FIRST NIGHT REVIEW: JOE & MARILYN: A LOVE STORY @ WESTWEGO PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Review by Todd Perley

​Of Marilyn Monroe’s three marriages and affairs, her liaison with Joe DiMaggio had the longest run, and perhaps the strongest connection. Joe & Marilyn follows the relationship between the
Yankee Clipper and the Blonde Bombshell from the night they met, through their marriage, their divorce, and up until her death a decade after it all began (I assume that’s not a spoiler?).

​It was DiMaggio who came to her aid, post-divorce, when she was briefly institutionalized, and he organized her funeral, and kept it small and intimate. The play even alleges they were flirting with the idea of getting remarried (because that works well, as Taylor and Burton demonstrated some years later...).

DiMaggio’s career when he met Marilyn was on the wane. Recently retired from baseball, he was still wildly famous as being the MVP of...sheesh, all time, right? And while Monroe’s career had already begun its trajectory when they met, her star was on the rise, as his was relegated to publicity shots and appearances. This must have tweaked his 1950s nose in a decade which frowned upon the wife being the main breadwinner, and his frustration and jealousy is hinted at, and physical abuse briefly alluded to.

Mid-century sex roles, compounded with hounding public scrutiny of every move of the hyper-famous couple likely played a role in turning the marriage into a doomed crucible. Speaking of crucibles, her subsequent marriage to playwright Arthur Miller fared even worse.

Through Willard Manus’s writing, Janet Shea’s direction, the standout performances of Jonathan Mares and Sarah Colbert Cutrer dive deep and lovingly into the character. Joe & Marilyn does not read as a tragedy, despite its ending with Marilyn’s overdose.

Mares and Cutrer have undeniable chemistry in this two-hander - they bear up extremely well, carrying the heavy load of a decade-plus recap of a tumultuous, but mutually caring, and beautiful relationship. Mares conveys equal amounts of tenderness and frustration, while Cutrer is as sexy, intelligent, and layered as Monroe’s own performances. Our heroes are definitely batting a thousand here.

Joe & Marilyn plays the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre through 23 March - click here for information and ticketing.​

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Next up for theater company The NOLA Project is a one-man play, Every Brilliant Thing. The story explores depression and hope, uncertainty and change, confusion and joy, heartbreak and anger, relationships and solitude, risk and resistance, guilt and forgiveness. The main character interacts with audience members to tell about life with their mother’s depression as a backdrop, including the effects it has had on their life and relationships. 

"[The play] is a powerful reminder of all the small things that really make life worth living
– things we probably take for granted,” said Artistic Director Tenaj Wallace. “And at a time when
mental-health conversations are more important than ever, The NOLA Project really wanted to invite our audience into a story that’s so universally resonant. It’s interactive, it’s intimate, but – most importantly – it’s deeply human. More so than any show we’ve ever done, I think.”

The NOLA Project production features ensemble member Alex Martinez Wallace and is helmed by ensemble member Natalie Boyd, making her directorial debut.

“This is a perfect play for The NOLA Project right now because I think collectively, as humans, we are struggling with grief and searching for rays of joy among the clouds,” said Boyd.
. 
Every Brilliant Thing will be presented at Big Couch New Orleans. For schedule, tickets and more, visit NOLAProject.com. 

​Die me a river: Murder on the Nile @ JPAS
Review by Todd Perley

I have a soft spot for the cozy murder mystery, driven by plot and characters, usually isolated in whatever setting, over the violence of murder itself. Agatha Christie, of course, was the Queen of the Cozies, and her 1937 novel Death on the Nile remains one of her pinnacle pieces. The 1978 film with Peter Ustinov playing Hercule Poirot to perfection follows the book closely, and the stellar cast and location shooting throughout Egypt cements the film as a classic.

In 1940, Christie wrote a stage adaptation, changing the title by one word, which isn’t a big deal, but also wrote Poirot out of the plot. Huh? Director Kristopher Shaw tells us, “… by the time she had adapted the novel, she had grown weary of Hercule Poirot. Instead of including him, she created a new character, Canon Pennefather, as an amalgamation of several characters from the book.” This had me concerned, being a fanboy of Poirot for pretty much my whole life, but I was also eager and curious about this new Poirot-less version.

The action takes place in the late 1930s in the salon of the paddle steamer “Lotus”, cruising down the Nile, and the set is an eye-feast. It’s a period piece not written from nostalgia, but actually written in the time it is set. Which makes a difference somehow, I’ve always found.

Act I introduces us to our suspects, fleshing out their backstories, motivations, and grievances. Simon Mostyn (Jonathan Mares) recently married up into the rich and opulent world of Kay Ridgeway-Mostyn (Kendall Berry), jilting his former fiancée Jacqueline (Gabriella Santalla), who plauges the newlyweds with her surprise presence wherever they go.

