Review: Picking up Good Vibrations Across the Moan Star State with "TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger"

TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger

Book by Jenn Howd & Roz Mihalko; music by John Woods, Stephen Goers, Roz Mihalko, and Jenn Howd; lyrics by Roz Mihalko, Jenn Howd, and John Woods; based on the song "Texas Annie" by The Wet Spots (John Woods & Cass King)

Directed by Maggie Perrino

Presented by Jenn Howd and Maggie Perrino and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks

94 St Marks Pl, Manhattan, NYC

April 8-18, 2025

Matthew Graham, Hope Pauly, Brooks Hope, and Royce Louden. Photo by Maggie Perrino.
UNDER St. Marks is abuzz thanks to the defiant musical joy of TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger, one of 63 shows at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival, which runs through April 20th across four venues in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.

Set in a state where one can legally own more guns than sex toys, TEXAS ANNIE is inspired by the very real Texas law that once outlawed the ownership of six or more sex toys. Though the law was ultimately overturned in federal court, the play feels more timely than ever in our current cultural climate. In an era of ubiquitous anti-trans bias and violence, an internet marred by hate, and a rising tide of anti-obscenity legislation, it’s good to see a box of dildos on stage.

TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger is 60 minutes of songs—not sins—of joy in the face of hate. For those of us with no place, here is our place. Come for the hysterical and heartfelt book; stay for the talking fleshlight. Annie’s (they/them) is a wild road trip of self-discovery undertaken in the name of truth, justice, and the American orgasm—the liberation of what’s defiantly dubbed “Masturbation Nation.”
Pearl Emerson and Maya O'Day. Photo by Maggie Perrino.
The production opens with the cast seated in a row of chairs, four boxes placed before them, labeled in kind: “vibes,” “dildos,” “strap-ons,” and “butt plugs.” Later, as laws hit the books and enforcement begins, the boxes are spun and relabeled: “banned.” The audience knows—we’ve got a fight on our hands. The minimal set and rapid costume changes keep the audience close to the action and the energy high.

But this is a group effort—TEXAS ANNIE is as interactive as it is intersectional. The Audience Fluffer (Pearl Emerson) greets the crowd with a Texas-sized “Howdy, y’all!” before walking us through the rules of audience participation, aided by projected prompts of “Oh no!” and “Yee-ha!” The Fluffer is quick to encourage the audience to join in however they see fit. Again, this is a group thing. There’s plenty to go around.

Stellar performances abound, striking the tricky balance between sincerity and hilarity. The aforementioned Pearl Emerson does double duty as Audience Fluffer and the titular Annie. Their power and presence center the play—at times funny, at times vulnerable, often both. Emerson is the place we return to on this journey of self-love and learning to love another.
Lyd Noll and Matthew Graham. Photo by Jenn Howd.
Lyd Noll’s body humor is fantastic—big, bold, and theatre-filling, reminiscent of Kate McKinnon at her best. With the flip of a wig and a flash of denim, we move from repressed governor’s daughter (Ashley) to outlaw sex-toy-dealing Granny. Noll’s command of physical comedy makes these shifts a joy to watch.

Maya O’Day nearly steals the show when their character, Rainbow (Granny’s colleague in the sex-toy trade), is reincarnated as a fleshlight puppet—complete with Rainbow’s signature eyewear, perfectly to scale. We take a hard left on Avenue Q and keep going.

The musical numbers propel us through the highs and lows of this sex-toy vision quest across the wilds of Texas. The lyrics and music straddle that blissfully blurry line between humor and heart. These are songs of self-discovery, rebellion, and communion: “The Power of Pleasure,” “Every BODY Is Divine,” and, perhaps the strongest of an incredibly tight collection, “The Second Coming.” That final number sends the audience off invigorated, liberated—the theatre properly abuzz—as we join the troupe in a final, victorious: “Hi-ho, dildo! Away!” 

TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger is an irreverent good time: legitimately hysterical, gleefully defiant, and deeply necessary theatre.

-Noah Simon Jampol

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: "How To Eat an Orange" Cuts into the Life of an Argentine Artist and Activist

Image
How To Eat an Orange Written by Catherine Filloux Based on the writing of Claudia Bernardi Directed by Elena Araoz Presented by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at The Downstairs at La MaMa 66 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC May 30-June 16, 2024 Paula Pizzi. Photo by Steven Pisano How To Eat an Orange , making its world premiere at La MaMa, does in fact include a real orange as a prop, and its multifarious symbolizations–evoking at different points cultural specificity, family history, matriarchal inheritance, and even a skull–are representative of the play's boundary-blurring, non-linear presentation of memory. The memories in question belong to visual artist, educator, and activist Claudia Bernardi , who lived through several years of her native Argentina's military junta, which held power from 1976 to 1983, before departing her country and eventually settling in the United States. How To Eat an Orange , from Catherine Filloux, a French Algerian American award-winning playwright,...
Read more

Review: The Immersive "American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams" Takes Audiences on a Marvelously Crafted Journey

Image
American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install...
Read more

Review: From Child Pose to Stand(ing) Up: "Yoga with Jillian" and "Penguin in Your Ear" at the Women in Theatre Festival

Image
Yoga with Jillian Written by Lia Romeo Directed by Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance June 2-17, 2023 Penguin in Your Ear Written and performed by Eliza Bent Directed by Jess Barbagallo June 10, 2023 Part of the Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres Michole Biancosino. Photo courtesy of Project Y Theatre This June, Project Y Theatre Company presents the eighth annual installment of its Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), which showcases new work by women and maintains "more than 50% female representation of all artists involved." This year, the festival includes a lobby installation project, titled In the Betweens , from scenic designer Chen-Wei Liao, through which audience members pass on their way into the theater proper. One first chooses first between "light" and "dark" rooms and then moves into "the gardens" before re...
Read more