B'way Review: Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride

Jeff Ross in his one-man show
Take a Banana for the Ride.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

You might expect a lot more snark from comedian Jeff Ross in his one-man show Take a Banana for the Ride at the Nederlander. After all, he is nicknamed the Roastmaster General due to his frequent inflammatory appearances on TV celebrity roasts where profanity and irreverence are the order of the day. In fact, the show starts out with video clips of his sharpest gags, the first being his most famous in which he references the genitalia of Beatrice Arthur, along with the beloved Golden Girl herself wagging a finger at him. There follows snippets of Ross being unmerciful to Alec Baldwin and Tom Brady. Stefania Bulbarella created the expansive video design which employs clips and photos from Ross’s personal and professional life, displayed across a gallery of homey picture frames, provided by set designer Beowulf Boritt. The effect, aided by Adam Honore’s warm lighting and Stephen Kessler’s smooth direction, is like being treated to a series of home movies by a funny and welcoming friend.

What we get after those clips is not the second coming of Don Rickles, but a bittersweet memoir of Ross’ history on and offstage, laced with his trademark barbs and the occasional specialty material, such as a song devoted to his cultural heritage with the blunt title, “Don’t F**k with the Jews.” (His real name is Lifschultz, “which means ‘You’d better change that.’”) Music director-pianist Asher Denburg and violinist Felix Herbst provide the expert music accompaniment. Ross even hauls out his dog to tug—successfully—at our collective heartstrings. The evening is, as expected, riotously funny, but also moving and uplifting.

Jeff Ross with his dog Nipsey in
Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

After the clips, Ross enters through the audience, clad by costume designer Toni-Leslie James in an appropriate banana-yellow suit. (The title comes from the parting gesture his beloved grandfather would give him every time he took the bus trip from their New Jersey home into the big city to pursue his dreams of performing.) Ross gently lobs some introductory insults at the audience (at the performance attended, he advised the gentleman wearing shorts in the front row to close his legs since too much of him was showing), the comedian relates his family history and unlikely path to becoming a stand-up. 

After both his parents died relatively young—his mother had leukemia and his dad passed away from a brain aneurysm brought on by drug use—Ross roomed with his grandpa and auditioned for comedy clubs until an appearance on the Dave Letterman Show put him on the map. 

Ross doesn’t spare himself in his acidic commentary. His loss of hair due to alopecia comes in for a ribbing as skewers his appearance (“I look like Bruce Willis’ trainer if he also had dementia.”) His bout with colon cancer is also fair game. There’s also a tender tribute to his three favorite comic friends—Bob Saget, Norm MacDonald, and Gilbert Gottfried—all unconventional funnymen, like Ross.

The most effective extended bit is his tribute to his two dogs—a pair of German shepherds named Nana and Nipsey. Using a Teutonic accent to imitate his two rescue canines, he creates a hilarious image—“Jew, vhere are ze treats! Ve know you are hiding zem!”—goose-stepping and barking around the stage.

The evening concludes with Ross roasting select members of the audience, reeling off ad-libs as he roams the aisles followed by a video cameraperson, but leaving them with an uplifting message after the insults. It’s a perfect capper to an unexpectedly moving show.

Aug. 18—Sept. 28. Nederlander Theater, 208 W. 41st St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. broadwaydirect.com.

Book Reviews: The Candy House

(Bought at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn): Even though I sometimes needed a diagram in order to keep straight the multiple characters in Jennifer Egan's intricate, decades-spanning novel, I throughly enjoyed the ride. Employing characters from her earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Candy House explores the impact of technology of a host of interconnected people. Each chapter is written in different style, the most involving being an vast chain of emails. Egan's command of language and imagination is awe-inspiring. Like the levels in a video game you can't stop playing, a minor detail in one chapter leads you into the next where it becomes significant. The saga is launched when tech guru Bix Bouton invents a system to access all your memories and upload them to an even-more invasive version of the Internet. Like AI, this new invention has its benefits such as solving crimes, but its flaws have devastating effects.  

