TAMMANY HALL |
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Darren Lee Cole |
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Marie Anello Chloe Kekovic |
Natasa Babic Nathaniel Ryan |
Shahzeb Hussain Sami Petrucci |
Follow Us:
Who's Who
Cast
Creative Team
Darren Lee Cole
Alexander Flanagan-Wright
Megan Drury
Britt Lafield
Earline Stephen
Andrew Kasper
Grace Jeon
Dan Daly
Emily Clarkson
Megan Culley
Lola Selsky
Gavin Whitworth
Carter Ford
Keith Sherman & Associates Brett Oberman, Logan Metzler, Scott Klein
Maria Baranova
James Monohan
Meet the Company
Martin Dockery
Martin Dockery spends the majority of the year touring his nine solo shows and five two-person plays to festivals and theaters across the world. During the pandemic, he performed an entirely new, monthly online show entitled “RIGHT NOW.” The series tells the true story of the funny, heartbreaking, ridiculous, and most bizarre year of our collective lives.
Marie Anello
Marie Anello is a classically trained singer and actress who has had the pleasure of performing with companies such as New York City Opera, Encompass New Opera, and the Pittsburgh Festival Opera. Most recently she appeared in the Off-Broadway production The Importance of Being Earnestly LGBTQ+ and in Killer Queen Opera’s film adaptation of L’incoronazione di Poppea. Marie also works as a voice actor and a writer of graphic novels.
Chloe Kekovic
Chloe Kekovic is a native New Yorker, performer, and self-described showgirl. She maintains a deep fascination with the history of the roaring 20s, and is honored to be portraying the multifaceted figure of Kiki. Trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in her youth, Chloe has always sought out storytelling across varying mediums. She is thrilled to be working with Soho Playhouse in her Off-Broadway debut!
Christopher Romero Wilson
Christopher Romero Wilson: New York stage credits include Iago in Othello, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Banquo in Macbeth, King Herod in Salome, Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, Jack Tanner in Man and Superman, and Charley in Death of Salesman.
www.ChristopherRomeroWilson.com
Natasa Babic
Natasa Babic is beyond excited to be joining the cast of Tammany Hall on this grand immersive adventure. Natasa was last on stage in 2020 playing the leading role of Mary Cassatt in the Off Broadway play The Independents. She performed at the American Theater Of Actors in the play The Sanctuary. Natasa has toured regionally with an original play Love, Life and Redemptions. She has performed at the Richmond Sheppard Theater in the play The Best Party Ever. Natasa also directed and acted in Clifford Odets Rocket To The Moon at the 78th Street Theater. She played a lead role in an indie feature Dark Tarot and a supporting role in an award winning indie feature Life Is Too Short. Most recently she can be seen in an indie feature Invaded and indie short Daddy’s Wallet.
Nathaniel J. Ryan
Jesse Castellanos
Jesse Castellanos, originally from South Florida is making is Off-Broadway debut in Tammany Hall. Recent credits include 24 hour plays (nationals acting company), Rick Abath in Art Heist (Broward Center) and Don Antonio in The Rover (Kasser theatre). Jesse recently graduated Montclair State University in May 2020 with a B.F.A in Acting.
Isaac J Conner
Isaac J. Conner is a stage, screen, and voice actor/director, based in NYC since the beginning of 2018.
Recent credits include originating the lead role in “Eddie Doran’s Deal” (Theatre Row), a supporting role in the Dead Horse Productions indie feature “Direct Son,” and guest starring in the first episode of season 10’s “Evil Lives Here” on the ID Channel.
He is ever grateful for other artists and to the audience for allowing us to do what we love.
Shahzeb Hussain
Shahzeb is a Pakistani American actor. He was born in Pakistan, and grew up in England and the States. He started performing breakdancing at a very young age which led him into acting. Most recently he’s been seen as Loud Stanley in King Richard III and now is honored to be a part of Tammany Hall team as Deputy John Curry with the SoHo Playhouse. Hope you all enjoy the world we’ve created for you.
Sami Petrucci
Sami Petrucci is excited to make her Soho Playhouse debut in Tammany Hall. She is an actor, singer, writer, and musician with a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. Some of Sami’s favorite credits include “Mae” in The Wild Party (LSTFI) and “Madison” in The Journey (The Tank). She has also appeared in various shorts and commercials. Sami would like to thank her family and friends for their undying support. Rep: CHI Talent Management, Take 3 Talent.
