The Other Josh Cohen

This clever musical comedy, co-written by and co-starring performers David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, takes two differing looks at down-on-his luck New Yorker Josh Cohen. There is Past Josh (Rosen), reeling from a series of heartbreaks and an apartment break-in that has taken everything from him but a Neil Diamond CD he got for free, and Narrator Josh (Rossmer), nine months older than his former self, both of whom fill us in on his love and life woes, hilariously set to a very Diamond-like score.

Seemingly fated for misfortune, a windfall comes to Josh in the form of a$56,000 check that arrives under mysterious circumstances. Should he take the money and run? The two Joshes ruminate over this while encountering a slew of characters, played by Hannah Elless and an especially delightful Kate Wetherhead (and occasional appearances by the show’s backing band), including neighboring lesbians and doddering Jewish mothers. Rossmer and Rosen, who wrote the show’s book, lyrics and music, have crafted a perfectly-paced feel-good musical that belies all the hard work that surely went into the show (director Ted Sperling also keeps this light show on its feet). Filling the small SoHo Playhouse, this laugh-a-minute show that proves that size doesn’t matter.

Through Nov. 11 at the SoHo Playhouse, 15 Van Dam Street. (212) 352-3101. www.ovationtix.com.

Alicegraceanon

Photo by Jim Baldassare

Kara Lee Corthron’s Alicegraceanon, directed with verve by Kara-Lynn Vaeni, is an intriguing mash-up of three linked female characters of varying amounts of realism: Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s titular heroine (played by Teresa Avia Lin); Grace Slick (Carolyn Baeumler), Jefferson Airplane front woman and writer of “White Rabbit,” and Anonymous (Christina Pumariega), the author of the “Rabbit”-themed “Go Ask Alice” watershed novel.

Alicegraceanon plunges its three title heroines into a surrealistic limbo in which they object, and try to reject, the dominant male forces in their lives. For example, Alice is angry at paramour Charles Dogdson (Eric Clem) for airing their private relationship details. Vaeni’s topsy-turvy production has boundary issues – it sometimes feels more crazy than controlled, sometimes putting the audience too much on edge – and its leading ladies occasionally overact. Slick is arguably the play’s most interesting character, though Baeumler makes her more manic than the real one’s cool demeanor would have allowed. Still, it is to be given credit for its lofty ambitions and for its strong feminist ethic.

Irondale Center, 85 S. Oxford St. Through Nov. 9. www.irondale.org.

Follow

Photo by Hunter Canning

New York theatre artists Crystal Skillman and Daniel Talbott are among the most fearless storytellers around. Who else would shove ten audience members at a time into a small East Village apartment for the intimate tale Skillman’s new play, Follow, has to tell? It’s a fractured family reunion tale, in which brothers Josh (Jerry Matz) and Noah (Matthew Lewis) reunite at the deathbed of Lily, Noah’s offstage wife. Sidney (Addie Johnson), their estranged and troubled daughter, has also returned home.

Johnson, Lewis and Matz tell their tales, including long-harbored secrets and frustrations, in searing monologues delivered to the audience with great power. The riveting delivery helps overcome some of Skillman’s familiar plotting. The decision to stage these scenes along with glimpses into the lives of three other apartment dwellers is puzzling. Talbott’s staging is crisp enough that shortly into the piece we can figure out what it is going on, but I am not sure that it distracts more than it adds to the moving central story at Follow’s heart. But it is definitely a beating heart, and an experience I must recommend.

Fanfare, 100 E. 4th St. Through Nov. 3.

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice in the classic children’s story by Lewis Carroll. The well-known phrase became an adage for 9-year-old Jeryl Brunner when she wandered into Central Park and discovered the sculpture of Alice atop a bronze mushroom reaching for the White Rabbit’s pocketwatch.

“I remember looking at the statue and thinking of all the possibilities and all of the magic in the city,” Brunner, 46, author of My City, My New York: Famous New Yorkers Share Their Favorite Places released in October, said. A seasoned celebrity journalist, she asked over 300 famous New Yorkers to share their favorite New York fix.

I met Brunner in the garden at St. Luke in the Fields in the West Village beneath a crabapple tree. It’s a scene straight out of a Carroll fantasy.

“Can you believe you’re in Manhattan?” she said.

The quaint garden is also from the first sequence of her book, this site being actor and director John Cameron Mitchell’s favored oasis, where he rehearsed for his role in the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The gamut of New Yorkers who share their ”fixes” in the book ranges from Tina Fey to Hugh Jackman to New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz.

Growing up in Hastings-on-Hudson, Brunner wanted to be an actress. She attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and majored in drama and politics.

“I really wanted to be an actress,“ Brunner said.

However, the inconsistent paychecks eventually changed her mind.

“I got scared of starving, I was scared of the struggle,” Brunner said. “I thought, well if I can’t be an actor, why not talk to other actors about their craft?”

After attending law school, which Brunner quickly found wasn’t for her, she found a job as a one of the first staff members at InStyle magazine. After a nine-year stint there, Brunner needed a change of pace.

“I hit a limit. Nine years at a magazine is measured like it’s in dog years,” Brunner laughed.

As a freelancer she wrote for publications such as O, the Oprah magazine and National Geographic Traveler. In 2002, she wrote an article for the latter about what notable New Yorkers would do if they had one hour to spend in the city, which became the seed for her book.

After a decade of tiresome rounds with publishers, Globe Pequot finally accepted her proposal. By March the following year, she had a finished manuscript, but continued to contribute celebrity quotes up until this August.

Brunner’s book captures nostalgic New York and reminds us why we continue to put up with aggravating subway delays, hour-long lines to buy groceries and outrageous rent. Her book offers readers glimpses into the places where celebrities let loose and find calm, like Saturday Night Live’s  Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis’ late-night karaoke sessions at Sing Sing and Matthew Broderick’s favorite bike route up the Hudson River pathway.

When I ask Brunner about her own New York fix, she said she’s on the same page as Broderick. Twice a week, if her busy schedules permits, she takes bike rides along the Hudson River to Fort Tyron, bringing along a basket of health food purchased from Fairway market.

“It feels like Oz up there—it’s so pristine and special.” Brunner said.

Photo: Jeryl Brunner in St. Luke in the Fields. Photo by Andrew Schwartz