MRS. MURRAY’S MENAGERIE

The creators of a 1970s children’s television program have commissioned a focus group to probe the parents of the show’s target audience. Over stale coffee and donuts, a group of strangers navigates the murky waters of American belief and perception.

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones and Phillip James Brannon, Brad Heberlee, Carmen M. Herlihy and January Lavoy, Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Scenic Design by You-Shin Chen and Laura Jellinek, Costume Design by Ásta Bene Hostetter, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Prop Design by Emmie Finckel and Noah Mease, Wig and Makeup Design by Fre, Composer Justin Ellington, Dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie, Core Artistic Collaborator Raja Feather Kelly

Featuring Marc Bovino, Phillip James Brannon, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Brad Heberlee, Carmen M. Herlihy and January Lavoy

Production History

Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie premiered at Ars Nova in April 2019.

Press Raves

The New York Times Critics’ Pick

  • “Plays like “Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie” dramatize the idea that history isn’t just what gets recorded in books. It’s what’s happening every moment, perhaps especially the trivial ones.” —Jesse Green

New York Magazine / Vulture

  • “…delicate and refreshingly anticlimactic, very funny but joke-free, a seemingly unassuming but pointed example of the kind of painstaking group character study that the company has marked as its turf.” —Sara Holdren

  • “In a recent Times profile of Taylor Mac, the self-professed maximalist asserted that onstage, “subtlety is a privilege” — and although I understand his point, I’m not sure I entirely agree. Nothing blows up in Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie. Tensions of class and race and gender bubble under the surface without boiling over, but, in the words of the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, “You can’t use a bulldozer to study orchids.” There’s something both humane and shrewd about the Mad Ones’ project, and in Mrs. Murray, they tread lightly, but they know right where they’re going.”—Sara Holdren

The Observer

  • “..engrossing, hilarious and ultimately sobering…The Mad Ones make pressing your nose against the glass a voyeur’s delight.”—David Cote

Theatermania

  • “…the kind of intricate, quiet comedy that grows more resonant in the hours and days following the curtain call.” —Zachary Stewart

Awards and Nominations

  • Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for You-Shin Chen and Laura Jellinek

  • Lucille Lortel Nominations for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Stephanie Wright Thompson, and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Marc Bovino

  • Drama Desk Nominations for Outstanding Music in a Play for Justin Ellington and Outstanding Costume Design for a Play for Ásta Bene Hostetter

  • American Theatre Wing’s Henry Hewes Design Award Nomination for Ásta Bene Hostetter (Costume Design)

Production Support

Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie was commissioned and developed through the support of Ars Nova. Additional developmental support provided by a residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

MILES FOR MARY

It’s 1988, and the planning committee for Garrison High School’s ninth annual Miles For Mary Telethon is fired up and ready to go. Across subcommittee sessions in the Phys. Ed teachers' lounge, Drama Desk-nominated The Mad Ones assemble an analog elegy to the camcorder 1980s, Girls Track and Field, and the consecrated American High School.

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones in collaboration with Amy Staats and Stacey Yen, Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Set Design by Amy Rubin, Costume Design by Ásta Bene Hostetter, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie, Produced by Ann Marie Dorr at The Bushwick Starr

Featuring Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Amy Staats, Stephanie Wright Thompson and Stacey Yen. 

Production History

Miles for Mary premiered at The Bushwick Starr in October 2016. The hit production transferred and had it’s Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in Janurary 2018.

Press Raves

The New York Times Critics’ Pick at Playwrights Horizons

  • "This production slides from surface comedy into an unexpected realm of emotional substance, where laughter increasingly comes with a catch in its throat. You register the obvious jokes in each character — the rah-rah gym teachers, the eager disseminator of cheer and calm, the seething milquetoast. But, little by little, you catch glimpses of fraught, often lonely lives hidden behind the caricatures." —Ben Brantley

The New York Times Critics’ Pick at The Bushwick Starr

  • “Miles for Mary,” which is set in an Ohio high school office where a group of teachers conduct a series of preparatory meetings for a charity television marathon, provides an ideal showcase for this company’s strengths. As directed by Lila Neugebauer, with a precision-tuned six-member cast, the production cannily uses interactive acting to plumb the dysfunction in group dynamics." —Ben Brantley

  • "...this meticulous creation from The Mad Ones theater troupe would send you bolting for the exit, screaming, if it weren’t so funny and unexpectedly touching." —Ben Brantley

