Simon Rich’s All In: Comedy About Love, directed by Alex Timbers, played at the Hudson Theatre until Feb. 16. It featured a rather unique concept: a rotating star-studded cast performing seven adaptions of pieces previously published in either The New Yorker or Rich’s books. These pieces were interspersed with covers of Magnetic Fields songs, performed by the incredibly talented husband-wife duo, The Bengsons.
As a late birthday present, I coerced my theater-hating mother into attending a showing with me. The fact that it wasn’t a musical and had some of our favorite actors in it eventually led to a reluctant yes.
Jake DeGroot was the mastermind behind lighting the show. Each story varied between flooding the stage in a haze of color or using spotlights to create particularly intense moments. Illustrations projected onto the backdrop, fittingly created by New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake and brought to life by video designer Lucy Mackinnon, added another visual layer to the storytelling.
David Korins designed the intricately detailed set of All In, creating a rich, eccentrically homey atmosphere. Exposed brick walls, layered rugs, chandeliers, potted plants, and eclectic artworks filled the space, along with four distinct yet cohesive chairs. While far from minimalistic, the set never competed with the actors for attention — an essential balance given the show’s purposefully stationary blocking. Instead, it provided the perfect backdrop, enhancing the storytelling without overwhelming it.
Peter Hylenski headed the sound design, adding an entire layer to each story being told. The sound design seemed very reminiscent of one of those live Modern Love podcasts. Sound effects and perfectly timed background music underscored the emotional beats, but the auditory experience didn’t stop there. Indie-folk duo The Bengsons soundtracked the performance, giving emotionally charged renditions of Magnetic Fields love songs. I don’t think I’ve stopped listening to “Absolutely Cuckoo” since I left the theater.
Over the course of 90 minutes, I laughed just as hard as I expected, if not harder. However, I didn’t anticipate multiple stories leaving tears on my cheeks, whether from laughter or the surprising amount of heart beneath the absurdity.
Following the opening monologue, stories like “Dog Missed Connections” were purely surface-level ridiculous. This isn’t a bad thing since the material didn’t take itself too seriously, and each actor (in my case, the rotating cast featured Lin Manuel Miranda, Andrew Rannells, Nick Kroll, and Aidy Bryant) began the show with the most extreme example of wackiness, allowing more secretly sentimental pieces like “New Client” to make a larger impact with their unexpected depth later on in the show.
While the entire cast was remarkable throughout the show, I’d say each actor had at least one piece where they were truly able to stand out. Miranda and Bryant gave hysterical performances in “The Big Nap” when each embodied toddlers investigating the whereabouts of a beloved stuffed animal gone missing through the lens of a film noir. Rannells and Kroll shone like treasure — or “booty” — in “Learning the Ropes,” playing two pirates who unexpectedly find themselves raising a little girl who stowed away on their ship. With impeccable accents and surprising sentimentality, this turned out to be the highlight of the evening for me.
The true highlight of the evening was a complete surprise after the show.
The stage door is one of Broadway’s oldest traditions. While it’s always a fun experience, it should never be expected of actors to come out and greet the audience after a show, especially considering it was just over 20 degrees the evening I went. Still, there’s something special about standing at the barricades, chatting with fellow theatergoers and hoping for the chance to see a Broadway star up close.
I’ve stage-doored every show I’ve seen, and with recent news on the dying etiquette of patrons, I was hesitant to go. Still, I went.
It was actually an incredibly pleasant experience! I got to know the people around me: a student at the University of Massachusetts with dreams of writing musicals, an aspiring theatrical photographer, and a couple who used this showing as an excuse for a date night. Moments like that, a little sense of community in a big city, are why I love theater.
As the crowd thinned in the freezing night and I had lost all feeling in my fingers, it happened.
Bryant, Kroll, and Miranda came out. They each graciously took time to talk to, take photos with, and sign the playbills of nearly every person at the stage door.
So not only can I say I saw one of the funniest productions to hit Broadway in the last decade, but I can also say I have a selfie with Alexander Hamilton.
What’s my final takeaway? Well, I think the press release for All In: Comedy About Love really hits the nail on the head. It states, “Even though the show’s kind of all over the place, it’s meant to tell one simple story: that the most important part of life is who we share it with.”
It was a much-needed breath of fresh air and a reminder that love isn’t strictly romantic. Sharing this show with my mom, who typically despises theater but left having had as great a time as I did, was incredible. To experience love is one of the greatest gifts in the world, in any form that love may take — dog to dog, pirate to pirate, lover to lover, mother to daughter.