From the 1970s into the 2030s, we meet movie stars, music producers, citizen spies, black ops military, anthropologists, artists, drunks, drug addicts (recovering and otherwise). 

Egan expertly explores the dangers and delights of ever-expanding tech and the pitfalls it presents.

Book Review: Answered Prayers

(Borrowed from friends' house in Mexico): During our ten-day vacation visiting friends at their home in Malinalco, Mexico, I finished both the Anne Tyler novels I brought along and needed a break from the incredible complexities of Jennifer Egan's The Candy House (which I'm almost finished with.) I came across Truman Capote's notorious, incomplete roman a scandale on their bookshelf. Despite having read it a few years ago, I started it as a stopgap between books and couldn't put it down, completing it in a few hours. 

This does not mean it's a good book, but it is a juicy read. Capote contracted with Random House on a Proustian take-down of international cafe society (as they called in The Barefoot Contessa). He completed only three chapters and published each in Esquire Magazine, alienating all of his high-tone friends, his "swans," spilling their collective beans without even bothering to change their names in some cases. He claimed to have written several additional chapters, but never turned them in to his publisher, finally dying in Joanne Carson's bedroom. The remainder of the manuscript has never surfaced. In the TV-mini-series Capote Vs. The Swans, the fictional version of Capote burns the missing chapters. But I believe he never completed his assignment, having run dry of creative juices while drowning in drugs and alcohol, destroyed by the backlash from his former admirers. If he had written anymore than we have received, those texts would have been found by now. (I did find an alleged missing fragment called "Yachts and Things" on the Internet, but I cannot vouch for its authenticity and it's thin and negligible. A fourth chapter, "Mojave" was also published in Esquire, but was later published as a separate short story in Capote's collection Music for Chameleons.)

In editor James M. Fox's introduction, he reveals Capote claimed to have written the last untitled chapter, the first two (Unspoiled Monsters and Kate McCloud), the fifth (A Severe Insult to the Brain), and the seventh (the infamous La Cote Basque). The last and fifth chapters remain missing. All we have are the three pieces that appeared in Esquire. As they stand, they are entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying. The first two chapters at least have a narrative drive and seem to go somewhere. Down-on-his luck drifter, masseur and would-be writer PB Jones (obviously a stand-in for the author) unwinds his sad tale of floating around Europe and alternating his past exploits with his present sorry state of working as a male prostitute, counting a thinly-veiled, pathetic Tennessee Williams among his clients. Careering from Paris to Tangiers to Venice, Jones encounters the Holly Golighty-like Kate McCloud, a stunning siren living in isolated luxury after two disastrous marriages. Capote's self-portrait is a bisexual stud, pleasing to both men and women with a memory for gossipy anecdotes involving the likes of Ned Rorem, Tallullah Bankhead, Dorothy Parker, Montgomery Clift, and many other famous names. 

The second chapter ends with Jones meeting Kate and imagining a future where he helps Kate kidnap her child from her second husband, a German millionaire. We then jump to the supposed seventh chapter, "La Cote Basque," wherein Jones has stepped up from the oldest profession and is now the intimate of tout le haute monde. Kate has evidently vanished from his life. While lunching with Lady Ina Coolbreath (in reality Slim Keith), he overhears and repeats salacious tidbits from and about Gloria Vanderbilt, Carol Matthau, Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Princess Lee Radziwell (names are not bothered to be changed) and, Babe Paley. This is the chapter that utterly destroyed Capote's reputation and arguably his life. Practically all of his friends deserted him--and for what? Some nasty bedroom tales?

I'm sure he thought this work would be on a par with Proust and Fitzgerald, exposing the frailties of the ultra-rich and making a "major statement" about our corrupt society. But it's just an incomplete harangue, beautifully written in places.

