By Charles Paolino
originally published: 06/14/2021
“There’s no people like show people,” according to the Irving Berlin lyric, and that notion is at the heart of the final production in the George Street Playhouse pandemic season—Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only a Play.”
The comedy, streaming from June 15 through July 4, takes place during a Broadway opening night party at the Manhattan townhome of a wealthy woman who is producing a show on her own for the first time.
Well, actually, the play takes place in the producer’s upstairs bedroom suite while the party of invited and uninvited guests is percolating down below. A gaggle of characters, including the producer, the playwright, his presumptive best friend, the director, the female lead, a critic, and a coat-check flunky make their way in and out of the bedroom as they wait to hear the reviews of “The Golden Egg”—and wonder what comes next if it flops.
That scene will not be a blank stage but a fully realized recreation of a sumptuous New York boudoir designed by David L. Arsenault.
In this setting, the dialogue that exposes the relationships among these folks, their ambitions and their frailties, is laced with a stream of insider gags about familiar Broadway personalities and about Broadway itself. One critic aptly called this play “a New Yorker cartoon.”
The first three shows in the George Street streaming season were recorded at a patron’s home, but this one, directed by Kevin Cahoon, was mounted on one of the stages at the theater company’s new digs in the New Brunswick Cultural Center—stages that have been dark since the beginning of the pandemic.
“We had to acknowledge that the audience wasn’t there,” Cahoon said. “The first image you see is an empty George Street Playhouse stage. There is no set. There is not one bit of theater material on there. We had to embrace the fact that there was no audience, which was a beautiful metaphor for the past year.”
Also with respect to the pandemic, the timing of this production is apropos, because Terrence McNally, who was 81, died of complications from the COVID-19 virus in March 2020.
“It’s Only a Play” has a long history. It is the offspring of McNally’s “Broadway, Broadway” which closed during tryouts in 1978. True to the resilience of theater types that he portrays in the play, McNally brought it back with a new name and revised script off-off-Broadway in 1982, off-Broadway in 1985, and—after banging around for a while longer—it appeared on Broadway in 2014.
The play is both affectionate and satirical in its portrayal of the denizens of the theater, about their love for the stage and their resilience in the face of uncertainty and even of failure.
“That is what is so heartbreaking and also so brilliant,” Cahoon said. “People will spend years bringing a project to fruition, and it can all end in one night. That’s why they say, ‘Start working on your next play the morning after the opening of the play you’re in.’”
The play is a parody, Cahoon said, “in that it is celebrating the archetypes that we know exist in the theater: the diva leading lady with drama swirling around her all the time, the young boy who just fell off a turnip truck in Times Square and dreams of being in the theater, the hardened critic everyone has opinion about, the boy-wonder director—completely narcissistic, following his own pathos.”
Cahoon said McNally was writing from his experience, basing the characters in this play on people he had known and worked with.
“Terrence’s observation of all these people is so spot on,” Cahoon said, “but never mean. He was never mean; his characters were always coming from admiration, from his heart.”
Cahoon said that although the play was being prepared for streaming to home screens, the company rehearsed it as a play with no camera present before the tech rehearsal.
“You could play it for a camera, or you could experience the fact that it is a play,” he said.
“But it’s for and about the theater. We didn’t adjust. We let it all fly. We wanted it to feel full and large and for the stakes to be really high.”
The accommodation to the fact that the audience would be watching on a screen rather than on a stage was accomplished through the camera shots that direct and hold the audience’s attention where it needs to be.
This is not Kevin Cahoon’s first turn at George Street. In 2018, he directed Larry Shue’s comedy “The Nerd” in the last performance at the company’s temporary theater on the Cook College campus of Rutgers University.
Although the pandemic virtually shut down the performing arts, Cahoon said the hiatus created opportunities for creativity.
“It was a time when a lot of people did Zoom readings of new material they were working on,” he said. “I also spent a lot of time writing projects I’ve always had the idea of bringing to fruition. I tried to use the time the best way I could. Hopefully, those things will happen.”
Cahoon, who will appear in a forthcoming Disney movie, “Better Late Than Never,” which stars Lisa Kudrow, added, as though to affirm the theme of McNally’s play:
“I also have a couple of theater pieces I really hope will happen,” he said. “It’s the artist’s life. It can all change tomorrow. You can get that call.”
Household tickets to the plays in the George Street Playhouse streaming season can be purchased for $33 at GeorgeStreetPlayhouse.org. Each subscriber household will receive a unique link to view the performance.
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For more by Charles Paolino, visit
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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when The Rainbow Is Enuf,
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 4:00pm
Middletown Arts Center
36 Church Street, Middletown, NJDunbar Repertory Company presents Ntozake Shange’s
FOR COLORED GIRLS Who have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, the groundbreaking “choreopoem” – a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by Black women. Directed by Darrell Lawrence Willis, SR.
Fellowship For Performing Arts Presents C.s. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 3:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJA battle is being waged for your soul from an office in hell! Witness a fast-paced, tour-de-force performance in this acclaimed adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ satiric masterpiece. This international hit offers a faithful stage adaptation of Lewis’
The Screwtape Letters, following Screwtape, a senior tempter in Hell, as he schemes to capture the soul of an unsuspecting human on earth and reveals spiritual warfare in vivid, humorous and powerful ways.
