Staff Picks No. 100
MIKEY MAUS IN FANTASMICH! : Hannah Kallenbach, Dan Hasse
The Brick Theater
June 11th-14th 2025
I wish instead of text I could just post the picture of the poster (post the picture again, because I'm sure this text will be underneath a cute circle clipping of the poster). No words can describe how excited I am to be seeing this show, and you, too, should also be excited. And! As a bonus, there's a fantastic lineup of special appearances. Ok, enough said. See you there!
Staffer: Hillary Gao
Rabbit holes are great, but mouse holes? That’s how you get pregnant. MIKEY MAUS IN FANTASMICH! sounds like a precariously unhinged experience that will make me question my sanity, write my final goodbyes, and be merely sighted off the coast of strange islands but never confirmed. All this to say, go see it.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Uh oh! A triple Staff Pick! I guess you HAVE to go. A doy. This is such an obvious Staff Pick for me. I have been a Hannah Kallenbach enthusiast for over a decade. Ever since their first SalOn! at Silent Barn, where they painted a stolen traffic cone silver, made their own ice dildo that sat atop the cone, lowered onto it and talked to a goldfish. Hannah is a brilliant, sensitive, exquisite vessel of art and curiosity. I can only guess at what will happen within the walls of The Brick on these dates… it will be it’s own kind of magic, for sure.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (The Harry Nilsson Show) : Salty Brine, Max Reuben
Joe’s Pub
June 11th-13th 2025
Salty Brine continues their astounding Living Record Collection project - this time, with the works of Harry Nilsson meeting the Jungle Book. I love a series of interconnected ambitious works and this is my call for you to join the Salty Brine club.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
A Letter To Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First : Xhloe Roland, Natasha Rice
SoHo Playhouse
June 4th-29th 2025
These two are those kinds of clowns friends tell me, “Reuven you must go!” and I have not gotten the chance until now! So where does LBJ (infamous flasher, 36th President), Boy Scouts, and dastardly clowning meet? I don’t fucking know, neither do you, so get yourself a ticket and we’ll find out.
Staffer : Reuven Glezer
Maintenance Artist : Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Toby Perl Freilich
Tribeca Film Festival
June 4th-15th 2025
Mierle Laderman Ukeles has, since 1977, been an unpaid Artist in Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation. Her generous and incisive and radical work explores the performance of domestic labor, public maintenance, and the often invisible effort of undervalued and underpaid city workers. All of which she reads through a conceptual art lens. She is amazing, and I know this doc will be brilliant! Only four screenings at Tribeca: June 8, 9, 10, 14. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
This Bug Is Gay : Genevieve Simon, Katherine Wilkinson
ANT FEST at Ars Nova
Saturday June 14th 2025
It's so easy to read Kafka as a very sad dour person, when in reality, every single one of his short stories is more like a twisted piece of sketch comedy. They're actually all funny if you think about it (or don't). So clowning Kafka? Makes perfect sense.
Staffer: kanishk pandey
Farewell My Fool : JOYBOY/JOY-MARIE THOMPSON
Triskelion
June 12th-14th 2025
Dare I say, not to be missed. Was lucky to see Joy Marie-Thompson's JoyBoy da Clown at ?! New Works this year and it was effortlessly kinetic, surprising, and hilarious. Lights by eternal lighting stunner, Connor Sale. GO!
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
the promos for this show demonstrate impeccable dancing and hilarious clowning. i'm so ready for the depths this will explore!!
Staffer: Travis Amiel
La Mama's Squirts : Paris Alexander
The Club at La Mama
June 6th-8th 2025
Squirts is an avant-garde queer performance festival. It will be all over the place, but you can expect to see artists conjuring fantasies out of plastic and colorful lights, raw truths exposed in messy, unserious ways, poetic nudity, unambiguous horniness, and the eternal urge to show up and love on each other.
Staffer: Noa Rui-Piin Weiss
Can You Help Me Decipher Barbara Walters’ Handwriting? (I think she was having an affair with my grandfather) : Leo Grierson
The Tank
June 6th-7th 2025
I was lost when "Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People" ended in 2015. So much so, that I am launching "Matthew Antoci' 10 Most Fascinating People" - here, exclusive, on Staff Picks. My first guest, Leo Grierson.
I'm so glad I know Leo - his work as a video artist is dazzling and transportive (featured in none other than me and Hillary's BABIES ON THE STREET last year hollaa...) and his onstage charisma is delectable. The story that catapults this show is shocking and .. actually true. I've been goose-d up for 2+ years to see it, and can't wait for it's full glory.
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
Out of Order: Carl Holder, Skylar Fox
East Village Basement
June 27th-July 22nd 2025
Okay, this show doesn't start til end of June, but after just a few shows we know how quickly seats move at the East Village Basement. Huzzah for intimate spaces, and double huzzah for NEW spaces as greed evaporates too many. Carl Holder has created a unique show about tenacity in theater, which should be familiar to anyone. I'm intrigued, excited for Carl, and will be seated.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Crabby: Madi Fabber, Em Hausmann
ANT FEST at Ars Nova
Friday June 13th 2025
We will all eventually return to crab. You have no choice in that matter. I'd highly suggest seeing this show to get ahead on the subject. Better to be prepared!
Staffer: kanishk pandey
A Travel Story : Max Mooney, Connor Nielsen
The Tank
June 21st-23rd 2025
Here's a trend in everything I staff-picked on our 100th staff picks: the relationship between the human and the non-human. This show's no different, with a great attention to detail in the symbolism of the exoskeleton. It also doesn't help that everything Max does is brilliant.
Staffer: kanishk pandey