B'way Review: Little Bear Ridge Road

Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in
Little Bear Ridge Road.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

You would think Samuel D. Hunter would run out of ideas. Every one of his plays takes place in his native Idaho and usually features a gay man struggling with loneliness and finding his identity in a straight-dominated world. Yet all of his works I’ve seen Off-Broadway including The Whale, Pocatello, Greater Clements, A Case for the Existence of God, and Grangeville are uniquely individual and heartfelt. So it is with his Broadway debut, Little Bear Ridge Road at the Booth Theater after a successful run at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. We’re back in rural Idaho and the hero is an alienated, troubled gay young man, but his journey is specific to this compassionate, funny, tender piece.

Joe Mantello masterfully and subtly directs Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in two outstanding, compassionate performances in one of the best plays of the Broadway season so far. Scott Pask’s minimal setting accurately fulfills the description in the program: “A couch in a void.” We are in the home of Sarah (the magnificently curmudgeonly Metcalf), a cranky nurse on the titular isolated country road. She is reluctantly welcoming her estranged nephew Ethan (awkward and desolate Stock) after the death of Ethan’s father (her brother) so that the estate may be settled. Sarah and Ethan have both been damaged by life and are wary of each other. Sarah had a series of miscarriages and her partner Tony left her years ago and she is undergoing chemotherapy for rapidly advancing cancer. Ethan was rejected by his homophobic father, a meth addict, and he’s still recovering from a bad breakup in Seattle and his failed ambition to become a writer. Their shaky, tentative connection forms the action of the play as the two navigate the emotional minefield that lies between them. 

Off-B'way Reviews: Romy and Michele: The Musical; Endgame

Laura Bell Bundy, Kara Lindsay and the cast
of Romy and Michele: The Musical.
Credit: Valerie Terranova

Quirky, silly fun can be had at Romy & Michele: The Musical, based on the 1997 cult film comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. Yes, this is yet another tuner based on a popular movie from decades ago about outsiders getting their revenge on the cool, cruel kids. A revival of Heathers is still playing, and there’s also Mean Girls in recent memory, plus there have been originals with the same theme such as The Prom and Be More Chill. But Robin Schiff’s book based on her screenplay, which is in turn based on her play Ladies’ Room, is strongly constructed, takes several inventive twists and turns and has two hilariously original characters at its center. In addition, Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay’s score is bouncy, clever and funny.

Kara Lindsay and Laura Bell Bundy in
Romy and Michele: The Musical.
Credit: Valerie Terranova

Laura Bell Bundy and Kara Lindsay are brilliantly ditsy yet emotionally sympathetic in the title roles of two best friends drifting through life, originated by Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow in the film. The action beings in the year of the movie, or B.G. (Before Google) as a projected supertitle informs us at the opening (Caite Hevner created the splashy, colorful projections.) Romy and Michele spend their time watching TV, hitting the clubs, designing and making their own clothes (Tina McCartney created the kicky, frolicsome costumes), scrambling by either at a menial job (Romy) or on unemployment (Michele). An invitation to their 10-year high school reunion triggers flashbacks to their adolescence when they were each others’ only companions and the source of mockery from the A-group, led by evil cheerleader Christie (a zestfully nasty Lauren Zakrin). 

B'way Update: Daniel Radcliffe; Rocky Horror; Ian McKellen

Daniel Radcliffe

Tony winner Daniel Radcliffe (Merrily We Roll Along, Harry Potter films) will return to Broadway in Every Brilliant Thing, a one-character play by Olivier Award nominee Duncan Macmillan (People, Places and Things) with Jonny Donahoe. Directed by Olivier and Tony nominee Jeremy Herrin (People, Places and Things, Wolf Hall), the play will begin previews on Feb. 21, 2026 at the Hudson with an opening scheduled for March 12 for a 13-week engagement through May 24. Every Brilliant Thing follows a man looking back at his life and the glimmers of hope that carried him through. All told through a list of every wonderful, beautiful, and delightful thing—big, small, and everything in between—that makes life worth living. The list was originally made for the character's mother and carried her through her depression. Audience participation is involved. This one-of-a-kind solo show, which has been performed across the globe in over 80 countries on stages of all sizes—and for an HBO Special starring co-creator Jonny Donahoe—makes its long-awaited Broadway premiere following a hit season @sohoplace in London’s West End, where it is currently running with Minnie Driver through November 8. The show opened at the Edinburgh Festival and then played Off-Broadway's Barrow Street Theater in 2014 with Donahoe. (So I am counting it as a revival in my Broadway Breakdown list. See below.)

