for another year-end round up of my favorites of all the theater I saw in 2025. I've been thinking this month about what a shame it is that the Fall season brings us so many strong pieces of theater, many of which don't survive past the new year for one reason or another (if it's a star-studded play, it's often a limited run anyway), and can therefore be forgotten come awards season, even if they're remembered fondly for these end of the year Best-Of lists. But then, I wonder if the weightedness of the Spring season representation at the Tonys et al is mirrored for the year-end lists. Do Spring shows that burned brightly but briefly make the cut? (Not to brag, but it looks like my list is almost evenly divided between first half of the year and second half. Go me!)

This is just me musing. I haven't run the numbers. But hey, speaking of numbers, this year I saw 128 pieces of theater with 9 repeats, leaving 119 unique pieces of theater. Of those 119, 70 were plays, 39 were musicals, and 10 were streaming.

In order of appearance, these ones stuck around in my brain, my heart, and/or my gut.

Weekly Margin 2025, W40: Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees (Part 2, Act 1)

10/04/25: Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees (Part 2, Act 1)

What: Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo presents this full-length play in three parts across the month of October. Each part has two acts. We bought a ticket to see the first act of part two (they sell day-of single-act tickets for seats in the fourth tier)

And? One of my big Must Needs for my recent visit to Japan with some friends was that I got to see some classic Japanese theater. We ended up seeing this on our first day, which was both good (made sure it happened) and bad (hooboy, the jetlag). So I can't tell you precisely what the story was that we saw (especially as I opted not to use the subtitle tablet), but it was still a cool experience to see all the elements of Kabuki on display: the elaborate makeup and vocal stylings, the Reciter and musicians to the side of the stage, the hanamichi leading to the front of the stage from the left. Also interesting were what the audience applauded, even when we didn't know why: particular character entrances, or sequences. I couldn't follow the plot especially in scenes where the performers stayed very still (and were so far away I couldn't see who was speaking), but I very much enjoyed the extended battle sequence, which had impressive and elaborate choreography.

Weekly Margin 2025, W22: Just in Time, Dead Outlaw, Next to Normal, Yellow Face

5/27/25: Just in Time

What: Jonathan Groff stars in the Bobby Darin biomusical.

And? I'd read someone make the crack online that it's not Jonathan Groff playing Bobby Darin, it's Jonathan Groff playing Jonathan Groff playing Bobby Darin, but I thought at the time that was just someone dismissing his impression of Darin, rather than describing what the show is actually doing. Groff begins his audience banter by introducing himself as "Jonathan, I'll be your Bobby Darin tonight" and proceeds to make a few cracks about himself (growing up in Amish country, the low viewer count for Mindhunter) before stepping into the actual narrative of Bobby Darin's life, which includes just as much of Bobby himself breaking the fourth wall to narrate, often snapping his fingers to freeze the rest of the cast in order to do so. It's an interesting idea, though I wonder about the legs of this show past its initial run. Both this show and A Wonderful World tried to upend the usual expectations of a biomusical (Just in Time with the Groff-as-Darin lens, and Wonderful World by focusing on the wives), but they do both inevitably slide back into the usual moves of this genre, like an audience member gradually slouching in their seat as the show goes on (this metaphor brought to you by my poor tailbone, which was in a lot of pain that night).

Groff himself brings all his natural charisma and joy at existing to the performance (and all his sweat and spit, as he jokingly acknowledges during the Hi I'm Jonathan prologue. Seriously, y'all, "I'm a wet man" is now canon in a Broadway musical). And while the music is enjoyable and the supporting cast talented, I have to admit I didn't feel the show truly come alive until the second act, when Erika Henningsen appeared onstage in a creamy pink dress, cool as an ice cream cone, to play Sandra Dee. Her vocals are wonderful, as is her chemistry with Groff, and all their scenes felt more visceral and engaging than most of what had come before.

I'm not trying to fully dismiss the show. It's all very charming. Everyone's having a great time. But it feels all very surface until Henningsen shows up and brings everyone down to earth. Oh wait! I do want to praise director Alex Timbers, whose staging handles the challenging Circle in the Square configuration (my favorite Broadway house!) with an ease and confidence that makes you wonder why it's such a challenge to other directors.

