At the beginning of March, I had 0 shows on my calendar. How horrifying!
Yet by Friday, March 20th, I had somehow scheduled three for a single weekend and one on the following Tuesday. Funny how that happens.
Despite the peril of weekend trains—the Q could not have picked a better weekend not to run—I loved getting to run the gamut of all kinds of shows. When seeing them in quick succession, it was easier to see the stark contrasts not just between the shows’ content—which varied widely—but in the vibes of each theater, the star power, and how I even ended up there in the first place. That’s New York, baby! There are so many options.
Here’s what I saw.
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes
Tucked away on tiny Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village, Hugh Jackman is taking a turn for the dramatic. “Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes” returns to Off-Broadway after a successful run last year to tell the story of a professor and his affair with his 19 year-old student.
Hannah Moscovitch’s play hits some of the stereotypes of the older man and younger woman relationship, but don’t be fooled: the show is much more slippery than it seems to be. You can’t be so sure who’s calling the shots.
Jackman is brilliantly and unnervingly charming, and like his character, he dominates the stage. Ella Beatty, who plays the 19-year-old Annie, is a jilted and awkward contrast, with a pattern of speaking so strange to me I wondered if she’d ever formed words before. Yet it was effective—this play left me a bit stunned. In the Cinnabon across the street with my sister after, we both were at a loss for words. I sat blankly on the subway home, altered by what I had seen not out of disgust, but of an underlying sense of discomfort and awe. If that’s not the power of theater, I’m not sure what is what is.
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When to see it: Now through April 30th.
How I got a ticket: Tess’ plus one from an offer from school (thank you, Circle in the Square!)
How to get cheap(er) tickets: TodayTix has a lottery for $35 tickets at 5pm for the next day’s performance. The box office also has $35 tickets available at 12pm for that night’s performance.
No Singing in the Navy
Sailors! You know them, you love them. Especially when they come ashore 24 hours before they have to go to war, ready to kiss 100 women.
On the surface, “No Singing in the Navy”—a new musical that sells itself as “three silly sailors and one pianist”—satirizes golden age musicals about sailors. Yet this production is far sillier—and far deeper—than it makes itself out to be. Instead, three shapeshifting actors embody everyone from a cranky sea captain to a singing crab. We follow them in a hilarious stream of increasingly climactic events in the 24 hours before the sailors are shipped to war.
What will they do knowing impending death is coming? Run for mayor, kiss lots of women, reunite with a long lost love in a lighthouse, and sing some ditties.
I was struck by the revealing soul of this show. It’s there for laughs, but it also has a true heart. What’s the meaning of our existence? How do we love one another in the face of peril? This show might not have the answers, but it’s raising the right questions.
When to see it: Now through April 19th.
How I got tickets: Emily’s plus one. A transactional friendship is always the best way to build your relationships.
How to get cheap(er) tickets: Playwrights Horizons offers $39 tickets for their 35 and under membership and $30 tickets for their student membership.
The Wild Party
New York City Center’s Encores! productions continue to beat the world record for how many stars you can fit onto one stage in a singular production. Jasmine Amy Rogers (“Boop! The Musical”), Adrienne Warren (“TINA – The Tina Turner Musical”), Jordan Donica (“Camelot”), Tonya Pinkins (“Caroline, or Change”) and more come packed onto stage in this jazzy, provocative, and sexy revival.
I admittedly struggled with much of this show. Do I need 40 minutes of each character introducing themselves with no plot movement? Not really, especially as this runs two hours with no intermission. Yet I was fascinated with all the action going on stage—literal action, as this is a wild party—and more importantly, the caliber of talent in a singular space.
This is a perfect fit for their Encores! series: a musical that’s not commercially viable for a longer run but a wild one to revisit for two short weeks.
When to see it: Now through March 29th.
How I got tickets/How to get cheaper tickets: New York City Center offers a $28 Access program for people 40 and under.
Mexodus
This week’s run of shows ended on a high, looping note with “Mexodus,” a new musical returning to Off-Broadway after a successful run last year. Actors and brilliant musicians Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson form the show’s hip-hop score live each night with loop pedals and various instruments.
The music is electric and catchy, and watching them bring it to life is joyous and incredibly satisfying. Sound is integral to this show’s storytelling. One of my favorite moments was when Quijada’s character looped the crumpling of paper and some snaps, then sat back in orange light—it sounded exactly like he was sitting by a fire. Even with these small, intimate moments, the show packs a whole history lesson into 90 minutes without making it feel rushed (besides their rapping, which is highly impressive).
You can get a sense of what the show sounds like on Spotify—and on Audible, where the show was recorded last year. Yet like its hip-hop history musical predecessor, it’s best to be in the room where it happens.
When to see it: Now through June 14th.
How I got tickets/how to get cheap(er) tickets: Stagelight! Stagelight is an annual membership with $5 offers to shows. Paying less for a ticket than I do for an iced latte is a huge win. Regular-priced tickets for this show start at $55.
Bonus! Eight Nights a Week: Lecture by Ryan Donovan
I know what you’re thinking: four mini-reviews in one Substack was enough. But I’d be remiss if I failed to mention what I did on the Monday off from the theater; I attended a lecture at The New School about theater.
Ryan Donovan, Assistant Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University, shared a lecture on his current research, titled “Eight Nights a Week: How Broadway Turned Backbreaking.” This was a fascinating journey of how Broadway’s expectations of its performers have become more demanding in the past few decades—dangerously and nearly impossibly so.
We know that singing, acting, and dancing on Broadway 60 years ago was different, but the difference is in more than pure style; it’s in what we expect from performers. Actresses are consistently expected to belt out higher notes. Dancers need to cortort their bodies. Everyone on stage needs to be a real dramatic actor. It’s upleveling the caliber of what we see on stage, but it’s coming at the cost of actors’ wellbeing.
Being a performer today means agreeing to Herculean efforts to keep your body in tip-top shape—then having to go on and do your show. And even then, it’s not guaranteed you’ll make it to Monday.
Now, for a rest, then back to the theater...
Zoe