Other passengers include Mrs. Ffoliot-Ffoulkes (not a typo) played by Janet Shea, a crotchety old woman traveling with her amenable niece Christina (Sarah Colbert), Dr. Ludwig Bessner (Adriel Aviles) whom Mrs. Ffoliot-Ffoulkes refers to with derision as “foreign.” (But so is she, being English in Egypt.) William Smith (Leon Contavesprie) is the sarcastic bohemian, and the aforementioned Canon Pennefather (Jimmy Murphy) stands in for Poirot. Getting to know our shipmates is not rushed. It is both necessary to the plot to know these people well, and also a delight.

Act II presents our cozy little murder and the sleuthing begins with Christie’s trademark misdirection and cleverness steering the plot. The direction is zippy. Constant movement, rat-a-tat dialogue, people coming and going, the energy stays high and engaging.

While I did miss Poirot, Dame Agatha’s new amateur detective is well-written and believable, so I consider the omission of her supersleuth to be justified, and an interesting twist to a story I was well-acquainted with.

If well-constructed murder mysteries are your happy place, as they are mine, treat yourself to Maestro Christie’s classic whodunnit, told with pep and vim by an exceptional cast. As Christie wrote, “The impossible cannot have happened; therefore, the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”

Murder on the Nile plays at Jefferson Performing Arts Center through 23 February - click here for more information and ticketing.

Mamma Mia! @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Eileen Daley

My finite life can be divided into two categories: days when I am the most rapt and credulous audience member to ever enjoy a musical, and days where I’d rather be anywhere else. This varies by show, of course, but the attitude I bring into the theater can color my entire experience.

And what with the news being what it is, my life doing what it does, and The Big Game taking over town this past weekend, I wasn’t sure I was in the aisle-dancing mood. Luckily, the touring production of MAMMA MIA! at the Saenger theater was ready to show me how wrong I was.

I don't know about you, but to me, it feels like MAMMA MIA! (and its giant Times Square billboard) has been around my whole life - at least as long as CATS and Les Mis have played on Broadway. But it actually had its New York premiere in October of 2001. Certainly those crowds would have found it even harder to suspend their disbelief and let a cheery ABBA dance party sweep them off their feet.

Not only that, but its jukebox musical concept—while not completely novel—was unproven with modern audiences before MAMMA MIA! basically resurrected the genre. Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages and Jagged Little Pill would soon follow, but none achieved the success of the original, which is still the ninth-longest running Broadway show in history. 

And as true in 2025 as it was in 2001, the crowd loved it. Back then, after one of the performances in that first month, a certain small-time actress by the name of Meryl Streep wrote a note to the cast and director Phyllida Lloyd “to basically say: ‘Thank You For The Music and for the injection of joy that was so needful at that moment.’” I couldn’t put it better myself.

The outrageous costumes, the expressionist vaporwave set design, and the slightly muppet-y deliveries all come together to form a lovely sort of dream scored by the world’s foremost Swedish pop quartet. Standouts included Madison Deadman as Sophie, and Stephanie Genito as Tanya. 

Seven years after that note, Phyllida Lloyd took a chance (took a chance, took a took a chance chance) on a complete unknown and cast Ms. Streep as the lead in the motion picture adaptation of her celebrated musical. Unfortunately, that’s not standard practice in showing appreciation for glowing reviews anymore. Shame! If you change your mind…you know where to find me.

Mamma Mia! plays at The Saenger Theatre through Feb 16th - click here for showtimes and ticketing information

​TRUE WEST @ WESTWEGO PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Review by Todd Perley

Sam Shepard’s play explores the rocky relationship between two estranged brothers, Austin, the educated screenwriter, and Lee, the thieving drifter counterpart, as they camp out at their mother’s house while she’s on an Alaskan holiday.

As Austin tries to write his play, he makes an effort to be welcoming to his brother, but his patience runs dry as Lee’s truculence and interruptions quickly erode his attempt at brotherly love. When Lee muscles in on a meeting with Austin’s producer Saul and usurps his play, Austin’s bonhomie is over, and the characters’ personalities flip-flop as Lee tries to write and Austin raids neighborhood homes for toasters, trying to prove he can be a bad boy too.

'True West' opened in 1980 with Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle as the sparring brothers, and in 2000 moved to Broadway with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, where it was nominated for a Tony for best play. As Shepard said, “I wanted to write a play about double nature, one that wouldn’t be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff. I just wanted to give a taste of what it feels like to be two-sided.” Goal achieved.

