September 9th - October 16th

THE SOHO PLAYHOUSE
Darren Lee Cole
Artistic Director

presents

Yeah, But Not Right Now

Written and performed by

A.J. Holmes

Directed by

Caitlin Cook

About

Will you still like Broadway’s A.J. Holmes after he tells you all the worst, most embarrassing, humiliating, potentially irredeemable parts about himself? The lies, the indiscretions, the fact that he legally changed his first name to Broadway’s? Join A.J. (sorry, Broadway’s) as he tries to move past his crippling need for constant validation... in front of an audience. He’s been on stage and screen, but has he ever been... himself? And really, should he? He’ll be whoever you want him to be, but please hold your applause. It will only encourage him.

Following a sold-out run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival, in this original show of songs, stories, and stand-up, A.J. will attempt to win your affection the only way he knows how—putting on a musical.

Credits

A.J. Holmes (writer/performer) is a composer, singer, songwriter, comedian, improviser, and actor. Broadway/West End Credits include Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon. Other theatre credits include Dr. Frankenstein in the national tour of Young Frankenstein and Henry in Next to Normal (Arizona Theatre Co. & SJ Rep). Film credits include Flop Stoppers and The Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye in collaboration with the comedy group The Tin Can Brothers, as well as Ethan Kuperberg’s seminal classic, Doppelgänger. As a composer, A.J. has worked on several shows with StarKid Productions (Twisted, A Very Potter Musical, Me and My Dick), which can be found on YouTube. A.J. served as a consultant in the writer’s room on Season 21 of South Park. A.J. spends his time writing silly songs and sometimes remembers to write them down.

Caitlin Cook (director) is a LA-born, NYC-based, Oxford-educated, hyphen-addicted director, producer, composer, singer, songwriter, comedian, and writer. A fierce champion of mixed media and genre-bending works of art, Caitlin has carved out a space for herself smack-dab in the center of the Venn diagram between comedy, music, theater, and visual art. She has brought this approach and shows like Death Wish and Good Luck Out There, Human to the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Fringe, Hollywood Fringe, HBO’s Women in Comedy Festival, New York Comedy Festival, High Plains Comedy Festival, off-Broadway theaters, strangers’ living rooms, and even a houseboat once—and garnered rave reviews from critics, peers, and audiences alike (the houseboat’s owners were especially complimentary). In NYC, she produces Fake Birthday at Littlefield and Good God at the Sultan Room. Caitlin has two albums out, Zinger-Songwriter and Betty Pitch—and encourages you to blast those bangers. To learn more, visit thecaitlincook.com, @thecaitlincook, and @heyitscaitlincook.

Scott Pask (scenic consultant) is an award-winning scenic designer. His Broadway scenic design credits include the current hit musicals The Book of Mormon, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical, also running in London’s West End, on tour in the UK/EU, Australia and the United States, and Mean Girls, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. He has received numerous Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Hewes Design Awards, Bessie Award, Backstage Garland Award, and Broadway World Theater Fan’s Choice Award. To learn more, visit scottpaskstudio.com and @scottpaskstudio.

Craig Bundy (sound designer) is a lifelong engineer, acoustician, and fabricator who has been working in New York City for the past decade. He was one of the original technical directors of Subculture New York and has run YouTube’s livestream department for the past three years. He has worked with Hozier, Snoop Dog, Jason Robert Brown, Esperanza Spalding, and Ben Platt, among others.

Brandon Bogle (lighting designer) is an NYC-based theater maker, hailing from Connecticut. Currently, he serves at technical director at SoHo Playhouse. He is also one of the Co-Founders of Page Break, a writer’s group in residency at SoHo Playhouse, and a member of the LIT Council, partnered with the Tank. His work has been developed at the Tank, Dixon Place, and the Producer’s Club.

Jama McMahon (costume consultant) has been helping A.J. with last-minute projects since 1999. In the Before Times, she split her time working behind the scenes in theater, film, & TV. Maybe she will again soon. To learn more, visit jamahartart.com.

Keith Sherman & Associates (public relations) is the communications firm for a diverse range of entertainment, arts, lifestyles, and international brands. KSA has represented hundreds of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and touring productions, films, television broadcasts, music projects, and major events globally. The company represented The New York Times for a decade and the Tony Awards for 18 years. To learn more, visit ksa-pr.org.

