#wp theater

[fuckyeahgreatplays]

NYTW always has my favorite bathroom sign, but this is probably 2nd*. (h/t Howard Sherman)

*3rd is the memorial toilet at HERE Arts. 

[transtheater-blog]

Trans Lab is looking for six trans or gnc theater artists who crave creative and professional support to join the 2019 lab! Trans Lab Fellowship is a year-long program devoted to supporting the development of early career trans and gender nonconforming theater artists. Supported by WP Theater and the Public Theater, the Lab provides up to 6 artists with community, professional development, connections to a professional network, support developing a new work and a showcase for the work they develop.

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Beautiful Curtains for Sale

April 17, 2026 | WP Theater | Reading | Evening | 1H 30M

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this free reading. A quick romp in a curtain shop with a small cast of four and a plot designed to entertain--nothing more, nothing less. The basic premise concerns a married couple and their curtain shop. The wife has bigger aspirations (running for school board) while the husband just really loves curtains. The arrival of a quirky character drives a wedge between them. It's just a laugh riot, and I'm hoping this is the show WP Theater decides to develop further. I love when two middle-aged women get to have fun roles.

Verdict: Why I Love the Theatre

A Note on Ratings

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

The Waterfall

February 19, 2026 | Off-Broadway | WP Theater | Play | Original | 1H 50M

Another two-hander play with (arguably unnecessary) flashback interludes, this one centers a mother and daughter and the immigrant/non-immigrant experience. A fun and colorful show design that doesn't offer anything big, but it's nice to look at. Much of the first half alludes to a deep dark secret the daughter has, and imagine my relief when it wasn't a pregnancy or miscarriage or even abortion but instead that she'd gotten her tubes tied. Finally, a play about a woman who actively chooses to reject motherhood. That she's also probably clinically depressed and desperate for a purpose despite her successful lawyer career is another matter. But at least she's not pregnant, even if her mother is devastated about this. The relationship dynamic isn't anything new, but for a topic this universal, I doubt we'll ever stop seeing shows about it. What's never up for debate is the love these women have for each other. It does feel too long though, in spite of being an hour-forty. Much of it involves cyclical conversations that seem to rehash what we've already discussed, and again, I'm not sold on the necessity of the flashbacks when the substance could easily be delivered expositionally in a few lines. But it's one of the better WP plays I've seen in the last few years. I just don't know how often I'll be going back to the venue. I keep running into accessibility issues and it's exhausting.

Verdict: A Lovely Night

A Note on Ratings

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Bogdonoff

January 5, 2026 | WP Theater | Evening | Reading | 1H 30M

The first half of this reading had me cry-laughing. That's just what you get when you have Julie White and Lisa Kron playing two old women walking their dogs off-leash in Central Park. Constant stream-of-thought dialogue, tangential stories that loop back around or fizzle out entirely, yelling at the dogs mid-sentence. It's tagline is "dying to talk and talking like you’re going to die." To add to the immersive experience, early on in the reading, Julie White's actual dog started barking in the back of the audience. She knows her cues. Plus I got to see Lisa Kron awkwardly flirt with a younger Asian woman. It should have been *me* dammit. What do I have to do to get an older theatre lesbian to kiss me under a tree at two a.m. in Central Park (I would not be caught dead in the park at that time). The second half didn't have the same rapid-fire laugh-a-minute tone, and the point got a little muddled. But such a great night for a free reading. Plus, they had a little pre-show reception with cookies. What more do you need?

Verdict: A Lovely Night

A Note on Ratings

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Torera

October 9, 2025 | Off-Broadway | WP Theater | Evening | Play | Original | 1H 30M

Having seen a free reading of this way back in January, I'm amazed at how my standards soar once money exchanges hands. As a free reading, I was complimentary towards the playwright's depiction of the young characters. But I said it then, and I'm saying it now: this is meant for a book or a movie. The choreography used to depict the bullfighting is certainly creative, but too timid and stylistic to ever really evoke the proper nail-biting mood. The director never fully committed to her choice in how to indicate a significant time shift. For most of them, flowers would appear and drape over the side of the house facade, but there were at least two instances of time skips where it was just sort of forgotten.

Little changed between reading and production, despite the several month interlude, and the dialogue for the adults never improved beyond tired archetypes. In fact, while the setting and concept shows a lot of unique promise, the actual pieces of the story are tired old cliches. Rich boy befriends the help's daughter and there's class resentment. Single mother raising a headstrong daughter. Boy and girl fall in love. Oops, boy and girl are actually half-siblings. This is like the third or fourth time I've seen this formula used on stage this year alone. I'm tired of it. It's boring. It's lazy. And frankly, the story does a whole lot to tell you that this girl is a talented bullfighter, and nothing to really prove it. The performances were all fine enough, but never rose to the occasion to be something memorable. My biggest praise has to go to the set design. A simple, yet effective, house facade with flowers and vines. I love flowers and vines.

Verdict: Enjoyable, But Left No Lasting Impression

A Note on Ratings

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Dirty Laundry

September 29, 2024 | Off-Broadway | WP Theater | Matinee | Play | Original | 1H 30M

I was admittedly skeptical, having had a rocky track record with WP Theater shows. I'd also found out through my coworker who coincidentally is friends with the playwright that this piece is largely autobiographical, which can be...well... So, I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed myself. The play deals with grief, which you all know is a favorite topic of mine, and does a solid job in not vilifying "the other woman" as many writers are apt to do. It's a nice little play, but it doesn't reinvent the wheel on its topics and story, despite being a deeply personal account. Many aspects land extremely well in the moment, but don't necessarily stand out in the long run. What I found more interesting than the play itself was the unannounced casting change from first previews to now. One of the actresses in the "Greek chorus" of narrators spent the play on book, with no understudy announcement, so it wasn't clear if it was just a directorial choice. .It wasn't overly distracting, and I was quite taken with how attractive she looked in her reading glasses... but I digress. The actress was listed on the glossy playbill card, but is not the same woman as the show initially announced and went to press with, so this was definitely a last-minute casting change that the show has not acknowledged. I'm fascinated.

Verdict: A Lovely Night

A Note on Ratings

[theaterpizzazzstuff]

Hatef**k

by Cathy Hammer Despite there now being three Muslims serving in the US Congress, sadly still we see very few represented in our local artistic culture. Though no one Muslim character can mirror all of what one of the world’s great religions stands for, the arrival of Rehana Lew Mirza’s Hatef**k—a […]

Review by Cathy Hammer: A two-hander with Sendhi Rmamurthy and Kavi Ladnier, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt "pigtail in inkwell flirtations..."