Dad jokes may get a bad rap, but two of the recent performances recorded live at the Minetta Lane Theatre—by Michael Cruz Kayne and Chris Gethard—prove that parenting can provide plenty of fodder to explore the good times and the heartbreaking realities of raising children. Plus, two new works by playwrights Erica Schmidt and Diana Grisanti provide their own unexpected laughs in distinctly suspenseful and subversive productions. Experience all four productions below, as well as everything Audible Theater has to offer here.
One of the most surprising things I discovered about grief after my dad died last summer is how much I wanted to talk about it. And it wasn't just the sadness I needed to get off my chest—it was also the absurdity of it, the total feeling of disbelief. And yes, there were some funny things that happened during the month that he was dying, and those moments were as real as the tears. As Michael Cruz Kayne says several times in this production, "Things can be one way, and they can also be another way." His hilarious and heartbreaking one-man "comedy show about grief," recorded in front of a live audience at the Minetta Lane Theatre, is all about those contradictions that come with love and loss. He spins you through myriad topics, from Audrey Hepburn to Disney ride disappointments, from nonsensical math to funeral home receipts, demonstrating how loss is inescapably woven through everything, and it has to be if we want to experience the good stuff. And this production is the good stuff. In fact, it's one of the best things I've seen—and listened to—all year. —Emily C.
As a proud uncle, I'm grateful I don't have to worry about the existential (im)possibilities of parenting firsthand. But the idea of trusting your life (or the ones you created) in someone else's hands can cause anyone dread, and I certainly felt that with Erica Schmidt's suspenseful Lucy. Ashling (Lynn Collins) is a career nanny who swoops in to rescue Mary (Brooke Bloom), a single mother to six-year-old Lucy and a newborn son, with the promise of support. Packed with plenty of unexpected humor and slow-simmering tension, the stakes are high in this unusual, destabilizing story that's something of an at-home workplace comedy-thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. —Jerry P.
You may know Chris Gethard from his stand-up specials, or his various film and TV roles over the years, or maybe you know him as your neighborhood volunteer EMT in Morris County, NJ, who works the Tuesday night shift. His life is much different now that he’s a dad and no longer grinding it out in the New York City alt-comedy scene—and he’s happy about it. Recorded live at the Minetta Lane Theatre, Gethard’s one-man show A Father and the Sun is equal parts heartwarming and funny. Listening to it, you can hear the audience become invested in his stories and what he’s learned about life from raising his son. And before you even realize it, you feel like you’re right in the theater with them. —Aaron S.
Let’s say you’re a do-gooder at heart, but you never seem quite able to do much good in the world. That’s Vanessa (Karla Souza of How to Get Away with Murder) in a nutshell. She works in development for a nonprofit that may not actually be helping many people and just terminated an unwanted pregnancy. Her friends and extended family don’t seem to know what to do with her failings—other than provide plenty of Catholic guilt. So, with not much else to keep her grounded, she joins a bedrest study that promises to pay out $80,000 (plus rehabilitation), which she plans to donate to her bestie and cousin Brigid (Zoë Winters of Succession) so she can pay for a divorce from her deadbeat husband. Written by Audible Emerging Playwright Diana Grisanti, the ensuing trippy experience tests Vanessa’s resolve and offers a redemptive arc. Vanessa may be a screwup who means well (yet always seems to fail), but as performed by Souza, she never becomes completely unlikable. By the end, we’re rooting for her to get out of her funk and figure out how to succeed despite her many issues. —Jerry P.
