Tag Archives: Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre

Disruption

Drama, Off-Broadway September 5, 2026 Leave a comment

Disruption is the Cheetos Puffs of this summer’s theater season.  It’s not exquisitely well-crafted or even particularly good, but it’s satisfying in its familiarity.  Three close college friends and their wives — the type who frequently enjoyed a summer share on Martha’s Vineyard — find their lives and relationships (appropriately) disrupted when their even more successful tech-bro buddy, Nick, returns to New York ready to seduce them into investing in his latest company.  While the gang may have common sense and realistic goals on their side, Nick has a sexy business partner and a wily algorithm on his.  That’s an intriguing nugget that should deliver fresher insights and more meaningful outcomes, but at least it makes an entertaining nosh.

The scenic design by Zoë Hurwitz is the first indication that the AI is going to have the coolest role.  The set resembles a giant LED-framed iPad with a floor that displays key images, words and phrases in video by Yana Biryükova.  While unquestionably eye-catching, the shape often leaves the characters marching around in circles or sitting in the dark under Hersh Ellis’s direction.  A cold and eery anti-stat control room along the north wall is only visible when lit from the inside (lighting by Reza Behjat).

At first blush, it’s difficult to become emotionally invested in a group of well-off professionals whose challenges range from getting their kids into the right private school to purchasing a large enough Brooklyn brownstone.  But the extraordinarily adept cast elevates Andrew Stein’s thin script to a high enough point that when a real calamity (thankfully?) makes an entrance, the audience audibly gasps in anguish.  The actors’ salvaging of this otherwise pedestrian work makes the treatment of their credits all the more shameful.  I’ve accepted (to a point) the dispensing of a QR code just before a request to turn off my phone.  It’s a practice that began post-pandemic when no one wanted to touch icky paper and somehow persisted in the name of trees.  But I’m genuinely shocked that Equity agreed to the play’s official website omitting links to hard earned biographical information.  What exactly is that meant to preserve besides anonymity?

Shaunette Renée Wilson (foreground), Irene Sofia Lucio, John David Washington and Jason Ralph in Disclosure;
photo by Emilio Madrid

The first members of the circle that we meet are Ben (Conrad Ricamora of  Oh, Mary! and Here Lies Love) and his wife Suzie (Shaunette Renée Wilson, Fox’s The Resident and NYTW’s Merry Me).  He gives a chalk outline genuine warmth and a smile that seems to radiate from his soul while she purrs through single syllable words like a lioness eyeing her prey.  Irene Sofia Lucio (Liberation, Slave Play) and Elizabeth Stanley (Jagged Little Pill) play competitive sisters Mia and Jill with such genuine affection for their characters you’ll want to go bake cookies with them.  Joe Tippett’s (Waitress) sense of rhythm makes Jill’s husband Paul’s trite jokes seem hilarious and infuses the most mundane of issues with an air of melancholy.  In Mia’s household, Jason Ralph (Peter and the Starcatcher) lends just enough “aw shucks” to conflicted surgeon Barry to appear vulnerable.  Nick’s increasingly heinous behavior is propelled forward purely by means of John David Washington’s (The Piano Lesson) manner and bearing while his partner, the aptly named Raven, is given some feeling by Emma Kikue’s (My Man Kono) interpretation.

Disruption is empty calories dressed up as a fancy meal.  But don’t you sometimes enjoy that airy crunch?  Performances run through October 4 at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W 42nd Street.  (Disruption is not a production of Signature Theatre as is stated plainly in dark grey on the black postcard given out at the door.)  Runtime is closer to 2 ½ hours including intermission than the 2 hour published time frame, so watch those parking meters.  Tickets start at $69 for balcony seats and can be purchased at https://www.disruptionplay.com/ or through the TodayTix app.   Arrive early and enjoy a theme cocktail in the lounge.  Seating is on either side of a slightly elevated stage, and this will guarantee you can get to your chair without… disruption.