Charly Wenzel
Charly is a German actress, dancer, choreographer, writer, director and award winning filmmaker. Her playwriting and directorial debut of her play “By Your Side” won an Audience Choice Award at the Chain Theatre One Act Festival. Charly’s experimental short films have been screened at film festivals worldwide and won multiple awards. She was a cast member of the immersive theater production “Then She Fell” by Third Rail Projects.
Andrew Broaddus
Andrew Broaddus graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in dance and has been performing in New York for the past 14 years. For 6 of those he played several roles in the immersive shows Then She Fell, Ikaros, and other works by Third Rail Projects. In his spare time he seeks personal growth by brushing up on his college Mandarin and reading classics he skipped in high school. Apart from live performance, his greatest joy is found in singing Georgian folk music and writing Dungeons and Dragons adventures.
Darren Lee Cole
Darren Lee Cole has been the Artistic Director of SoHo Playhouse since 2004. Favorite projects have included: Producing; Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Phoebe Waller Bridge in Fleabag, Daniel Sloss: X, TJ & Dave, The Old Man and The Old Moon with PigPen Theatre Company, Killer Joe by Tracy Letts (Vaudeville Theatre, West End, London, Soho Playhouse NYC & The Theatre Chicago) The Emperor Jones (with Irish Rep) and Laticia at L’espace Marais (Paris). Directing credits: Games, Rap Guide Series with Baba Brinkman (Consciousness, Religion, Climate Chaos, Canterbury Tales, Culture), Jamaica Farewell, Belly of a Drunken Piano, Simon Lovell’s Strange & Unusual Hobbies and The Actor’s Nightmare. Mr. Cole is also the Artistic Director and Producer of the Fringe Encore Series, FringeEncoreSeries.com.
Alexander Flanagan-Wright
Alexander Flanagan-Wright is a multi-award winning theatre maker based in the UK. He is the director and adaptor of the critically acclaimed immersive production of The Great Gatsby, the UK’s longest running immersive show, which has played to hundreds of thousands of audience in London, Dublin, Brussels and Seoul. His adaptations of Orpheus & Eurydice have toured across the UK, Australia and New Zealand winning multiple awards and gaining huge critical acclaim, as well as receiving an off-Broadway transfer to SoHo Playhouse. He was a founder and co-artistic director of the ground breaking immersive company Belt Up Theatre from 2008-2013. He lives in a converted water mill in rural North Yorkshire where, along with his partner and family, he has begun producing, curating and programming work for both the local and artistic community. He is a long standing collaborator with York Theatre Royal and has worked across the UK with theatres including Theatr Clwyd, Storyhouse and Streatham Space Project.
Megan Drury
Megan is a critically acclaimed Australian actor, director, dramaturg and theatremaker. Megan worked as originating cast member (collaborator, deviser, performer), Dance Captain, and Artistic Associate on Australia’s first and longest running large-scale fully-immersive theatre production A Midnight Visit, transferring to multiple venues with this award-winning five-star production (Broad Encounters). Megan was Assistant Director on a new edit of The Merchant Of Venice, with Director Damien Ryan and his award-winning independent Shakespeare company Sport For Jove Theatre Co; for whom she also co-wrote and co-directed The Playoffs and was Movement Director for King Lear. She Assistant Directed A Brighter Shade of Pink for Belvoir St Theatre’s Youth Express Program; workshopping, devising and creating the piece for youth community organization Twenty10. Megan was an Additional Dramaturg on the listening experience Half Man || Half Bull (Half Man || Half Bull UK) and has done dramaturgical work on numerous short films, including the award-winning Comfortable and The Death Of George Montgomery. Megan is an accomplished multi-disciplinary creative artist; fluidly traversing text-based work, movement based work, scripted and unscripted work, traditional and non-traditional approaches and environments.
Britt Lafield
Britt Lafield is the General Manager of the SoHo Playhouse and Actor with 25 years experience in New York and Regional Theater, having produced on every level in New York, short of Broadway. Including the Productions of PigPen Theatre Co.’s “The Old Man and The Old Moon”, “Magdalene”, “Susan Gets Some Play” and “The Cruel Engagement”. He was the Festival Administrator for the New York International Fringe Festival from 2009- 2013 and is the creator and producer of the Fringe Encore Series.