Set in mom’s kitchen, which steadily becomes more and more trashed as the relationship grows tenser, Topher Johnson’s Austin and Philip Yiannopoulos’s Lee keep the sparks flying in a relentless crescendo. The booze starts flowing, façades are dropped, and the house (and theater) fill with the smell of fresh toast from Austin’s stolen toasters. Smelling toast is often a precursor to a stroke, I recalled, and the animosity between the brothers may be headed in that direction as well. Toast as metaphor? Shepard says no, but what does he know?

Mom (Deb Margolin) makes a darkly comedic appearance towards the end as the men are reaching their limit, suggesting gently that perhaps they shouldn’t fight, then leaves for a motel because, “I don’t recognize my house anymore.” Her behavior tells us this is an old story between the siblings.

The duality within each brother is relatable, as we all have different masks we wear. 'True West' seems a more masculine-oriented character study akin to Edward Albee. It could be subtitled “Who’s Pretty Damn Exasperated with Virginia Woolf?”

'True West' plays at Westwego Performing Arts through 16 February

​Timbuktu, USA @ The New Marigny Theatre
Review by Aura Bishop

Two very different women choose the bear - or in this case, the monkey- over belonging to a man in Timbuktu, USA. This absurdist two-act play about power, politics, gender roles, and sex is presented by Intramural Theater company and deftly directed by Frenchie Faith.

Kelly Kilkenny (Lauren Wells) is a career politician who turns down sex and marriage in order to maintain power. But she doesn’t stop at politics. She’s a puppet-master to her nephew Bobby Kilkenny (Benjamin Dougherty) who is plagued with gay sex scandals and gossip while pursuing his own political goals. Kelly makes the executive decision to find Bobby the perfect wife to smooth over his reputation (and hers.) 

She calls upon Babette (Mary Langley) - the overly-sheltered daughter of Senator Henry Rosequest (Joshua Tierney.) Babette and Kelly share an intense fascination and attraction to Kelly’s “pet” monkey Timbu (Emily Laychak) who was the gift of one of Kelly’s rejected suitors many years ago. We soon learn that Babette is more clever than given credit, and is privy to a secret that could destroy Kelly’s career and ambitions. Bobby, Babette, Kelly and Timbu are now in a kind of four-way-tango of tension, lust, and power. 

This is Timbuktu, USA’s regional premiere. It originated in Boston during the time of President Trump’s first inauguration and the subsequent women’s marches that followed. The subject matter, which was timely then, finds itself relevant still, or maybe yet again.

Playwright Ken Prestininzi’s writing style in this piece in many ways seems to echo style, rhythm and themes in the works of late playwright Edward Albee. Actor Lauren Wells even seems to embody a little hint of Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? 

This was my first time attending a show in The New Marigny Theatre, which is a stunning and versatile space utilizing a renovated church just off of St Claude Avenue. It’s an excellent addition to other venues in the area. The space was used creatively with moving set pieces, hanging windows, and effective lighting. 

Timbuktu features strong, high-energy performances and innovative use of props. Be prepared to go on a strange trip into the human psyche and the monkeys that people have on their backs. 

Timbuktu, USA plays at the New Marigny Theatre through Feb 3rd. Click here for more information and ticketing

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​First Night Review: & Juliet @ The Saenger Theatre
review by Dorian Hatchett

We are such stuff as dreams are made on
Shakespeare is for the people. I would posit the notion that every adaptation, every derivative work, is exactly in keeping with the voice of the bard. Each time someone picks up a play that was written for the stage at the Globe Theatre and says “But what if…” a new flower grows in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Jukebox musicals are the very definition of theatre for the sake of fun. 

If music be the food of love, play on 
& Juliet premiered in 2019 at the Manchester Opera House, and has been playing continuously in one form or another ever since. The soundtrack is by Pop songwriting phenom Max Martin, who is arguably the reason we know names like The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Pink, Katy Perry, and even Taylor Swift. The super-cut medleys in this show are pure nostalgia for millennials, candy coated love letters to the wreckless times in the late 90s and early aughts before social media and phones with built in cameras. The characters are believably teenagers because this was the treble and bass of our teenage years right there played out in lights and rhinestones.  

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. 
& Juliet examines what would happen if the final tragic moments in Romeo and Juliet hadn’t been the end at all, but a prequel to Juliet waking up and realizing she kind of let herself get carried away with that star-crossed lovers bit.  Rachel Simone Webb as Juliet is a rose we need by no other name. Her best friend May (Nick Drake) is the yassss every teenage girl needs in her corner.  It also plays out a marital rift between the playwright (Shakespeare is played by Corey March) and his wife (Teal Wicks is Anne Hathaway) and as these story lines weave in and out of one another, and finally coalesce, we are shown a lesson about the value of kindness and truth in the pursuit of love.  