Gracie Lawrence and Jonathan Groff as Connie Francis and 
Bobby Darin. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

5/30/25: Dead Outlaw

a repeat visit

Streaming Theater

Courtesy of PBS's Great Performance series, both 

• Next to Normal
• Yellow Face

Weekly Margin 2024, W12: The Ally, The Who's Tommy, Lempicka, The Motive and the Cue

3/19/24: The Ally

What: The Public Theater presents Itamar Moses's new play, about Asaf, a progressive Jewish playwright in a college town who finds himself embroiled in a delicate and contentious campus conflict when he's asked to add his name to a manifesto that--in criticizing the institutional violence against Black people in America--sees fit to criticize Israel as well. Important to note: the play takes place in September and early October of 2023, just before the pogrom on October 7th. It was also written years ago and intended to be presented at The Public, before Covid shutdowns delayed it until now; it has seen some revisions in light of current events.

And? Oskar Eustis's program note articulates that the intention of the play is to dive into these difficult questions without providing an answer, and without designating one voice as the author's proxy. It asks the audience to take the space to listen, to bring empathy to hearing different voices than their own.

It's good to make the space for this discussion, in a landscape where people stop to listen before speaking. For me, however, the play doesn't truly get past the various different talking points I've already read and heard, and the characters themselves aren't fully sketched beyond being the different mouthpieces for those talking points (Reuven, the most ardent defender of the existence of Israel, exists for one scene only and then is neatly packed away in his mouthpiece box. I got the quiet feeling that if he'd gotten any more time, they would have accused the play of being too imbalanced, even though most of the characters are anti-Israel). But maybe this play isn't for me. Maybe it's for that person in the back row the night I went, the person who clapped every time a character spoke one of the dog whistle talking points: those phrases that sound like criticism of Israel but are actually invoking centuries-old tropes and propaganda. (I hate that I have to do this because it should be obvious, but much like the protagonist Asaf, I know I need to reiterate that criticism of Israel's government is valid and necessary; there's a difference between that and a lot of what's being said right now) So maybe this play is for that person clapping, who's heard only their own talking points; maybe it's to break them out of that bubble and work towards empathy. But I can't say I have high hopes that she heard anything she didn't feel like hearing.

Hanging over all of the proceedings, like a Greek tragedy, is the audience's certain knowledge of the tragedy that is only days away. What we see are the tensions ready to explode, just waiting for their object to do so. I wonder what the sequel to this play might look like.

Zooming in a bit, underscoring Asaf's on-campus challenges are his struggles to satisfy his wife, struggles which mirror his struggles as a progressive Jew in America: at once he's both given up too much to move across the country for her job, while also not compromising his ethics enough to support her; she didn't know he felt so strongly about Israel, but also how could he then back down from his stance? Part of their conflict necessitates the unpacking of why a past relationship of his fell apart, one where he could never seem to find safe ground. Where is the path to being the perfect partner? Where is the path to being the perfect Jew, one who satisfies all their liberal friends by being the right kind of ally and not calling out imbedded antisemitism if it detracts from the larger cause (there's always a larger cause)? How are any of us ever enough to deserve to be treated like our pain matters too?

Josh Radnor, Madeline Weinstein, Cherise Boothe, and Michael Khalid
Karadsheh as Asaf, Rachel, Nakia, and Farid. Photo by Joan Marcus.

3/20/24: The Who's Tommy

What: The Broadway revival of the musical about that pinball wizard. (okay, it's about a young boy who witnesses a scene of intense violence and retreats so far into himself that he spends the next twenty years unseeing, unhearing, and not speaking)

And? Des McAnuff, who cowrote the book and won a Tony award for directing the original production, returns to direct this revival. By and large, I think it's a great time. The absolute perfection of David Korins's skeletal scenic design with Amanda Zieve's lighting and Peter Nigrini's projection design work in perfect concert to sculpt this real and unreal space, where walls are imagined and perspectives are constantly shifting, telescoping in and out, then sliding away. The movement as crafted by McAnuff and choreographed by Lorin Latarro is kinetic and relentless. 

My big complaint though is the costume design: I have no idea what story Sarafina Bush is telling. Though the color palate--pulling the neon yellow from the scenic and projection designs to show a sort of poisoning of the space--is effective against the grey scale, a lot of the other costume work feels a bit cartoonish. And I don't know why there are armbands everywhere (gonna hold McAnuff responsible for this too) -- why is fascism a theme in the show now? I thought the show was about the difficulties of processing intense trauma (especially in a family that wants to suppress the bad feelings), and then the dangers of celebrity worship (and a bit of a failed Christ story, a la Pippin). But now there's fascism too, and a longer jump to the future than I remember being in the show prior. I don't get it. It doesn't help that, with the cuts to the second act, that whole second arc feels rushed and a bit unearned.