“Every Brilliant Thing tackles some serious subject matter, but the overall experience is one of joy and celebration,” said Macmillan. “Every performance is unique and unpredictable and it requires virtuosic skill from its central performer. When Daniel told us how much he loved the play, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. He has the intelligence, quick-wit and charm to roll with the spontaneous moments that the show invites – he can be a clown one moment, then grab you by the heartstrings the next. He has huge depth and humanity. I can’t wait to get started.”

Off-B'way Review: Let's Love!

Noah Robbins and Aubrey Plaza in
Let's Love! Credit: Ahron Foster

Love is a battlefield in Let’s Love!, Ethan Coen’s trio of darkly funny one-acts at Atlantic Theater Company. Sex can be a weapon, a bargaining chip or a source of solace on a rainy night in these short, piercing vignettes. Similarly, the emotional component is an elusive prize the characters are willing to fight, scheme and strive for. Coen employs the same devilish cynical humor on display in his many films, mostly collaborations with his brother Joel, such as Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and A Serious Man. But there are also hints of romance and joy amid the bleakness and potential violence. It’s a delightfully droll and satisfying evening, blistering and comforting at the same time, directed with a deft hand by Neil Pepe who balances the sharp bite of satire with sweet sentiment.

Chris Bauer and CJ Wilson in Let's Love!
Credit: Ahron Foster

The main piece of the three vignettes is an extended farce involving an ever-shifting series of love triangles. It’s a combination of the snark of Coen’s complex screenplays and the rollicking revolving romances of La Ronde. Aubrey Plaza, famous for playing wickedly nasty yet secretly vulnerable characters on the TV series Parks and Recreations and Agatha All Along, rips into the role of Susan, a vengeful virago out to get retribution on her soft-hearted ex Dan (comically gooey-centered CJ Wilson). She claims all she wants in a good roll in the hay, but she really longs for affection. Susan plots to retaliate against Dan for leaving her by hiring a thug to beat him up. But its turn out the hired muscle, known simply as Tough, has feelings too. Chris Bauer is hilariously deadpan as the surprisingly sensitive hit man. Add in Dan’s current girlfriend Faye (sly Mary Wiseman), who is just as manipulative and duplicitous as Susan, and Howie (goofily endearing Noah Robbins), a blind date for Susan who also has his own secret perversions, and you get a wild ride through the minefields of relationships.

Mary McCann and Dion Graham in
Let's Love! Credit: Ahron Foster

This highlight is bracketed by two shorter works of varying quality. The evening opens with a pair of alternating interior monologues between a been-around-the-block Broad (yes, that is how she is identified in the cast list) and a lonely businessman, refers to as The Man. It’s a rainy night in a deserted bar on Second Avenue. In isolated spotlights, the two patrons spill out their life stories and desperate need for connection. Mary McCann and Dion Graham deliver subtle soul-stirring performances of these nighthawks.

Nellie McKay in Let's Love!
Credit: Ahron Foster

The last piece comes across as a kind of one-joke afterthought. The Boy (Robbins again, just as adorable) overcomes his insecurities to form a bond after a disastrous first blind date with The Girl (equally tender Dylan Gelula). This piece is a slight doodle with one low-grade big laugh involving food poisoning and a stuffed panda. The three playlets are punctuated by brilliantly sung love standards and originals sung by the accomplished and endearing Nellie McKay whose light, child-like voice reminded me of the legendary Blossom Dearie. The last piece is slight, but fortunately, McKay and the entire cast bring the tone back up with a delightful musical finale. Riccardo Hernandez’s versatile sets convey multiple locales with efficiency while Reza Behjat’s lighting provide the appropriate mood, dark and depressed to warm and cosy. Peggy Schnitzer’s costumes perfectly each character, denoting their attitudes towards love and themselves. Let’s Love! scores two out of three, which ain’t bad.

Oct. 15—Nov. 22. Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater, 336 W. 20th St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. atlantictheater.org.

