Podcast Summary

Podcast: MickeyJoTheatre
Host: MickeyJoTheatre (Mickey-Jo)
Episode: Off-Broadway Play Review Roundup (Prince F*ggot, Initiative, This World of Tomorrow, Caroline)
Date: December 2, 2025

Overview

In this episode, theatre critic Mickey-Jo offers an in-depth, whirlwind roundup of four Off-Broadway productions he recently caught in New York: This World of Tomorrow, Prince Fggot* (referred to as “Prince F”), Caroline, and Initiative. Known for his lively, reflective, and deeply compassionate takes on theatre, Mickey-Jo dives into storyline analysis, performance highlights, directorial choices, and thought-provoking cultural undercurrents across a range of shows—from the star-driven and nostalgic to the provocative and epic in runtime. His exploration centers not just on the works’ artistic merits, but also on what they reveal about memory, representation, and the contemporary moment in theatre.

Key Reviews and Insights

1. This World of Tomorrow

[01:32 – 13:54]

Context & Premise

• Not on Mickey-Jo’s initial radar, but caught thanks to a friend; presented at The Shed.
• Co-written by and starring Tom Hanks, with Kelly O’Hara, based on Hanks’ trio of short stories.
• The narrative weaves between the 1939 World’s Fair and a corporate, impenetrable future, focused on time travel and nostalgic longing.

Discussion Points & Analysis

• Two Timelines:
  • The opening scenes are charmingly rooted at the 1939 World’s Fair, full of nostalgia and fondness for New York’s immigrant history.
  • The future, in contrast, is dense, corporate, and hard to follow:

    “I personally undergo one of the most dizzying theatrical experiences that I have encountered in the three decades that I have spent on this planet… finding it basically impossible to emotionally connect, but also to understand what the hell it is that they are talking about.” (Mickey-Jo, 05:07)

• Emotional Anchor:
  • The play is essentially a sentimental romance about a man from the future (Tom Hanks) who becomes attached to a woman from the past (Kelly O’Hara), played against the old New York backdrop.
• Performance Praise:
  • Tom Hanks’ subtle, emotionally rich acting conveys more meaning than the sometimes thin script:

    “Tom Hanks is able to tell us so much of a story simply through his eyes, simply through an inflection.” (Mickey-Jo, 09:22)

  • Kelly O’Hara is “just astonishing” even without singing, described as possessing “a beautiful quality of humanity that she brings to the stage with her like a trusted handbag.” (11:00)
  • Kayli Carter, as the energetic young niece, adds vital spark, preventing the play from becoming drowsy.
  • J O Sanders, as the Greek chef Costas, embodies the best of New York’s warmth.
• Direction:
  • Kenny Leon focuses on the chemistry between performers, avoiding distractions.
• Criticisms:
  • The future segments are hard to follow and emotionally distant:

    “The worst thing is the future which it suggests. If the future is anything like the one which we experience in This World of Tomorrow, I want nothing to do with it.” (Mickey-Jo, 13:46)

• Summary:
  • Pleasant and charming, if not life-changing. The show functions as a nostalgic love letter to New York, the World’s Fair, and classic moviemaking.

2. Gruesome Playground Injuries (Brief Mention)

[13:54 – 16:52]

Quick interlude, not a full review.

• A two-hander about two people who keep re-encountering each other through life’s tragedies and injuries.
• Notable for minimal staging and emotionally raw performances by Nicholas Brown and Kara Young.
• Worth seeing “if you’re looking for some compelling acting in an interesting play.”

3. Prince F*ggot ("Prince F")

[16:52 – 24:37]

Context & Premise

• Studio Seaview transfer, written by Jordan Tannehill, directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury.
• Controversially imagines Prince George, heir to the British throne, as a flamboyantly queer adult.
• Both a royal-family drama and a meta-theatrical device for queer self-examination.

Discussion Points & Analysis

• Reception & Cultural Context:
  • Observes stark differences between American and British attitudes towards monarchy and queerness.
  • Speculates that the play would create huge uproar if staged in London.
• Meta-Theatrical Elements:
  • Artfully interwein monologues from ensemble members about their own queer experiences and identities.
  • Particularly moving moments:
    • David Greenspan’s monologue on kink cultures originating in the AIDS crisis.
    • Naomi Allure Stewart’s impassioned ball-culture monologue, highlighting how queer communities “crown each other” and command their own regal power.

      “The delivery of which I thought was so, so impactful.” (Mickey-Jo, 21:46)

• Nudity & Theatrical Boundaries:
  • Audience required to lock phones away due to graphic sexual content and full nudity.
  • Set design by David Zinn supports transitions, including a striking image of the royal George in suspension.
• Critiques:
  • Finds the royal family plot derivative (“just, you know, doing a gay version of the kind of royal drama that we’ve all seen played out before”).
  • Wishes the piece engaged more deeply with the societal implications of a gay monarch than just family melodrama.
  • The authentic queer perspectives and ensemble chemistry outweigh the limitations of the royal subplot.
• Summary:
  • Not the seismic piece suggested by hype, but “a really interesting, utterly contemporary queer perspective on itself, which I really liked.” (Mickey-Jo, 24:27)

4. Caroline

[25:13 – 33:45]

Context & Premise

• World premiere at MCC Theater’s smaller space, by Preston Max Allen.
• A three-person, intergenerational family drama starring Amy Landecker, Riverlight Smith, and Chloe Grace Moretz.
• Centers on a mother (Chloe Grace Moretz as Maddie) fleeing with her trans daughter (Riverlight Smith as Caroline) to reunite, under tense circumstances, with her own mother (Amy Landecker).