An interesting new aspect of the staging now is that Tommy is very clearly coded as autistic. At first I was concerned the production was implying that the trauma somehow caused it, but then I realized: in this version Tommy was always autistic: after witnessing the horrible violence and then being instructed by his parents that he didn't hear it, didn't see it, and would never speak of it, the traumatized child took them at their word, and self-induced these psychosomatic disabilities. So um. It's not perfect, and it's not exactly good science, but I don't think Tommy has ever bothered itself about good science. It's a fairy tale.

The preview night we went, two of the principal actors--Adam Jacobs and Christina Sajous--were struck down with a sudden illness; the producers had canceled that day's matinee to let the covers rehearse the show. So we got to see David Paul Kidder's and Afra Hines's debut performances in the roles of Captain Walker and Acid Queen, and if we hadn't been told that, we wouldn't have known. Just, god I love live theater. I love how everyone in the audience cheered loudly, both at those actors' first appearances but also at the curtain call. We were all there celebrating that things go wrong, but theater people figure out how to cope.

Ali Louis Bourzgui as Tommy and the company of The Who's Tommy.
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.

Weekly Margin 2024, W4: Pride House, Harmony, Our Class, Once Upon a Mattress, Dear England

1/24/24: Pride House

What: TOSOS presents Chris Weikels' new play, about Beatrice Farrar's collection of friends at Fire Island during the summer of 1938, right before a hurricane hits.

And? full review here.

Jake Mendes, Patrick Porter, Jamie Heinlein, Alex Herrera, Aaron Kaplan,
and Tom Souhrada as Stephen, Thomas Farrar, Beatrice Farrar, Brad, John
Mosher, and Arthur Brill. Photo by Richard Rivera.

1/25/24: Harmony

What: The Broadway transfer of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's musical about real life music group The Comedian Harmonists, performing amid the rise of fascism in 1930s Berlin.

And? It's better than it was downtown. They trimmed a lot of the excess (though I'm astonished Chip Zien let them cut his Marlene drag number). It's still not a great show, but it's a better show than it was. And like Pride House, it's attempting to bring new attention to a piece of culture that larger society tried to erase from memory. I do wish Zien had more colors in his paint box. Every time he wants to emphasize something or intensify the emotion, he yells/belts. Quiet intensity is also potent, when used. It is nice to see the six young men who originated the roles of the singing troupe downtown return with the show to make their Broadway debuts (except Zal Owen, who has one prior Bway credit), and Sierra Boggess and Julie Benko are great in somewhat thankless parts. 

And, well. I wish some of the subject matter didn't feel so bitterly current as it does, but here we are.

Blake Roman, Steven Telsey, Zal Owen, Danny Kornfeld, Eric Peters, and
Sean Bell as Chopin, Lesh, Harry, Young Rabbi, Erich, and Bobby.
Photo by Julieta Cervantes/Adam Riemer.

Weekly Margin 2023, W50: The Time Machine

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Original Theatre's The Time Machine.

Yesterday is Done: Best Theater of 2022

Hey, old friends, what do you say, old friends? Another exhausting pandemicky year of theater: vaccine and masking restrictions have mostly lifted, so of course my anxiety has doubled down. I saw fewer shows than usual this year, partly because of burn-out, partly because see above, and partly because I am trying to be more selective regarding what on Broadway deserves my time, attention, and money. So I saw less. And a lot of that less felt less than whelming, especially in the Fall season. But, as always, there's still worthwhile work happening. Looking at my shorter-than-usual list of top theater for the year, and at the overall list of everything I saw, there are some clear themes of stories being produced: examinations of anti-Black racism, historically and currently; examinations of antisemitism, historically and currently; and the damaging effects of the patriarchy, rape culture, and toxic masculinity on all genders.

My overall theater tally, before we get into the list itself: 23 streaming productions, 63 live plays, and 32 live musicals (+2 repeats), totaling to 118 (+2 repeats). And for those who might ask why certain shows didn't make the cut below, I'm not counting things like A Christmas Carol (either one), A Strange Loop, the Yiddish Fiddler, or the new Merrily We Roll Along, as none of them were new productions for me, just slightly new iterations.

My top theater, in viewing rather than ranking order:

Skeleton Crew (MTC/Friedman, B; watched January): Dominique Morisseau is a terrific writer and this play is a symphony of good notes (humor, aching pain, anger, shame, hope) with a terrific cast.

Joshua Boone and Chante Adams as Dez and Shanita in Skeleton Crew.
Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Original Theatre (Regional/Digital): Into the Night (watched February) & Tikkum Olam (watched August): Into the Night is a heartbreaking live-shot studio play about the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster in 1981 in Cornwall. Tense and heroic and so ably choreographed as the whole thing seems to be happening live in front of us. Tikkum Olam was presented as a staged reading in conversation with two other plays and is a compelling and thought-provoking examination of the complicated intersectional identity of a Black Jewish woman in the U.K.