The New York Times Memorable Theater of 2016

  • "...As someone who grew up in Northeast Ohio in the 1980s, I totally appreciated returning to Northeast Ohio in the 1980s in the Mad Ones’ “Miles for Mary,” at the Bushwick Starr. Set in a high school teachers’ lounge, the production nailed the nostalgia-inducing props (a massive Apple desktop computer), costumes (acid-wash jeans) and music. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” never sounded so sweet." —Erik Piepenburg

The New Yorker

  • "...tilting almost imperceptibly from spoof to heartbreak, and then, in a climactic scene that commences with a failed tutorial on a new set of speakerphones, descending precipitously into a remarkable five-way argument that is so absurd and yet so plausible that it feels like an education in itself." —The New Yorker

New York Magazine / Vulture

  • "...a virtuosic, unrelenting examination of our possibly hopeless human efforts to understand each other." —Sara Holdren

TimeOut NY | 5 Stars

  • "Your troubles lift from your shoulders while you're watching the Mad Ones show Miles for Mary, a bittersweet comedy about high-school committee work in 1989... Essentially, it's pure delight, an easy way to pay a few bucks for radiating pleasure." —Helen Shaw

Awards and Nominations

  • Drama Desk Nominations for Outstanding Production of a Play and Outstanding Director of a Play for Lila Neugebauer

  • Lucille Lortell Nominations for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Marc Bovino, Outstanding Director for Lila Neugebauer

  • American Theatre Wing’s Henry Hewes Design Award Nomination for Amy C. Rubin

Production Support

Miles for Mary was commissioned and developed through the support of The Bushwick Starr with additional developmental support from Ars Nova. Miles for Mary is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Subsidized studio space provided by the A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grant, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support provided by the Studio42 Legacy Grant and The Nancy Quinn Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York).

Miles for Mary 360 Video



THE ESSENTIAL STRAIGHT & NARROW

A lo-fi ode to the Kodachrome 1970s, rock and roll antics, and the mystical American Southwest: The Essential Straight & Narrow recalls a roadside layover in Pinos Altos, New Mexico, where passing the time becomes reliving the past. Between original country rock songs, bouts of $10,000 Pyramid, and late night craft time, The Mad Ones turn out an intimate anthem about regret and reinvention. 

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones in collaboration with the ensemble, Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Set Design by Laura Jellinek, Costume Design by Ásta Bene Hostetter, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie

Featuring Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto and Stephanie Thompson, with Clare Barron, Jonathan Bock, Blake DeLong, Maya Lawson, Matthew Summersgill, and Merlin Whitehawk

Production History

A developmental production entitled Untitled Biopic Project ran at the 2013 Ice Factory. The Essential Straight & Narrow premiered at the New Ohio Theatre in May 2014.

Press Raves

The New York Times Critics’ Pick

  • “Ingenious and tricksy, its story lines tantalize and confound. But just when you’re ready to dismiss it as a postmodern goof, it shoots straight at your heart. With excellent aim.” —Alexis Soloski

  • "Say what you will about the Mad Ones, they don’t pander." —Alexis Soloski

  • "If it’s a single as good as 'The Essential Straight & Narrow,' play it again.” —Alexis Soloski

The New York Times Stage Memories from 2014

"HEARTY PARTY: A chicken, a mermaid, a sad clown and a Navajo chief crowd a motel room in New Mexico, boozing and dancing and bobbing for apples. Riotous and melancholy, this Halloween bacchanal at the close of the Mad Ones’ The Essential Straight & Narrow lets the good times roll and then, as evening collapses into morning, the bad ones, too." —Alexis Soloski

TimeOut NY | 4 Stars

  • "No one does period like The Mad Ones...there’s a party straight out of Fellini, a Cassavetes hangdog vibe, a pair of jeans borrowed from Jane Fonda. The band jams briefly, and though you’ll keep reminding yourself that there never was any such group, you’ll miss it keenly. I still hope they get back together. Maybe they’ll tour?" —Helen Shaw

Awards and Nominations

  • American Theatre Wing's Henry Hewes Design Award Nominations for Laura Jellinek (Set Design), Ásta Bene Hostetter (Costume Design) and Mike Inwood (Lighting Design)

Production Support

The Essential Straight & Narrow is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the Puffin Foundation. The Essential Straight & Narrow was developed through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space Residency, a SPACE on Ryder residency, and the Archive Alliance.

