Recommended by Doug DeVita

A visceral punch to the gut, this monologue hits all the right notes about how it feels to be ignored. Heartbreaking but never maudlin, it’s a tour de force for an actor.

50+ years of a relationship distilled into a brief 5 minutes that nonetheless convey a lifetime of love, pain, dependence, happiness… So beautifully rendered, with two roles for older actors that are meaty and vital. So touching.

Poor Gwen, the control freak who has absolutely no control over any aspect of her life.

This is a marvelous comedy, absurdly, grandly theatrical but with bite, and non-stop one-liners which are not only howlingly funny, but deeply rooted in all of the character’s problems, pain, and fears (especially Gwen), and the seriousness with which they take them (especially Gwen.) That Polner sustains this level of humor throughout without ever losing sight of the play’s messages and themes makes this a master class in comedy script writing. Oh, how I’d love to see this staged.

I recently attended a Zoom reading of this new musical, and was struck by its passion, anger, humor, and timely subject matter, as well as its tuneful and varied score.

Oh, how I love fictionalized stories of Old Hollywood, and Tamar Shai Bolkvadze gives us a wonderfully scintillating version of one of the biggest Tinseltown scandals of its time – and does it with such authority one believes it all happened the way she paints it here. Both theatrical and cinematic in its scope, feel, and structure, the events of the play may have happened 100 years ago but by focusing on the lesser-known player in the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle affair, the titular Virginia Rappe, Bolkvadze has created a remarkably fresh, contemporary, and exciting work of art.

Catherine Castellani is in wonderful form here: LEVEL UP is at once hilariously funny and bone-chillingly prescient. It is a testament to her skill at characterization that at times I was not quite sure who’s human and who’s AI, which for me added to the slightly uneasy fun. I imagine when staged it will be even more enjoyable. And thought provoking.

I had the pleasure to read the stage directions for a reading of this play recently; what a fabulous dissection of a young marriage. Funny and devastating, Kerr keeps peeling back the layers of this dysfunctional relationship with the skill of a young Albee; his use of humor is as dark, and as hilarious. He also uses repetition to startling effect; there are many loops in this play, yet everything is perfectly clear and the forward momentum never ceases. A really terrific work from a really terrific playwright.

This bittersweet — and often hilarious — piece works so beautifully because it not only captures the frustrations dealing with an obstinate, aging, and unwell parent, but also because everyone in this play is so human and ALIVE; one cares for each of them, and the journeys they are all taking, individually and together. A touching, funny, lovely play.

A painfully funny relationship comedy; if anything it proves that total honesty is tremendously over-rated, at least with this couple. LeBlanc keeps piling on the confessions, each one more outrageous than the last, and by the end we’re left exhausted from laughing, and worrying if this marriage will, indeed, survive. Neat trick!

A simply gorgeous, beautifully sustained two hander; epic in scope and intimate in character detail, it is a more than worthy companion piece to THE THREE SISTERS, yet it stands on its own as a work of Chekhovian art. A genuinely lovely play, heartbreaking and emotionally true.