Staff Picks No. 145
RADIO MAN : Sarah Groustra, Tatiana Baccari, Underbelly Theatre Co., Reaching Glory Productions, Mia Angelique, Rachel Arianna, Sophie Falvey, Mike Iveson, Isabel Stewart, Augustus Saint Glick, Dre Shapiro, Joelle Westwood, Jon McLawhorn, Trey Sullivan, Larsen Nichols
Paradise Factory
May 1st-10th 2026
If I was in NY during this run, I would go check this out, though I do not personally know any of the artists. GASP! So what in the world would make me check it out, you ask?! Well, Mike Iveson is not-to-be-missed as a performer. Duh. And Sarah Groustra is the engine behind 1319 Press. Very cool. And Paradise Factory is an iconic and important space on 4th Street. Yay. And I love radio stuff. Radio stuff is one of those hooks for me. Now you know.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Mouth Pieces : Nate Wooley, Maya Martinez, C. Spencer Yeh
Triple Canopy
Saturday May 9th 2026
“Premieres of two performances that consider the largest orifice in the human body.” HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT. Made for me. Nate Wooley debuts a work exploring the effect that four decades of trumpet-playing has had on the literal construction of his mouth. Maya Martinez, whose work and general online presence I adore, tackles Beckett’s Not I— the play with nothing but the woman’s mouth. You know the one. Mouth Pieces looks like an incredible time.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Marina Abramović Said This in a Podcast : Claire Tumey, Sabrina Fosse, Julius Reese
The Makers Space
April 22nd-26th 2026
I don’t know about you, but Claire Tumey x Marina Abramović x “content warning: gore” sounds like a pretty ideal night out to me. As the playwright behind we’re delinquents.pdf, Tumey writes for girls with a laundry list of bones to pick, and Miss Abramović fits the bill just right. This one’s for anyone who has “I come from communism. I never liked dolls to play with.” memorized.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Cable Street : Tim Gilvin, Alex Kanefsky, Adam Lenson, Max Alexander-Taylor, Debbie Chazen, Michali Dantes, Natalie Elisha-Welsh, Lizzy-Rose Esin Kelly, Isaac Gryn, Preeya Kalidas, Romona Lewis-Malley, Annie Majin, Aoife Mac Namara, Ethan Pascal Peters, Jez Unwin, Barney Wilkinson, Tamara Saringer, Tim Gilvin, Yoav Segal, Charlie Smith, Jevan Howard Jones, Lu Herbert, Sam Waddington, Ben Jacobs, Olivia Laydon, Bob King, Dylan Schlosberg, Neil Marcus
59E59
April 26th-May 24th 2026
I love a big musical in a small space and CABLE STREET - about when the community of the same name rose up against a fascist march led by Oswald Mosley - seems exactly like that bill. It's made waves over at Southwark Playhouse in London and I'm curious to see what the work plays with, how it touches it subject matter, and how they can fit that big a cast in 59E59 (I know they've got fairly large theaters but still! Remember when we had ensembles Off-Broadway?).
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
The Elementary Spacetime Show : César Alvarez, Emily Orling, Dante Green
Lincoln Center's David Rubinstein Atrium
Sunday April 26th 2026
There’s a brilliant crop of musical theater composers you need to know who are making work that is actually changing the game, and one of those people is César Alvarez. Along with Emily Orling, they’ve written a show about suicide, what it means to be alive, the universe(?), all with a surreal and bighearted touch. Directed by newly minted Brick co-AD (and all around good chap) Dante Green to boot in the work's first fully-sung concert presentation!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Final Nights of 2026 ?!:New Works : Caro Yost, Andrew Ugh, Diane Lenertz, The Greenhouse Ensemble, doxies, Sophie Garrigus & Tess Inderbitzin, Sam Kann & Chloë Engel, Zipporah Norton & Caitlin Cobb-Vialet, Michael Galligan & Kiki Milner, Hand Foot and Mouth, Emma McGill & Charlie Chauca
The Brick Theater
April 23rd-26th 2026
The final weekend of this wild and wonderful festival is here! If you have been going, keep going. If you have not gone yet, get in there. I have heard great reports of ridiculous things that have happened on stage. Plus, Friday and Saturday are hosted by Caro Yost, who is one of the most unpredictable and delightful performers I know! I recommend this if you are itching to be surprised in a good way and/or want to be in an energetically vibrant space.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Believer : Laurel Atwell, Molly Ross, Camilla Carper, Cal Fish, Maggie Heath
Triskelion Arts
May 14th-15th 2026
The marketing mimics American Apparel, the blurb quotes Woah Vicky, the undies are Paris pink, and me? I’m scared. The vibes are hostile… but sexy. Love it!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Star & Stan : Kate Williams, Reed Rushes
Frisson Gallery
Thursday April 23rd 2026
The beloved Star & Stan perform for one night only at Frisson Gallery, as part of the A Year From Genesis series. Star & Stan are the heterosexual power couple of our dreams; serving faux geisha, tin man in assless chaps, and unadulterated sex appeal, these two have crafted an oeuvre of decadent fantasies of American domesticity. The work is freakish, gorgeous, and horny. What more could you want?
