Off-B'way Review: Indian Princesses

Serenity Mariana, Haley Wong, Lark White,
Anissa Marie Griego and Rebecca Jiminez
in Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

The pain of adolescence and being labelled as different is conveyed with humor and compassion in Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s insightful comedy Indian Princesses, now at Atlantic Theatre Company’s Linda Gross Theater. The title refers to a father-daughter YMCA bonding program modeled on the Boy Scouts, but as the author explains in a program note, the well-intentioned activity is based on a “pernicious fiction.” An Indian Princess “is an archetype invented to justify the ongoing brutalities of colonization.” Ironically, five middle-school-aged, mixed-race girls spend a formative summer with their white fathers but fall victim to the program’s stereotyping cliches and the cruelty of the other girls’ tribes. The results are a deeper understanding of the young girls’ cultures and uncomfortable confrontations for the dads.

Each of the potential “princesses” and their conflicted pops are drawn with telling details. Andi, the eldest at 12 (entertainingly sullen yet suffering Rebecca Jimenez), longs for more information on her late Mexican Mom. Her macho working-class Anglo father Mac (Pete Simpson, expert at conveying subtext) refuses to open up to her. Whimsical Maisie (delightfully smart and perceptive Lark White), is obsessed with magic and fantasy while her unemployed, unfocused dad Wayne (soulfully struggling Ben Beckley) in an effort to protect from harsh reality, refuses to discuss her African-American background or the history of slavery. 

Anisa Marie Griego and Greg Keller
in Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

Well-meaning lawyer Chris (comically blundering Greg Keller) clumsily attempts to interject progressive ideas and attitudes into the gathering and to his strained relationship with his Native American stepdaughters, show-biz-crazy Lily (sweetly show-off-ish Anissa Marie Griego) and shy Hazel (enchanting Serenity Mariana). The group’s heavily religious “Chief” Glen (moving Frank Wood) is torn between keeping “politics” out of the program and acknowledging the raw truth of racism the girls have to face. His granddaughter Samantha (desperate and darling Haley Wong) is wracked with guilt for what she describes as “sinful thoughts.” 

Ben Beckley and Lark White in
Indian Princesses.
Credit: Ahron R. Foster

The Glen-Samantha storyline is the least developed here. We don’t find out why Samantha is living with her grandfather as opposed to with her parents or what she considers sinful. However, Wood and Wong fill in the missing backstory with subtle and layered performances, as does the entire cast. Director Miranda Cornell balances the dramatic and comic moments like an expert juggler. The troupe’s bizarre skit for the Indian Princesses’ Talent Night called “America the Beautiful” is a particularly wonderfully staged and written sequence. Chief Glen has written a wholesome, vanilla-flavored rendition of American history, suitable for a conservative audience. But each of the dads and daughters has their own agenda—Andi wants act on her secret crush on Chris; Chris wants to impose his “woke” sense of  diversity on Glen’s whitewashed version of our national past; Lily sees this as her big opportunity to sing and dance; and slightly embarrassed Wayne and Mac are just looking to bond with their girls. The resultant fiasco is a mess in terms of the story with the kids and parents stepping on each other’s lines, dropping props, and missing cues, but thanks to Cornell’s clear staging we understand each character’s objectives. 

This scene, along with the unspoken dialogue and incomplete sentences that mark the rest of this lovely play, tell us volumes about each of the unhappy daughters and their fathers. They’re all trying to love each other, but so much stands in the way. Rodriguez lovingly chronicles their efforts, failures and attempts to surmount the barrier of prejudice and to celebrate their heritages.

Emmie Finckel’s versatile set recreates a believable community center and the surrounding rustic woods while Mextly Couzin’s atmospheric lighting provides for several different additional locations. This is a beautiful and tender play of healing families and seeking one’s identity.

May 19—June 7. Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20th St., NYC. atlantictheater.org.

B'way Update: Other Desert Cities; Evita Dates and Theater

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and
Allison Janney will star in Other Desert Cities.

Eleven-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Seinfeld, Veep, etc.) will make her Broadway debut in a revival of Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities, beginning previews at the Hudson Theater on Sept. 29 with an opening set for Oct. 18. She will co-star with Ed Harris, Allison Janney (seven Emmys), Joe Kerry, and Lily Rabe. Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey will direct.

