Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Dramas rooted in persisting pain: Leo McGann’s THE HONEY TRAP and Jordan E. Cooper’s OH HAPPY DAY!

• By drediman
• October 18, 2025
• No Comments

This past week, I came across two new Off-Broadway dramas with a capital “D”, both of which are rooted in persisting pain, conjuring big emotions in relatively small spaces. Read on for my assessment of these two meaty, emotionally wrought plays.

OH HAPPY DAY!
The Public Theater
Through November 2

Last week, The Public Theater’s production of Jordan E. Cooper’s Oh Happy Day! (RECOMMENDED) opened at Martinson Hall. In short, the new play — with ample gospel music — tells the story of a troubled young man who is tasked by God to make amends with his estranged family, in the process loosely taking on a sort of “Noah and the Ark” role by attempting to save them from the onset of a proverbial flood. Cooper is perhaps best known for his play Ain’t No Mo’, which was also developed and presented by The Public before transferring to Broadway for a brief run. But instead of the ecstatic satire that made that play pop so effectively, Oh Happy Day! is rooted in deep pain and unresolved conflicts, giving it a far different texture from the earlier work despite obvious evidence of the playwright’s voluptuous imagination — namely as it relates to the supernatural and magic realism — in both. In turn joyous and psychologically fraught, the play more specifically chronicles the healing journey of Keyshawn as he must reconcile his past as a damaged sex worker and the expectations of his now religious family (namely his father, who himself has had a checkered past, to say the least). Cooper’s play is clearly deeply personal work, and his performance in it as Keyshawn is urgently delivered and emotionally raw. The character’s volatile interactions with his sister (a vivacious Tamika Lawrence) and father (an intense Brian D. Coats) are explosive encounters that, unfortunately, register too much on a single high octane note and juxtapose somewhat awkwardly with the boisterous exuberance of the play’s supernatural bits. Despite these slight misgivings, I walked away from the piece nonetheless moved. Like the recent Sia musical Saturday Church at New York Theatre Workshop, Oh Happy Day! challenges our notion of spirituality to encompass the larger human experience, thereby uncovering the divine in us all.

THE HONEY TRAP
Irish Repertory Theatre
Through November 23

Irish Repertory Theatre seems to have a hit on their hands this fall with the Chelsea-based company’s tense and satisfying Off-Broadway production of Leo McGann’s new psychological thriller The Honey Trap (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). Essentially, the play depicts the story of Dave — and a former British soldier stationed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles — who travels to Belfast seeking details about the murder of his friend and fellow soldier, who was killed by the IRA by being lured by two attractive young women at a bar way back in 1979 (hence the play’s title). As written, the play is a sturdily written revenge tale that is ingeniously structured to yield to a nail-biting second act that had me on the edge of my seat. At the center of the production as Dave is Michael Hayden’s restless, simmering, and immensely charismatic performance, which percolates with and vacillates violently between guilt and rage over the course of the meaty play. Also excellent is Molly Ranson — who gives an expertly modulated performance as a graduate student whose work to document the Troubles via oral histories leads Dave to his prey — as is Samantha Mathis as the woman who holds the answers to Dave’s long-held questions (no spoilers here!). As the younger iterations of Dave and his doomed friend Bobby, Daniel Marconi and Harrison Tipping, respectively, are convincing as confused, testosterone-fueled solders trying their best to make sense of being strangers in a strange land. And as their equally young seducers, Annabelle Zasowski and Doireann Mac Mahon give subtly layered performances that are chillingly poker-faced. Director Matt Torney does a terrific job of effectively balancing present day scenes and flashbacks — thanks largely to Charlie Corcoran’s elegantly malleable set and careful shifts in Michael Gottlieb lighting — as well as maintaining the smoldering suspense throughout.