A MEANINGFUL MUSICAL
WHERE IDENTITY, ART, AND SILENCE
COLLIDE IN 1996 PENNSYLVANIA
The title might suggest a classical drama—perhaps something Shakespearean or starchy—but Keen Company’s latest offering (in association with Michelle Noh) is neither Elizabethan nor antiquated. All the World’s a Stage, a new chamber musical by Adam Gwon, trades grandeur for intimacy, unfolding on a modest stage at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row. The scale is small, but the musical richness proves meaningful.
Commissioned in 2021 following Keen’s revival of Gwon’s Ordinary Days, this world premiere (with a running time of one hour and 45 minutes) enlists just four actors and four musicians. The result is a production that revels in its talented, tight ensemble. Michael Starobin’s orchestrations—masterfully arranged for violin (Mike Hunter), cello (Buffi Jacobs), guitar (Beth Callen), and keyboard/conductor (Wiley Deweese)—are lush yet never overpowering. The music breathes. Harmonies shimmer. And blessedly, there’s no over-amplification or unintelligible lyrics.
The story, set in a small Pennsylvania town in 1996, centers on two very different gay men navigating life in a conservative community. Matt Rodin plays Mr. Alleman, a newly hired math teacher whose “straight-passing” demeanor allows him to blend into his surroundings. Jon-Michael Reese is Michael Hallett, the proudly effeminate owner of the local bookstore. There is no chance of him “passing.” He’s also Black, and therefore doubly marginalized. Their tentative friendship soon deepens into romance but remains on edge while Mr. Alleman tries to balance his personal life with his teaching career. Further complications develop when he agrees to mentor a non-conformist student, Samantha (Eliza Pagelle), in a statewide Thespian monologue competition that would offer her a college scholarship—a way out of this small town.
When Samantha abandons her safe Shakespearean sonnet in favor of a monologue from Angels in America, the choice ignites controversy in the conservative school. Elizabeth Stanley plays the school secretary, Dede Rozenel, a conflicted ally who helps Mr. Alleman navigate the fallout. The school principal never appears onstage. Instead, when Alleman is called to his office, the other three actors hauntingly voice his authority, channeling the collective judgment of a fearful, repressive community.
For a New York audience, the themes may feel too familiar, if not a bit dated. Yet it’s worth noting the setting: 1996, rural Pennsylvania, a time and place when the Christian Right’s grip on cultural norms, homosexuality, and censorship were particularly hysterical. If the book shies away from deeper explorations of AIDS or race, its focus on internalized shame and performative assimilation still resonates.
Director Jonathan Silverstein crafts a fluid, attuned production, in collaboration with the subtle but effective movements by Patrick McCollum. Steven Kemp’s scenic design uses every inch of the small space, but only with the barest of essentials needed: a bookcase that slides on and off, a chalk board that flies in and out, and a desk that is dressed in various ways. Jennifer Paar’s costumes transforms the handsome Rodin into a nerdy math teacher, and the elegant Reese into an artistic expressive soul. David Lander’s lights find a variety from limited instruments and just when the score turns beautiful, so does his lighting.
Ultimately, the musical’s quiet power lies in its unflinching look at the cost of invisibility. Alleman’s realization that he’s been offering only fragments of himself to the world lands with aching clarity. “I am broken,” he admits with a heartbreaking realization. The musical’s final emotional punch comes not in a grand catharsis but in a moment of withdrawn kindness: an invitation for pie, rescinded out of fear. “I can’t. I can’t,” whimpers Mrs. Rozenel, as Alleman finally sees her clearly—not as a friend, but as another casualty of silence.
Whether the piece is mistitled or not, or preaching to the choir or not, Gwon’s book isn’t naïve but rather resounds with truths that are still relevant 29 years later.
photos by Richard Termine
All the World’s a Stage
Keen Company
Theatre Row, 410 W 42nd St
100 minutes (no intermission)
Tues–Sat at 7; Sat & Sun at 2; Wed at 2 (April 17)
ends on May 10, 2025
for tickets, visit Keen Company
Gregory Fletcher is an author, a theater professor, a playwright, director, and stage manager. His craft book on playwriting is entitled Shorts and Briefs, and publishing credits include two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and several essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.
