Freshly 96, June Squibb is giving one of the sharpest and most emotionally precise performances currently onstage in the Broadway premiere of Marjorie Prime, Jordan Harrison’s one-act about an elderly widow and the lifelike robot modeled after her late husband. Exquisitely directed by Anne Kauffman, and rounded out by Cynthia Nixon, Danny Burstein and Christopher Lowell, it’s an intelligent prayer for raw humanity in the face of catastrophic tech complacency.

The setup is simple, at first feeling like a dramedy about a daughter dealing with her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother’s antics at an assisted-living community. That’d be Tess (Nixon), who’s less than thrilled with her mother Marjorie’s (Squibb) growing attachment to her Prime: a friendly humanoid who can retain information and stand in for a person. Like Tess’ father, it’s named Walter; but unlike how he went out, it’s portrayed at peak physicality to resemble the man in his 30s (Christpher Lowell, in an excellently automated performance). Tess’ husband Jon (Danny Burstein) deems it mostly harmless for Marjorie to have a companion in her later years, even though the Prime grows from whatever possibly flawed information it is fed. For Tess, there’s a gnawing tension in allowing her mother the sweet respite of fond memories when it’s chased by the knowledge that the harder she leans on the built-to-please technology’s coddling, the further from reality she’ll become. The ultimate irony, of course, lies in the “couple’s” generative divergence: as hers decreases, his grows stronger.

I cannot imagine how this played in 2014, when it premiered. Today, with people developing “AI psychosis” from constant interactions with services like ChatGPT, it is almost unbearably grim. Thankfully, that’s where the performances, built gloriously from Harrison’s script, come in.

Lowell ably fuses the tender warmth for which his character has been created with the icy distance of its reality. Burstein radiates an empathy that grows as his character must navigate murkier emotional realities. Nixon, as always, is extremely skilled at portraying women long backed into a hardened corner – equal parts their own steely volition and as a result of the world’s apathy – but with a bittersweet warmth at this knowledge.

At the center of this, even as the story cleverly shifts focus, is Squibb and her masterfully expressive face. In contrast to her younger costars, the veteran often plays out towards the audience, finding her light somewhere between our hearts and minds; this is someone who understands the art of stage performance. Her organic turns between girlish glee and instantly heartbreaking anguish are genuinely staggering.

Harrison’s drama is equally poignant, not only in its thematic conceit and narrative scope but in its beautiful turns of phrase: “I don’t have to get better. Just keep me from getting worse,” Marjorie begs of her Prime.

The production is equally delicate, with Lee Jellinek’s Palm Springs-style home set pulling off a simple, bravura gesture in the play’s final moments, aided by Ben Stanton’s lighting and Daniel Kluger’s sound design. The clothes which Márion Talán de la Rosa has designed for Squibb are enviably cozy.

That Marjorie Prime doesn’t end in abject misery, even as it inches toward a suggestion of something like the Dead Internet theory, is almost a miracle. Plays hardly come as astutely, or productions as perceptive as this – and rarely anyone as brilliantly as Squibb.

‍Marjorie Prime is in performance through February 15, 2025 at the Hayes Theatre on West 44th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

This vampire is back and she is here to Slay. Today, it was announced that the new original musical Blood/Love will make its way Off-Broadway this Spring at Theater 555 beginning Friday, February 13, 2026. Directed by Hunter Bird, this new musical will officially open Tuesday, March 3, 2026 for a limited run through Sunday, March 29, 2026. 

Written by Carey Sharpe and Grammy nominee Dru DeCaro, the piece will star Sharpe as Valerie Bloodlove. She’s the world’s first vampire. For a thousand years, she ruled the night. Now, she’s thirsty for more.

Step inside the seductive world of Blood/Love, New York’s new pop opera that transforms the classic vampire tale into an ultra-contemporary theatrical extravaganza. Under the sultry lights of a nightclub, The Crimson, the former queen of the underworld searches for an existence beyond eternal bloodshed. But her endless night changes when she meets a mortal soul with his own devilish secret. 

Brought to sumptuous life from one of the creative minds behind Masquerade and two acclaimed choreographers from Dancing with the Stars, this new musical experience intoxicates the senses.  With a blood-pumping original score and cinematic spectacle, Blood/Love surrounds you with an atmosphere so decadent, even the undead feel fiercely alive.

Choreography is by Jonathan Platero & Oksana Platero (“Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance”), and Natalie Malotke with music supervision by Matt Hinkley (The Outsiders) and music direction by Ben Covello. The design team includes set design by Emmy Award winner Jason Ardizzone-West (Jesus Christ Superstar Live), costume design by Alex & Juli Abene, lighting design by five time Tony Award nominee Japhy Weideman (The Heart of Rock n Roll), sound design by Tony Award winner Jessica Paz (Hadestown), projection design by Tony Award winner 59 Studio (Stranger Things: The First Shadow), and prop design by Lauren Page Russell (Our Town). Casting by Peter Dunn & Benton Whitley of Whitley Theatrical. Additional casting will be shared at a later date. 

To purchase tickets to Blood/Love, please go to bloodlove.com/tickets

How do you know when it’s time to leave?