I can imagine what the rest of the novel would have been like: PB Jones and Kate McCloud rescue her son from the clutches of her former spouse in a daring raid worthy of James Bond. They run across the world with the husband's murderous minions in hot pursuit. After several chapters encountering thinly-veiled celebrities, the hunters catch up with them. Maybe Kate is killed, maybe the kid too? Jones gets away with his life and returns to NYC where we find him at the beginning of the book. In the present he goes to the farm of one of clients for Thanksgiving. He finds happiness of a kind as the secret lover of the client whose wife is very understanding, but not before having lunch with Lady Ina Coolbreath.

B'way Update: Proof Revival; Muppets and Magic

Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle will star
in the Broadway revival of Proof.

Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and Oscar nominee Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda) will star in the first Broadway revival of David Auburn's Proof, directed by Tony winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Previews begin March 31, 2026 in advance of an April 16 opening at a Shubert theater to be announced. Proof concerns Catherine, a brilliant but emotionally troubled daughter of a recently deceased mathematician. When she discovers a groundbreaking proof in her father's papers, she seeks to prove she was the one who wrote it. 

The play opened Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theater Club and then transferred to Broadway, winning the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and running 917 performances. The original cast featured Mary-Louise Parker (Tony for Best Actress), Larry Bryggman, Johanna Day and Ben Shenkman. The 2005 film version starred Gywneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhall, and Hope Davis.

Magician Rob Lake and Kermit the Frog 
will be making their Broadway debuts in a
holiday limited run at the Broadhurst.

In other news, magician Rob Lake and The Muppets will make their Broadway debut in a holiday show at the Broadhurst with previews beginning Oct. 28, and opening Nov. 6 for a limited run through Jan. 18, 2026. Lake burst onto the scene with an appearance on America's Got Talent in 2018 and has since toured the world with his act. He has contributed to the illusions in Death Becomes Her and is the youngest magician to win the Merlin Award. There has been talk of The Muppets coming to Broadway since 2013 when director Alex Timbers was reportedly working on a show for them. The fuzzy puppet troupe have performed on stage in Disney World, starred in their own Emmy-winning TV series as well as numerous TV specials, and headlined eight feature films from 1979 to 2014.

B'way Update: Bug; Cats

Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood in 
Bug at Steppenwolf Theater.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

Manhattan Theater Club will present the Broadway debut of Tracey Letts' Bug at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater with performances beginning Dec. 17 and opening on Jan. 8, 2026. The production, directed by Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit, Good Night and Good Luck) comes to Broadway after a 2021 run at Chicago's Steppenwolfe Theater. Bug premiered in London in 1996 and after American productions in Ithaca, NY, Washington, DC, and Chicago, the play premiere Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater in 2004. Michael Shannon recreated his role from the London and Off-Broadway productions in the 2006 film version directed by William Friedkin.

Set in a seedy motel room, cocktail waitress Agnes encounters Gulf War vet Peter who draws her into his paranoid conspiracy theories involving UFOs, the war in Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, cult suicides and government experiments on soldiers. The cast includes Tony and Emmy nominee and Letts' wife Carrie Coon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Gilded Age, The White Lotus) as Agnes White, Namir Smallwood (Pass Over) as Peter Evans, Randall Arney (Steppenwolf’s You Can’t Take it With You, True West) as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom (Sweet Bird of Youth at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as R.C., and Steve Key (Sweat, Off-Broadway: Blue Surge, The Effect) as Jerry Goss.

