Theater We Saw: Camping & The Family Dog (feat. Billy McEntee)

Theater We Saw: Camping & The Family Dog (feat. Billy McEntee)

Sims and Scully are joined by Billy McEntee—theater editor of the Brooklyn Rail, theater writer, and theater maker—for two summer plays. First up: Camping by Victoria Lynne Barclay, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt for Colt Coeur at HERE Arts Center. Alice Kremelberg and Colby Minifie play Brit and Ari, two friends who keep returning to the same tent over twenty-five years. The trio talks Colby Minifie's run of intense performances, Adrienne Campbell-Holt staging a play in twelve square feet, the choice not to break the set open for a final gesture, and the flooded-tent stage direction that didn't make it into production. Then: The Family Dog by Bailey Williams, directed by Tara Ahmadinejad, the closer of Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2026 at The Wild Project. Bruce McKenzie narrates as Johnny, the ailing family dog at the center of a holiday homecoming. Discussed: McKenzie's remarkably specific animal work, Jennifer Van Dyck's Catholic-guilt-drenched mother, and the family's slow-motion collapse one sibling at a time.

Theater We Saw: Sugar Sugar! (DeliaDelia & Pussypaws Puppetry) + Xhloe And Natasha: And Then The Rodeo Burned Down with Jacob Robinson

Scully and Sims are joined by playwright Jacob Robinson as New York tips fully into summer—Knicks fever during the Finals and Sting (plus Shaggy) rewriting The Last Ship over at the Met. Then it's out to the Williamsburg waterfront for Sugar Sugar!, Theresa Buchheister and Alessandra Gómez's free outdoor series at Domino Park, where a double bill of DeliaDelia and Pussypaws Puppetry somehow won over a crowd of unsuspecting families, teenagers, and passersby. The three dig into what clown can pull off in a wide-open public space, the radical joy of disabled artists putting sexuality front and center, and why it all kept conjuring Mister Rogers. Finally, up to Ars Nova for And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, three-time Edinburgh Fringe First winners Xhloe and Natasha's Ars Nova debut—a meta clown-western about ambition, shifting goalposts, and the cost of making art. Connor's currently producing Big Feelings by Ryan Drake, starring Julia Greer—tickets on sale now at bigfeelingstheplay.com TIMESTAMPS: 10:24 - DeliaDelia 23:31 - Pussypaws Puppetry 34:20 - Xhloe and Natasha

Theater We Saw: Dad Don't Read This / Indian Princesses with Erin Proctor

Sims and Scully are joined by playwright Erin Proctor to dig into two new plays about girlhood, growing up, and the fathers who don't quite know how to talk about it. First up: Dad Don't Read This by Eliya Smith, directed by Chloe Claudel, and presented by Goat Exchange at St. Luke's Theatre. The show follows Mal and her friend group as they navigate adolescence, anxiety, and a whole lot of Sims. Then: Indian Princesses at the Atlantic Theatre Company (co-produced with Rattlestick), written by Eliana Theologides Rodriguez and directed by Miranda Cornell in her Off-Broadway debut. Four white dads, five daughters of various racial backgrounds, and one deeply problematic YMCA summer camp—the trio find a lot to love and a few things to wrestle with. Plus: thoughts on the new immersive David Bowie musical at the A.R.T., Sleep No More war stories (including celebrity sightings and some ill-advised audience behavior), and a trend worth naming—is this the golden age of the girlhood play? Since recording: Dad Don't Read This has announced a transfer to Greenwich House Theater for a limited run, June 17–July 11. Tickets at daddontreadthis.com.

Tony Awards Special

Sims and Scully break format for a special Broadway episode—their first! They're joined by Jackson McHenry, critic at Vulture and editor of the weekly theater newsletter Stage Whisperer, to go category by category through this year's Tony nominations: who will win, who should win, and who got left out entirely (Jonathan Cake, Joey sees you). They weigh in on a Broadway season that never quite grabbed them, debate whether Schmigadoon! sweeps, and wonder how many times Pink will fly at the telecast.

Theatre We Saw: Have You Ever Thought About and 73 Seconds

It's that time of year: the 2026-27 season announcements are rolling in, and Scully and Sims have… mixed feelings. They work through the latest reveals from Classic Stage Company, The Public Theater, and more, weighing what's exciting, what's puzzling, and what's making them question the state of the city's mid-size institutions. Plus they discuss two science-based shows: Have You Ever Thought About at the Bushwick Starr, written and performed by Michael Oluokun alongside Myles Madden—an interactive science-class-gone-solo-show—and 73 Seconds, En Garde Arts' new piece written and performed by Jared Mezzocchi and directed by Aya Ogawa, staged inside a sixty-four-seat planetarium.