Off-B'way Review: We'll See; Ms. Blakk for President

Jay O. Sanders, Sally Murphy, 
Laila Robbins and Maryann Plunkett in
We'll See.
Credit: Joan Marcus

After a hiatus of six years, Richard Nelson’s Apple family has returned. We last saw them on Zoom with three plays in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and Nelson had stated there would be no more Apple plays. Fortunately, he has written an update to take us into the Trump era. The new work We’ll See takes place on Nov. 3, 2026 and the four Apple siblings and the girlfriend of the only brother have gathered together in the tiny upstate New York village of Rhinebeck to share political observations, catch up on family news and offer a snapshot of our divided country. Like Nelson’s previous plays in this cycle of works which followed the Apples, the Gabriels and the Michaels through upheavals both personal and societal, the evening features little in the way of plot or conflict, is full of small, piercing moments and endeavors to show how large events effect everyday lives with quiet insight, compassion, and telling details. It’s like a visit with old friends and an unsparing survey of our fractured union.

Nelson began this cycle of plays known as the Rhinebeck Panorama in 2010 (all presented at the Public Theater except for the Zoom plays). Most of the same actors have returned, delivering the same understated, yet deeply subtextual performances, staged by Nelson with quiet reserve. The five characters are nervously eating a meal on the night of the midterms. They have vowed not to check their phones for election results or to mention the name of a certain occupant of the White House who they regard as the source  of their country’s perhaps irreversible downward slide. “So much seems so inhuman these days,” they complain. 

Though Trump’s name is never specifically uttered, his perverse influence on the national psyche hovers over the conversations like a dark cloud. Barbara (Maryann Plunkett, superb at conveying repressed rage and frustration) relates the fear of ICE experienced by her ESL students at the classes she voluntarily teaches. She is also bitter over her forced retirement as a public school teacher for an incident with a student fueled by polarizing political rancor. Jane (vibrant Sally Murphy) discusses her difficult decision not to vote since she sees such public participation as futile, as well as her strained relationship with her boyfriend and his adult daughter (they all are living together in a cramped Brooklyn apartment). Marian (slyly subtle Laila Robbins), also a teacher, has had to sell her home and move in with Barbara since she could not afford property taxes.

A Week in Paris

Despite reports that violent student demonstrations were wrecking havoc in the French capital, we went ahead with our plans to visit our friends who now live in the Paris suburb of Sceaux (pronounced So) with their eight-year-old son, for a week. The protests were only taking place on weekends, so we were pretty safe from any potential danger as long as we stayed away from the city on Saturday. We arrived on a Tuesday morning and got the train from the Charles De Gaulle airport. Note: customs and immigration were much easier than getting into American airports. All we had to do was scan our passports, stand still for a photo and we were in. 

With James and Russell at
Disneyland Paris.

After a three-hour nap from jet lag our hosts served us dinner and I had trouble sleeping that night. But I somehow felt alert enough to get up at 7AM the next morning for a trip to Disneyland Paris with our host Russell and his son James. It was a 90-minute journey on two trains to the last stop in time to arrive at 930AM just as the park was opening. Smaller than Disney World in Florida, the Paris edition of the park is more manageable. Right away, we got on line for Hyperspace Mountain which was like being shot out of a canon in the dark. This was followed by Star Tours with C3P0 and Darth Vader speaking in French as we boarded a space craft, erratically piloted by the nervous droid. I had been on this ride in Disney World in Florida. After a quick lunch we did Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast which involves shooting aliens and scoring points. We left Discoveryland and headed for Frontierland where we waited in a long line for the Haunted Mansion. I think there were variations on the iteration I rode on in Florida with haunted Wild West town amid the spooks. Same with our next attraction Mickey's Phil-harmonic, a 3-D cartoon featuring Donald Duck slipping into various Disney pictures while chasing a magic conductor's baton. Coco and The Little Mermaid may be new additions.

Kennedy Center Honors Not Quite as Whacky This Year

Playwright David Mamet is among this
year's not-totally bizarre Kennedy Center 
Honors list

The Kennedy Center Honors for 2026 have been announced and they are not quite as nutty as last year's, the first group of Trump's insane takeover of the formerly revered arts center. The previous honorees included dubious choices such as KISS, Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford, who sole qualification seemed to be starring in Trumpy's favorite musical Phantom of the Opera almost 40 years ago. While the 2026 winners are also MAGA friendly, at least they are not totally without artistic merit. David Mamet is a Jan. 6 apologist, has been spouting right-wing diatribes lately, and his recent theatrical output has been not top drawer (China Doll, The Anarchist), but he is a Pulitzer Prize recipient and has had many important works including Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. Trump probably likes that he includes a lot of swear words in his plays.

