Thinking Theater NYC

The Wizard of Oz Written by Robert K. Benson Directed by Madeline Wall Presented by NYC Panto at Parkside Lounge 317 E. Houston, Manhattan, NYC November 22-December 20, 2025 Diego Velázquez, Jonathan Nathaniel Dingle-El, Lily Ali-Oshatz, Regan Sims, Matthew Mastromatteo, Rachel McPhee, David Hernandez III, Stephanie Marrow, Blake Williams. Photo by Michael Russell.   With Thanksgiving now in the rearview, we're once again officially in the holiday season, with all of the overcrowded trains, office parties, and throngs of tourists that come with it. Happily, it also brings the return of NYC Panto, an annual spot of unadulterated joy whether you're a seasonal skeptic or Santa superfan. Panto, a British holiday tradition, typically offers a comedic riff on a well-known folktale or fairy tale with stock characters such as the Hero and Villain and call-and-response elements, and NYC Panto follows up last year's hilarious take on "Jack and the Beanstalk" (you can read ...

Jack's Bean Stalked Written by Robert K. Benson Directed by Madeline Wall Presented by R & R Productions at Parkside Lounge 317 E. Houston, Manhattan, NYC November 23-December 14, 2024 Gabriel Spector and Lily Ali-Oshatz. Photo by Michael Russell. For many of us, at least, this may not feel like the most joyful holiday season, given the state of, well, seemingly everything. Luckily, there's Jack's Bean Stalked , a new British-style panto in which the recovery of stolen joy is both a narrative element of the show and a byproduct of being in the audience. For those unfamiliar with panto, it is a popular Christmas-season tradition in the U.K. - alongside the ghost story, another holiday tradition which these particular Americans would love to see culturally appropriated - a form of musical comedy based on folk or fairy tales and featuring jokes on contemporary topics, a handful of prescribed character types (a Hero and Villain, a talking animal, and so on), and a bit of R...