Mother Russia

Comedy March 3, 2026 Leave a comment

When I went to Russia as a child, my parents and I brought Skippy, Hanes, and Levis to a friend’s niece in Moscow.  All the best restaurants only took American dollars, which were unavailable to local residents, and we were constantly shadowed “for our safety.”  When I returned as an adult, all of my guides had their own Ikea-furnished apartments.  One of our destinations was a sprawling indoor mall in the center of Moscow and international fast-food chains were as plentiful as the family owned dumpling joints.  Between those two eras, the Soviet Union had been dissolved and the promise of social democracy hung in the air.  

It is within that unsettled period of 1992 that Lauren Yee has set her new comedy, Mother Russia.  Erstwhile aspiring KGB agent Dmitri is operating a tiny general store in St. Petersburg while surveying former pop star Katya as a side gig.  His childhood friend Evgeny tries to shake him down for protection money.  The pathetic attempt at menace leads to an alternative job offer. A devoted fan of Katya, Evgeny will follow her when she is off mic and will take a shift monitoring her. The fourth character is an explosion of innovation.  David Turner portrays Mother Russia herself, an embodiment of Russian history, ideology and culture.  Dressed in bright tomato red from babushka to pointy shoe (costumes by Sophia Choi), she can see back to the “not so bad” Ivan the Terrible and forward to Pussy Riot and Navalny.  Within the whirl of broad and situational humor, she is the snide ballast, overseeing all that transpires.

Wildly praised prior to the pandemic — particularly for Cambodian Rock Band which inventively explored the terror of the Khmer Rouge using a father/daughter story with music — Lauren Yee is currently a playwright in residence at the SignatureTheatre.  Her pen and tongue are still sharp, though she seems in a more fun-loving mood this time around.  Lines are written in colloquial English but with Russian construction.  Teddy Bergman’s playful direction enriches the slender script.  The prolific and visionary scenic design team of dots plays up the conflicting worlds of artifice and factuality that run throughout its pages.  The central portion of the set has a detailed commercialized frame and a defaced rolling metal door that is often used for emphasis.  Fancifully painted curtains complete the look of a city bus and Evgeny’s family home.  This two-pronged motif is continued with Jon Knust cunning props.  Sound designer Mikhail Fiksel makes terrific use of a wide range of music

The part of Mother Russia is made riveting by Turner’s droll and pricelessly-timed thick-accented delivery.  He is not alone in mining the dialogue for every precious laugh.  Dmitri could easily be two dimensional, but Steven Boyer gives him heart and amiableness.  Adam Chanler-Berat elevates and varies Evgeny’s many feeble attempts at swagger.  The two play good-naturedly with one another, especially in a scene co-starring a Filet-O-Fish sandwich.  Rebecca Naomi Jones does the most she can as Katya, a surprisingly flat role given that the singer/revolutionary is the catalyst for the climactic scene. Ironically, we get a clearer image of Dmitri’s never-seen girlfriend, Masha. 

Genuinely unfunny is the current design of the black box space of The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre.  The narrow ceiling-high stadium seating is oppressive, leading many audience members to use their programs for air circulation.  Those in the back rows crouch like tennis fans in an impractical effort to take in the intimate scenes while those nearer the front must crane their neck to follow David Turner’s antics.  If the red house lights are intended to make us feel as disoriented as a typical Russian in the 1990s, then they work.

The ingredients for blistering social commentary are present.  But Mother Russia subverts a more serious conversation about economic and societal challenges in favor of punchy lines in absurdist packaging.  Given the current state of our own culture, one could do worse than spend 90 minutes laughing at and with these talented artists.  The New York Premiere continues through March 22 at the SignatureTheatre in Pershing Square, 480 West 42nd Street.  Tickets begin at $74.  Visit https://signaturetheatre.org/show/mother-russia/ for more information.

Rebecca Naomi Jones and Adam Chanler -Berat in Mother Russia; photo by HanJie Chow