Book Reviews: French Braid; Redhead by the Side of the Road

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights library): While taking a ten-day trip to Mexico I read these two later novels by Anne Tyler. Both were very quick (about 200 pages each), enjoyable and endearing. French Braid concerns three generations of the Garret family and how their stories are inextricably intertwined like the strands of hair in the title coiffure. We begin in 2015 with two Garret cousins randomly encountering each other in a train station and then flash back to a family vacation in 1959 where the separate interests and personalities of parents Mercy and Robin and children Lily, Alice and David are established and foreshadow the paths they and the next generation will take. The Garrets appear to be unlike other families in that as they age, they grow further apart. The names of nephews and nieces are forgotten as well as phone numbers. Wedding announcements are made abruptly with no forewarning or prior introductions of the bride or groom to the family. But as they progress across the decades, the Garrets come in and out of each others' lives. One of the central strands involves Mercy who moves out of the family house to concentrate on her art work in her studio, yet remains connected to her husband Robin. As in many of Tyler's works, the small details tell so much. After moving into her studio, Mercy is asked to care for her landlord's cat. Her treatment of the cat parallels that of her attitude towards her children, but Tyler never calls attention to the metaphor.

Redhead by the Side of the Road is narrower in scope, but just as deep. The protagonist is Micah, a 40-ish bachelor living a well-regimented but limited life. He works as a freelance tech troubleshooter and an apartment-building super. His orderly world is turned upside down when the son of a former flame shows up claiming Micah is his biological father and Micah's long-time girlfriend is facing eviction but doesn't feel brave enough to drop the hint they should move in together. The story doesn't turn out quite the way you'd expect, and the characters are fully fleshed out. I loved the dynamic between Micah and his four sisters, each one a waitress and the center of a cluttered, pell-mell household. The title refers to Micah's near-sighted mistaking a fire hydrant for a small child, another subtle metaphor on Tyler's part. 

Gay Marriage and Kennedy Center Horrors--I Mean Honors

I haven't written about the horror show known as the Trump administration for a while. But two major developments have cropped up which call for immediate comment--the first major challenge to the Supreme Court's gay-marriage ruling and Trump's first roster of Kennedy Center honorees after he has taken over operation of the venue and its formerly highly-cherished life achievement awards. 

Both these events are indications of Trump and Trumpism's attempts to take over the culture and set it back to the days before DEI, multiculturism and being "woke"--the right's latest bogeyman phrase (succeeding the L word and politically correct). 

I had thought there wouldn't be a challenge for gay marriage because there would have to be lawsuit, not just a red-state legislature passing a wish SCOTUS would overturn Obergefell. Kim Davis--remember her, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to marry a gay couple and liked to wear Grranimals--has filed a suit that she should not have to pay the $125K fine for her refusal because it violates her religious beliefs. She is also suing to have the entire gay marriage decision overturned. Evidently her religious rights are more important than my rights to equal treatment under the law. 

I was worried about this, knowing the the current court is capable of anything. They overturned Roe v. Wade and are allowing Trump to do whatever he wants even if it's a criminal act, as long it's official business. Then I saw that in 2022 the House and Senate passed and Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act codifying non-discrimination for gay, interracial and international marriages. This law makes gay marriage federal and not just a state-by-state thing, backing up the SCOTUS' Obergefell decision. Also, if I read the law correctly, it says that even if the Supremes do reverse Obergefell, states that have no gay-marriage laws on their books must recognize gay and interracial unions from those states which do have such laws. In other words, if a gay married couple from NY moves to Arkansas which has rejected gay marriage, Arkansas still has to recognize this pairing. I think it can also be interpreted that a gay Alabama couple could go to NY or a gay-friendly state, get married there and return to their home red state and still be legally joined. They just couldn't get married in Alabama or Arkansas or wherever. 

Book Review: Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002

(Bought at the Strand book stall on Central Park West for $10) I had read Sedaris' later volume of diary entries, A Carnival of Snackery, while I was recovering from a car accident. This book covers his days struggling at odd jobs in his hometown of Raleigh, NC, then moving to Chicago to teach and finally the big move to New York where he eventually finds his niche as a best-selling humorist. These entries were more coherent than the later book where he jumped from anecdotes about living in France and England to going on book tours. Here we get the sense of Sedaris' career progressing. I remember seeing a play he wrote with his sister Amy at LaMaMa when they collaborated under the name The Talent Family. It was called One Woman Shoe and I reviewed it for BackStage. It was fascinating to see behind the scenes what was going on in his life as he emerged as a major writer in the 1990s. The diaries have lots of funny diversions about farting and animal's assholes. 500 pages went very fast. Though I think sometimes he does weird stuff in order to write about it. Like feeding spiders.

