Off-B'way Review: Public Charge

Zabryna Guevara in Public Charge.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Though Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga’s Public Charge (fittingly at the Public Theater) takes place only a few years ago, this fast-paced docu-play feels like a relic from another era. Based on Reynoso’s experiences as a diplomat under Hillary Clinton’s State Department and as Barack Obama’s Ambassador to Uruguay, Public Charge follows the intricacies and infighting to accomplish meaningful and constructive foreign policy changes through persuasion rather than violence. In our current political moment, the administration blunders into war and bombs targets indiscriminately, eschewing diplomacy or even civility. 

Focusing on the herculean task of Reynoso, Obama and Clinton to reform the US’s entrenched no-contact policy toward Cuba, the play is a primer on how government at the highest level works or doesn’t. We open with an ironic prologue. Eight-year-old Julissa is attempting to emigrate from her native Dominican Republic to join her mother in the US. In an embarrassing interview with immigration officials, her request is delayed for fear she will become a “public charge” or a burden on the state by depending on welfare. We jump ahead several years to see Julissa become an official in Obama’s administration, helping to determine our policy towards Latin America. 

Smoothly and swiftly staged by Doug Hughes, the play shifts around the globe on Arnulfo Maldonado’s versatile set, transformed by Ben Stanton’s lighting, and Lucy MacKinnon’s video design into a plethora of settings from a bodega in the Bronx to the corridors of power in Washington, Havana, and Montevideo.  

Reynoso and Chepiga’s script is short on characterization but long on fast-paced action. Apart from the layered portrayal of Julissa herself (brought to vivid life by Zabryna Guevara), the other personae are given only one or two traits. Career State Dept. official Cheryl Mills is brusque and no-nonsense, constantly telling those under her to “Pause,” dispense with chit-chat, and deliver results. Julissa’s initial superior and later subordinate Ricardo Zuniga, a hard-line anti-Communist conservative from Honduras, exists to represent opposition to her attempts to knock the walls between the US and Cuba. Marinda Anderson and Dan Domingues do their best to bring extra dimension to these roles. Al Rodrigo is more successful as Julissa’s uncle and the pragmatic president of Uruguay. 

Zabryna Guevara, Marinda Anderson,
Armando Riesco and Maggie Bofill
in Public Charge.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Yes, the characters are thin, but the plotting takes up the slack with more twists and turns than an espionage thriller. Just as a breakthrough appears possible, an American aide worker is imprisoned and held hostage by Castro’s government (After five years in captivity, he is finally released.) The roller-coaster ride continues until Obama’s famous declaration of plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Jules celebrates and predicts years of progress under a Hillary Clinton presidency. We all know how that turned out. Despite the downer ending, Public Charge is a vital reminder of the difficult but necessary struggle to make the world a safer place.  

Public Charge: March 25—April 12. Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., NYC. Running time: 100 minutes with no intermission. publictheater.org.

Book Review: The Space Merchants

(Bought from Amazon) Recommended on a Sci-Fi Literature course on Amazon Prime. It sounded interesting. Somewhat dated but still relevant futuristic adventure where corporations and advertising have taken over all forms of government. The world is divided into execs who sell shit and consumers who mindlessly buy it. Ad exec Mitch MacCauley is charged with snookering the hoi polloi into signing up to colonize the hostile environment of Venus. Fascinating dystopian futurescape devolves into a conventional thriller with our hero triumphing in the end, after numerous assassination attempts and double crosses, but it's not clear if he has learned a lesson about the evils of rampant capitalism. Conversationists are cast as "commies" or evil fanatics. The corporations have drained the planet dry so consumers have to take pedicabs instead of autos. But wait a minute, we can still board rockets to distant cities, arriving within minutes and to the moon within hours. I liked the last scenes where the president is a powerless figurehead and Congress is run by the businessmen. A fast, fun read.

 

Off-B'way Review: What We Did Before Our Moth Days

Hope Davis, Josh Hamilton, Maria Dizzia,
and John Early in What We Did
Before Our Moth Days.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Wallace Shawn continues to explore themes of morality and familial influence with his latest work What We Did Before Our Moth Days, a series of interrelated monologues running three hours, yet mesmerizing us with its staggering details and insight into human behavior. The intense performances of a sharp quartet of actors and the sensitive, subtle direction of Shawn’s longtime collaborator Andre Gregory perfectly complement the playwright’s unsparing portrait of interpersonal dynamics.

As in his Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Fever, The Designated Mourner, and Evening at the Talk House, Shawn displays how morally careless actions can lead to devastating consequences a generation later. Aunt Dan’s unquestioning fascistic support of Henry Kissinger causes her niece Lemon’s bigoted, Nazi-like attitudes and emotionally stunted lifestyle. Fever and Mourner are cautionary tales against government oppression and overreach. In Evening at the Talk House casual acceptance of repugnant political practices inspires societal breakdown and the spread of torture. Moth Days focuses on personal conduct rather than political, but the choices the characters make still cause devastating consequences.

Off-B'way Reviews: Cold War Choir Practice; Bigfoot!, A New Musical; Chinese Republicans

Alana Raquel Bowers, Andy Lucien, and
Crystal Finn in Cold War Choir Practice.
Credit: Maria Baranova

That distinctly weird, transitional decade, the 1980s, provides the time frame for two wildly funny Off-Broadway productions. This was a time when America was rejecting the liberal ideals of the hippie-Vietnam era and moving into the narcissistic, ego-driven period of “Me first and the rest of you be damned.” Both shows use parody to lampoon the excesses of the time. One examines serious conflicts while the other is a silly spoof. The more complex work is Cold War Choir Practice, Ro Reddick’s imaginative, surprisingly riotous take on Reaganomics, nuclear threats, and race relations co-presented by MCC Theater, Clubbed Thumb and Page 73. Set in 1987 and written with a sharp satiric edge, this insightful and mercilessly dark comedy focuses on African-American adolescent Meek (intense and winning Alana Raquel Bowers) who becomes embroiled in international espionage when she corresponds with a Russian pen pal.