Jeremy Wein (associate producer) is a producer based in New York City. Jeremy is the founder of Play-PerView, ThisMyShow Industries, and the New York City Podcast Festival. Producing credits include Kevin McDonald: ALIVE (Theatre Row, Dynasty Typewriter), Open Mike Eagle: Anime, Trauma, + Divorce: Live Processing Event (Dynasty Typewriter), Godspell (2011 Broadway Revival), and Take Me Home (Incubator Arts Project, Associate Producer, dir. Meghan Finn). To learn more, visit thismyshow.net, @thismyshow, and @jeremywein90.

David Treatman (consulting producer) David founded David Treatman Creative rooted in a belief that fresh storytelling—supported by artistically-minded production—yields the most viable work both commercially and critically. Select Projects Include: Your Love, Our Musical (now running at Caveat NYC through December), A Christmas Carol (The Lyceum Theater), Be More Chill (The Lyceum Theater), Angels in America (The Neil Simon Theater, 2018 Tony Award-winner), The Last Five Years (The Garrick Theatre), Curtains (UK Tour and Wyndham’s Theatre), and the Webby Award-winning Propaganda the Podcast Musical. To learn more, visit davidtreatmancreative.com.

SoHo Playhouse (Darren Lee Cole, Artistic Director) has been one of Off-Broadway’s primary venues for new plays for the past 80 years. Formerly Vandam Playhouse, the theatre has been home to countless dreams and movements. Many actors, directors, choreographers, production designers, theatre managers, technicians, and producers all received their start at SoHo Playhouse. Several of America’s leading writers have premiered their work at 15 Vandam Street, including Sam Shepard, Edward Albee, Tracy Letts, Charles Buch, and Leroi Jones. Award-winning shows have included: The Boys in the Band, Killer Joe, The Divine Sister, Krapp, 39, Piaf, Room Service, Jamaica Farewell, Belly of a Drunken Piano, Bukowaski from Beyond, Triassic Parq, Rap Guide to Climate Chaos, The Other Josh Cohen, Bill W and Dr. Bob, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play, Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Fleabag, and TJ & Dave. The Playhouse has also proudly served as home to the Fringe Encore Series since 2005. Mr. Cole has served as Artistic Director since 2004.

Openers

Dylan Adler (September 9) is a comedian, actor, and musician based in NYC. He’s performed musical comedy at the New York Comedy Festival and was featured in The New York Times for his show Rape Victims are Horny Too with Kelly Bachman. He performed sketch on Maude Night at UCB and performed musical improv on People’s Improv Theatre house team. He’s been featured in Vulture Magazine and the NY Post. To learn more, visit dylanadler.com, @dylanadler_, and @dylanadler6.

Emily Wilson (September 10) is a stand-up comedian based in New York City. Her comedy ranges from quick jokes to stories to original comedy songs. She hosts a weekly comedy show called Tuesdays at the Red Room at KGB in the East Village every Tuesday at 8pm, and actively posts video content on Instagram and TikTok. If she's not doing either of those things, she's most likely eating or using her bidet. To learn more, visit therealemilywilson.com and @therealemilywilson.

Tom McGovern (September 11) is a songwriter, comedic, musician, and actor based in NYC. You might have seen him play Jim Halpert/Andy Bernard off-Broadway in The Office! A Musical Parody. His award-winning sketch comedy videos have been featured in over a dozen film festivals worldwide. His debut musical comedy EP I Made It is available to stream on all streaming platforms. To learn more, visit tommcgovern.com and @tommcgovern27.

Erika Henningsen (September 12) was most recently seen as Cady Heron in the original Broadway cast of Mean Girls, for which she was nominated for an Outer Critics’ Circle Award. She made her Broadway debut as Fantine in the recent revival of Les Miserables and can be seen as Kim Ravenal in the PBS Special of Showboat: Live from Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic. She recurred on Peacock's Emmy-nominated series Girls5eva and is slated to appear in Amazon's original comedy Harlem. Graduate of the University Of Michigan BFA Musical Theater Program, Broadway.com Star of the Year 2019. She recently founded the First Time Voters' Club in partnership with Producing Blue to encourage young voters in involvement in the political sector and is an ambassador for the non-profit organization, She’s The First. To learn more, visit @erikahenningsen.