Off-B'way Review: Well, I'll Let You Go

Michael Chernus in Well, I'll Let You Go.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Bubba Weiler’s new play Well, I’ll Let You Go at the Space at Irondale in Brooklyn breaks a few rules and doesn’t seem to have much going for it at first. But the tension and emotion build gradually to a heartbreaking finish and the play dispenses many insightful observations about grief, family, and community along the way.

This is the playwright’s Off-Broadway debut and I’m only familiar with him as an actor. He gave a piercing performance in Swing State at the Minetta Lane in 2023 and was nominated for Drama Desk, Lortel and Outer Critics Circle awards. With this loving drama of everyday life, Weiler proves to be as thoughtful an author as he is a performer. 

The play opens without much theatricality. Scenic designer Frank J. Oliva’s environment is a mostly bare playing area with audience members on both sides. Avery Reed’s casual costumes are similarly understated, but they tell us much about the characters wearing them. There are a few pieces of simple furniture—a card table with two folding chairs, a group of six additional folding chairs arranged together, a mini-fridge, a table with a coffee maker and a microwave. The play begins with an actor entering without the house lights dimming. (They are not fully lowered until the final scene and the audience is so close they seem to be a part of the action. Stacey Derosier sparingly lights the play but her design achieves maximum impact.) Much like the Stage Manager in Our Town, the affable Michael Chernus explains the social and economy history of the setting and introduces the characters as they appear. This is a “get-by” kind of town of modest houses and strip malls where manufacturing jobs have disappeared to replaced by an Amazon fulfillment center. The house we’re in “attracts people who have had a rough go.”

Gilded Age Season Finale Thoughts

Carrie Coon in The Gilded Age.
Credit: HBO Max

SPOILER ALERT (IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EP. 8 DO NOT READ YET) Thoughts on the season finale: so Oscar and Mrs. Winterton would get married and have separate lovers upstate on the weekends? Do you think Winterton knows Oscar is gay? Maybe they can talk about musical shows together. Perhaps Oscar will fall in love with one of the boys at the Haymarket--maybe the one in drag in the background--and install him at the country house. (Also why didn't Oscar go to the ball with the family? I guess there wasn't enough room in the two carriages if they were including Aurora.)

I didn't believe the Russells' break-up. It seemed that was it stuck in there to provide a cliffhanger for next season. The whole motivation for George's anger at Bertha was she forced Gladys to marry the Duke. But They're happy now and she's expecting a baby, so what's the big deal? George and Bertha may get divorced if they are following the Alva Vanderbilt storyline and she'll marry again, then become a suffragist.

The thing with Mrs. Foster and the whole Historical Society was drawn out over two episodes to provide a conclusion for the conflict between Ada and Agnes. Mrs. Foster could have written her offer to Agnes in the first letter instead of being so cryptic.

Hopefully season 4 will have more episodes. The investigation into the shooting will probably provide material for a few episodes. maybe it will turn out NOT to be Clay and that will provide a whole new storyline. Maybe it's an anarchist who is George's illegitimate son.

I think Larry and Marian will eventually work it out. Peggy and Dr. Kirkland will get married but they will have conflicts over her continuing to work. Phylicia Rashad will be an interfering mother-in-law and try to tell Peggy how to do every little thing.

Someone suggested on the Gilded Age Fan Club Facebook group that George will become addicted to Laudanum because of the close-up of the bottle before he joined everyone at the ball. Just like Mary Tyrone. Interesting, as Bertha said on a previous episode.

I also wrote earlier on Facebook that John Adams would leave his money to Oscar but the family would dispute it. They would win and the money form the basis of the family fortune so Gomez and Morticia would live in the lap of luxury.

