Thinking Theater NYC

Hold on to Your Butts Created by Recent Cutbacks Directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker Performed by Nick Abeel , Kerry Ipema , and Natalie Rich (cast performing in rotation) Foley by Blair Busbee and Kelly Robinson Presented at  SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series 15 Vandam Street, Manhattan, NYC February 7–March 15, 2026 Natalie Rich and Nick Abeel. Photo by JT Anderson. Few contemporary films (or film franchises) are as synonymous with spectacle as 1993’s Jurassic Park , the legacy of which (perhaps ironically) rests on the promise that maximum technology, budget, and scale are how we fill cinemas, VOD streaming queues, and a couple of strategically-located theme parks. This is how we entertain the masses. Hold on to Your Butts , now playing at SoHo Playhouse, takes that premise and promise seriously, only to invert it. What emerges is not a simple skewering of bloated budget blockbuster culture, but something warmer and more revealing, a reminder th...

and her Children Written by Rosie Glen-Lambert and Hailey McAfee Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert Presented by The Attic Collective at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street, Manhattan, NYC January 14 - February 13, 2026 Hailey McAfee. Photo by  Ian McQueen If the question of *how* one defends the indefensible is repeated with nauseating regularity, the related questions of why, and perhaps most intriguingly, who, are less obvious. The Attic Collective’s and her Children (co-written by Rosie Glen-Lambert and Hailey McAfee) tackles these questions through a reimagining of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children (1939) in which the titular mother, Anna Fierling (McAfee), is now a spokesperson for the NRA defending the organization after a mass shooting. In shocking twists, we learn over the course of this one-woman show that Anna not only lost one son to gun suicide but also that her other son perpetrated the very shooting she has to defend (killing both his twin sister and himself i...

Juliet: A Revenge Comedy Written by Pippa Mackie and Ryan Gladstone Directed by Ryan Gladstone Presented by Monster Theatre at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam St., Manhattan, NYC February 19 - March 1, 2025 Lili Beaudoin, Carly Pokoradi, and Ryan Gladstone. Photo by Chelsey Stuyt   Written by Pippa Mackie and Ryan Gladstone, Juliet: A Revenge Comedy explores the fantasy of female characters breaking free from the constraints of patriarchally-determined genres in order to live lives that quite literally go off-script. It is fitting that Shakespeare’s youngest heroine is the one who realizes that she doesn’t have to succumb to a tragic fate for a lover whom she has only known for two days (and whose love-making was, at least according to this production’s hilarious take on the wedding night, mediocre at best). After all, Juliet’s arc within Romeo and Juliet itself is one of increasing knowledge, both of herself and of those around her, with whom she becomes increasingly disillusioned. Ju...

A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First Written, directed, and performed by Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland Presented at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam St., Manhattan, NYC February 8-22, 2025 [UPDATE 2 June 2025: Having won the 2025 SoHo Playhouse International Fringe Encore Theater Series Overall Excellence Award, A Letter to LBJ returns June 4-29, 2025 for 23 performances. Visit https://www.sohoplayhouse.com for tickets.] Natasha Roland and Xhloe Rice. Photo by Morgan Mcdowell. Two different stories of a boy demonstrating masculinity by leaping from a high place bookend A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First , the spectacular show from three-time consecutive Fringe First Award winners Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland. Written, directed, and performed by the duo, A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God captivatingly captures both the anarchic energy and poignant yearnings of boyhood while highlighting its imbrication in a nexus of ultimately da...

Internationally celebrated puppeteer Adam Francis Proulx (Netflix, CBC, Family Jr.; original Canadian casts of Avenue Q and Disney’s Frozen ) is set to dazzle New York audiences with his puppet-filled musical spectacular, Emilio's Million Chameleons . The production will be featured as part of the SoHo Playhouse's International Fringe Encore Series, showcasing the best fringe productions from around the globe. In a show directed by Canadian Comedy Award-winner Byron Laviolette and featuring music by cabaret sensation Chris Tsujiuchi, Emilio runs a chameleon circus, just like his father did, where a million different chameleons do amazing acts. But what happens when it all goes wrong? Emilio and his favorite chameleon Juan must learn that the key to success lies in embracing authenticity and letting his inner sparkle shine. “There is fabulous family-friendly foolishness at work here in the classic Muppet tradition," writes Orlando Weekly , an...

My Mother's Funeral: The Show Written by Kelly Jones Directed by Charlotte Bennett Presented by Paines Plough , Belgrade Theatre Coventry , and Mercury Theatre Colchester at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street, Manhattan, NYC January 4-25, 2024 Debra Baker and Nicole Sawyerr. Photo by Nicola Young Death is commonly said to be the great leveler, Hamlet's "fine revolution" of fortunes. But are all of us really born astride the same grave? What if we can't even afford one? In My Mother's Funeral: The Show , a socially and psychologically incisive new play from London-based playwright and performer Kelly Jones, Abigail (Nicole Sawyerr), who is, like Jones, a working-class playwright, must confront not only the emotional but also the financial cost of her mother Linda's (Debra Baker) death, both of which are considerable. The marvelous production of My Mother's Funeral currently at SoHo Playhouse is part of the venue's 2025 International Fringe Encore The...

Photo by Morgan McDowell Drawing on their own upbringings in military families and being taught that the USA was the greatest country in the world, New York City-based writer/performer company of two Xhloe and Natasha are off-Broadway bound, delving into the idealized American childhood and the boys it left behind. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First  sees them playing two boy scouts in the 1960s, idolizing their president, soldiers and war. Xhloe and Natasha have become firm favorites of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world, and A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson won them their third consecutive Fringe First, the prestigious award from national newspaper The Scotsman . They have been selected to perform at SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, which showcases some of the best plays presented at Fringe festivals internationally. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson is an absurdist two-hander influenced ...