Laughing through tears

Cyclosporiasis, wildfire skies, and comedies centering on relationships

Can you feel the passion? Photo by Ahmer Kalam on Unsplash

Well, friends,

If this NYC summer were a mixed-genre story, it’d be high-concept starring Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling. It started with Main Character Energy, set in beautiful weather with the excitement of the Knicks win, and has overnight morphed into a sci-fi film including explosive diarrhea (spoiler: the enemy is lettuce!) and yellow skies caused by Canadian wildfires. Yet, somehow it’s maintained a “Rom-Com” vibe. (I put “rom-com” in quotations because of how much I hate this term, which usually signifies a regular comedy that is written/ directed by a woman. Kind of like the derogatory “chick-lit,” which dismisses the female experience as separate from literature.) But something about all the craziness feels right for romance.

Romantic comedy is a limiting label. The best dating stories are not simply funny or romantic, and they are actually very hard to pull off. Both characters have to be likeable, preventing the use of making one the antagonist in the usual way. The best ones penetrate a deeper level, where the use of a joke actually allows the audience to access a universal wound. In these cases, laughter is the medicine, where humor isn’t the opposite of sadness but the tool to survive it. The best ones have you laughing so hard you’re crying.

Let’s get into it with two plays and a rewatchable film.

😢😢😢😢 Shifters (Cherry Lane Theatre)

Benedict Lombe’s Shifters, a transfer from London’s West End, knows that love doesn’t exist in a vacuum. When Dre and Des reconnect years after their first romance, they’re forced to confront not just who they were, but who they’ve become. The play sparkles with flirtation, humor, and coolness, but beneath the surface is a meditation on identity, ambition, immigration stories, memory, and the versions of ourselves we leave behind. It’s extremely funny, and the acting is incredible, but by the end I was so choked up that I couldn’t even hoot during the standing ovation. A24 has hit it out of the park with every play they’ve produced at the new Cherry Lane Theater, and this is another home run. Put this on your summer bucket list. It’ll be the best thing you see all year. Tix available here. Also, there’s a $30 rush ticket line at the box office one hour before the show. Through the end of August.

😢 Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)

This Broadway musical begins with an absurdly simple premise: two strangers have to carry a cake across New York City. What unfolds is a delightfully offbeat comedy powered by charming songs, quick banter, and two very different colliding worldviews. In this case, the journey matters more than the destination, and this musical captures the space where the inconvenience of getting this wedding cake creates intimacy. One unexpected day has the power to rearrange two lives, and subsequently ripple out to their families and to the city. It’s sweet without being saccharine, which is extremely difficult to do. (It’s also a love letter to NYC, and for a Broadway musical, it’s optimistic without being daft.) Tix available here, but for Broadway I usually get lottery tickets. I usually take my son to 2-3 shows a month, if that gives any indication of how easy it is to win. Maybe I’ll do a whole post on this? You put your name in for the chance (no obligation!) to purchase up to two $30-$50 tickets, which is the price of two Negronis in the West Village. (Love you, Dell’Anima!!)

😢😢😢 Past Lives

Celine Song’s Past Lives isn’t a comedy, but it belongs in the conversation because it understands that unexpectedness and possibility bring hope and heartache. A deeply moving story about first love, destiny, and the lives we almost lived. It shares Shifters’ fascination with timing and memory. The film follows Nora and Hae Sung, childhood friends in South Korea whose lives diverged when Nora’s family emigrated to Canada. Decades later, they reconnect, forcing both to grapple with the lives they chose and the ones they left behind. Like with Shifters, time isn’t simply a plot device, but a force that shapes identity and decisions. Also like with Shifters, I cried at the end.

See ya next week!