Chris Gethard (September 16) is a comedian based out of the great state of New Jersey. He can be seen performing all over the world. He’s the host of the podcast Beautiful/Anonymous, the author of a few books, and the figurehead of a cancelled television show that was actually more like a religious cult. He has been seen on The Office, Parks & Recreation, Broad City, and more. His first comedy special, Career Suicide, can be streamed on HBO and his second, Half My Life, can be streamed on Amazon Prime. To learn more, visit chrisgeth.com, @chrisgeth, and @chrisgethard.

Britney Coleman (September 17) is a New York City-based Broadway actor and singer. She has appeared on Broadway in the revival of Sunset Boulevard starring Glenn Close, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Tootsie, St. Anne's Warehouse, and various regional theaters across the country including the MUNY, The Old Globe, TUTS, The Asolo Rep, Marriott Lincolnshire, Westport Country Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, The Fulton Opera House and more. She is currently in the cast of the 2021 revival of Company on Broadway starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone. To learn more, visit britneycoleman.com, @britneycoleman, and @britneycoleman_.

Marcia Belsky (September 18) is a New York City-based stand-up comedian, musician, and writer. Her hit song “100 Tampons” premiered on Comedy Central digital April 2020 and has over 1 million shares on TikTok. She is the lead singer of the comedy duo Free the Mind, whose song “All Older White Men Should Die (But Not My Dad)” was called a “hilarious, feminist anthem” by Elite Daily. Her work and writing has been featured on the BBC, NPR, The New York Times, USA Today, Buzzfeed, AV Club, and more. To learn more, visit marciabelsky.com, @marciasky, and @marciabelsky.

Josh Breckenridge (September 19) has been seen on Broadway in Come From Away, The Ritz, and The Scottsboro Boys. Off-Broadway he has appeared in The Scottsboro Boys and Saved. He also appeared in the original first national company of The Book of Mormon. Other regional credits include The Whipping Man (John, Kansas City Repertory Theatre), Tales of the City (Jon, American Conservatory Theater), and more. He can be seen most recently on Showtime’s American Rust as well as the 2020-21 season of The Blacklist on CBS and Blue Bloods on NBC. To learn more, visit j-breckenridge.com and @j.breckenridge.music.

Dave Hill (September 23) a comedian, writer, musician, actor, radio host, and man-about-town originally from Cleveland, Ohio but now living in New York City in a totally sweet apartment with a party deck and everything. On the show business front, Dave has appeared on Netflix’s The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Adult Swim’s Joe Pera Talks with You, Amazon’s The Tick, Comedy Central’s @midnight and Inside Amy Schumer, TBS’ Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TV Land’s The Jim Gaffigan Show, and TruTV’s Comedy Knockout, among a bunch of others. Dave is also a musician who currently sings and plays guitar in the power pop band Valley Lodge, whose song “Go” is the theme song to HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and the psych/garage rock band Painted Doll. To learn more, visit davehillonline.com and @mrdavehill.

Josh Gondelman (September 24) is a writer and comedian who incubated in Boston before moving to New York City, where he currently lives and works as a writer and producer for Desus & Mero on Showtime. Previously, he spent five years at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, first as a web producer and then as a staff writer where he earned four Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and three WGA Awards. In 2016, Josh made his late night standup debut on Conan (TBS), and he has also performed on Late Night With Seth Meyers (NBC) and The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS). To learn more, visit joshgondelman.com, @joshgondelman, and @joshgondelman.

Syd Matisse (September 25, late) is lyrical storyteller, whose most vulnerable songs are serenades to her own safeguarded memories, offers a voice for her younger self. If Joni Mitchell and John Mayer wanted to have a baby and asked Alanis Morissette to be their surrogate, you’d get Syd. Having studied songwriting from Berklee College of Music, her approach to crafting a song pursues a finely tuned balance between convention and candidness. Syd recently released Stonefield Memos, a four-track treasury of songs recorded from her bedroom that she had written over the course of two years. To learn more, visit @sydmatisse.