Will Cobbs, Lizan Mitchell, and 
Alana Raquel Bowers in
Cold War Choir Practice.
Credit: Maria Baranova

Matters get complicated when Meek’s estranged uncle Clay (solid Andy Lucien), a prominent black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill white wife Virgie (appropriately shattered Crystal Finn) home to the family’s Syracuse, NY, roller-skating rink for the holidays. Meek’s choir Seedlings of Peace and Virgie’s cultish women’s affinity group are involved in attempting to steal Clay’s state secrets. Meek’s dad Smooch (fiery Will Cobbs) and grandma Puddin (fun and feisty Lizan Mitchell) clash with Clay and Virgie, trying to fathom their family member’s transformation from radical Black Panther follower to Reagan White House advisor. 

Book Review: The Secret History

(Bought for full price at Barnes and Noble because I needed something to read on a big trip; another of the 100 books the BBC says I should read before I die.) You know a book is successful if you feel compelled to keep reading to find out what happens. Even if you are tired and it's 1 o'clock in the morning, you need to got to the end of a chapter. You need to know how the story turns out. Donna Tartt's The Secret History had that effect on me. I absolutely hated all the characters, but Tartt forced to me to keep going. She masterfully structured the suspense so that even though the book climaxed about half through its nearly 600 pages, I continued reading.

The story revolves around a small group of elitist students at a Vermont liberal-arts college. Under the influence of their beloved classics instructor, they commit several immoral acts and eventually spiral out of control. The narrator is Richard, a young man searching for meaning in his life. He thinks he finds it with his new friends and studies of ancient Greek, but he loses his moral compass. The story reminded me of Lord of the Flies in its examination of ethical relativism. Tartt's attention to detail and characterization are flawless. I did not like any of the characters. Richard is weak. The instructor Julian is a coward, selfish and clueless about the real world. Henry is narcissistic. Bunny is annoying. Charles is pathetic. HIs twin sister Camilla is vacuous. No one behaves well, but the plot was so addictive, I couldn't put this massive novel down. Also enjoyed Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goldfinch, also about a lost young man without a family. I might try her The Little Friend.

B'way/Off-B'way Update: MTC; Wanted Musical

School Girls or the African Mean Girls Play
at MCC Theater.
Credit: Craig Schwartz

Manhattan Theater Club has announced two productions for its 2026-27 season: The Broadway premiere of Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play and the American premiere of Nick Payne's The Unbelievers. School Girls debuts Off-Broadway at MCC Theater in 2017 and focuses on an elite all-girls school in Ghana where the students are obsessed with an upcoming beauty pageant. Previews begin Sept. 8 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. Whitney White who has staged Bioh's Jaja's African Hair Braiding for MTC at the Friedman directs. Casting and an opening date TBA.

Off-Broadway, MTC presents Nick Payne's The Unbelievers at City Center Stage I with preview performances beginning Oct. 13. Tony nominee Knud Adams (English) directs. MTC previously presented Payne's Constellations and Incognito. The play is about a family dealing with the disappearance of their teenaged son and how it impacts their faith. Additional MTC productions for the 2026-27 season will be announced soon.

Gun & Powder (now retitled Wanted)
at the Paper Mill Playhouse.
Credit: Jeremy Daniel

In other 2026-27 Broadway news, Wanted, the new musical formerly known as Gun and Powder, will arrive at the James Earl Jones Theater this fall. Previews begin Oct. 15 prior to a Nov. 8 opening. Solea Pfeiffer (Hadestown) and Liisi LaFontaine (Moulin Rouge in the West End) will star as Mary and Martha Clarke, African-American twin sisters who passed as white in 1893 Texas. Wanted features a book and lyrics by Angelica Cheri (descendant of the Sisters Clarke), music by Ross Baum, and choreography by Chelsey Arce  (Sweeney Todd revival, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).  Obie winner Stevie Walker-Webb directs.

Under the title Gun & Powder, the musical played the Paper Mill Playhouse in Spring 2024 and then had a workshop in June 2025.

Also, two-time Tony winner Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose) will join the cast of the revival of Proof, replacing Samira Wiley who had to withdraw due to a treatable medical condition. Young joins Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle and Jin Ha at the Booth Theater where previews begin March 31, opening April 16.

B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Every Brilliant Thing; Bughouse; Burnout Paradise

Daniel Radcliffe in Every Brilliant Thing.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The Daniel Radcliffe vehicle Every Brilliant Thing, currently at the Hudson after a transfer from London, is ostensibly a solo show. The former Harry Potter star is the only cast member listed in the program. Yet the show really features one of the largest ensembles on Broadway. Before its 85 minutes have elapsed almost the entire audience has taken part in this moving, intimate yet expansive meditation on depression and recovery, performed with energy, wit and compassion by Radcliffe. 

Originally produced at the Edinburgh Festival and later Off-Broadway during the 2014-15 season, Brilliant involves its audience to amazing extent. An unnamed protagonist relates his childhood-to-adult story of compiling a list of all the things that make life worth living in response to his mother’s repeated suicide attempts. Theatergoers are given post-its with items on the list and read them out when called upon. Additional spectators take on the roles of the hero’s long-suffering dad, understanding school counselor, sympathetic love object (male at performance attended), and many others. This is a joyous and heartwarming experience as the patrons cry out “Ice cream” and “Water fights,” though it was difficult to make out some of the longer entries when it was clear the audience member did not have vocal training and Tom Gibbons’ sound design could not entirely clarify their remarks.