Earline Stephen
Andrew Kasper
Andrew Kasper, a Texas native and musical conductor by trade has had the privilege of conducting shows that include: "Into the Woods", "Chicago", "The Fantastiks!" and "Texas, Outdoor Musical" as well as performing in the pit orchestra for many others. He is also a music educator, having taught private lessons and serving as musical director for public school districts in Texas and NYC, as well as an adjunct professor while at WestTexas A&M University. In addition to conducting, Kasper has also stage managed, performed pyro stunts, and worked lighting, and audio engineering. He has recently worked on screen for the television shows: "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", HBO: "Billions", and Sex & the City: "And Then There's This". He is currently an active composer, arranger, performer, and voice actor whose work has been heard on television shows, radio, TV ads, independent films, and at AT&T "Cowboys" Stadium.
Grace Jeon
Grace Jeon (she/they) is a Korean-American, New York based costume designer, recently graduated from NYU Tisch's Production and Design Studio and currently working at the Little Red Schoolhouse (LREI) as their resident costume designer. They are storytellers through clothes, and particularly enjoy finding subtle ways of showcasing a character's narrative through what they wear. Previous credits include Twelfth Night (Irvington Shakespeare Company), Aussie Song (NYC Summerfest), Bernarda Alba (NYU New Studio on Broadway), Blood in Your Blood (NYU Tisch Drama Mainstage), and the apprenticeship program at the Juilliard school's costume department.
Assistant Costume Designer: Claire Yixuan Zhang.
Dan Daly
Dan Daly is a Brooklyn based scenic designer whose work has been seen at The Public’s Under the Radar Festival, at Brookfield Place with Third Rail Project’s site-specific work Oasis, at RuPaul’s Drag Con where he designs Monét X Change’s booth, and at the Barn Arts Collective in Maine where he built an inflatable theater. Dan held positions at the Hangar Theatre, the Corkscrew Festival, and the Winnipesaukee Playhouse. MFA: Carnegie Mellon University.
Assistant Scenic Designer: Laura Valenti lauravalenti1695@gmail.com
Emily Clarkson
In 2017 Emily moved to New York City to fulfil her duties as the Hemsley Lighting Intern. Recently named one of LDI’s 30 Under 30 Upcoming Designers, she continues to be a lighting designer in the city spanning opera, theatre, architecture and dance, pursuing work that seeks to uproot dormancy the way only art can.
Associate Lighting Designer: Judy Kagel
Megan Culley
Lola Selsky
Gavin Whitworth
"Violet" Song List:
1. All Seems Too Much
2. Baby, I Like It
3. Maybe It Was Over Before It Had Begun
Carter Ford
Keith Sherman & Associates Brett Oberman, Logan Metzler, Scott Klein
Maria Baranova
James Monohan
Multimedia
Tammany Hall Company
BWW Review: TAMMANY HALL at SoHo Playhouse
Oh, to be a fly on the wall during a pivotal moment of history! To witness everything unfold in real-time and see how the myriad assortment of players who did and didn't make the newspapers shaped the inevitable demise of a notorious political behemoth.
Tammany Hall, an immersive theater experience created and directed by Darren Lee Cole (Fleabag, Killer Joe) and Alexander Wright (The Great Gatsby, the UK's longest-running immersive show), now playing at New York's historic SoHo Playhouse (aka The Huron Club) allows visitors to be more than observant flies on the wall, but active participants in New York City's history.
Tammany Hall is a theatrical time machine that transports its audiences nearly 100 years back to Election Night, November 2, 1929. That eventful night was when Tammany Hall, New York's Democratic Party and ruling political machine for almost 200 years, came crashing down. The themes are all too familiar today; political corruption, scandal, self-interest, intrigue, bribery, voter fraud and the empty promises of a crooked charismatic leader.
Upon entering the space, one truly forgets that they are in the year 2021. But instead of spending enormous amounts to renovate a space and transform it into something resembling 1920s New York, co-creators Cole, Wright, and scenic designer Dan Daly just pulled back the curtain to reveal the SoHo Playhouse as it truly is.
The SoHo Playhouse was formerly known as the Huron Club during Tammany Hall's heyday when they maintained clubhouses in every electoral district in Manhattan. The building's current layout is from 1920, so every exposed nook and cranny of the 15 rooms are true to the era. Emily Clarkson's lighting design stays true to the period, and Megan Culley's sound design plays with auditory props like old-fashioned microphones.