Described as Neil Simon-meets-A Doll’s House, Anne Marilyn Lucas’ new comedy Art of Leaving is a razor-sharp look at a marriage in crisis. As the play begins, Aaron (Jordan Lage) shocks his wife Diana (Audrey Heffernan Meyer) by asking for a divorce—though not before declaring she has “never been sexy,” smiles too much, and needs to act less happy.

Soon, the whole family gets involved, including Aaron and Diana’s son Jason (Brian Mason), whose fiancé Caitlyn (Molly Chiffer) believes in polyamory; and Aaron’s parents, Esther (Pamela Shaw) and his father Felix (Alan Ceppos), who has some surprising insights to offer. 

Art of Leaving is now at The Pershing Square Signature Center, following a run at Theatre For the New City in March 2024. Theatrely sat down with Meyer and Ceppos to discuss the development of Art of Leaving, generational divides around marriage, and the play’s cathartic ending.

THEATRELY: Audrey, tell me about your history with Art of Leaving.

AUDREY HEFFERNAN MEYER: Anne [Marilyn Lucas] first invited me to do a reading a couple years ago. She wanted me to play the role of Diana, a character Anne had modeled after herself. I immediately found the play so compelling. It starts out so absurdly—you can’t even believe the things this narcissistic husband is saying to his wife, and yet you also understand why she wants to stay with him. 

How did Alan and the rest of your six-person cast get involved? 

AUDREY: We met in February of last year when we started rehearsal for the run at Theatre For The New City in the East Village. Alan and I both thought this piece should be seen by more people. So we got together and spearheaded this thing, and said, let’s bring this to off-Broadway. 

Along the way, you also workshopped the play with readings held for charity. 

ALAN CEPPOS: We thought it was a good idea to bring the play somewhere and get audience feedback, so we went to LTV Studios in East Hampton. That reading was also a benefit for Ellen Hermanson Foundation’s work with breast cancer. 

AUDREY: Those readings really helped us delve more deeply into some of the characters. We got feedback from people saying, “We don’t really know enough about why Diana puts up with this guy.”

What adjustments were made to explain Diana and Aaron’s connection, despite some of the crueler things he says to her? 

AUDREY: This time around, we really played up the sexual attraction they still have for each other. I think that helps a lot, to understand that attraction. They’ve had a child, they’ve been together a long time. She’s still in love with him. He’s saying he’s not in love with her, but he kind of is, he just…he’s got some problems, this guy. 

We also worked on making Diana stronger. Instead of her being a dishrag, or a doormat. The first time around, I was kind of directed to play it like that, and I said: “That doesn’t feel right to me.” She’s a smart woman, she’s an assistant curator at The Met. Now, in the middle section, I argue with him a lot more and give him his shit right back. 

Alan, your character confesses to his son, Aaron, that he had an affair himself. But he frames it as a warning to not repeat his mistakes. 

ALAN: He’s trying to make his son understand that it’s important he stays with his wife. As he says, he never got caught, but he’s had a happy marriage ever since. 

AUDREY: So he thinks. He did get caught, his wife of 59 years has his number. But she doesn’t tell him, because the marriage is more important to her. That’s the attitude of the older generation. Whereas Diana is saying, yes marriage is important, but - I gotta leave this guy. And meanwhile Diana and Aaron’s son Jason is marrying a woman who believes in polyamory.

The three generations all have very different attitudes about marriage. Have the audience reactions also been divided by generation?

ALAN: We see an amazing difference. Everyone relates to this play, every generation. Younger people understand it completely as talking about their lives. The older generation relates to it more personally – when you’re 50 and above, and you’ve been married a long time, everyone has issues in their marriage, and they see that reflected in the play. 

AUDREY: It’s an important topic to be discussing. How do these couples treat each other in three different generations in one family? It’s one of those kitchen sink dramas that we all were brought up on in theater and acting school, that you don’t see so much anymore. How shocking was A Doll’s House at the time, that she would walk on him? And there’s really a similar reaction this time around. So the piece is very classic in its structure, and yet quite shocking. 

Any long marriage is going to have some very dark moments along the way, moments where you might say some horrible things to each other. But Diana eventually says, enough is enough. 

AUDREY: So many women meet me with tears in their eyes after the show, and say, “I was married to someone like that, and they said those kinds of things to me, and I tolerated it for so many years.” Some tell me they did finally leave; others will say, “I didn’t leave, and I wish I had, I wish I was as brave as Diana.” It’s really getting to people, and it’s so moving for me when I see that and feel that.

I grew up in a household where my parents, unfortunately, fought a lot. My dad was not nice to my mom. That’s an understatement. But, they stayed together, until finally after 33 years she said, “I’m outta here.” 33 years! But for that generation, that’s what they did. You just tried to make it work.

So when Diana leaves, I feel like I’m doing that for my mom, in a way? Without going into too much detail. But it just feels like, yeah, finally. Diana is saying: “I love you, I’ve tried to make this work, I’ve tried to put up with what you say to me, to maintain my dignity and character, but—enough.” 

And for Anne, the playwright, it was very cathartic for her to write that, because she didn’t leave her husband even though he said, really verbatim, a lot of these things to her. She just kept thinking, “Oh it’s my fault, I’ve got to fix this.” So she wrote this play as a way of getting that out. As a catharsis.

Art of Leaving continues at The Pershing Square Signature Center through December 14. Purchase tickets here.