The course of true love never did run smooth
This show is above all, polished. There’s a dynamic set, a company of skilled dancers who take up space and fill the background, a costume department that is at once a riot of color and variety and also completely cohesive. Just the right amount of broadway magic transports you into the action as confetti rains down during a rhinestone-studded climax when Juliet finally learns the lesson that her heart had been seeking the entire time. 

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none
 
&Juliet Plays at the Saenger Theatre January 14-19th, click here for information and ticketing

 
First Night Review: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Big Couch
Review by Todd Perley

​Edward Albee’s notorious play landed in the early 1960s and was groundbreaking—and controversial— for its graphic autopsy of a nihilistic marriage. The idealistic ghost of the 1950s was finally put to rest when our less-than-ideal couple’s dirty laundry was displayed on stage, and this was beyond shocking for the era.

Though certainly a play of its time, it remains timeless. Just as the play caused a stir in 1962, Mike Nichols’ film version starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was controversial in its own way. Shot in 1966, two years before the official demise of the tiresome Hays Code, there was nothing this raw and edgy in American cinema. It’s helpful to remember the historical and cultural significance when seeing this play through jaded 21st century eyes.

Drowning George (Casey Groves) and Battleaxe Martha (Fire Weeds’ co-artistic director Lin Gathright) stumble home at 2:00am from a faculty party, and are soon joined by young newcomers to the college, Nick (Logan Macrae) and Honey (director Jaclyn Bethany). Thus begins three marvelous, unforgettable hours of liquor-ridden psychological warfare between our merry coterie.

The play is just as funny and witty as it is eviscerating. All four Fire Weeds’ actors hold their own throughout the tricky material. In particular, Gathright manages to coax out the subtle, fragile pathos of braying, brazen, brutal Martha beyond even Elizabeth Taylor’s Oscar-winning film performance. I’ve never had so much sympathy for Martha as in this production. And I thought I knew Martha so well!

The setting is crucial. Bywater’s theatre “Big Couch” seats a mere thirty-five people, and the intimacy of this theater-in-the-round literally puts you in George and Martha’s living room amidst the mayhem. Seated four feet away from a raving Martha is a frightening experience, and you can’t help feeling a part of the party. When George suggests a venomous game of Get The Guests, I reverted back to fourth grade, hoping the teacher wouldn’t call on me to participate.

The tiny space also allows the performers, in less tumultuous scenes, to get as small and quiet as they please. Even whispering can be heard clearly. A larger venue would prohibit these quieter moments. Only Big Couch could provide this rare environment that serves the material so well.

Whether you love the play and know it backwards as I do, or you’re a virgin, Fire Weeds and Big Couch offer a unique way to experience Albee’s masterpiece. I would call this a must see, but get your tickets soon. Those thirty-five seats are gonna fill up quickly.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” plays at Big Couch with an newly-extended run, through January 19 - click here for information and ticketing
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​First Night Review: Human Troubles @ The New Marigny Theatre
Review by Todd Perley

Set in the fictional (???) hospital called “Orleans Parish Psych Ward for Poor Mutherfuckers,” (and I’d like to place a bid on the neon sign telling us this), Mariana Santiago’s new, one-act play follows the...ahem...“recovery” of four patients treated by a staff of caregivers who all suspiciously resemble each other.

Dora (Liz Johnston-Dupre) has been committed for a three-day evaluation after a suicide attempt. She is smart, but depressed. Her intelligence is not recognized because depressed people are clearly stupid in the eyes of this cut-rate facility. She just wants to get this 72 hours behind her, but becomes embroiled in the neuroses of her fellow inmates.

It’s difficult to call this musical comedy a satire since its examination of America’s lackluster mental health care seems awfully close to how many of these facilities are actually run. We immediately sympathize with Dora as she voices her distaste for the facility and her new comrades, and her displeasure is only more ‘proof’ of her diagnosis of crazy.

Through absurdly short and dismissive one-on-one sessions with the shrink, neglect from the nurse (“If they want me to care about you, they’re gonna have to pay me $2 an hour more”), and pointless art therapy classes, none of our inmates does much recovering.

The lack of character arcs is in itself a damning commentary—people leave very much the way they came in. Except perhaps for Dora, who may or may not survive the ordeal due to death threats from the Jesus freak, appropriately named Christian.

Santiago’s play does not indulge in the hubris to propose a solution to the dilemma; rather, she holds a mirror to the problem, and then laughs at it. Laughter is, after all, the best medicine.

- Human Troubles plays at New Marigny Theatre January 2nd–5th - click here for more info and ticketing
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