Wanna prove you’re a theater kid?
Try signing up for “The 24 Hour Plays.”
Now 25 years old, this fundraiser for amalgam of charities is the ultimate one night tightrope walk for actors, directors, writers (especially), and craft people. They get together around 7pm, work through the night, then put on a half dozen well-executed vignettes at 7pm the next night for a demanding, discerning crowd.
Monday night brought the nailbiters as a bunch of actors who’d actually memorized their lines and blocking hit the stage of the Todd Haimes Theater with aplomb.
They included lots of people you’d recognize from TV, movies, and stage including Constance Zimmer, Hugh Dancy, Mickey Sumner, David Cross, Busy Phillips, Amber Tamblyn, Josh Hamilton, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Justin Bartha, Alyssa Reiner, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.
The six half-acters were written by Sherman, Julia Jordan, Eboni Booth, Sarah Burgess, Steven Levenson, and most hilariously, Warren Leight, who spoofed his many years with “Law & Order SVU” with a police procedural gone very wrong (called “Trapdoor Tramadol”).
There was also, importantly, an honor bestowed to Tony winning director (of “Hamilton,” among others) Thomas Kail, who gave a touching speech (the kind you really like) to the star studded crowd including his Oscar nominated wife Michelle Williams.
Among the notables in the audience was the perfect pre-election night person ever, the very tall Jason Selvig of social media’s “The Good Liars” fame. (He swore to me that all the interviews with MAGAts are true and not staged. I wonder they feel today!)
You watch these seemingly perfectly executed sketches with amazement — that they’re cogent, completed, and the people involved are so confident.
Zimmer, fresh from her Emmy nomination for “Love Story” on FX), killed it as a mother calling her two adult sons just to catch up and mention that maybe she killed a family friend. Sumner‘s athletic humor with two other drunk ladies who lunch was impeccable. You could see that David Cross was fully invested in his loony dance instructor. Margarita Levieva played the inside out Olivia Benson. Reiner and her group led off with an all too familiar unintentional send up of Arthur Miller’s “The Price.” Sherman’s put on of Comic-Con actors was mega meta and painfully funny.
All the proceeds go to charity, and this has been going on for a while all over the world including a summer run on Broadway. It’s a real IYKYK experience, and judging by the sold out theater, they could — as was pointed out on stage by the now psyched up organizers — put on a second show! (Maybe next year!)
PS Busy Phillips, one of our favorite people — tough health year getting a brain tumor removed a few months ago. You wouldn’t know it to look at her. She says she feels great and is loving her hit CBS TV series, “Cupertino.” Selvig was her date. A happy ending!
photo c2026 Showbiz411