Lewis Center For The Arts Presents "oratorio For Living Things"
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 2:00pm
McCarter Theatre Center (Berlind Theatre)
91 University Place, Princeton, NJInfusing a classical oratorio with blues, gospel, jazz and soul, this musical and visual journey investigates human experiences of time and memory alongside powerful physical forces that shape the universe. Our exploration emphasizes the significance of the ritual of gathering for live performance in an increasingly screen-focused world.
Featuring the students of the Lewis Center as the cast and crew, this production is the first non-professional performance of this important new work which premiered in 2022 in New York City to great critical acclaim.
Directed by visiting Iranian artist and director Nikoo Mamdoohi, with English to Latin translations by Greg Taubman, Princeton Class of 2006, the professional team includes music direction by Emma Sway, music supervision by Solon Snider Sway, set design by Afsoon Pajoufar, lighting design by Kelley Shih, sound design by Kay Richardson, costume design by Keating Debelak, choreography by Sariel Golomb, and stage management by Milan Eldridge, Princeton Class of 2020. Juniors Lota Alagbe and Peyton McLaughlin serves as dramaturgs.
George Street Playhouse Presents Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-woman Show
Friday, November 13, 2026 @ 7:30pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJWritten by and starring
Vicki Lawrence Two Performances Only
Vicki Lawrence, the legendary actress, comedian, and singer, brings her signature wit and charm to the stage in Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two-Woman Show. Best known for her iconic role as Thelma Harper, or "Mama," from The Carol Burnett Show and Mama’s Family, Lawrence delivers a hilarious and heartfelt performance that takes audiences on a journey through her extraordinary career. From her Emmy-winning years alongside Carol Burnett to her chart-topping hit, “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” she shares behind-the-scenes stories, comedy, and music—all with her trademark humor. Whether reminiscing about her Hollywood adventures or embodying the feisty Mama, Lawrence proves that laughter is timeless.
Kean Department Of Theatre Presents "the Drowsy Chaperone"
Friday, November 13, 2026 @ 7:30pm
Kean Stage - Bauer Boucher Theatre Center
1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJMusic and lyrics by
Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
EVENT PREVIEWS
Center Players presents "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play"
(FREEHOLD, NJ) -- Center Players presents It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play with four performances across two Sundays (November 8 and November 15, 2026). Performances are split between the American Hotel and Mattison Crossing.
Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026
(HAMPTON, NJ) -- Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026 from November 10 to December 20, 2026. Celebrate the season with this spectacular holiday production filled with the music, memories, and traditions audiences have cherished through the years.
Ferrell Studios presents "Carrie, the Musical"
(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- Ferrell Studios presents Carrie, the Musical at the Plainfield Performing Arts Center from November 12-15, 2026. Based on the classic novel by Stephen King, the musical poses the question: What happens when someone is pushed too far?
Centenary Stage Company's Fringe Festival presents "Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman"
(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company's Fringe Festival continues with Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman, a captivating one-woman play written and performed by Erica Knight. Running November 12–15, 2026, in the Kutz Theatre at the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University. The production explores the turbulent life and legacy of Ralph Albert Blakelock, one of America's most celebrated yet tragically overlooked nineteenth-century painters.
Fool Moon Theatre Company presents "Love, Loss, And What I Wore" at The Eagle Theatre on November 12th
(HAMMONTON, NJ) -- Fool Moon Theatre Company presents a special, one-night-only presentation of the hit play Love, Loss and What I Wore on Thursday, November 12 2026 at Eagle Theatre. This exclusive event is a benefit for the Funny Farm Rescue & Sanctuary in Mays Landing. Showtime is 7:30pm.
Middlesex College presents "She Kills Monsters"
(EDISON, NJ) -- Middlesex College Visual, Performing and Media Arts presents She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen from November 12-18, 2026 at the Performing Arts Center - Studio Theater in Edison. She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly.
CherryBlossomPlayers:LLC presents Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"
(NUTLEY, NJ) -- CherryBlossomPlayers:LLC presents Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher from November 12-14, 2026 at Philhower Chapel at Vincent United Methodist Church in Nutley. This is an exciting new original adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale.
Theater League of Clifton presents "1776" in November
(WAYNE, NJ) -- Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of opinionated, stubborn and deeply divided delegates gathered in Philadelphia and somehow managed to create a new nation. This November, the Theater League of Clifton brings their story to the stage with 1776, the Tony Award-winning musical about the tumultuous days leading to the Declaration of Independence. Directed by Maren Sugarman, the production will be presented November 13–15, 2026, at the Wayne Community Center.
Lomotion Live presents "Etiquette" by David Lee White
(BOONTON, NJ) -- Lomotion Live presents Etiquette, a timely and biting comedy by playwright David Lee White, directed by Lauren Moran. The production will run November 13–15, 2026 at Lomotion Live at Parsippany Arts Center in Boonton.
NJ Rep presents Theatre Brut Short Play Festival 2026: "Through The Window"
(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- What happens when we look through a window? Do we see the world as it really is, the world as we wish it could be, or something we never expected? New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) invites audiences to discover the unexpected with NJ Rep presents Theatre Brut Short Play Festival 2026: "Through The Window" a festival of eight original short plays presented over two weekends, November 13–15 and November 20–22, 2026 at the West End Arts Center in Long Branch.
