Book Review: Patience

(Borrowed from NYPL on 40th St., 3rd floor graphic novel section): Amazing read. Daniel Clowes' dazzling sci-fi thriller reads like a movie. I have loved all of his work including Wilson, Ghost World, Ice Haven, and Caricature. An economically oppressed couple is expecting a baby. Suddenly the husband comes home to find his wife killed in an apparent botched break-in. He spends the rest of his life trying to bring her back as we travel into a bizarre future. The panels spring right off the page, sometimes blurring over the edges to suggest the weird psychedelic trip the husband takes through time and his own consciousness. The portraits of working-class despair and random cruelty are heartbreaking. The title is ironic as Patience tries to piece together the jumbled mess her obsessed hubbie creates in his misguided efforts to save her.

B'way/Off-B'way Update: MTC and Public Theater Seasons

David Lindsay-Abaire
Credit: Tricia Baron

Manhattan Theater Club and The Public Theater have announced all or part of their 2025-26 New York theater season schedules.  MTC will present two plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors while the Public will deliver a plethora of world premieres. MTC will premiere The Balusters by David Lindsay-Abaire (Dinner with Friends, Rabbit Hole, Good People) at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theater in the spring of 2026. 

"Manhattan Theatre Club has been my artistic home since I was a baby-playwright, so of course I’m thrilled to be back with The Balusters, my newest play about well-intentioned people behaving really badly,” commented David Lindsay-Abaire. “The only thing more exciting than having a new show on Broadway? Having it helmed by the brilliant director Kenny Leon. After twenty-five years of plays with MTC, I’ve never looked forward to sharing a story with an audience more than I am with The Balusters." The play focuses on a small residential community which is thrown into turmoil when a newcomer suggests installing a stop sign at the corner of the neighborhood's prettiest block.

Off-B'way Reviews: The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse; All Nighter

Patrick Nathan Falk, Milly Shapiro, and
Luke Islam in The Last Bimbo of the
Apocalypse.
Credit: Monique Carboni

The impact of our celebrity-obsessed digital culture is explored in the intimate and funny new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse from The New Group at the Signature Theater Center. The book by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley sharply satirizes the  click-crazy ecosphere which values appearance and flash over substance. The energetic rock score by Breslin (music and lyrics) and Foley (additional music and lyrics) captures the empty ache experienced by many Gen Z-ers seeking meaning through their devices. The show could have been as shallow as the situation it purports to parody, but the authors have captured the sweet innocence of an alienated youth, isolated by COVID and unable to recover in-person social skills. “I’ll take a picture on my phone/And post it so I’m not alone,” is one of the more haunting lyrics. “I don’t wanna do anything/And I want to be rewarded for it” is another which captures the desperate state of disconnection dominating our world.

Milly Shapiro and Keri Rene Fuller in
The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse.
Credit: Monique Carboni

The plot centers on an infamous picture of media sensations Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton which ran in the New York Post in 2006 with the caption “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse.” Breslin and Foley imagine there was a fourth “Bimbo” in the pic in the form of a barely visible wrist. An Internet sleuth calling herself “Brainworm” (a heartbreaking Milly Shapiro) is determined to find the identity of the missing girl. By searching for this elusive possible pop-culture icon, she hopes to find her own identity and possibly venture into real life. (She has not left her room in four years.) She is joined by a pair of gay male YouTubers identified as Bookworm and Earworm, one of whom is closeted (funny and flamboyant Patrick Nathan Falk and Luke Islam). 

Their search leads to Coco (dynamic Keri Rene Fuller), the wrist in the photo and a wannabe singer who vanished after her one attempt at topping the charts failed. Along the way, the trio encounters Coco’s religious-fanatic mother (fiery Sara Gettelfinger) and an unidentified friend (quirky Natalie Walker) who holds the key to the mystery. 