Prayer for the French Republic (MTC/City Center, Off-B; watched March). Probably my favorite show I've seen this year. In terms of ambition and scope, I'd call it an Angels in America approach to the Jewish identity (except calling anything the new Angels in America is setting yourself up for mockery of one kind or another, either for hyperbole or cliche).

Molly Ranson, Jeff Seymour, and Yair Ben-Dor as Molly, Charles, and Daniel
in Prayer for the French Republic. Photo by Matt Murphy

Confederates (Signature, Off-B; watched March): Did I mention how amazing Dominique Morisseau's writing is? She's got two plays on my list this year, and well-deserved. This play is absolutely brilliant.

Kristolyn Lloyd, Elijah Jones, and Andrea Patterson as Sara, Abner, and
LuAnne in Confederates. Photo by Monique Carboni.

How I Learned to Drive (MTC/Friedman, B; watched April): Mary-Louise Parker helped me cross something off my time travel bucket list by returning to this role so I could finally see it how it was meant to be performed.

Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse as Li'l Bit
and Uncle Peck. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (, B; watched April): This gorgeous production deserved a much longer life than it got, with an incredible communal ensemble building a space for vulnerability and strength.

Tendayi Kuumba, Kenita R. Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Amare Granderson,
Alexandria Wailes, Stacey Sargeant, and D. Woods as Lady in Brown, Lady
in Red, Lady in Green, Lady in Orange, Lady in Purple, Lady in Blue, and
Lady in Yellow in for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the
rainbow is enuf. Photo by Marc J. Franklin.

A Case for the Existence of God (Signature, Off-B; watched April): God, I loved this one so much. Odd and intimate, a study of two lonely men learning how to become friends even as they both struggle to keep their families from falling apart. I would love for this one to come back in some capacity. My second favorite, after French Republic.

Will Brill and Kyle Beltran as Ryan and Keith in A Case for the Existence
of God. Photo by Emilio Madrid.

Back to You (Turn to Flesh/FUERZAfest/Hispanic Federation, Off-Off-B; watched September): A lovely two-hander written by and starring my friend Chris Rivera, tracking two young gay Mexican American boys who fall in love but aren't sure they can sustain a relationship with their conflicting life plans and access.

Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski (Theater for a New Audience/Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Off-B; watched September). My third favorite of the year. Infuriating and inspiring, and incredibly performed by David Strathairn.

David Strathairn as Jan Karski in Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski.
Photo by Teresa Castracane.

Monstress (Hunger and Thirst/New Ohio Theatre, Off-Off-B; watched October): Although I had an intense reaction to what felt to me a contradictory message in the show, I can't deny what affecting theater it was. Hunger and Thirst keep getting better and better.

Philip Estrera as Catch with Allison Kelly, Adam Boggs McDonald, and
Rheanna Atendido as the Sirens in Monstress. Photo by Al Foote III.

Wilma Theater (Regional/Digital): Those With 2 Clocks (watched October) & School Pictures (watched November): I'm so grateful Wilma Theater is continuing to put content online, especially original works like these two. 2 Clocks deconstructs toxic masculinity and how it informs humor in a series of satirical sketches that suddenly break into an aching, moaning catharsis of agony released and comfort given. School Pictures is Milo Cramer's song cycle about tutoring children in New York, a collection that seems at first whimsical but ultimately breaks down how truly broken the school system is here.

Top: Jenn Kidwell, Mel Krodman, and Jess Conda in
Those With 2 Clocks. Bottom: Milo Cramer in School
Pictures. Both photos by Johanna Austin.

Parade (City Center Encores!, Off-B; watched November): Another bucket list show for me, finally getting to see Parade performed onstage. A flawless cast, intelligently staged, beautifully sung. I really hope it comes back (I hear it might).

Ben Platt, center, as Leo Frank, with the company of Parade. Photo by Joan
Marcus.

Ain't No Mo' (Belasco, B; watched November): As I said in my write-up at the time, holy shit. This is the kind of satire we need to be seeing, one that makes us laugh until it's extremely no longer funny. Jordan E. Cooper is a talent to watch (as is his costar Crystal Lucas-Perry). I'm devastated the production seems to have been cut off at the knees.

Fedna Jacquet, Shannon Matesky, Marchant Davis, Crystal Lucas-Perry,
and Ebony Marshall-Oliver as Passenger 1, Passenger 3, Passenger 2,
Passenger 5, and Passenger 4 in Ain't No Mo'. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Weekly Margin 2022, W35: The End of the Night, A Splinter of Ice, Miles, The Fall, Tikkun Olam

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Original Theatre's The End of the Night, A Splinter of Ice, Miles, The Fall, Tikkun Olam.