B'way Update: Two Strangers Musical

Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty
in Two Strangers (Carry a
Cake Across New York)
Credit: Andreas P. Verrios

Following runs in London and Boston, the original musical Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) will open on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre with previews commencing Nov. 1 with an opening set for Nov. 22. This brings the total of new musicals which have defintely announced they are opening this season to only four--the other three being Dolly: An Original Musical, Queen of Versailles, and The Lost Boys. 

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is written and composed by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan and is directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson (Merrily We Roll Along, Dylan Mulvaney’s The Least Problematic Woman in the World). Starring in the musical’s Broadway premiere are Olivier Award-winning actor Sam Tutty (Dear Evan Hansen) in his Broadway debut as Dougal, and Broadway leading lady Christiani Pitts (A Bronx Tale, King Kong) as Robin, who reprise their roles from the show’s acclaimed run at American Repertory Theater this summer. 

Two Strangers is an original new musical comedy about timing, connections, and unexpected detours. Meet Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit who has just landed in New York City for the first time to attend the wedding of the father he’s never met. Meet Robin, the sister of the bride and a no-nonsense New Yorker with a lot of errands to run—including picking up the groom’s estranged son from the airport. These two strangers begin their journey together, navigating New York City, secrets, and second chances. 

Book Reviews: Obscure Plays from the Lincoln Center Library

I decided to read a bunch of obscure plays from the Lincoln Center Library for Performing Arts. They range from British drawing-room comedies nobody produces anymore by high-toned authors like TS Eliot and Graham Greene to Broadway flops from Paul Zindel and Henry and Phoebe Ephron, the parents of Nora and Delia. It was fun imagining these productions from bygone days of plays that will probably never be done again.

The Secret Affairs of Margaret Wild by Paul Zindel: I was curious about this Broadway flop which starred Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley and Doris Roberts. Following his Pulitzer Prize for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds which had a long run Off-Broadway and on the summer stock circuit (I saw Shelley Winters do it in at the Philadelphia Playhouse in the Park), Paul Zindel was a hot item. But his three Broadway shows flopped (And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, The Secret Affairs of Margaret Wild and Ladies at the Alamo). I can see why Stapleton was attracted to this sitcom-y play about a woman obsessed with movies who wins a contest just as her marriage and candy-store business are falling apart. She indulges in cinema-themed fantasies which would have been elaborate and fun, but the play is shallow, solving her problems too neatly like her Hollywood-inspired daydreams.

The Confidential Clerk by TS Eliot: TS Eliot's articulate, bizarre attempt at a drawing room comedy. Nobody knows who is whose long-lost illegitimate son or daughter or what occupation they should follow.

Off-B'way Review: Ava: The Secret Conversations

Elizabeth McGovern in
Ava: The Secret Conversations.
Credit: Jeff Lorch

“The story you are about to see is true…except for the parts that aren’t.” So reads a disclaimer flashed on the curtain before the start of Ava: The Secret Conversations, an intoxicating brew of Hollywood gossip and bedroom talk written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern as Ava Gardner, perhaps the most magnetic star to emerge from the studio system. We start from a point of unreliability but the veracity of information conveyed is not the point of the play, it’s capturing Gardner as she attempts to make sense of her chaotic life and earn enough money to pay her mortgage by publishing a memoir. 

McGovern is charismatic and stunning as the eccentric and glamorous Gardner. Clad by Toni-Leslie James in tasteful gowns and dresses subtly suggesting the pizzazz of old Hollywood, McGovern captures the ineffable “it” quality which made this woman a goddess on the screen. Simultaneously, she conveys her tender vulnerability as the star tries to analyze the impulsive choices which led her to being alone while being the most desired woman on the planet. She is raucously funny, punctuating nearly every sentence with the “f” word and then complaining “I hate foul-mouthed women!” Her Gardner is also frustratingly elusive as she dismisses the possibility of suffering abuse from the like of mysterious millionaire Howard Hughes. McGovern shows us all the facets of Gardner  from the wide-eyed North Carolina girl who rides to Tinseltown on the strength of a photograph in a Manhattan storefront to the cynical veteran of three marriages and numerous love affairs. “Love is nothing,” she spits out with venom, “it’s all a power play.” You can feel every twist and turn of a life’s roller-coaster ride in how McGovern delivers that line.

