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In their very funny, very loose Molière adaptation, Taylor Mac plays an artist commissioned to mount a dance piece for a glossy ballet company’s annual benefit as it honors a beloved actress whose nonstop philanthropy beats all into dazzled adoration and a pharma-tech manchild looking to launder his reputation.
The trio’s name is never actually heard in the show: the actress, ####-###, is gloriously referred to, per the script, “as if a choir is heralding the appearance of an angel;” $#@%$, the villain, “as if a censor buzzer has just gone off;” and Mac’s character is simply Artist. That’s the level of satirical bluntness in the piece, which crescendos in absurdity as Artist’s troupe and the company’s sleazy-frazzled artistic director (Jennifer Regan’s spidery “Philanthropoid”) struggle to appease all, and ends with an earnest call-to-artistic-respect from Mac, delivered in verse.
There’s some classic Greek in its tragicomic inevitability (Artist’s work is inspired by Prometheus), as well as some commedia dell’arte, evoking yet not dutifully assigning roles from that latter form and implying that all entangled in the contemporary Art x Philanthropy web are fools. Each relationship is mined for the counteractive riches in this immemorial daisy chain:
Artist and Philanthropoid get art, but diverge on how to fund it. Philanthropoid and $#@%$ understand bottom lines, yet only one admits soul-killing remorse. $#@%$ and ####-### know power, though one hoards fame and the other, fortune. And finally, Artist rails against their reliance on $#@%$’s cash and ####-###’s glamor, the two deadly muses.
The backstage antics, blending sharp critique with loose-limbed slapstick, create a digestible, kaleidoscopic Muppet Show style (who is the ultimate Artist Martyr Fool, if not Kermit?) and are aided by Alexander Dodge’s playground-like set.
The Darko Tresnjak-directed production’s biggest surprise is Sierra Boggess, as the entrancing actress, who wields a career’s worth of playing Christine Daaé types into a ferociously funny and biting performance. With her regal air, she gives a self-congratulatory speech on why she’s justified in not sparing change for beggars, the ouroboric gymnastics of which achieve, in a few minutes, what Real Housewives fans have sought in that decadeslong franchise.
Her arrival in an extravagant gown, embroidered with the faces of the starving children she aids, and with a prop one in tow (Aerina Park DeBoer), is the highlight of Anita Yavich’s costume design. The other, which a decade ago might have appeared too on-the-nose, is for $#@%$ (Jason O’Connell), whose Trumpian speech pattern is physicalized via Musk drag: black baseball cap, sneakers and a t-shirt with block letters spelling, “TIME FOR MY NAP.”
In glorious clownish fashion, the piece sustains a living relationship with its audience, so it feels only natural, even right, when Mac puts on a jester cap to firmly present its intended questions, namely, how much are we willing to take, or give? If art is indeed a reflection of our world, the title Prosperous Fools strikes a poignant deal between Pierrot and Prometheus.
Prosperous Fools is in performance through June 29, 2025 at Theatre for a New Audience on Ashland Place in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.
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It’s a crucible summer. Chiara Aurelia will step into the role of Shelby Holcomb in John Proctor is the Villain starting July 15. She is taking over for Tony Award nominee Sadie Sink, who will depart from the production on July 13.
Aurelia is best known for starring as Jeanette Turner in the freeform series in Cruel Summer. The show received the highest ratings of any original series in the history of the platform. Starting June 18, she will perform Off-Broadway for eight weeks in Dilaria, a new play by Julia Randall. and Luckiest Girl Alive. She has also previously played Young Ani in Netflix’s Luckiest Girl Alive, and Jordy in Peacock’s Hysteria.
In John Proctor is the Villain, five young women – fueled by pop music, optimism, and fury – clash with their school, their Georgia town, and the stories they've been instructed to believe. As their class dissects The Crucible, they begin to question who we deem heroic, who we call a villain, and who gets burned in the process. With biting humor and a beating heart, this explosive new play shines a blazing spotlight on the eternal fight to claim your own narrative in a world that’s still stuck in the past. The production opened this spring at the Booth Theatre after wonderful productions at Studio Theatre and The Huntington Theatre.
The company currently includes Nihar Duvvuri as Mason Adams, Gabriel Ebert as Carter Smith, Molly Griggs as Bailey Gallagher, Maggie Kuntz at Ivy Watkins, Hagan Oliveras as Lee Turner, Morgan Scott as Nell Shaw, Fina Strazza as Beth Powell, and Amalia Yoo as Raelynn Niz. Noah Pacht, Fiona Robberson, Shian Tomlinson, Garrett Young, and Victoria Vourkoutiotis serve as understudies.
The play was nominated for seven Tony Awards in 2025, including one for Sink for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.
John Proctor is the Villain will play at the Booth Theatre through Aug. 31, extended from its original run due to popular demand. For tickets and more information, visit here.
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We aren’t going to be able to let this one go! Tony nominee Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Severance's Michael Chernus will star in Well, I’ll Let You Go at The Space at Irondale. The play will run from July 29 to Aug. 29, 2025.
Directed by Drama Desk winner Jack Serio, Well, I’ll Let You Go tells the story of a woman and community in crisis in a small town in the midwest. It shifts backwards and forwards in time in an intimate look at a crumbled marriage — and a crumbled American dream.
This season, Serio directed the world premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s Grangeville at Signature Theatre and Ken Urban's Danger and Opportunity at East Village Basement.
The play was written by Bubba Weiler, who is best known for playing Scorpius Malfoy in the first American cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. He is a Brooklyn-based playwright and graduated from New York University’s Playwrights Horizons Theater School
Jack Serio’s “sensitive, detailed, and actor-centric approach makes him the perfect person to helm Well, I’ll Let You Go,” Weiler said in a statement. “I’m humbled with the all-star cast and team he’s assembled to paint this portrait of a community in crisis. I truly can’t think of a better way to finally share one of my plays with audiences.”
The play marks Chernus’ return to the New York City stage after an 11 year hiatus. The cast will also feature an ensemble including Cricket Brown, Will Dagger, Emily Davis, Danny McCarthy, Constance Shulman, and Amelia Workman.
The creative team will include scenic design by Frank J. Oliva, costume design by Avery Reed, lighting design by Stacey Derosier, and original music by Avi Amon.
Well, I’ll Let You Go will run from July 29 to August 29, 2025 at The Space at Irondale in Brooklyn, New York. For tickets and more information, visit here.
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