Weekly Margin 2022, W23: Notes on Killing ..., Fat Ham, Wonder Boy, Keeping Company with Stephen Sondheim

5/26/22: Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members

What: Soho Rep's production of Mara Vélez Meléndez's new play about Lolita, a young trans Boricua who is angry at the long history of mismanagement of Puerto Rico's finances by colonialism and the US's paternalistic approach. She arrives at the reception lobby of PROMESA (without quite remembering how she got there), only to encounter a receptionist with more than a few tricks up their sleeve.

And? Pacing-wise, it could use some tightening, but otherwise this is a terrific ride. The cast is excellent: Christine Carmela, as Lolita, has hilarious screwball comedy instincts as well as a grounded earnestness to carry the more emotional beats; and Samora la Perdida, as the Receptionist, is deliciously versatile in their various drag personae. And oh, those drag personae! Director David Mendizábal also serves as the production's costume designer, and in addition to Lolita's pantsuit, which recreates the iconic look of activist Lolita Lebrón, they also have built seven gorgeous drags (in collaboration with wig and makeup designer Earon Nealey) for the Receptionist to don as they impersonate each of the board members of PERSONA in the scheme to dismantle the system without it regenerating. Geraldo Díaz Sánchez's scenic design is a deceptively simple corporate office lobby that transforms under Kate McGee's lighting design to a variety of fantasy spaces.

Christine Carmela as Lolita. Photo source.

5/27/22: Fat Ham

What: The Public Theater hosts James Ijames's Pulitzer winning reimagined Hamlet, about a young man named Juicy who's visited by his father's ghost before a family barbeque.

And? Having seen Wilma Theater's backyard film of Fat Ham over the shutdown, I was interested to see what The Public would do with the script. Overall, I think it's a success. Marcel Spears is great as Juicy--pouty, dry, and constantly getting caught by everyone when he spends too much time asiding to the audience. Adrianna Mitchell is also terrific as Opal, Juicy's childhood friend, too scrappy to allow herself to get caught in anyone else's tragedy. And Chris Herbie Holland makes for a delightfully stoned Tio, stealing the show whenever he is onstage. Maruti Evans's scenic design is deceptively simple, giving us the flat surface shell of a picturesque back porch, but in collaboration with Skylar Fox's illusions, there are surprises to be had in many corners.

Billy Eugene Jones, Marcel Spears, Benja Kay Thomas, Calvin Leon Smith,
Adrianna Mitchell, and Nikki Crawford as Pap, Juicy, Rabby, Larry, Opal,
and Tedra. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Bristol Old Vic's Wonder Boy.
• PBS Great Performances's "Keeping Company with Stephen Sondheim."

Weekly Margin 2022, W22: The Karpovsky Variations, Mac Beth, The Red, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Peter Pan, Miscast Gala

5/16/22: The Karpovsky Variations

What: Boomerang Theatre Company presents Adam Kraar's new play about about Jewish and musical identity in a fragmented family.

And? full review here.

Barbara Broughton, Rivka Borek, J. Anthony Crane, and Chris Thorn as
Great Momma Rose, Julia Karpovksy, Barry Karpovsky, and Harold 
Karpovsky. Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum Theatrical Photography.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Red Bull's broadcast of their 2019 Mac Beth.
• Original Theatre's The Red and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• National Theatre at Home's Peter Pan.
• MCC's annual Miscast Gala.

Weekly Margin 2022, W15: Confederates, The Little Prince, Mr. Saturday Night, London Assurance

3/29/22: Confederates

What: Signature presents Dominique Morisseau's newest play, which follows two timelines/stories: Sara, an enslaved woman fighting for freedom and fending off the advances one of her enslavers; and Sandra, a tenured professor of political science at an Ivy League school, who's recently found an incendiary photoshopped picture taped to her door, and is grappling with that while fending off accusations of bias from students and colleagues, both for and against women, both for and against Black people.

And? Dominique Morisseau is fast becoming one of my favorite playwrights. Her language and character work is crystalline precise, and her stories are incisive and deeply human. She doesn't paint the world in all-evil/all-good, but treats the nuances of character while still drawing clear lines in the sand between forgivable and unforgiveable choices. And she lets the scenes play out in such a way that even if you can figure out where it's ultimately going, you still don't know everything about the journey to get there, or who these people will decide to be: their best selves or their worst. And in this particular play, with whom do they choose to collaborate, or co-conspire with? Beyond that I don't want to give too much away, as the joy and moving nature of this story lies in how it unfolds, scene to scene. But I loved it. The cast is wonderful, particularly its two centers, Kristolyn Lloyd and Michelle Wilson. It's delicately and swiftly directed by Stori Ayers, and the ambiguous combination of Rachel Hauck's plantation-cum-university scenic design and Ari Fulton's time-bending costume design are clever.

