Off-Broadway Review: KAFKAESQUE! (154 Christopher Street)

EVERYTHING ABOUT KAFKAESQUE!,
INCLUDING THE COCKROACH,
PROVES THAT JAMES HARVEY HAS A HISS,
I MEAN, HIT, ON HIS HANDS

Full-time lawyer by day, prolific author Franz Kafka wrote at night and died from tuberculosis when he was only 40 — after having burned 90% of his work due to his depression — without having achieved any true recognition for his writings. If that isn’t sad enough, the characters in his stories struggle with existential anxiety, their alienation framed by impenetrable socio-bureaucratic worlds and bizarre situations. Amazingly enough, writer, composer and lyricist James Harvey has crafted a a riotous, modern, unique musical comedy out of all that nightmarish sorrow.

 James Harvey

Josh Nasser, Emily Olcott, Alexandra Nader, Curry Whitmire, James Harvey

Directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe, Kafkaesque!, which opened at 154 Christopher Street last night, begins with Kafka at the upright piano. Played by the very talented and clearly amused Mr. Harvey, he is baffled by the adjective “Kafkaesque,” and the first song starts with “By age forty I was dead / never had kids and I never wed / the words I wrote were hardly read / but now I’m an adjective.” It’s a great upbeat song and a perfect beginning.

Emily Olcott, James Harvey, and Josh Nasser

Curry Whitmire, Alexandra Nader

“The Metamorphosis,” “The Trial,” “The Castle,” ”A Hunger Artist,” “Letter to the Father,” and more stories are all funneled into the life of one normal American family, the Samsas. Gregor is the nerdish older son, an assistant telemarketer who wakes up one day transformed into a gigantic cockroach, a creature made endearing by Curry Whitmire. A virgin and an incel (a portmanteau of “involuntary celibate”), Gregor is more worried about losing his job than living as a literal vermin, singing “I work hard to feed my family / ever since my dad / bought a bunch of NFTS and lost everything we had.”

Curry Whitmire

Alexandra Nader

Karen, played by the excellent sparkling actress Emily Olcott, is the mother hen accused of being “toxic and problematic.” Karen is tried and sent to death but she is never told where or when she said or did something wrong, lost in a predicament of cancel culture run amok. Michael, the patriarch, does not help her, or anybody else for that matter. Kafka had a tense relationship with his domineering father; thus, Harvey writes him as an inconsequential character, a silly conspiracy freak who can’t get anything done. As Michael, Josh Nasser is terrific when he goes on a journey to save his wife, imprisoned in The Castle, before she gets sent to a secret, elaborate execution device (“In the Penal Colony”).

Emily Olcott, James Harvey, Josh Nasser, Alexandra Nader

James Harvey, Josh Nasser, Curry Whitmire, Alexandra Nader, Emily Olcott

Greta is the Zoomer daughter and Alexandra Nader, who has a natural gift connecting with viewers, delivers jokes flawlessly. In order to help the family, she becomes an influencer who will starve on camera to get views and donations: “I’m giving people what they want / by getting dangerously gaunt / now watch me from your little phones / as I turn into skin and bones / because The Hunger Artist will not eat.”

Josh Nasser, Emily Olcott

James Harvey

Along with Kafka, Harvey plays the policeman who arrests Karen, the judge who convicts her, and her attorney, all with dexterous ease. Olcott also doubles as Gregor’s dream girl in his imagination, Josephine the Rat (from “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk”). The ending chorus, “You are a freak, but that’s not unique / if that’s any consolation,” is a spot-on illustration of the entire show. The cast is Franz-tastic, as is the creative team: choreographer Sara Gibbons; set designer Taylor Friel; costume designer Maggie Walsh; and lighting designer Bentley Heydt. Kafkaesque! is engaging, irreverent, full of unforgettable lines and catchy tunes. Don’t hiss, I mean, miss it.

photos by Nicolas Arauz

Kafkaesque!
produced by Patrick Trettenero & Staro Industries
Theatre 154, 154 Christopher Street
ends on November 11, 2024
for tickets, visit Ovation Tix
for more info, visit Kafka Show