“I had, more or less, talked myself out of imagining Other Desert Cities back in New York,” said playwright Baitz said in a statement. “But John Hickey is family to me, and I trust him completely. We go back longer than I ever imagined: he hears a play – its ideas, its feeling, its music – with an intelligence and knowingness that anchors a room. And with this company of actors a playwright dreams about, I thought that if there were still something alive in it, they would find it. What’s slightly unnerving is that nearly 20 years later, through all the fractures and divisions, the questions remain the same: how to live with who we are and what we’ve done and call that a life.”

Hickey said in a statement, “I have loved Robbie’s plays since he began writing them. I acted in two of them early in my career, and when I recently revisited Other Desert Cities, I was stunned at how relevant the play remains, maybe now more than ever. It’s an incredibly funny, surprising, and heartbreaking play about an American family. OUR American family. To be able to bring it back to Broadway, with this powerhouse ensemble of actors, and incredible creative team, is a dream come true.”

The play opened Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater in 2011 with a cast including Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Stacy Keach, Thomas Sadoski, and Elizabeth Marvel. Joe Matello directed. The production transferred to Broadway with Judith Light (who won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress) and Rachel Griffiths replacing Lavin and Marvel.

The story concerns a family with political and show-biz connections facing a crisis over a Christmas holiday when the daughter announces she is writing a tell-all memoir, potentially exposing uncomfortable family secrets.

Batman Humor That Went Over My Head as a Kid, Part 5

Batman with Eric Shea as Andy

Come Back, Shame/It's the Way You Play the Game: Cliff Robertson satirizes Western cliches as Shame, instead of Shane as played by Alan Ladd. The references to that classic western proliferate including a little boy (played by Eric Shea) hero-worshipping the villain and following him around, crying "Come back, Shame." What's really concerning is this six-year-old kid is allowed to wander around Gotham City unsupervised. Even Batman and Robin don't bring him back to his parents after they escape from Shame's stampeding cattle, but just leave him to his own devices. 

This episode's window cameo is the weirdest one yet: Werner Klemperer in character as Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes, but wearing 1966 clothes. He explained he was in Gotham City to catch a spy as if he were still in WWII and the Caped Crusaders tell him to say hi to Col. Hogan. How can a character from the 1940s exist in the 1960s? Only in the Batman 66 universe.

Comedian Jack Carter plays a radio dj but is unbilled.

Catwoman Goes to College/Batman Displays His Knowledge: Bruce Wayne acts as Catwoman's parole officer as she claims to be going straight--to college, majoring in criminality. Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones from the Trouble with Tribbles episode of Star Trek) plays Capt. Courageous (wordplay on the movie title), an out-of-town cop who arrests Batman after Catwoman frames him. He gets to call the Caped Crusader a "costumed kook." In another cultural allusion, the head of a jewelry firm is named Amber Forever (instead of Forever Amber, a popular potboiler novel). Jacques Bergerac, a popular French actor who appeared on the Dick Van Dyke Show, plays Freddie the Fence. In addition to selling stolen goods, he's an expert swordsman, but not as good as Batman, of course. (In one lame bit, he has a meal of pasta strained through his fencing mask.) TV personality Art Linkletter who hosted People Are Funny appeared in the window cameo.

Book Review: The Best Short Stories 2024

(Ordered from Amazon)  Read for a class on short story reading. We would read two stories a week and then discuss them over Zoom. This collection follows a chronological time line, starting with stories on childhood and adolescence, moving to early adulthood and progressing to old age and death. Then the cycle starts over in the middle of the book. I preferred the strange, quirky stories like Morris Collins' "The Home Visit" and Dave Eggers' "The Honor of Your Presence" to sentimental tearjerkers like Brad Felver's "Orphans" and E.K.Ota's "The Paper Artist." The last story Allegra Hyde's sci-fi-ish "Mobilization" was a total surprise because it was so different for all the rest. 

Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Linda Emond Among Equity Award Winners

Justin Boone and Ruben Santiago-Hudson
in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

Just when you thought we were running out of theater awards, here comes another batch. The Actors' Equity Foundation Award winners have been announced. Presented by the stage actors' union, the accolades honor newcomers, veteran performers, and actors tackling classical roles. The 2026 Clarence Derwent Awards go to McKenzie Kurtz (Schmigadoon, Heathers) and Ali Louis Boutzgui (The Lost Boys). Established in 1945, the Derwent Awards are for the outstanding performances by those at the beginning of their careers.

The 2026 Richard Seff Awards will be presented to Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) and Linda Emond (Becky Shaw). Established in 2004, the Seff Awards are for outstanding performers over 50 who have been in Equity for at least 25 years. 

The Joseph Calloway Award, established in 1989, for the best performances in a classic play goes to McKinley Belcher III (Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus) and Olivia Reis (Oedipus, Titus Andronicus).

