Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Five worthwhile LGBTQ+ focused shows to catch this PRIDE MONTH

• By drediman
• June 22, 2026
• No Comments

This Pride Month, there are a number of LGBTQ+ focused performances currently playing Off-Broadway that are worth catching for their unique perspectives on the queer experience. The following is an eclectic list of five such shows — spanning across stand-up comedy, musicals, dramas, and cabaret — and my respective thoughts on each of them.

CAN I BE FRANK?
SoHo Playhouse
Through June 27

First up downtown at SoHo Playhouse, you’ll find the return engagement of Morgan Bassichis’s hit solo show Can I Be Frank? (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). Staged by Sam Pinkleton (a Tony-winner for his inspired directorial work on Cole Escola’s runaway hit Oh, Mary!), the production is essentially designed to be a tribute to Frank Maya, a gay comedian and performance artist whose imminent rise to mainstream fame was tragically cut short by his passing in the mid-90s due to AIDS-related complications. In a nice change of pace, Bassichis’s very funny meta-theatrical showcase is much more than an excuse to display the his wit and way with jokes and one-liners (which in and of themselves are hilarious); it’s also an unabashedly tight embrace of Maya’s legacy and undeniable influence on gay culture. As such, Can I Be Frank? turns out to be a surprisingly satisfying theatrical experience, registering much more substantially than your typical stand-up comedy performance. Throughout, Bassichis delivers a tight rope performance that’s both slicing and intelligent, and Pinkleton’s staging is as razor sharp as you’d expect from the director of Oh, Mary! Invariably, both make sure that the show is consistently a few steps of the audience.

JEROME
Playwrights Horizons
Through June 21

Then over at Playwrights Horizons, you’ll find John J. Caswell, Jr.’s latest play Jerome (RECOMMENDED). Largely set in a depressed small town in Arizona, the play tells the story of an aging gay couple who, after nearly 30 years together, decide to try their hand at expanding the relationship to include a handsome and mysterious younger man. Given that the play takes place during the early 1990s, the AIDS crisis and the personal scars it has inflicted looms large in the play — particularly for the newcomer, who seems to be triggered and haunted at every turn — despite the fact that none of the characters in it have actually been infected by the then fatal disease. Although the play is certainly a meditation on the obvious merits and complications of a “throuple” arrangement, it’s much more of a ghostly memorial for those who have succumbed to AIDS, as well as a tale about moving through trauma. Although I found Caswell’s previous play Wet Brain to be more fascinating and less targeted than this one, the sorrow and menace that courses through Jerome nonetheless unsettled and unnerved me, both during the performance and thinking about it afterwards. Its lasting effect is in no small part due to director Dustin Wills’s disorienting and deliberately paced staging, which features a trio of pungent performances by Jeorge Bennett Watson, Stephen Spinella, and Ken Barnett.

I’M ALMOST THERE
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Through June 28

This Pride Month, Todd Almond’s musical-cum-song cycle I’m Almost There (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) has returned to New York courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music. Originally presented by Audible Theater — which seems to be on a roll these days after its recent well-received productions of Mexodus, New Born, and What Happened Was… — the work arrives at BAM Fisher having received acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the previous New York run (the production is about to embark on a national tour). Don’t let the bare-bones production fool you. I’m Almost There is the work of immense imagination that artfully depicts the wonderment of human infatuation and the often Olympian effort necessary to cultivate meaningful relationships (especially true in our post-pandemic world). Over the course of the 80-minute piece, Almond takes us on a fantastical tour of his apartment building, bumping into its various quirky inhabitants as he makes his way down onto the street to meet a potential love interest. Sitting mostly at the piano accompanying himself (a harpist and bassist eventually come into the musical picture), Almond gives a disarming performance — so passionate, so charismatic — as our tentative Everyman guide. The production has been exquisitely staged by David Cromer, a director who understands the potency of subtlety perhaps better than any other theater artist I know.

RAISING HER VOICE
Irish Repertory Theatre
Through June 28

For a more international sense of “pride”, may I suggest snagging tickets to Pea Dinneen’s “cabaret play” Raising Her Voice (RECOMMENDED) at Irish Repertory Theatre’s very cozy subterranean studio space (the piece was originally seen at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2025, where it was received with acclaim). In short, the autobiographical play with music chronicles Dinneen’s coming-of-age story as a trans woman, particularly as it relates to the challenges she has had to face to come to terms with her country, her identity, and her voice — both literally and figuratively. In possession of a husky build and a booming baritone voice, the Dublin-based cabaret artist is an imposing stage presence that is initially a jarring ball of contradictions. In a smart decision, Dinneen has the audience conceptually take on the role of Ireland, directly implicating them (and their potential judgements) in her tumultuous journey to trans womanhood. In its own intimate way, the show is transporting, namely as it relates to its eagerness to expose the largely American audiences to the trans experience under the seemingly unaccommodating gaze of Irish society. Although Dinneen’s delivery can be a tad monotonous at times, there’s sturdy poetry underlying her storytelling — which uses a bevy of well-placed 90’s pop anthems (e.g., Radiohead’s “Creep”, Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten”, all accompanied terrifically on piano by musical director Paul Prior) to comment on the proceedings — that ultimately caught my imagination.

CAMPING
Colt Coeur at HERE
Through July 11

The only show I haven’t yet seen of the bunch is Colt Coeur’s production of Camping, which you can see at HERE in Soho (I was supposed to have seen it last week, but I had to rebook due to scheduling issues). It looks really fascinating, however. Indeed, the folks at Colt Coeur have a knack for presenting provocative new plays — like the Tony-winning Eureka Day, which was originally staged by the company — and this two-hander by Victoria Lynne Barclay, directed by artistic director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and starring the duo of Alice Kremelberg and Colby Minifie, appears to be no different (the play has already received wonderful word of mouth). According to its description, the play tells the story of two girls, whose friendship and budding romance is depicted through the times they spend together in a tent during their frequent camping trips over the years. As a story about regrets and longing that stretches across decades, Camping almost seems to be a sort of lesbian version of Brokeback Mountain, albeit one that has a more surreal bent to it. I look forward to seeing it later this week.