Discussion Points & Analysis

• Real-Time Urgency:
  • The sense of tension and danger is established instantly—Caroline’s injury hints at traumatic events before the play opens.
• Groundbreaking Portrayal of Trans Youth:
  • Caroline’s trans identity is supported by both mother and grandmother, subverting the “trauma narrative”:

    “This because trans playwright Preston Max Allen explicitly... wanted to tell a different kind of a story about trans youth, which is something I so enormously respect.” (Mickey-Jo, 27:13)

• Family Dynamics:
  • Focuses on painful, layered relationships, especially the strained connection between mother and estranged daughter after years of addiction, trauma, and recovery.
  • The grandmother is not unsympathetic to Caroline’s gender identity, but struggles with reconciling the past.
• Performance Highlights:
  • Chloe Grace Moretz: “Absolutely wonderful, needs to act more… She should go and win a bunch of awards for it.” (Mickey-Jo, 31:58)
  • Amy Landecker: Carries “so much unsaid, so much visibly lingering beneath the surface.”
  • Riverlight Smith: “A revelation, an incredibly talented young performer dealing with some of the most emotionally intelligent dialogue that I have ever heard a young performer tasked with in a play.” (Mickey-Jo, 32:53)
• Summary:
  • “An absolutely astonishing trio of performers in a brilliantly written play. I desperately hope that Caroline gets some kind of a further life.” (Mickey-Jo, 33:38)

5. Initiative

[34:17 – 45:07]

Context & Premise

• Epic-length (5 hours+) play newly staged at the Public.
• Traces a group of Y2K-era California teens through high school, exploring identity, sexuality, friendship, and burgeoning adulthood.
• Dungeons & Dragons serves as a metaphorical and partial structural device.

Discussion Points & Analysis

• Scope & Ambition:
  • “It feels a lot like a book… If you want to fully stage an entire narrative and excise no moment whatsoever… you need an awful lot of time in order to be able to do that.” (Mickey-Jo, 35:45)
  • The extended runtime yields incredibly rich, naturalistic relationships; because the audience lives through every pivotal interaction with the characters, development feels earned and immersive.
• Technical Innovations:
  • 2000s setting is captured through sound (dial-up modem), AIM messaging, and projection design.
  • Imaginative use of text and projections allows access to adolescent inner worlds.
• Coming-of-Age Resonance:
  • “This particular voice, this frustrated, disenfranchised, existential adolescent voice, feels to me like it’s never been so. So truthfully captured and conveyed on stage before.” (Mickey-Jo, 41:47)
  • The play’s structure shifts focus between different “protagonists,” mimicking how one’s teenage years advance and priorities shift.
  • The D&D motif, while sometimes only a loose structural connection, thematically matches the “beginning, making a choice, and striking out” (the meaning of “initiative” in D&D terms).
  • “Nobody will explain yesterday”:

    “Now we’re meant to shape tomorrow, but nobody will explain yesterday.” (Mickey-Jo, 44:52)

• Critiques:
  • Some areas could “probably cut 40 minutes and barely notice,” but the commitment to depth is part of the reward.
• Performance Highlights:
  • Notable ensemble includes Olivia Rose Baresi, Greg Cuellar, Dylan White, and Andrea Lopez Alvarez.
• Summary:
  • “The theater lover that is all of me really enjoyed this at the Public… more than anything else, I hope the audience, like me and younger than me, who will see themselves reflected in this, are able to find it.” (Mickey-Jo, 43:38)

Notable Quotes

• On the disorienting future-scene dialogue of This World of Tomorrow:

  “For such an extended period of time you have no idea what they’re talking about. And I am gripping onto this thing, wishing that I hadn’t trimmed my nails quite so recently in order that I might be able to grip a little bit better.” (Mickey-Jo, 05:45)

• On Kelly O’Hara’s performance:

  “There is this beautiful quality of humanity that she brings to the stage with her like a trusted handbag.” (Mickey-Jo, 11:00)

• On queer culture and self-crowning (Prince F):

  “The power and majesty of a culture, a subculture, in which queer people crown each other and give each other regal titles and call each other queens.” (Mickey-Jo, 21:51)

• On the need for new trans narratives (Caroline):

  “The lives and challenges and personalities of whom I don’t see reflected—I have never seen reflected—in the extensive debate which is had about their increasingly vilified and politicized existences.” (Mickey-Jo, 27:58)

• On Initiative’s immersive length:

  “On the one hand, you can watch this and feel like maybe every piece of drama needs to be five hours long. On the other hand, you do feel like this is an early career playwright who is getting drunk off the thrill of getting to expand as much as possible on all of this backstory.” (Mickey-Jo, 41:58)

• On the play’s generational theme (Initiative):

  “Now we’re meant to shape tomorrow, but nobody will explain yesterday.” (Mickey-Jo, 44:52)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Opening & Overview: 01:32
• This World of Tomorrow review: 01:32 – 13:54
• Gruesome Playground Injuries mention: 13:54 – 16:52
• Prince F (Prince F*ggot) review: 16:52 – 24:37
• Caroline review: 25:13 – 33:45
• Initiative review: 34:17 – 45:07

Final Thoughts

Mickey-Jo’s episode is a passionate and candid reflection on a batch of bold new Off-Broadway works, each wrestling in its own way with nostalgia, queer identity, trauma, and hope for generational change. The reviews, brimming with warmth and humor, make the case for venturing beyond the main stem in search of theatre that startles, provokes, and in some cases, gently heals.

Note: All times are approximate and may vary depending on platform.