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Eat the Patriarchy 2026 : Emmanuelle Zagoria, Becca Canziani, Ally Ibach, AnomalousCo, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Deja Sol, Desi Domo
The Bechdel Project
The Bechdel Project
Saturday May 2nd 2026
The Bechdel Project hosts their fundraiser to support their work, feminist art, complete with DJ & tarot and seems so much more fun than those silly little galas for $500-per-crudite.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
100% agree with Reuven. I gasp whenever I look at gala prices and think - “that’s not for me, obviously”… this has fantastic people and artists working together to raise funds to keep an important space going. Love love love.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Dad Don’t Read This : Eliya Smith, Chloe Claudel, Forest Entsminger, Dante Gonzalez, Abigail Sage, Mitchell Polonsky, Lena Engelstein, Mya Piccione, Madeline Riddick-Seals, Kerrigan Quenemoen, Immediate Medium, Ethan Fuirst, June Buck, Blaise Ylianna Hewlett, Arturo Chavez, Jennifer Friedland, Amalia Yoo, Renée-Nicole Powell, Sophie Rossman, Kayta Thomas, Try for Baby Productions, The Goat Exchange
St. Luke’s Theatre
May 4th-24th 2026
Army-putar renato vitsu gwanda sherb. Ga kweb euranka yepron wub aw oosh afenk nash sperk noobie. Nip va shamoo zurzoh dow lay nash gir. Sugnorg seeta yibsy om delco shushubie. Vitsu baba gork zoob oosh forbzoo. Shamoo krem bweb zagadoo gir kowlenin. Shanga pipty caba grouw dabel hooba. Whippna fretishe flooz litzergam chum-cha ooh grouw nurbler bor mekchate. (Myshuno neep chibna swaybe noop NOOBOO CHOBA wepsa MAYZIE STAMBY zor mayzie norb). Ooba mee-la flee yarma meepso meepso squib. Translation from Simlish: [The Goat Exchange and Eliya Smith return for a new work about four girls and their weekly sleepovers, the Sims, and discovering agency. I adore these folks and their work, so it’s always a treat to see them back at it with what I think is their third show this year (and if you missed their previous collaborations with Smith, DEADCLASS, OHIO and TWO GIRLS…chances, chances!). Simlish lessons after, I think it’s on Duolingo.]
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
The Door Slams, A Glass Trembles : Talking Band (Paul Zimet & Ellen Maddow), Anna Kiraly, Olivera Gajic, Mary Ellen Stebbins, Erica Schnitzer, Mia Harada, Flannery Gregg, Mary Ellen Stebbings, Patrick Dunning, Delaney Feener, Amara Granderson, Jesse Koehler, Lizzie Olesker, Steven Rattazzi, Tina Shepard, Jack Wetherall
La MaMa
April 24th-May 10th 2026
Talking Band is one of our greatest theatrical troupes, from the expansive and warm-fuzzies imagination of Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow, who brought us the astounding THE FOLLOWING EVENING and the sweet-hearted EXISTENTIALISM in the same season, (I heard wonders about their latest stuff at Mabou Mines). A Talking Band show is both a downtown theater history lesson in the flesh AND a tonic for the creative soul. Don’t be a loser, see what slams the door and trembles the glass.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer