Oratorio for Living Things

Oratorio for Living Things
Written by Heather Christian
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Signature Theatre
October 4, 2025
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Heather Christian has written truly a divine experience in her Oratorio for Living Things.  It truly feels like more of a call to worship than any piece of theatre than I have ever experienced.  It is really impossible to define but I will do my best.  It is a classical choral masterwork infused with pop, blues and gospel. A dozen stunning vocalists and six incredible  instrumentalists make sense and aural spectacle out of Christian’s composition of this rich poetic text.  Because the lyrics are dense and can be difficult to parse (some parts are in Latin, sometimes it builds into cacophony) they even hand out hymnals out at the entrance to the theatre to follow along with the language, but I quickly put it back down on my lap as I didn’t want any one of my senses to miss the experience. 

(un) conditional

(un) conditional
Written by Ali Keller
Directed by Ivey Lowe
SoHo Playhouse
October 3, 2025
Production website
πŸ’‰ out of 5.

I, who have attended literally hundreds of productions in New York from basements to Broadway, have NEVER been more offended or made more uncomfortable (and NOT in a good way) to the totally unnecessary 90 minutes of (un)conditional.  There was not one redeeming thing to be found here.  Let me tell you just a bit about the plot of the show- –  if for no reason than to just get it off my body.  There are two couples. 

The House of McQueen

The House of McQueen
Written by Darrah Cloud
Directed by Sam Helfrich
The Mansion at Hudson Yards
October 2, 2025
ProductionΒ website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5

The House of McQueen is a new bio-play about Alexander McQueen radical bad boy of fashion. McQueen’s work was admired for its highly original blend of subversion and tradition, evident from the outset in his ‘Bumster’ trousers, sharp frock coats, corroded fabrics, slashed leather and shredded, flesh-revealing lace.

You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.

The Weather Girl

The Weather Girl
Written by Brian Watkins
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli
St. Ann’s Warhorse
October 1, 2025
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Weather Girl is a brilliant, tight, 70-minute one woman show that centers on Stacey Gross, a weather girl on a Fresno, California TV station.  She is a sunny, ever-positive, sparkling weather girl.  She has been directed by her news produces to ignore completely the long-term toll of drought and wildfires plaguing the area.  Her world and even neighbored is literally on fire.  To cope, she is belting down Prosecco on air and step-by-step losing her mind.

The Day I Accidentally Went to War

The Day I Accidentally Went to War
Written and performed by Bill Posley
Soho Playhouse
August 16, 2025
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5

My final one-person show of this visit to NYC was The Day I Accidentally Went to War.Β Β Written and performed by Bill Posley, the play confronts his experience as a soldier in Iraq during the War on Terror.Β Β The audience follows a deeply personal journey from his childhood through basic training, his unexpected deployment, and eventual homecoming.Β Β Apart from his personal story, he is trying to bridge the anti-military with the pro-military.Β Β 

the guy who sees everything