Aaron Costa Ganis and 
Elizabeth McGovern in
Ava: The Secret Conversations.
Credit: Jeff Lorch

McGovern’s script is fast and fun and Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s staging flows brilliantly with the aide of David Meyer’s elegant, fluid scenery, Amith Chandrashaker’s subtle lighting and Alex Basco Koch’s cinematic projections which feature numerous clips of Gardner and her various husbands. At 80 intermissionless minutes, the author-star does not go very deeply into her subject’s motives and psychology. We get the greatest hits of Gardner’s dazzling life and career, much like the star’s own autobiography Ava: My Story.

The play is based on another Gardner tome, The Secret Conversations which consisted of taped talks between the star and writer Peter Evans who was contracted to co-author a book with her. Eventually, Gardner broke off the collaboration and published her own bio. Gardner put out the transcripts of their dialogues after her death.  

Aaron Costa Ganis in
Ava: The Secret Conversations.
Credit: Jeff Lorch

The action is seen from Evans’ point of view as he meets with Gardner in her London home and together they retrace her tumultuous life. In addition to playing Evans and masterfully narrating the action, Ganis does a credible job of impersonating the star’s three spouses—the hyperactive adolescent Mickey Rooney, the overbearing intellectual jazz musician Artie Shaw, and the blustering, rough-edged Frank Sinatra. Ganis is particularly impressive with his singing Sinatra. He sounded so much like the voice of America’s greatest pop male vocalist, I actually thought he might be lip-synching when he began to croon “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” (Gardner’s love affairs with George C. Scott and bull-fighter Luis Miguel Dominguin are not included.)

Gardner calls Evans at odd hours, shamelessly flirts with him, pulls back when Sinatra expresses displeasure at her revealing their secrets, and finally pulls the plug. McGovern writes the breakup in metaphoric fashion with stagehands disassembling Meyer’s set and a director (Chris Thorn who also provides the voice of Evans’ agent) calling the shots for a final scene. McGovern enters as Gardner in a stunning red-carpet gown claiming “Someday everyone will get a chance to be famous” (a little too on the nose as a comparison to our social-media-saturated world) and disappears. Evans is finally left with projected images of the movie star and the sense he didn’t really get to know his subject at all. The audience might feel similarly short-changed. 

Aug. 7—Sept. 14. New York City Center Stage I, 131 W. 55th St., NYC. Running time: 80 mins. with no intermission. nycitycenter.org.

The Super Heroes of Summer 2025

David Corenswet in Superman (2025)
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros/DC

I haven't been to a superhero movie for the past few summers. The recent crop seemed pretty lackluster. But two of this year's cinematic comic-book efforts caught my attention and drove me back to the theater, in 3-D no less: Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both feature the figureheads of their respective comic houses, DC for Superman and Marvel for the FF. Both have been adapted for film and TV numerous times before with varying success. The Man of Steel has flown into pop culture through multiple media since his birth in 1938. He remains one of the few characters to be the subject of a series of movies, at least one live-action TV show, and a Broadway musical (the others are Spider Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, The Addams Family, and Nick and Nora Charles.) In addition, Supes was immortalized on the radio (voiced by To Tell the Truth host Bud Collyer) and in several animated cartoon series. Though they are the first family of Marvel Comics, the FF have not fared as well in their transitions to the silver and video screens. They have had no less than four different cartoon series--I remember 1968's Hanna-Barbera iteration best since I used to watch it every Saturday morning--and four sets of actors have played them in live action, receiving mixed notices for the first three times. Now both franchises have been given new life in cinematic form.

