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.

B'way Update: Godot Dates and Theater Confirmed; Etc.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter

The upcoming revival of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot to star Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (co-stars of three Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure films) has announced dates and a theater. The production to be directed by Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Blvd.) will begin previews Sept. 13 at the Hudson Theater, open on Sept. 28 for a limited run through Jan. 4, 2026. This will be the fifth Broadway production of Beckett's classic existential comedy-drama. Previous Broadway stagings have starred Bert Lahr and EG Marhsall (1956); Earl Hyman and Mantan Moreland (1957); Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin (2009); Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart (2013). Major Off-Broadway revivals have starred Robin Williams and Steve Martin (1988); Jon Turturro and Tony Shalhoub (1998); and Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks (2023). Additional casting for this production will be announced at a later date.

Additional news: Leslie Odom, Jr. will return to the Broadway company of Hamilton in his Tony-winning role of Aaron Burr, Sept. 9--Nov. 23.

Signature Theater Company has announced three productions for its 2025-26 Off-Broadway season: Oratorio for Living Things, Heather Christian's musical-theater piece which won several awards during a 2022 Off-Broadway run (fall); Lauren Yee's Mother Russia, a dark comedy set in 1992 St. Petersburg (winter); and Christian's Animal Wisdom, a musical blending of storytelling, mythology, blues, folk, and gospel (spring 2026).

Off-B'way Review: Grangeville

Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith in
Grangeville.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Just as August Wilson centered most of his dramas of the African-American experience in his home city of Pittsburgh, Samuel D. Hunter has returned again and again to his native state of Idaho to chronicle the damaged lives of its residents and those who have left, but still nurse their hurts received there. Hunter has focused on the fraught relationships between queer and straight Idahoans in affecting dramas like Pocatello, The Whale, A Case for the Existence of God (winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award), and his latest, perhaps most searing play, Grangeville now at Signature Theater. 

We begin in total darkness, listening to the disembodied phone voices of two estranged half-brothers Jerry and Arnold (Paul Sparks and Brian J.Smith in riveting, heart-wrenching performances). As the conversation progresses and the lights gradually dim up, we learn that Jerry and Arnold have different fathers but the same mother who is in failing health (spot-on sound by Christopher Darbassie and lighting by Stacey Derosier). Truck driver Jerry has been caring for their mom in the titular town in Idaho, while artist Arnold is living in Rotterdam with his husband, a museum curator, and has not been in contact with the family for years. Jerry needs help dealing with Mom’s disorganized medical bills, but he also wants to re-establish relations with the younger Arnold. The attempts at reweaving the frayed bond between the half-siblings forms the thread of the play and Hunter sensitively explores the nature of family trauma and the need for forgiveness and coping with suffering.

Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith in
Grangeville.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

Though Sparks and Smith are the only two actors, they also play each other’s partners in separate scenes. In what could have come across as a gimmick, the performers and director Jack Serio manage to make this difficult double casting work. Smith subtly plays Jerry’s ex-wife Tracy without descending into female caricature and Sparks takes on Arnold’s spouse, the Dutch Brom with surprising delicacy. But it is in their portraits of the two brothers that the pair are most shattering. Sparks compassionately limns Jerry’s guilt over physically abusing Arnold when they were kids and his earnest desire to make amends. He’s also particularly funny when Jerry tries to wraps his working-class mind around artistic concepts. Neither the playwright or the actor are condescending here. Smith taps into Arnold’s rage at the ill-treatment he received as a young gay man in a homophobic society and builds a careful scaffolding of icy reserve around this damaged soul. When that edifice comes crashing down and the siblings finally reach out to other figuratively and literally, it’s devastating.

Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith in
Grangeville.
Credit: Emilio Madrid

In addition to the double-casting aspect, Sergio takes on the tricky task of the characters having to play scenes via cell phones and Zoom meetings. Jerry and Arnold only occupy the same actual space in the final scene. But Serio conquers this obstacle by having the actors relate to each other as if there were in physical proximity throughout. His understated direction and the spare set by the dots design team perfectly captures the blistering emotions evoked in Hunter’s tender two-hander.

Feb. 24—March 23. Signature Theater at the Pershing Square Signature Theater Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. signaturetheater.org

Off-B'way Update: A Sale, a Strike and a Scary Balance Sheet

Seaview has bought the
Tony Kiser Theater

Off-Broadway theater companies are in trouble. Following the COVID pandemic, audiences have been slow to return and as a result, companies are presenting fewer shows with smaller casts. Financial woes have contributed to several concerning developments. Second Stage has sold its Off-Broadway theater, the Tony Kiser (formerly a bank on W. 43rd Street) to Seaview, a principal producer of such Off-Broadway shows as Hold On to Me Darling, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and the Barrow Street revival of Sweeney Todd. The 296-seat venue will be rebranded as Studio Seaview to present commercial Off-Broadway productions. The first production will be directed by Sam Gold (currently represented on Broadway by Romeo and Juliet) and will open in Spring 2025. This season Seaview is represented on Broadway by Stereophonic, Romeo and Juliet, All In, Once Upon a Mattress, Good Night and Good Luck, The Last Five Years, and in London by Slave Play and My Master Builder. 

Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company is suffering economic troubles of a different kind. The stage hands' union IATSE, recently went out on strike against the company. Atlantic's two current shows Grief Camp and I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan, have been postponed indefinitely. A strike was called when negotiations between the union and the theater broke down. Negotiations started almost a year ago when Atlantic crew members voted to join the union which represents all Broadway shows and the Off-Broadway shows Titanique and Little Shop of Horrors as well as the Public and Vineyard Theaters. 

Signature's Pershing Center

Signature Theater Company is also experiencing fiscal and other struggles. Oscar winner Brendan Fraser has withdrawn for the company's upcoming production of Samuel D. Hunter's Grangeville (Fraser's Oscar win was for the film adaptation of Hunter's The Whale), "due to unforeseen circumstances." He will be replaced by six-time Drama Desk nominee Paul Sparks (At Home at the Zoo) who will play opposite Brian J. Smith (The Matrix Resurrections). In addition, Philip Boroff of Broadway Journal reports that Signature's auditors, Lutz and Carr, have "substantial doubt about the organization's ability to continue as a going concern." Lutz and Carr reports that Signature's net assets dropped $6.6 million or 17 percent in 2022-23. The company is presenting only three plays this season--Grangeville, Dominique Morriseau's Bad Kreyol (in a co-production with Manhattan Theater Club), and Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice. That's down from eight shows ten years ago.

According to Boroff, Signature will bolster its bottom line by renting out its stages to another company--Second Stage (see the first paragraph) which will present D.A. Mindel's On the Evolutionary Function of Shame at Signature's Irene Diamond Stage beginning Feb. 12 and Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse there in May. The New Group also rents space from Signature. Such collaboration between companies may be the wave of the future for Off-Broadway theaters and their best bet to survive.