Kristolyn Lloyd, Elijah Jones, and Andrea Patterson as Sara, Abner, and
LuAnne. Photo by Monique Carboni.

3/31/22: The Little Prince

What: A new modern dance and acrobatic adaptation of the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, about a young boy who travels from planet to planet, learning about the different worlds.

And? Such beauty and poetry! I wasn't sure how I'd do with a primarily dance-based piece, as I notoriously fall asleep at the ballet (I've still never seen Nutcracker in its entirety and I've tried at least five times). But this is lovely. The choreo is vibrant and a gorgeous blend with the aerial acrobatics, and the storytelling clearly aimed at that happy medium of engaging a young audience while still entrancing the adults present. Director and choreographer Anne Tournie, in collaboration with co-director, librettist, and narrator Chris Mouron craft an elegant and entertaining adaptation, still pulling at those same melancholic strands the story has always pulled, while expanding the imagination of how to tell this story on a stage. If I had one complaint, it's that they booked the wrong theater for this show. There's so much floor work, and the Broadway Theatre has little to no rake in its orchestra seating. Both the eight year old child sitting next to me, and my own less-than-five-feet-tall self had trouble seeing a good portion of the performance. However, I recall that the mezzanine has a good rake, so if you're going, aim for the mezz and you won't regret it.

The Rose and the Little Prince. Photo by Prudence Upton.

Weekly Margin 2022, W9: Into the Night, A Valentine for Sondheim

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Original Theatre's Into the Night.
• Fiasco's A Valentine for Sondheim.

Weekly Margin 2021, W51: Striking 12, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Hindle Wakes, A Christmas Carol

12/18/21: Striking 12

What: Chance Theater's holiday show, a concert retelling of "The Little Match Girl," from the writing team of Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda (Ernest Shackleton Loves Me) and Rachel Sheinkin (...Spelling Bee).

And? A charming little chamber musical, with the five cast members also serving as musicians (special props to Laura Leo Kelly and their drum solo, Lex Leigh sounding amazing on the electric violin, and Jacklyn Uweh on handheld percussives and bubbling over with charisma as the S.A.D. Light Seller/Little Match Girl), and it was fun to see an early work from writers I admire.

Jacklyn Uweh as S.A.D. Light Seller, with Laura Leo Kelly on drums.
Photo source.

12/19/21: A Charlie Brown Christmas

What: Chance Theater's encore presentation of a family holiday show, a staging of exactly what it sounds like.

And? While the performances were deliberately very stylized (to appeal to the many many children in the audience and to harken to the television special), they were consistently so across the cast (yes, it grated a bit but it's also less than an hour). And I'll tell you what, I found the production design (Masako Tobaru and Megan Hill) and the staging (James Michael McHale) in this tiny theater a complete delight. Tiny houses and snow-laden trees appeared and disappeared on the snowy backdrop hills, manipulated by the actors using pulley systems. Two winter panels hinged from the walls to become the red velvet curtains for the rehearsal scene. Travel scenes were achieved by performers carrying houses and trees past the walking characters (yes, it's an old trick, but that doesn't make it any less charming). And, of course, Charlie Brown's sad and broken twig of a tree with its lone ornament was transformed by the children into a bedecked and lovely Christmas tree just in time for some singalong carols. 

Matt Takahashi and Juston Gonzalez-Rodholm as Charlie Brown and Linus.
Photo by Doug Catiller, True Image Studio.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Mint Theater's Hindle Wakes.
• Bristol Old Vic's A Christmas Carol.

Onstage and Streaming: My Top Theater for 2021

The first three quarters of 2021 was still the era of Streaming Theater Only, but as Autumn loomed, as more people got vaccinated, theaters began to reopen and we were finally able to return. Now, at the end of 2021, most of the theater I'm seeing is in person, though I'm grateful for the companies who continue to make their work accessible online (particularly the companies not local to me, like APT, Wilma Theater, Original Theatre, Wise Children, and East West Players). I'm hopeful that the future will continue to bring accessible theater to the world, not limiting the audience to only those immediately there or those who can afford the steep ticket prices asked by Broadway, West End, and the major touring houses.

Stephen Sondheim. Photo by Fred R. Conrad.