Paul Anka has contributed many standard songs to pop culture including that immortal Kodak commercial jingle "Good Morning, Yesterday" and he's also allowed Trump to alter the lyric of his classic "My Way" to reference Mara-Lago. Andy Garcia? What's the last movie he was in that anyone heard of? His most recent credits are the third remake of Father of the Bride for HBO, Expendables 4 and some episodes of Landman. Probably they couldn't find another actor with any degree of name recognitions to accept. Garcia is from Cuba and vehemently anti-Communist which qualifies for this honor. The list is rounded out by the now-obligatory country-music choice Barbara Mandrell and music producer David Foster, a personal friend of Trump's who turned down organizing the music for Trump's first inauguration but has since put on shows for Mara-Lago fundraisers.

Surprisingly there was no Kelsey Grammar, Nikki Minaj, Roseanne, Scott Baio or Kid Rock.

For the first time, the awards will not be presented at the center itself which Orange Cheeto has vowed to keep closed until his name can be put on the facade despite court orders to the contrary. Trump hosted last year's debacle which received the lowest ratings in its history. It's not clear if the Prez will host again but CBS still plans to broadcast the event which will be held at the cavernous Capitol One arena. I might hate-watch again. It can't be worse that least year's.

Off-B'way Review: Degenerates; The Hairy Ape

Zachary Desmond and Christopher Dylan White
in Degenerates.
Credit: Jackie Abbott

Though they were written a century apart, Else Went’s Degerenates (at Playwrights Horizons) and Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape (now in revival at Irish Repertory Theater) both address the alienation of young men and their resultant violence and self-destruction. Whether it’s Went’s outraged online community of incels (involuntary celebrates) or O’Neill brutish coal stoker Yank, the anger engendered by their feeling of being left behind by the larger culture leads to the same frustration and desire to strike back. Both playwrights document their blind rage and aching need with compassion and depth in productions staged with imagination and prickly fire.

Went’s frightening vision of isolated, screen-obsessed youths takes place in a fractured void where communication in real life, or IRL as the characters would say, is rare and potentially dangerous. Significantly, we first encounter them as voices in the dark. The despondent Kemp (a brilliantly devastated Tyler Nowell Felix), friendless and unable to attract a girlfriend, desperately phones a suicide prevention hotline. His aching need to be loved is unrelieved by the anonymous counselor on the other end (Olivia Rose Barressi plays all the females roles). After Kemp howls out his anger and sorrow, we enter into the cyber world of his fellow incels, spewing venom and disgust at women for rejecting them. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams’ splintered set depicts the stark environment of these frustrated souls. Miller (intensely snarling and magnetic Zachary Desmond) inhabits a barren basement apartment in his parents’ house while girly, agoraphobic Target (sympathetic and sweet Christopher Dylan White) snuggles in a nest of plush stuffed animals and a riot of anime posters. In a group chat with Miller and Target, Kemp is still unseen as is Serge (Juan Arturo) who is rejected from the group when it’s revealed he is divorced and has a child, meaning unlike his online misogynist compatriots, he has had sex.

The dynamic between Miller, Target and Kemp shifts several times throughout the play as they seek comfort from each other and then push away when they get too close. Went treats these sometimes nasty, sometimes relatable guys with a balanced hand. We see their sexist, racist rage but also the cruel treatment they’ve received. Miller and Kemp recount horrific childhood encounters with girls that still pain them. Like Anne Washburne in her play Anon, Went depicts a culture where people are unable to exist without validation from social media. At one point, Target watches and rewatches coming out as trans to his sister as if to confirm the experience really happened.

Trump and Vance: High School Bullies

High School Bullies

As we approach the midterms, the President and Vice-President are showing their true natures: high school bullies. We always knew this about Trump, but Vance's thuggish aspects are becoming more apparent as the two reflect the growing desperation that the GOP will lose power. Vance has resorted to insinuating Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is gay. That is the last resort of the high-school bully who fears the smart, slightly different kid. Kids in school use the term "gay" to mean someone weird, unusual, outside the norm, not necessarily being attracted to the same gender.  

Trump has descended even further, despite that fact that he claims he never insults people--he actually had to gall to say this in a Fox News interview, claiming he would never insult someone because he might have to make a deal with them. Does he not listen to himself?

