House Closed: Theater We Saw

Rebecca Alter (Vulture) joins Connor and Joey to review two off-Broadway musicals making waves online: Slam Frank, a Hamilton-style satire about performative activism, and Midnight, Todrick Hall's ambitious but baffling take on slavery and star-crossed love. The hosts debate the line between edgy and hack, the legacy of Hamilton a decade on, and whether strong vocals can save a muddled message.

Connor Scully and Joey Sims, joined by critic Douglas Corzine, discuss The Public Theater’s newly announced 2026–27 season, then review Max Wolf Friedlich’s THE HOLES and Else Went’s DEGENERATES, focusing on how both plays explore masculinity, loneliness, and the search for meaning.

Scully and Sims are joined by producer Marika Brownlee to remember Duncan Sheik, then talk about Roger Guenveur Smith's In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat at NYTW and Marin Ireland's Pre-Existing Condition (starring Lupita Nyong'o) at Greenwich House Theater.

Connor and Joey bring in Will and Abbie of horror movie podcast Two Men and a Baby to break down Broadway's Paranormal Activity — big scares, a house-sized set built for spotting ghosts, and whether horror movie fans can be won over by theater.

Sims and Scully are joined by critic Tim Teeman (New York Times, Town & Country) to reflect on a rich summer for Off-Broadway and a bleaker picture for Broadway while looking ahead to the fall. They talk through the plays that excite them most, the musicals they can't wait to see, and the broader state of American theater as a new season kicks off.

Connor and Joey take on two comedies from SNL talent playing small downtown rooms this summer. First is Dukes, Jane Wickline and Liva Pierce's plotless, bit-driven show about two best friends who can't function apart, recently closed at Soho Playhouse. Then Pepper Slit: Live in Her Living Room at the East Village Basement—Chloe Troast as a washed-up silent-film diva trying to keep her show going while the movers pack up around her.

Plus the Hadestown screen capture's big box office, Soho Playhouse's brutal seats, and the fading era of the SNL movie.

Keep us with us on instagram at @houseclosedpod

Sims and Scully drag director Jake Beckhard through two of New York's most normal theatrical outings. First: The Black Mirror Experience at The Shed—a VR spectacle powered by AI slop. Then it's uptown to Perfect Crime, the longest actively-running show in NYC history. Two shows with almost nothing in common except that you leave both a little unsure of what you just witnessed.

TIMESTAMPS:

1:36 - Black Mirror Experience

41:47 - Perfect Crime

Sims and Scully are joined by Billy McEntee—theater editor of the Brooklyn Rail, theater writer, and theater maker—for two summer plays.

First up: Camping by Victoria Lynne Barclay, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt for Colt Coeur at HERE Arts Center. Alice Kremelberg and Colby Minifie play Brit and Ari, two friends who keep returning to the same tent over twenty-five years. The trio talks Colby Minifie's run of intense performances, Adrienne Campbell-Holt staging a play in twelve square feet, the choice not to break the set open for a final gesture, and the flooded-tent stage direction that didn't make it into production.

Then: The Family Dog by Bailey Williams, directed by Tara Ahmadinejad, the closer of Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2026 at The Wild Project. Bruce McKenzie narrates as Johnny, the ailing family dog at the center of a holiday homecoming. Discussed: McKenzie's remarkably specific animal work, Jennifer Van Dyck's Catholic-guilt-drenched mother, and the family's slow-motion collapse one sibling at a time.

Scully and Sims are joined by playwright Jacob Robinson as New York tips fully into summer—Knicks fever during the Finals and Sting (plus Shaggy) rewriting The Last Ship over at the Met. Then it's out to the Williamsburg waterfront for Sugar Sugar!, Theresa Buchheister and Alessandra Gómez's free outdoor series at Domino Park, where a double bill of DeliaDelia and Pussypaws Puppetry somehow won over a crowd of unsuspecting families, teenagers, and passersby. The three dig into what clown can pull off in a wide-open public space, the radical joy of disabled artists putting sexuality front and center, and why it all kept conjuring Mister Rogers.

Finally, up to Ars Nova for And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, three-time Edinburgh Fringe First winners Xhloe and Natasha's Ars Nova debut—a meta clown-western about ambition, shifting goalposts, and the cost of making art.

Connor's currently producing Big Feelings by Ryan Drake, starring Julia Greer—tickets on sale now at bigfeelingstheplay.com

TIMESTAMPS:

10:24 - DeliaDelia

23:31 - Pussypaws Puppetry

34:20 - Xhloe and Natasha

Sims and Scully are joined by playwright Erin Proctor to dig into two new plays about girlhood, growing up, and the fathers who don't quite know how to talk about it.