This year, like last, was hard. It was exhausting. It was, as of November 26th, once more devastatingly heartbreaking, when the giant Stephen Sondheim passed away. As more variants appear and we still haven't reached majority vaccination in our population, we still don't know what the future will hold for in-person gatherings. But y'all know by now I'm a silver lining person, so I can but hope. Amidst our grief and fear, we can hope, we can love, and we can appreciate the good, good art we were lucky enough to experience. This year I am pleased to have two Best Of lists--one for the streaming works that remain vivid for me now, and for the live theater I got attend this last quarter.

Oh and because I know I'm supposed to provide my annual tally, here you go: 103 streaming productions, 25 live plays (+2 repeat), 13 live musicals (+1 repeat), totaling 141 distinct productions (3 repeats).

Love, peace, and health to you all.

Weekly Margin 2021, W49: Kimberly Akimbo, A Christmas Carol, The System

12/02/21: Kimberly Akimbo
What: Atlantic Theater presents a new musical adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's play of the same name (adapted by Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori), about a teenage girl with a disease that causes her to age rapidly, making her appear in her seventies.
And? I loved this so much. So very very much. I need to read the play it's based on, to see how much it's changed in the rewrite. I need a cast album to be recorded. I need this to have a longer run. I have a lot of needs, y'all. This show could have been cloying, it could have been bitter, it could have been a manipulative tearfest. It is none of those things. It is cute without being twee, sweet without being sentimental, funny without being dishonest, and moving without being demoralizing. Looking at the cast list for the play, I see that the musical cast has expanded to include four of Kimberly's classmates (who, as members of showchoir, are a very willing and delightfully able backup group for songs). DLA's characters are all a bit off-center, in a delightful (and appropriately frustrating) way. Kimberly's parents are disappointments and often say the wrong thing, but at the core there is still love. Even her opportunist aunt (my god, can we just have Bonnie Milligan in everything? Her comic timing and her belt are a gift we need more of) has affection beneath her scheming. And Kimberly's growing friendship with Seth feels honest and earned. We watch the show knowing Kimberly's life has a ticking clock and that it will soon run out, but somehow the show doesn't leave us in despair, but rather in hope that we too can pursue happiness with the time we have. Oh and somehow I skipped over this but the entire cast is TO DIE FOR good, and especially especially Victoria Clark as Kimberly, whom you never doubt is a teenager, who breaks and wins your heart, whom you just want to be happy. Dear Theater Gods, a commercial transfer and a cast album, pretty pretty please and thank you?

Victoria Clark as Kimberly. Photo by Ahron R. Foster.

12/03/21: A Christmas Carol

What: Merchant House's annual one man reading of Dickens's classic story, performed by John Kevin Jones.

And? Some may recall that I saw four or five online productions of A Christmas Carol last December. This was my favorite of the lot, so I was so excited to get to see it live this year. It's truly a special experience. You arrive at the Merchant's House Museum and walk through to the back garden for a cup of mulled wine or hot cider. Jones greets you, recites a poem, then leads you back inside to the parlor for his reading of A Christmas Carol. Up close you can see not only his joy but also his absolute and present empathy for every character he portrays. Worth every moment in that (unfortunately) extremely uncomfortable chair.

John Kevin Jones in A Christmas Carol. Photo source.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Original Theatre's The System.

Weekly Margin 2021, W47: Medicine, Baby, Caroline, or Change, Clyde's, Constellations

 11/18/21: Medicine

What: St. Ann's Warehouse presents the American premiere of Enda Walsh's play about, well, about what an Enda Walsh play is about.

And? This feels very much a companion piece to Misterman, in part because while I was engrossed in the journey and feeling empathy for a character in clear crisis as he attempts to untangle the threads of his experience and tell his story, I was also waiting in vain for a moment of clarity or epiphany that never came. But listen, knowing that that's what you're often in for with an Enda Walsh play means that, to paraphrase Lincoln, for those who like this sort of play, this is the sort of play they would like.

Aoife Duffin as Mary 1, with Clare Barrett as Mary 2 in background.
Photo by Jess Shurte.

11/20/21: Baby

What: Out of the Box Theatrics presents an intimate whitebox revival of the Maltby & Shire musical about three couples of different generations and their potential pregnancies, with an updated script (in collaboration with the original authors) to reflect contemporary times and a more diverse representation of society.