Caitlin Cook (September 25, late) is a LA-born, NYC-based comedian who has performed all around the world at top-tier theaters, comedy clubs, festivals, dimly lit bars, strangers’ living rooms, and even a houseboat once. Not your conventional stand-up, she combines witty one-liners and scintillating storytelling with hilariously irreverent musical comedy and projected visuals. Cook has released two successful musical comedy albums—Betty Pitch, which she recorded after writing 250 songs a day during the pandemic, and Zinger-Songwriter, which she recorded at 12 different venues while on tour across the US and UK. To learn more, visit thecaitlincook.com, @thecaitlincook, and @heyitscaitlincook.

Darren Criss (September 30) is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actor, singer, and songwriter. He starred as Blaine Anderson on Glee and Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. He was most recently seen on Broadway as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, after making his Broadway debut in 2012 as J. Pierrepont Finch in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. He is a founding member of StarKid Productions and co-founded Elsie Fest, touted as “New York City's first outdoor music festival celebrating tunes from the stage and screen.” To learn more, visit darrencriss.com and @darrencriss.

Dan Soder (October 1) is a New York City-based comedian who’s best known as Mafee on Showtime’s Billions. His HBO special Son of a Gary debuted December 7th, 2019. He has a half-hour special on Netflix’s The Stand-Ups. His first hour-long stand-up special Not Special premiered in 2016 on Comedy Central. Other credits include: Comedy Central’s Half Hour, Conan, Inside Amy Schumer, and @midnight. Dan also hosts Sirius XM’s The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson, Monday – Thursday at 6pm ET. To learn more, visit dansoder.com, @dansoder, and @dansoder.

Taylor Tomlinson (October 2, early) is a stand-up comedian. She built her career by performing in church basements, school venues, and coffee shops, eventually rising to become one of the youngest headliners on tour, with appearances on The Tonight Show, Conan, and Comedy Central. She became a top-ten finalist on the ninth season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2015 and was named one of the “Top 10 Comics to Watch” by Variety at the 2019 Just For Laughs Festival. Her debut Netflix appearance was a 15-minute set on an episode of the stand-up series The Comedy Lineup in 2018, and her own hour-long Netflix special, Quarter-Life Crisis, premiered in March 2020. Tomlinson is part of the podcast Self-helpless with stand-up comics Kelsey Cook and Delanie Fischer. To learn more, visit ttomcomedy.com, @taylortomlinson, and @taylortomlinsoncomedy.

Matteo Lane (October 8) is a New York-based comedian whose stand-up special can be seen on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup. He has performed stand up on The Late Show with Steven Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Comedy Central’s Adam Devine’s House Party, This Week at the Comedy Cellar, and The Comedy Jam, as well as HBO’s Crashing. Fluent in five languages and with a singing range of six octaves, Matteo lived in Italy as an oil painter and opera singer before starting his comedy career. To learn more, visit matteolane.com and @matteolane.

Shane Torres (October 15) is a standup comedian, writer, actor, and podcaster. Shane has performed on festivals all over the globe, including Montreal’s Just For Laughs, Comedy Central’s Clusterfest, San Francisco Sketchfest, Bonnaroo, Outsidelands, Bumbershoot, Moontower Comedy Festival, High Plains Comedy Festival, and many more. His television appearances to date have included Conan, Comedy Central’s Half Hour, IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, TruTV’s Comedy Knockout, NBC’s Red Nose Day, and Ron White’s Comedy Salute To The Troops on CMT. He tours frequently across the United States and can be found performing in comedy clubs, theaters, and music venues near you. To learn more, visit shanetorresisacomedian.com and @syrupmountain.

Ransom Pier (October 16, early) is an Americana band built around the singularly evocative voice of lead vocalist Hayley Harrington and a rich catalog of songs drawn from the great American tradition of Bob Dylan, John Prine, and the Grateful Dead. Their “absurdly good” debut EP, If They Can’t Take a Joke, was released in 2015; and the ensuing years have firmly established the band as a rising star in Americana music. Hayley and bassist William Carrigan are generally joined by Evan Harris (Six Time Users, Robbing Johnny) on guitar and Max Maples (NOARU, Blak Emoji) on drums. To learn more, visit ransompierband.com and @ransompierband.