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Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) (c) Emma Zordan
Theater: Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?)
Ma-Yi Theater Company at the Public Theater
Every new generation of solo storytellers, especially ones for the theater, always has a primary story that defines their narrative, whether it’s David Sedaris, John Leguizamo or Mike Birbiglia. Zoë Kim, whose first solo play, Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) had its world premiere with Ma-Yi Theater Company, has already planned a trilogy of stories (surrounding the theme of hunger) and this show, directed by Chris Yejin, is an inviting introduction to Kim’s style and themes. The former is a modern aesthetic, highlighted by Iris McCloughan stylistic choreography, and the latter, well, is very dark and heavy. At the start of the play, Kim bounces on stage, all smiles and warm waves to the audience, but who she’s actually talking to is a younger version of herself, represented by a small orb of light. How old is this orb version of Kim is not determined: It could be Kim as a teenager, a toddler, a baby or even an embryo. But she tells her own life story to the orb, starting even before her birth, when her umma (mother) is expected to give birth to a son for her appa (father), and both are horrified when baby Zoë is a girl. Now, you might think “horrified” is a bit hyperbolic, but you can decide for yourself after hearing Kim’s story, from her having a boy’s name in Korean, her appa’s physical and emotional abuse of her and her umma, and umma’s belief that it is Zoë’s fault her life has become sure a torturous ordeal.
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Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) (c) Emma Zordan
Even when Zoë moves to America, you would think the family ties couldn’t bind across the globe, but bind it does, and it’s not until the end of the play, when her life turns around for her to find some semblance of normalcy, that the audience sees shades of the Kim before us. The title refers to how Koreans (and many other Asian cultures) don’t really have a familial love language that is comparable to English and other Western languages, so instead of saying hello, parents usually say “Did you eat?” first. The other cultural phenomenon of the preference of sons is also not new in patriarchal Asian societies, as that theme appears in many works of arts, including The Joy Luck Club, but Kim’s harrowing child to adulthood takes it up a notch. Kim is sometimes a bit awkward on stage, especially with some of the choreography, but overall, she’s a charming and inviting presence. I await more stories from her (especially a boyfriend, who here is portrayed as an ideal savior, but whose story must be more complicated than that). It’s appropriate that the title Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) is written in both English and Korean. A direct linguistic and culturally accurate translation will probably never really be achieved.
Liberation (c) Little Fang
Broadway: Liberation
At the James Earl Jones Theatre
There’s a happening on Broadway and it’s in a basement basketball court of an elementary school in Ohio in 1970 on the stage of the James Earl Jones Theatre. It’s the memory play Liberation, by Beth Wohl, in which our narrator, a 21st Century woman named Lizzie (Susannah Flood), actually has no memory of the events of the play, but is researching and interviewing the participants who were. The events that make up the bulk of the play happened to her mother (also named Lizzie and played by Flood) who organized a local chapter of a woman’s liberation CR (conscious raising) group to have a place where women can talk, vent and organize whatever they feel is needed to shake things up in the country. Members include older housewife Margie (Betsy Aidem), whose husband recent retired (and thus hanging around all the time); Susan (Adina Verson), a young radical who wants to go to California but finds herself stuck in Ohio, living out of her car; Isidora (Irene Sofia Lucio), an Italian woman who married an Ohio man for her green card; Celeste (Kristolyn Lloyd), who moved back to her hometown to take care of her ailing mother and is the only black woman of the group; and Dora (Audrey Corsa), a young woman who thought the group was a knitting circle but stayed as the other women open her eyes to the inequities in her job and her relationship. The first act of the play works the best as director Whitney White helps the audience delineate each woman with grace and individual agency as they each describe why they are there, and how the group gives each their support.
Liberation (c) Little Fang
The second act is a bit knottier stylistically as the playwright bends these actresses in any way she needs to tell her story, including having two other actresses break the fourth wall to play Lizzie’s mother for scenes with Lizzie’s then-boyfriend Bill (Charlie Thurston). This feels totally in line with a memory play but also a bit of a cop out. There’s also a conversation between Celeste and another black woman (Kayla Davion) which feels put in the play to give voice to women of color (admirable), but sort of stops the play’s momentum. Wohl is more successful with the queer issue, and she also nicely brings up the thorniest issue of the play: Can you work towards women’s liberation and still want the male construct of a marriage? All the actors are just wonderful in their parts, but I have to highlight Lucio as Isidora, who gets all the funniest lines, and Aidem as housewife Margie, who is the most relatable. The cast has grown into their roles since I saw the off-Broadway production last summer, making Liberation, flaws and all, a great evening of theater with the best ensemble to be found on Broadway.
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Not Ready for Prime Time (c) Russ Rowland
Review: Not Ready for Prime Time
At the Newman Mills Theater
Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th year on the air at NBC in 2025, and for the second year in a row, we get a project that tells us how producer Lorne Michaels turned a show that was only supposed to replace Johnny Carson reruns on Saturday nights into the legendary and infamous variety show that it’s known for today. Last year, we got Saturday Night, the film by Jason Reitman, which focused on the chaos and creative energy of the first show, whichpremiered on October 11, 1975. The latest version of the show’s origin story is Not Ready for Prime Time, Erik J. Rodriguez and Charles A. Sothers’s play, which focuses on the comedians that made up the cast, overlapping with the movie timeframe of the first show, but then continuing with the story after the show becomes a massive success. Lorne Michaels (Ian Bouillion) is again approached by producer Dick Ebersol (Nate Janis) to create a late-night show and we see how Lorne goes deep into the comedy club well to wrangle Dan Aykroyd (Kristian Lugo), John Belushi (Ryan Crout), Jane Curtin (Caitlin Houlahan), Garrett Morris (Jared Grimes), Laraine Newman (Taylor Richardson) and two lynchpins of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players (as they were called): the popular Chevy Chase (Woodrow Proctor) and Gilda Radner (Evan Rubin), with her talent at creating indelible characters.
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Not Ready for Prime Time (c) Russ Rowland
After the first season in which Chase becomes the runaway success and leaves the show to be replaced by Bill Murray (Janis, pulling double duty), we focus more on the rest of the crew, who all get some success of their own, like Aykroyd, who insists Belushi stars with him in The Blues Brothers film despite Belushi’s known drug problem. While all interesting stuff, the play and the film both had elements the other desperately needed. The movie had nonstop energy and sensory overload but lacked any character development at all. The play, on the other hand, gives us more character interactions, especially the women, who barely make a dent in the film, but the show’s pacing and life force feels sluggish, especially since director Conor Bagley stages everything rather linearly when overlapping scenes, or faster pacing (there’s even an onstage band that could help with this), would have helped. Still, a lot of the play’s cast have wonderful moments or at least eerily capture their real-life counterparts, especially Crout as Belushi. Just like in the film, Dan Ackroyd seems to be the heartthrob of the group, which is crazy to imagine now, but like Dylan O’Brien in the film, Lugo plays into this studly role nicely. The emotional highpoint of the play involves the standout Rubin as Radner. The play is long enough, but it still reaches far into her historical narrative to deal with Radnor’s fight with cancer. Still, there are plenty of recreations of old SNL skits and there’s a warm glow of nostalgia (especially the set by Justin and Christopher Swader) throughout that any fan of the show will at least get something out of it. Taken together with the film, I feel I got a full picture of what made this historic moment special. On its own, Not Ready for Prime Time is a play that unfortunately lives up to its title.
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