Trump's latest example of childish name-calling is labelling Dr. Annie Andrews, Dem. candidate for SC senator against nepo-sib Darlene Graham, Tranny Annie. What? Where did that come from? Like Vance's jibes against Talarico, it's strictly high school. Trump is replaying that tired old record about Dems wanting kids to have sex change operations in school without parents' consent. Not only is that crazy, but there is absolutely no evidence of anything even close to that happening. It's probably generated from a report that some schools want trans kids to able to change their pronouns without parents being informed. From this they've blown it up into operations when most schools can'r even afford crayons, let alone surgical equipment.

The cruelty goes on with Trumpy's support for Vivek Ramaswamy's disgusting attack ad against Amy Acton, using her estranged mother to exploit Acton's horrible experience of childhood abuse. Ramaswamy has claimed he just exposing his opponent's flaws. How is something vile that happened to her from ages 9 to 12 a flaw? If anything, it shows what a strong character she is. Such circumstances would have crushed most people, yet she has become a doctor and a candidate for governor of Ohio. And her mother calls her daughter whom she hasn't seen in 48 years and who was removed from her care, a liar. What has she lied about? Court records corroborate Acton's version of events that she was raped as a child and lived in a tent.

Plus what's all this with men's asses? Is it just Trump is obsessed with appearances? A good ass means you'll be a good senator? 

Hopefully, a blue wave will wash all this high-school cruelty away.

Broadway Review: Billy Crystal: 860; The Imaginary Invalid

The two most recent Broadway shows to open, Billy Crystal: 860 and a new adaptation of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, have the same theme: laughter is the best medicine. But the dosages vary and the resultant benefits are not similar. Crystal’s solo show combines tragedy with humor for a pathos-and-chuckle-filled evening while the Moliere never finds its rhythm despite individual bright spots.

Billy Crystal in 860.
Credit: Avery Brunkus

The numbers in the title of Crystal’s autobiographical effort refer to the address of the Pacific Palisades home that he lost in the massive Los Angeles wildfire of 2025. In 90 intermissionless minutes, the 78-year-old comedian relates the story of the house and his career, taking up his story after the events of 700 Sundays, his previous Broadway show from 2004 chronicling his childhood and relationship with his father. We begin with the star reliving that fateful day when a few backyard embers and historically high winds led to an out-of-control inferno rapidly approaching and eventually consuming his home. The effective video design by Hana S. Kim and Kylee Loera displays news and I-phone footage as Crystal recreates driving away from the blaze in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Then, we travel back to 1978 when Crystal was starring on the TV series Soap and buying his first West Coast house which had its own fascinating show-biz history.

Off-B'way Review: Midnight; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Todrick Hall and Jeremy Beloate
in Midnight.
Credit: Valerie Terranova

You have to admire Todrick Hall’s ambition. The YouTube star and veteran of five Broadway shows and several reality TV programs has the rare distinction of directing, choreographing, writing the book, music, and lyrics, producing and playing the lead role in a new Off-Broadway musical Midnight. Just getting an original show with a cast of 20 up and running is a difficult feat in today’s challenging theatrical economy and Hall deserves full marks for that. However, the production itself could have benefitted for at least one more set of eyes and a red pencil. Clocking in at close to three hours, this musical fantasy on race relations and suppressed gay love is too long, monotonous and self-indulgent. There are impactful and well-performed individual moments, but they are drowned in a sea of excess.

Hall’s premise is intriguing and the opening number sets the stage for a promising evening. A huge clock is suspended above the stage (Morgan Large designed the imaginative set) as well as several mannequins sporting Beck Jones’ gorgeous and elaborate costumes. The cast consisting of an equal number of white and African-American performers enters in rehearsal clothes, the mannequins descend, and the actors sing of assuming identities as they don Civil War-era garb defining their roles along racial lines. 

The subsequent story follows a slave named Rail (Hall)—his monicker derives from his birth near train tracks—and his illicit same-sex affair with the white landowner and master Richard (The Voice finalist Jeremy Beloate). Their clandestine trysts occur at the titular hour, thus the ominous timepiece dominating the action. Hall’s direction moves the action along swiftly and engagingly (aided greatly by Jake DeGroot’s dynamic lighting) and many of Hall’s songs are soaring and effective, but the characters act as if it’s 2026 instead of 1862. Would black slaves really serve their white enslavers a dead mouse on top of the dessert? (The move was probably inspired by Octavia Spencer’s character’s hilarious act of gastronomic revenge against her white employer in The Help.)  Would a white Southern landowner really encourage black slaves and white workers to treat each other as equals while the Civil War raged?