First up: Dad Don't Read This by Eliya Smith, directed by Chloe Claudel, and presented by Goat Exchange at St. Luke's Theatre. The show follows Mal and her friend group as they navigate adolescence, anxiety, and a whole lot of Sims.

Then: Indian Princesses at the Atlantic Theatre Company (co-produced with Rattlestick), written by Eliana Theologides Rodriguez and directed by Miranda Cornell in her Off-Broadway debut. Four white dads, five daughters of various racial backgrounds, and one deeply problematic YMCA summer camp—the trio find a lot to love and a few things to wrestle with.

Plus: thoughts on the new immersive David Bowie musical at the A.R.T., Sleep No More war stories (including celebrity sightings and some ill-advised audience behavior), and a trend worth naming—is this the golden age of the girlhood play?

Since recording: Dad Don't Read This has announced a transfer to Greenwich House Theater for a limited run, June 17–July 11. Tickets at daddontreadthis.com.

Sims and Scully break format for a special Broadway episode—their first! They're joined by Jackson McHenry, critic at Vulture and editor of the weekly theater newsletter Stage Whisperer, to go category by category through this year's Tony nominations: who will win, who should win, and who got left out entirely (Jonathan Cake, Joey sees you). They weigh in on a Broadway season that never quite grabbed them, debate whether Schmigadoon! sweeps, and wonder how many times Pink will fly at the telecast.

It's that time of year: the 2026-27 season announcements are rolling in, and Scully and Sims have… mixed feelings. They work through the latest reveals from Classic Stage Company, The Public Theater, and more, weighing what's exciting, what's puzzling, and what's making them question the state of the city's mid-size institutions.

Plus they discuss two science-based shows: Have You Ever Thought About at the Bushwick Starr, written and performed by Michael Oluokun alongside Myles Madden—an interactive science-class-gone-solo-show—and 73 Seconds, En Garde Arts' new piece written and performed by Jared Mezzocchi and directed by Aya Ogawa, staged inside a sixty-four-seat planetarium.

This week, Sims & Scully are joined by dramaturg, cultural commentator, and TikToker Grace Walker (NotKristenBell) for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the ongoing discourse around theater influencers, free tickets, and who's actually telling the truth online—and whether any of that is the scummiest thing Broadway producers are doing anyway.

Connor battles the rain to catch Cumulo, Emily Batsford's wordless puppet piece at Mitu 580 in Gowanus, in which a figure named Plum free-falls through a sky full of sentient clouds and monsters.

All three also caught End of Days by Nile Harris and Dyer Rhoades, a durational performance piece at the Whitney Biennial where a man is drilled out of a crate and delivers a monologue in Russian about a Birkin bag possibly made of human skin.

Finally, the group takes on Kenrex at the Lucille Lortel—an Olivier-winning true crime solo piece.

Fair warning: the sound quality this episode is a little rough. We won't be accepting any Oliviers for sound design anytime soon—but we promise we're getting better. Thanks for growing with us!

For more information on the shows discussed:

Cumulo: https://www.cumuloshow.com/

End of Days: https://whitney.org/events/end-of-days

Kenrex: https://kenrextheplay.com/

Scully and Sims are joined by theater critic and TikTok commentator Joe Weinberg (aka @overthinkingtheater) to break down a pair of very different, very unsettling shows: No Singing in the Navy at Playwrights Horizons and The Adding Machine at The New Group.

Scully and Sims are joined by theater critic and TikTok commentator Joe Weinberg (aka @overthinkingtheater) to break down a pair of very different, very unsettling shows: No Singing in the Navy at Playwrights Horizons and The Adding Machine at The New Group.

They get into what worked, what didn’t, and why both shows left them feeling a little off. Along the way: Olivier Awards discourse, Octet casting reactions, and the question—what play should get the all-puppet treatment?

Scully and Sims took off their shoes at The Shed and put on some glasses for An Ark, Simon Stephens' mixed reality experiment; then laced them back up for Burnout Paradise, where they got put to work.

Other important questions being asked include: what's the deal with The Shed?

In their first episode, Joey and Connor break down Without Mirrors and Cold War Choir Practice—and spiral into thoughts on puppetry, how dark a theater should actually be, and whether children should even be allowed to act. Follow them at @houseclosedpod on instagram.