Fall Theater ’25

Let’s Love  Three hilarious playlets by Ethan Coen (of the Coen brothers) that are so wonderfully raunchy the evening would more appropriately have been called “Let’s Have Sex.” Aubrey Plaza is merely the best of a fine crew of actors, while a delicious off-Broadway troubadour serenades between sets. The humor comes from each character’s own hangups, and everyone gets a happy ending. Or at least sex.

This Much I Know Brilliantly conceived, staged, directed and acted, the story was an intellectual challenge that I failed. Framed by a psychology lecture on how the mind works (thinks? decides?), three distinct stories were interweaved by three actors playing multiple parts, even shifting mid-sentence. The result was a puzzle I kept waiting to piece together, at the expense of emotional connection.

Are the Bennet Girls Ok?  A peppery adaptation of the most-loved novel in the English language, with period costumes, contemporary mannerisms and a cast of eight women to one man. The very woke casting gave the show a somewhat amateurish feel, but it didn’t detract from everyone’s fun.

Tartuffe  Another informal production, this one inside an UES townhouse, could be called Moliere on Ham and Cheese. The style was slapstick, the rhyming dialogue hard to hear, the plot a relic. The absence of the star, Andre De Shields as Tartuffe, only added to the silliness.

Little Bear Ridge Road Laurie Metcalf’s brilliant portrayal of a crotchety Idaho spinster unfortunately ran up against co-star Micah Stock’s aggressively unpleasant gay crybaby nephew. James’s love for Stock’s Ethan defied credulity, as did the ambiguous story ending. Still, there was Laurie Metcalf.