And? This production doesn't just talk the talk when it comes to representation. Not only has the middle couple been revised to two women of color (Danielle Summons as Pam and Jamila Sabares-Klemm as Nicki) trying to conceive via a sperm donor, but the younger couple are both people with disabilities (Johnny Link as Danny has moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss and Elizabeth Flemming as Lizzie--also OOTB's Founding Producing Artistic Director--is visually impaired). Even the older couple has been aged up to reflect the performers, as well as highlight how much Arlene (Julia Murney) has deferred her own dreams in favor of raising four children. It's a beautiful thing when the writers are still around to help revise their script for a new society, both book and score. The book remains a bit clumsy--there's a lot of characters explaining to their partners who they are (including their marginalized identities), rather than character moves, and some character moves are never even dramatized (Danny's transformation during his three month tour), but I'm giving them a lot of credit for what they're trying to do, and the score--well, that score still sings. Theaterlab is an intimate whitebox space and the production is ably staged by Ethan Paulini for an alley audience configuration with only three hard-working ensemble members, and you don't miss a word or moment, no matter where you're sitting (seriously, excellent sound design by W. Alan Waters of DimlyWit Productions).  For the cast, Julia Murney and Danielle Summons are the most adept at the emotional heavy lifting (and comedic timing), as well as in wonderful voice, but truly there are no bad performances here.

The cast of Baby. Photo by Kyle Huey.

Weekly Margin 2021, W45: GNIT, Wuthering Heights

11/06/21: GNIT

What: TFANA presents Will Eno's newest, an adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

And? I found myself wishing I knew Peer Gynt, in order to see what was lifted and what was added/reinterpreted. For instance, this play seems a pretty clear indictment of a man with blinders so big he can never see what he has, including how privileged a position he occupies in the world, continually failing upward. Is that part of Ibsen's message, or a modern lens? And when he sees that a woman achieved peace and self-knowledge while he pursued aimlessly and failed over the same thirty years, he reacts by attempting to destroy what she built. Toward the end he looks to the audience and challenges us, if we feel sympathy, to feel sympathy for him, and bad news, Peter, I can't. Production-wise, Oliver Butler does a marvelous job crafting the play, with a poetic and appealing scenic design by Kimie Nishikawa, and a top tier cast, who all manage to deliver Eno's heightened and wry script with perfect straightforward manner (especially Jordan Bellow and David Shih).

Jordan Bellow as Stranger 1. Photo by Daniel Vasquez.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Bristol Old Vic's Wuthering Heights.

Weekly Margin 2021, W35: The Last of the Love Letters, Bagdad Cafe, Viral, Cymbeline

8/26/21: The Last of the Love Letters

What: Atlantic Theater Company presents a new epistolary play by Ngozi Anyanwu about two people at the end of something, unable to finally say goodbye.

And? Honestly, I'm not really sure what to make of the structure or the conclusion of this play. The first section seems wholly disconnected from the second. While both yield strong solo performances from playwright Anyanwu and her costar Daniel J. Watts, I remain unclear just what the playwright or director intended for the audience to leave with.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched This Week

• The Old Vic's livestream of Bagdad Cafe.
• Original Theatre's film Viral.
• American Players Theater's stream of Cymbeline.

Weekly Margin 2021, W28: Love's Labour's Lost, A Cold Supper Behind Harrods, Dumb Waiter, Sweat

 Live theater! I saw live in-person theater! My first live theater since March 11, 2020!

7/10/21: Love's Labour's Lost

What? Hudson Classical Theater Company's outdoor performance of Shakespeare's comedy (co-starring my friend Emily Bradshaw!), about four sets of would-be lovers and, well, the labours they undergo in the wooing, and then whoops it just sort of stops and the sequel is lost to the sands of time. Full disclosure: at the performance I attended, a light rain started about an hour and a half in, eventually increasing enough that the performance was called for rain before it concluded. We saw up to the prelude to the Worthies.

And? It was so thrilling to be back in a performance space again after all this time. Hudson Classical's production is fully vaccinated and semi-masked (when the performers are near the fully-masked audience). The courtyard area behind a monument in Riverside Park is a cozy and magical space, backed by trees and the sound of the city beyond. Fireflies even joined us around eight. This is a charming production of a play I'm not particularly fond of, and Nicholas Martin-Smith's direction helped remind me of the play's better parts, the charm and the banter, as well as the delights of Armado and Costard. John-Ross Winter's costume design is beautiful and appealing (including masks to match each costume), the women winsome and the men dapper. Among a generally solid cast of performers, highlights included Daniel Yaiullo's clever Berowne, Emily Bradshaw's brassy Rosaline, Bryan Bryk's Groucho-inflected Costard, Peter Sullivan's cheerfully dim Antony Dull, and Austin Reynolds's blustery and charismatic Don Adriano de Armado.

Streaming Theater Related Content I Watched

• Original Theatre's A Cold Supper Behind Harrods.
• The Old Vic's livestream of Dumb Waiter.
• Chance Theater's Sweat.