New Zoo Snafu

In reaction to Attorney General Pam Bondi's rumored statement that inflatable frog costumes are really antifa uniforms and Doug and Emmy Jo doing a Facebook Live and podcasts.

Freddie the Frog, Charlie Owl and Henrietta 
Hippo from New Zoo Revue

The scene: the home of Henrietta Hippo from New Zoo Revue. Henrietta is hosting Doug and Emmy Jo for afternoon tea.

Emmy Jo: Thanks so much for asking us to tea, Henrietta. These cookies are delicious.

Henrietta: Why think nothing of it, Emmy Jo sugar. With all the trouble and confusion in the world today, I thought it would so nice to just sit down and relax with a nice cup of my special honeysuckle tea and some mint julep cookies.

Doug: Yes, it been so long since we've had a nice visit and forgotten the cares of the world. (This restive mood is broken by Freddie the Frog who bursts in crying his eyes out)

Freddie: Oh no. What a terrible day.

Emmy Jo (rises to comfort Freddy): Freddy, what is it? What's wrong?

Freddie (sitting down): My teacher says that because I'm a frog I hate America and I'm a terrorist and I'm a member of Aunt Tefa. I don't even have an Aunt Tefa. And what's Hamas? Isn't that a dip for Greek food?

Doug: No, that's hummus.

Freddie: Then the other kids all made fun of me and threatened to shame me on social media. (To Doug) Doug, what's happening? I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Can people hate you just because you're different?

Doug: I'm afraid so, Freddie. This is a terrible lesson we all have to learn someday.

Emmy Jo: But Doug, why would the teacher pick on Freddie like this just because he's a frog?

Henrietta: Yes, it doesn't make any sense. (Charlie the Owl enters in an equally distraught state)

Charlie: Oh no this is terrible. What am I going to do?

Doug: What's wrong with you, Charlie?

Charlie: I just got an email from Owl University where I serve as adjunct professor in general smartness. We're being told by the government that if we don't stop all our DEI policies, they'll cut all our federal funding. That means I won't have any financing for my research project on the nutritional value of field mice. What's worse they might fire me because I got the position through DEI.

Emmy Jo: But you're an owl, why would you have gotten a job at Owl University through DEI?

Charlie: I'm a forest owl. They only used to hire barn owls. 

Doug: This is ridiculous. 

Henrietta: Yes, it seems the whole world has gone crazy and unreasonable. What next? (The wall to Henrietta's house suddenly bursts in like the East Wing of the White House. A bulldozer driven by Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi plows into the room, following by 20 or 30 masked ICE agents.)

Pam Bondi (pulls out a megaphone and announces): This is a raid. You're all under arrest for suspicion of belonging to Antifa and thinking independent thoughts.

Doug: Oh come on, we haven't done anything. What happened to due process?

Kristi Noem: Save it for the libs, pinko! You're all being deported to South Sudan.

Freddie: What's the lesson here, Doug?

Doug: Don't vote Trump. (Pam and Kristi proceed to put zip ties on Doug, Emmy Jo, Freddie, Charlie and Henrietta and haul them off to detention.)

Note: this is satire, so don't sue me, Pam. (The president is allowed to do satire--like in his poop-dropping AI video--so I can too.) It turns out Pam probably didn't say anything about frog costumes, it was just an Internet joke, but it is funny.

Off-B'way Review: The Other Americans; Mexodus

John Leguizamo and Luna Lauren Velez
in The Other Americans.
Credit: Joan Marcus

John Leguizamo has carved out a unique position for himself in the American theater with a series of riotously funny solo plays, including Freak, Spic-O-Rama, Sexaholix, and Ghetto Klown, documenting his experiences as an Hispanic citizen and performer. With his new play The Other Americans in which he also plays the lead at the Public Theater, Leguizamo attempts to branch out and depict the impact of blindly pursuing the American Dream on a Latino family in terms of traditional narrative drama. His heart and intentions are in the right place and the first act has some strong moments, but his plot is too melodramatic and contrived, borrowing too heavily from previous similar works, particularly Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman. The playwright’s performance and that of the tight ensemble and Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s muscular staging are proficient and professional, but the play feels thin and forced.

