Sad Girl Songs
Performed, Written & Directed by Gwendolyn Coburn
wild project (195 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10009)
April 4th, 7th, 12th, 14th & 18th
Theatre festivals are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
The FRIGID Festival reflects approximately 65 shows will run in rep at 5 different venues. Shows will run a bit under an hour. There will be one-acts and bits of longer works in progress; dramas, comedies and musicals.
Festivals feature simple design. Each show works with a rep (lighting) plot and must strike anything on their stage within 5-minutes of their show ending. They are made to travel, and none is more festival refined than Sad Girl Songs.
A stool and a microphone meet center stage, and that is all Gwen Coburn needs. There are a couple of other bells and whistles, but we'll save those as a surprise. She enters and immediately disarms the audience with her opening number. A Monday 6:30 PM audience is rough, and small, but Gwen skillfully mines us for laughs and applause. Her writing disguises drama under comedy. Quick and sassy, she puts Ovid in his place for centuries of maligning Medusa.
Don't be fooled, no matter the big issues at hand, this piece is deeply personal and cuts to the quick. Gwen bares her soul and past trauma with grace and eloquence, and perhaps a dick joke or two. It's uncomfortable in the best way possible. Her songs capture your attention and you hang on every word. This show deserves a big, rawcus house ready to ride the roller coaster Gwen commands.
Boston has come to NYC for this festival and is kicking some butt. Reading Gwen’s bio I found a familiar name from another review from the festival, Michael F. Toomey who directed A Crucible: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys and John Kuntz, Boston Theatre Royalty, whose work has mesmerized me since he was a student at Emerson. Hopefully, more artists from Boston will make the trek down 95 for this festival in the future given the brilliance they’re bestowing upon us this season.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 8th, 2025. All rights reserved.