Theater
YOU LOOK AMAZING
By Sam Myers, illustrations by Jordan JonesROBERT appears. He’s super hot but you can tell there’s something going on with him. He’s a little weird, like just a little bit off, kinda sweaty, kinda nervous, his hair is theoretically nice-looking but it’s styled in an unflattering way. He wears a suit that’s conspicuously old-fashioned and too big for him. He’s fidgety. Still hot though, I want to be clear about that.
A Bonkers Workplace Comedy About Life and Grief in Events
By Billy McEnteeIf you’ve dreaded going back into the office, Events confirms the return may be worse than you imagined. Much, much worse.
Despite its Bumpy History, Merrily We Roll Along Glides Back to New York
By Billy McEnteeThe first time I saw Merrily was at Fair Lawn High School in New Jersey in 2008; Stephen Sondheim apparently attended a performance and spoke to the cast. I remember being amazed by the score, confused by the story, but moved by the ending—in that amateur production’s final gesture, as the chorus refrains “me and you” during “Our Time,” antihero Franklin Shepard’s piano comes back on stage and he, alone, faces it. Maria Friedman’s production, now sold out at New York Theatre Workshop, concludes with a similar visual, and an idea clicked: music is the you to Franklin’s me, the thing he cares most about and what he has to lose when the people who make him sing fade away, dimming like distant stars.