The Judges Panel for the 2025-2026 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; Kobi Kassal, Theatrely; and Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, New York Stage Review. The awards will be presented on June 22 at the Green Fig in Manhattan in a ceremony hosted by Julie Halston.

Off-B'way/B'way Review: Animal Wisdom; The Emporium; Celebrity Autobiography

Kenita R. Miller in Animal Wisdom.
Credit: Ben Arons

The composer-theater artist Heather Christian has made a big splash with her previous work Oratorio for Living Things, garnering a shelfful of accolades including special New York Drama Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards. She is also a recipient of a MacArthur Genius grant. Though the music was lovely, I found the abstract choral piece vague and pretentious in its 2022 Ars Nova production. Her autobiographical Animal Wisdom now at Signature Theater after a run at Bushwick Star in 2017, is somewhat more satisfying, giving the audience more to hang onto. There are still long stretches of incomprehensible vocalizing, but there’s a stronger narrative arc here than in Oratorio. 

A note from the author-composer handed out before the Animal performance explains “It’s my life story, as clearly as I can tell it (which is not very clearly at all). It is a requiem within a requiem.” Audience members enter scenic designer Emmie Finckel’s fascinating environment—a combination of lush country garden and cosy antique store. Colorful flowers and plants alternate with shelves of knickknacks and curios, as well as a functioning soda dispenser and what appears to be an old-fashioned slot machine. The main performer “H” (incredibly talented Kenita R. Miller) explains the stories we are about to hear are from Heather, not her.

Then the piece begins. With the aide of a delightfully lively six-piece band, H unfolds her tale of growing up in Natchez, Mississippi where the invasive vegetation known as kudzu and catfish the size of buses proliferate. Spirits are also in abundance as H informs us two of her closest companions were the playful ghosts Victor and Johanna. Her late grandfather is now inhabiting her car and her grandmother is reincarnated as a red bird. The libretto doesn’t really fit into a neat, linear narrative. We get stories of H’s supernatural encounters and the eccentric characters who populate her childhood, but her attitudes towards them is fuzzy. Christian’s beautiful lyrical songs which Miller skillfully and movingly sings are sad and melodic, but the source of H’s sorrow and conflict is not clearly defined.

Schmigadoon! Dances Away With Chita Rivera Awards

The dance ensemble of Schmigadoon!
Credit: Matthew Murphy and
Evan Zimmerman

Schmigadoon! dances away with the most Chita Rivera Awards, honoring excellence in dance in NYC theater and film, presented May 18 at NYU Skirball (after having won Outstanding Musical and Choreography at the Drama Desks the night before). The musical parody of Golden Age tuners based on the Apple TV + series won for Christopher Gattelli's Choreography, Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Dancers. Max Clayton and Isabella McCalla of Schmigadoon! shared the award with Robert "Silk" Mason of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Show-biz legend Ann-Margret (Bye Bye Birdie, Carnal Knowledge) was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by Leslie Uggams) and the revue Gotta Dance! won the Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics Choice Award.

This year's awarding committee was chaired by Sylviane Gold, and also included Gary Chryst, Peter Filichia, Robert LaFosse, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, and Lee Roy Reams.

Broadway and film categories have a separate nominating committee that oversees the nominations. This year's Broadway nominating committee included Caitlin Carter, Gary Chryst, Don Correia, Sandy Duncan, Peter Filichia, Dr. Louis Galli, Sylviane Gold, Jonathan Herzog, Robert La Fosse, Joe Lanteri, Michael Milton, Mary Beth O'Connor, Wendy Perron, Stephanie Pope, Lee Roy Reams, Andy Sandberg, and Randy Skinner. The Film nominating committee, chaired by Jonathan C. Herzog, comprised Steven Caras, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, Mary Beth O’Connor, and Andy Sandberg.

List of winners:

Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show
WINNER - Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Lorin Latarro, Chess
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ellenore Scott, Titaníque
Ani Taj, The Rocky Horror Show
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show
Jonathan Burke, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Baby Byrne, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Max Clayton, Schmigadoon!
Zachary Downer, Schmigadoon!
Sydney James Harcourt, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Dava Huesca, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Robert “Silk” Mason, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
WINNER - Isabelle McCalla, Schmigadoon!
Sarah Meahl, Chess
Constantine Rousouli, Titaníque
Layton Williams, Titaníque
Lyrica Woodruff, Schmigadoon!

Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Chess
Ragtime
WINNER - Schmigadoon!
The Rocky Horror Show
Titaníque