James Gunn's Superman has come under fire from conservatives for being too "woke," meaning Superman is portrayed as being too supportive of immigrants since he is one himself, arriving on Earth after his home world Krypton exploded. The parallels between our current political climate continue. The plot is set in motion as Superman interferes when a Russia-like country invades a Ukraine-like neighbor. In a story trope echoing a move the Man of Steel made with Adolph Hitler, the superhero flies the Putin-esque dictator to a remote location and sits him on a cactus, promising worse treatment if the invading leader doesn't behave himself. Also Superman's traditional arch enemy Lex Luthor is a sort of Elon Musk-Donald Trump type who imprisons anyone he doesn't like in a pocket universe resembling detention camps in El Salvador. The villain is in cahoots with the Putin-like despot and actually kills an immigrant food vendor in cold blood just because he was nice to Superman. Luthor also uses trolls (actual monkeys typing on keyboards) to smear Superman on social media. 

Superman was always woke--meaning in favor of social justice and sticking up for the rights of minorities--so the right-wing whining feels petty and churlish. This Superman played with humor and humility by David Corenswet is a champion of the underdog and not a toady of the rich (Trump). 

Off-B'way Reviews: Joy A New True Musical; Rolling Thunder

Betsy Wolfe in Joy A New True Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Joy, subtitled a New True Musical, Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels, is a serviceable enough product to entertain intermittently for two hours, but it’s basically a knock-off of stronger, more original female empowerment tuners such as Waitress, Wicked, Legally Blonde, and even Boop!, the recently departed cartoon fantasy. Based on the life of Joy Mangano, a struggling Long Island inventor who became a successful entrepreneur and media saleswoman through her Miracle Mop and other creations, Joy is fun and silly, but trods a familiar path lined with cliches. Note: Joy’s life also served as at the basis of a 2015 film starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Ken Davenport’s book is laden with stereotypes (chauvinistic execs, twangy Texans, fast-talkin’, flinty Long Islanders, 30-ish golddiggers matched with silver-chained daddies) and Annmarie Milazzo’s score heavily relies on generic tunes and unimaginative lyrics. But the game cast is professional and Lorin Latarro’s direction is brisk enough to hold our attention. There are occasional pops of wit and satire, but not to enough to push the show beyond just okay.

We start as beleaguered Joy (a commanding Betsy Wolfe) struggles to hold down her overflowing household. Not only is she putting up both her divorced, squabbling parents (Adam Grupper, Jill Abramovitz), but her ex-husband Tony (Brandon Espinoza) is bunking with Dad Rudy in the basement as Tony unsuccessfully tries to eke out a singing career. Joy’s mom Toots is permanently in her bathrobe and glued to the couch. Joy’s meager paycheck as an airline ticket clerk is the sole source of income, stressing her out and causing her to constantly miss soccer games and school events for her and Tony’s unhappy daughter Christie (Honor Blue Savage).

Jill Abramovitz, Honor Blue Savage, Brandon 
Espinoza, Jaygee Macapugay, and Adam Grupper
in Joy A New True Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Joy has always had brights idea for gizmos which never panned out (realized in a musical number with a younger version of herself played by Nora Mae Dixon). Now she has a light bulb moment when she spills a glass of soda. Why not a mop that can wring itself out with the poor housewife user not having to bend over? Thus the Miracle Mop and a musical are born. 

There follows Joy’s against-the-odds sojourn to market her creation. She is pitted against  sexist QVC higher-ups (led by Charl Brown) and a Stetson-wearing villainous manufacturer named Cowboy Eddie (Paul Whitty) who attempts to purloin her patent. The former are given a rock alpha-male dance number complete with supposedly sexy hip thrusts, and the latter is joined by a chorus of central-casting cowboys (and a few token gals) in an intimidating hoedown. Choreographer Joshua Bergasse gives both numbers much needed energy.