Like Miller’s Willy Loman, August Wilson’s Troy Maxon in Fences, and O’Neill’s Hickey from The Iceman Cometh, Leguizamo’s protagonist Nelson Castro is a self-deluded hustler. A would-be big-shot who always has a lucrative scheme in the works, Nelson is actually a bankrupt businessman whose fanciful deals are more hot air than solid planning. The setting is the Castro family’s expensive home in Forrest Hills, Queens (beautiful design by Arnulfo Maldonado) where Nelson and his wife Patti (marvelously maternal Luna Lauren Velez) are nervously awaiting the homecoming of their son Nick (appropriately volatile Trey Santiago-Hudson) after a stay in a mental health facility. It’s gradually revealed Nick is suffering from post-traumatic stress from a vicious attack by white racists. They are joined by daughter Toni (spunky Rebecca Jimenez) and her fiancee Eddie (adorably nerdy Bradley James Tejeda), and Nelson’s more successful sister Norma (intense Rosa Evangelina Arredondo) and family friend Veronica (funny Sarah Nina Hayon). 

Off-B'way Review: André De Shields Is Tartuffe

Amber Iman and André De Shields in
André De Shields in 
 Is Tartuffe. 
Credit: Joan Marcus

For an intimate and raucous evening with a slightly modern twist, you can’t do much better than the current revival of Tartuffe, Moliere’s classic comedy satirizing religious hypocrisy, or, as it is officially titled, André De Shields Is Tartuffe. The Tony-winning Broadway veteran of The Wiz, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Hadestown is indeed the main attraction in the title role of a conniving conman posing as a sanctimonious scold in order to take over a gullible aristocrat’s household. But Keaton Wooden’s clever, fast-paced production has many additional surprises and delights.

Chief among these is the very setting. The show takes place in the library of the House of the Redeemer, an landmarked Upper East Side mansion, built by Vanderbilts and now an Episcopal retreat house. The library is especially appropriate for Tartuffe since it was constructed in the 1600s (reconstructed by the Vanderbilts) and the play was first performed in 1664. The seating capacity is only 100 and set designer Kate Rance incorporates the audience into the cosy environment, complete with a grand piano upon which Drew Wutke provides elegant musical accompaniment. Costume designer Tere Duncan outfits the cast in contemporary stylish clothes and Moliere’s message of religious hypocrisy is given modern relevance.

Hannah Beck and André De Shields in
André  De Shields Is Tartuffe.
Credit: Joan Marcus

De Shields is a marvel as the titular duplicitous charlatan. Costumed by Duncan in a cardinal-red gown, his fingers bedecked with flashy bling, he sweeps into the library, delivering a soulful rendition of “Feelin’ Good,” relishing his mastery over the pliable Orgon (comically dim Chris Hahn). He employs gospel flourishes and exaggerated piety in his renditions of Ranjit Bolt’s verse translation of Tartuffe’s self-righteous sermons on sin and morality. The highlight of the evening is De Shields’ lascivious wooing or Orgon’s wife Elmire (an elegant and fiery Amber Iman), who pretends to welcome his advances in order to trap him. Wooden’s intricate staging and the precise timing of the players produces gales of guffaws. Lighting designer Yang Yu achieves spectacular effects here as the library is transformed into a sleazy nightclub for Tartuffe’s attempted seduction.

André  De Shields (c. seated), Marcus Fitzpatrick,
Todd Buonopane, Phoebe Dunn, Amber Iman, 
Chris Hahn, Alexandra Socha, Tyler Hardwick,
Hannah Beck, and Charlie Lubeck in
André  De Shields Is Tartuffe.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Alexandra Socha and Charlie Lubeck are comically ardent as the besotted young lovers Marianne and Valere. Tyler Hardwick makes Orgon’s son Damis a delightful caricature of puffed-up valor. Phoebe Dunn is sassy and cheeky as the truth-telling maid Dorine and Hannah Beck displays the sharp intelligence of Elmire’s no-nonsense sister Cleante. Todd Buonopane in a tiara has a hilarious cameo as Orgon’s overbearing mother Madame Pernelle. He does not raise his voice into a falsetto or employ obvious drag cliches, but simply conveys the force of her stubborn personality. Though the play is billed as André De Shields Is Tartuffe, the entire ensemble is the star.

Oct. 9—Nov. 23. House of the Redeemer, 7 E. 95th St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. tartuffenyc.com