Director Rory Pelsue cleverly stages this journey through cyberspace as if the characters were all in physical proximity though they are mostly communicating through their screens. Amit Chandrashaker’s spectral lighting, some of which is through cell-phone illumination, aides in the illusion. Cole McCarty designed the kicky costumes spanning the last two decades of hipster fashion. Pelsue also balances the comic, satiric elements with compassion for the disillusioned Internet addicts. The cast, especially Shapiro, portrays them as broken loners rather than as eccentric goofballs obsessed with trivia. These are more than comic Bimbos, they’re human beings.

The cast of All Nighter.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

In another Off-Broadway show about young people coping with a difficult world, Natalie Margolin’s All-Nighter insightfully dissects a quintet of female college seniors as they pull their final nocturnal study session and embark on becoming adults. Each is riddled with anxiety and insecurities as they down copious amounts of Adderall, energy drinks, white wine, and humus to maintain the stamina to complete their last assignments. A ghost is blamed for unusual happenings in their shared house as the night drags on and uncomfortable truths are revealed. 

Margolin is a promising playwright, creating believable characters and skillfully building a riveting story arc employing interesting details and building suspense through careful clues. Jaki Bradley’s well-paced direction includes hilariously fast-motion action to denote the passage of time and Isa Briones, Kathryn Gallagher, Alyah Chanelle Scott and understudy Tessa Albertson deliver complex portraits of young women in conflict with themselves and each other. As Wilma, the outspoken outsider of the group, Julia Lester crashes into the action like a hurricane. Wilma longs to be noticed, and more importantly, accepted. Lester fullfils this objective with spectacular character choices, endowing each gesture and action with subtext. Even munching on a bag of potato chips or aggressively opening a collapsible stool so she can join the study table reveals tons about Wilma and her needs. It’s a fascinating performance in an excellent ensemble.

  

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse: May 13—June 1. The New Group at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater/Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 95 mins. with no intermission. thenewgroup.org.

All Nighter: March 9—May 18. Newman Mills Theater/Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 511 W. 52nd St., NYC (this is not a production of MCC Theater). Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. allnighterplay.com.

Happy Ending and Proctor Win OCC Awards

John Proctor Is the Villain
was named Outstanding Broadway Play
by the Outer Critics Circle.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Maybe Happy Ending and John Proctor Is the Villain were named Outstanding Broadway Musical and Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle, the official organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town, national, and digital news publications, honoring the 2024-2025 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. Happy Ending won a total of four awards also including Outstanding Director of a Musical, Book and Score. The awards will be presented on May 22 at Lincoln Center's Library for for the Performing Arts. Presenters will include Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club), Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo), Andrew Durand (Dead Outlaw), Steve Guttenberg (It Takes Two), and Thom Sesma (Dead Outlaw).

Liberation by Bess Wohl was named Outstanding Off-Broadway Play and Drag: The Musical Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Laura Donnelly of The Hills of California, Francis Jue of Yellow Face, won for Outstanding Broadway Performances (Lead and Featured) for Broadway Plays. Surprisingly Jasmine Amy Rogers of BOOP! The Musical defeated favorites Audra McDonald of Gypsy and Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Blvd. for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Musical. Jak Malone who delivers the moving "Dear Bill" in Operation Mincemeat won for Outstanding Broadway Featured Musical performance. The OCC performance categories are gender-free but separate Broadway and Off-Broadway. OB winners include Adam Driver of Hold On to Me Darling, Nick Adams in Drag: The Musical, Michael Rishawn in Table 17 and Andre De Shields of Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

The Outer Critics Circle is an esteemed association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organizations, in America and abroad. Led by its current President David Gordon, the OCC Board of Directors and Nominating Committee also includes Vice President Richard Ridge, Recording Secretary Joseph Cervelli, Corresponding Secretary Patrick Hoffman, Treasurer David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson and Doug Strassler. Simon Saltzman is President Emeritus & Board Member (Non-nominating) and Stanley L. Cohen serves as Financial Consultant & Board Member (Non-nominating). Lauren Yarger serves as the Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony executive producer.