Select Photo Credit Fitz Patton, Chance Magazine

THE TREMENDOUS TREMENDOUS

Flushing, New York, 1939. It’s been a tremendous summer here at the New York World’s Fair, filled with technological marvels, real life mermaids and those can’t miss show stoppers, the Tremendous Traveling Abbotts. Their arousing soft shoe, swinging musical skill and impeccable timing have left jaws here on the fairgrounds agape in awe. Bravo!

Join The Mad Ones as they pull back the curtain on a tremendous moment in American history and reveal the closing night party of those irascible Abbotts, a tremendous traveling family with an unsettling secret.

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones, Directed by Jeff Withers, Set Design by The Mad Ones, Costume Design by Sydney Gallas, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Music Direction by Michael Dalto, Makeup by Michael Anthony

Featuring Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Stephanie Wright Thompson and Henry Vick

Production History

The Tremendous Tremendous premiered at The Brick in April 2011.

Press Raves

TimeOut NY | 4 Stars

  • “The Mad Ones project is nostalgia—exploring it and creating it—and in an elegant marriage of form and content, The Tremendous Tremendous exists most sweetly in memory… carefully articulated in the service of a heartbreaking cumulative affect.” —Helen Shaw

The L Magazine

  • “Is it innovative and original or is it uninspired wanking? In theater and far beyond, ‘experimental’ is a dirty word; works billed as such are generally hit-or-miss. The Mad Ones’ production… is unwaveringly on target.” —Eugene Reznik

The L Magazine’s Ten Best Things on Stage 2011

  • "The Mad Ones’ hilarious vaudevillian romp lived up to the promise of its title. Five tremendous actors portray five tremendous actors acting, watching each other act and brilliantly babbling backstage on the night of their last performance in the 1939 World’s Fair. One room, one act, one hour—a real-time tour-de-force." —Eugene Reznik

Newyorktheatre.com

  • “The Tremendous Tremendous is a rich and rewarding work of theatre that transports its audience not only to the time and place where it unfolds but to other locations private and personal to each of us; it kind of magically casts a spell to bring you to a place in your own past where you felt something akin to what you’re witnessing on stage. The Mad Ones...are definitely a company to watch.” —Martin Denton

Awards and Nominations

  • Nominated for New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Ensemble

Production Support

The Tremendous Tremendous was supported through a co-production with The Brick.

Photo Credits for Video: William Hereford
Select Photos: William Hereford

SAMUEL & ALASDAIR:
A PERSONAL HISTORY
OF THE ROBOT WAR

In an alternate global history, the cold war was decided not by detente, not by nuclear holocaust, but by massive robot invasion. Among the survivors, a team of Russian radio hosts, warmed to a lost culture of 1950s Americana, broadcast a story of brothers’ love drawn straight from the American heartland. “Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War” combines 1950s radio drama, vintage country music, and Soviet science for a look back in time and forward to what’s next.

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones, Directed by Lila Neugebauer, Set Design by Laura Jellinek, Costume Design by Jessica Pabst, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Music Direction by Michael Dalto

Featuring Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto and Stephanie Wright Thompson

Production History

Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War had a limited run at The Brick’s Antidepressant Festival and Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in 2009. The production premiered at The Brick in April 2010 and transferred to The New Ohio Theatre for it’s Manhattan premiere in January 2012.

Press Raves

The New York Times | Critics’ Pick

  • “Written by Mr. Bovino and Mr. Curnutte, and fluidly directed by Lila Neugebauer, the show doesn’t burlesque its pop culture sources but honors them. When Ms. Wright Thompson’s Anastasia sings, the music has real power. ” —Rachel Saltz

New York Magazine / Vulture

  • “This is one of the most smoothly functional theatrical metaphors you’ll have seen in a while, a great, small play about decline and denial and the subtler, unspoken bonds of devotion. Without a crumb of optimism, Samuel & Alasdair is still a spot of warmth in a cold world.” —Scott Brown

  • Top 10 shows of 2012

TimeOut NY | 4 Stars

  • “The show may feel as fragile as a vacuum tube, but it’s actually unbreakably deft- and delightful to its minutest detail… rest assured, you are safe in the hands of some confident new theatrical talents.” —Helen Shaw

Village Voice

  • “…pleasantly eccentric and unexpectedly poignant … the acting is dynamic” —Alexis Soloski

Awards and Nominations

  • Winner of New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Production of A Play, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Sound Design.

  • The Independent Theater Bloggers Association 2012 recipient of the Fourth Annual Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Awards Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Play

  • Drama Desk Nomination Outstanding Sound Design for Stowe Nelson

Production Support

Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War was supported through co-productions with The Brick and The New Ohio Theatre.