This historical space is as integral as the actors, beautifully costumed by Grace Jeon. You can feel the ghosts within its walls, possessing the performers and making the experience feel chillingly authentic. The players are sensational, each one with a multitude of layers, dimensions, and interwoven connections that are revealed based on how much time you get to spend with each.
All the guests begin in the former upstairs clubhouse room where suave and chic Tammany man Mayor Beau James Walker (Martin Dockery) defended his title against the brash and portly Fiorello LaGuardia (Christopher Romero Wilson) in a boxing ring. As Walker's cronies sneer insults at LaGuardia, you can't help but feel part of the action.
After that, everyone disperses. An actor approaches you and your companion (groups don't get split as they do in other immersive events) and begins your storyline. It's not so much "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" style as the adventure's starting point person chooses you, then all bets are off. Another character can snatch you from them and pull you deeper down Club Huron and Tammany Hall's rabbit hole.
Our adventure began with Legs Diamond (Nathaniel Ryan), a henchman for an infamous gangster with alleged ties to Tammany. A lover's quarrel with his showgirl paramour Kiki (Chloe Kekovic) was falsely arrested, making her late to rehearsal for her big show with actress, singer and Ziegfield Follies member Betty Compton (Marie Anello). (Fun fact: Compton, not to be confused with Broadway and Hollywood musical comedy writer/composer Betty Comden, was having an affair with Mayor Walker, who she eventually took as her 3rd husband in 1933).
Their argument took our group of four to the roof, where Kiki offered me a coat to brace against the November night's chill. That was just the first of many examples of how the cast and creative team of Tammany Hall take care of its audiences.
Some immersive experiences leave attendees feeling cheated that others receive the best storylines through the luck of the draw. The intimate nature of Tammany Hall, with its interwoven plots and genuine consideration from the cast, make every attendee feel like they are the show's co-stars, as vital to the action as any of the players. Perhaps it's all a ruse to get you to vote in their favor, but it works.
From the roof, Kiki led us to the penthouse (rumored to be Betty Compton and Mayor Walker's love nest) and down hidden hallways where the piping looked to be from the 1920s. We finally arrived in Betty's dressing room, where the star was preparing for "Violet," a Broadway-style revue produced by none other than Mayor Walker.
A note about Mayor Walker, played by Martin Dockery with panache and charisma: while LaGuardia never so much as looked my companion and me in the eye, Mayor Walker engaged with us attentively from the beginning, treating us to cocktails and a show (well, you do have to purchase the drinks, but the invitation to the Prohibition-era speakeasy is compliments of the mayor).
He was genuinely interested in my Egyptian friend's origins, is a patron of the arts, and cuts a lean, mean figure in a sharp suit. What's not to love about that? Can't scandals and greed can be forgiven when the mayor has such class and style? Smitten and charmed, I found myself all too happy to comply when the feisty showgirl and Tammany Hall schemer Ritzi (Charley Wenzel) suggested we play a game and conceive new names to cast two (or three) ballots to keep Mayor Walker in office.
The ellipsis of all the storylines comes to the final punctuation of an exclamation mark! The interwoven tales collide in the basement speakeasy as the votes are counted and the winner announced. Until the final reveal, the experience feels like a fast-paced whodunit where loyalties are formed and broken. Will your guy win?
Tammany Hall is an incredibly well-researched and thoughtful piece of interactive theatre. Its script is said to be over seven hours long between all of the plots and characters. The thrilling adventure is worth coming back to Tammany Hall's Club Huron and discovering its secrets from every angle, every storyline, every performer. It's an extraordinarily satisfying theatrical experience that breezes by in 90 minutes and leaves you wanting a second round.
The timing could not be more poignant as the opening night of Tammany Hall coincided with the election of New York's next mayor (Eric Adams) along with various other elected officials across America and only a year following the election of a new president. But the timeliness is overshadowed by the timelessness of Tammany Hall's hot topics.
A century ago feels like yesterday. In 2021, the same problems persist. We find ourselves much like the citizens of that era, fed up with the status quo and self-serving corruption of a government meant to protect and serve. The people demand change, justice, and holding leaders accountable for their actions.
Not since Hamilton arrived on Broadway has reliving New York history been this fun, clever, or creative. However, in Tammany Hall, you get to partake in history as it unfolds in the very place where it happened. I wholeheartedly cast my vote (or several) for Tammany Hall as one of the best immersive theatrical experiences in New York City!