Review: "I Am Nobody" Sings of a Soul-Sick Modernity

I Am Nobody

Music and libretto by Greg Kotis

Directed by Avery Rose Pedell

Music direction and vocal arrangements by Stephen Anthony Elkins

Presented by Theater of the Apes and Monday Night Musicals at The Magnet at The Magnet

254 W 29th St, Manhattan, NYC

April 6-May 11, 2026

L to R: Ayun Halliday, Madeline Glave, Piatt Pund (rear), Emilio Cuesta, Greg Kotis. Photo credit: @sambrinkleypics
Who among us hasn't felt at least some ambivalence about the amount of time that we spend with various screens, not to mention how those screens are shaping the world? As waitress and unsigned musician Naomi (Madeline Glave) says at the beginning of I Am Nobody, a comic play with music from Greg Kotis, "It's been a hard couple of years," and the world is "in a weird place." If this sentiment was true when the Covid-19 pandemic prematurely ended the original run of Kotis's guitar-driven musical in March 2020, it is arguably even more true now. With the world in at least as weird a place, I Am Nobody has returned to the stage for a series of Monday nights in April and May, and its superbly entertaining fusion of sharp songwriting, confident silliness, and gleeful satire ensures that at least for 90 minutes, you won't even be tempted to look at a screen.
L to R: Greg Kotis, Madeline Glave, Piatt Pund, Ayun Halliday, Emilio Cuesta. Photo credit: @sambrinkleypics
Naomi's opening song, "The Modern World," introduces what becomes a refrain throughout the play, the idea that modernity is tearing us apart, but, at the same time, she casually mentions that she composed the backing tracks on her smartphone. This condemnation is repeated so often and in such a way throughout the play that there is a clear sense that it is, by itself, a bit trite. That doesn't, however, mean it isn't also true, and computer engineer Lucas (Piatt Pund), who shares with Naomi a dissatisfaction with his current state of "spiritual well-being" and propensity to hear voices, responds so strongly to her song that he decides to take action. Lucas, who was at the bar where Naomi works with his colleague Nathaniel (Emilio Cuesta)–who has his own interest in Naomi–vows to destroy the modern world and absconds from the chip plant where he and Nathaniel work for Mr. Charles (Greg Kotis) with a batch of supercharged microchips. Mr. Charles charges Nathaniel with finding and returning the missing Lucas, a trip on which Naomi, who sees Lucas and his plan as visionary, ends up comes along, leading at one point to an encounter with her earthy mother, Miriam (Ayun Halliday), whose farming life operates on (seemingly) preindustrial lines. But is Lucas really, as Naomi hopes, a "savior" for modern times? Is that savior not who she thinks? Does the modern world need an "avenging" savior at all?  
Rear: Greg Kotis, Ayun Halliday. Front: Madeline Glave, Emilio Cuesta, Piatt Pund. Photo credit: @sambrinkleypics
As I Am Nobody carries the audience towards its answers to such questions, it treats them to a number of original songs spanning ballads, bluegrass, roots rock, and even a couple of more orchestral-sounding pieces, such as "Corporate Anthem," that are sung by Mr. Charles, his pro-modernity stance reflected in the musical contrast. The performances, which use a mix of recorded backing tracks and live vocals and instrumentation, showcase the cast's musical talent, from Glave's impressive vocals in, for example, "The Ballad of Jimmy Samuel" or Halliday's in "Fudge of the Land" to Cuesta's Telecaster fills, Kotis's banjo, and Pund's mandolin in various numbers. There are plenty of vocal harmonies by the cast and even a thematically aligned acoustic versus electric guitar-off. And the actors are just as good (and consistently hilarious) between the musical numbers, as Nathaniel pursues both Lucas (handing out missing person flyers to the audience at one point) and Naomi, Naomi is pursued by her voices (Glave does a wonderful job with the hints of darkness in her character, particularly in a scene where her voices manifest), and Lucas leans into his assumed role as a literal prophet in the desert. Kotis's as Mr.Charles offers a great send-up of the fleece vest-wearing corporate tech CEO type, while Halliday's Miriam is unabashedly the complete opposite as she extols the virtues of propagation or tests whether Nathaniel is in fact "a musical man." This use of this latter phrase becomes one of the play's very funny running jokes, and the show finds humor even in its representation of car headlights. After a few good twists, I Am Nobody does ultimately provide a recommendation for the way forward, but we won't spoil that here: you should get away from those hypnotizing screens and go see what is for yourself–after using one of them to buy your ticket, of course.

-John R. Ziegler and Leah Richards

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