A complete list of the winners follows:

Equity Foundation Awards

Nicholas Barasch, Ramin Karimloo, and
Jinkx Monsoon in Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Credit: Joan Marcus

The winners of the Equity Foundation Awards have been announced. The Clarence Derwent Awards for rising talent in supporting roles go to Julia Lester of All-Nighter and Nicholas Barasch of Pirates! The Penzance Musical. The Richard Seff Awards for stage veterans in supporting roles go to Jessica Hecht of Eureka Day and Francis Jue of Yellow Face. The Joseph A. Callaway Awards for classical roles go to Steve Epp (Henry IV) and Kimber Elayne Sprawl for Othello. 

The winners will be presented with their accolades at an upcoming Equity regional meeting. 

The Judges Panel for the seasonal performance awards included: Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide; Adam Feldman, Time Out New York; Elysa Gardner, New York Sun, New York Stage Review; Harry Haun, The Observer; Kobi Kassal, Theatrely; and Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, New York Stage Review.

Kathryn Gallagher, Julia Lester, and
Havana Rose Liu in All Nighter.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

Les Miz Cast Plans to Boycott Trump at Kennedy Center

The cast of Les Miz.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

10 of the cast members of the touring production of Les Miserables are planning to boycott a June 11 benefit performance at the Kennedy Center because Trump will be there. Trumpy and the right-wing blogosphere are blowing their top. Richard Grenell, interim director of the Center, is furious and calling for a return of the McCarthy-era blacklist of artists suspected of disloyalty to the current regime. 

"Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed," Grenell fumed in a statement. "In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience....The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together" 

If they haven't already, the actors in question should issue of a statement of their own explaining their reasons. What Grenell is missing is that these actors are not intolerant of those with differing views. They are protesting Trump's anti-art and anti-diversity policies. The Center has cancelled all LGBTQ programming the week of Gay Pride in DC. Trump is cutting NEA grants for theaters across the country. He's threatening to defund Public TV and National Public Radio. All of those points should be put out and plainly stated. I'm guessing they would be happy to do the show if Trump weren't there and would not ask every audience member who they voted for. At least, I assume that's why they are boycotting. That's why they should put out their own statement. They should also point out that Les Miz is about the struggle of the poor for social justice and the overthrowing a corrupt government. Ironic, huh?

It might have been more effective for everybody to call in sick just before the performance and issue a statement afterwards. 

NYDCC Awards Purpose, Maybe Happy Ending, Scott, Liberation Cast

Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in
Maybe Happy Ending,
Best Musical winner from the NYDCC.
Credit: Matthew Murphy and 
Evan Zimmerman

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose and Will Aronson and Hue Park's Maybe Happy Ending were voted Best Play and Best Musical of the 2024-25 season by The New York Drama Critics Circle on May 5. Purpose had won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Theater Critics Association's Steinberg Award earlier the same day. The 89th meeting of the Circle took place at the offices of Time Out New York and lasted three and a half hours. The group introduced two new categories this year with Best Individual Performance going to Andrew Scott for Vanya and Best Ensemble to the cast of Liberation. Special citations were awarded to Cole Escola, performer and playwright for Oh, Mary!, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and to David Greenspan for Lifetime Achievement. (There are rumors this production of Cats will transfer to Broadway next season, but nothing has been confirmed.) The awards will be presented on May 15 in a private ceremony at 54 Below. The Best Play prize includes a $2,500 check from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 23 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season is the nation's second-oldest playwriting award, after the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Adam Feldman of Time Out New York serves as President, Zach Stewart of Theatermania is Vice-President, and Helen Shaw of The New Yorker is treasurer.

In addition to Feldman, Stewart and Shaw, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are David Barbour, David Cote, Joe Dziemianowicz, Greg Evans, Rhoda Feng, David Finkle, Elysa Gardner, Robert Hofler, Sara Holdren, Charles Isherwood, Chris Jones, Soraya Nadia McDonald, Jackson McHenry, Johnny Oleksinski, Brittani Samuel, Frank Scheck, David Sheward, Tim Teeman, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Matt Windman. Emeritus members include Melissa Rose Bernardo, Brian Scott Lipton, Michael Sommers, Steven Suskin and Linda Winer. Four members (Cote, Evans, Holdren, and McDonald) voted by proxy and one member (Windman) attended via Zoom. All other voting members were present.