Thoughts from Book Nation Theatre Advisor, Luisa Tanno…
When Jen mentioned she wanted to do a post about plays available to listen to on Audible, I was intrigued! There are many ways to engage with a play – but I’ll admit, this one is new for me.
It makes perfect sense, however. The dialogue is written to be spoken aloud, and an audio version of a play aligns with the current podcast phenomenon, as well as a throwback to radio dramas of yesteryear. It is in fact … timeless.
Plus, it will employ our imaginations, just like reading a book – or, in fact, a play. There is incredible value in reading a play and allowing your mind to provide the details. Some of my favorite plays I’ve never seen, but they are still dear to me. (The Rainmaker, The Heidi Chronicles, Uncle Vanya).
It’s also wonderful to read a play and then see it live. I will forever remember the experience of reading Eugene O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night before seeing it on Broadway with the unbelievable cast of Brian Dennehy, Vanessa Redgrave, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Robert Sean Leonard. It’s a famously heavy play, so I read it with heaviness. Watching it live I was stunned by how much humor existed within those very same words. The choices made by the actors and director enhanced the complexity of family dysfunction, but it was alway right there in the text to be mined.
These Audible plays give us the best of both worlds. We can hear professional actors perform the work and also have our own ideas stimulated as we fill in the details of the action, the set, the costumes, and the gestures. So let’s listen! Here are Audible’s picks for the best audible theater of 2023.
On the 10th anniversary of a profound loss, comedian Michael Cruz Kayne felt compelled to describe his feelings of grief in 140 characters or less. Much to his surprise, more than 200,000 people responded in solidarity from all corners of the globe. Overwhelmed by the response, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert writer and host of A Good Crycreated Sorry for Your Loss, a sidesplitting, heartrending look at life—and death. This powerfully personal production, recorded live from the Minetta Lane Theatre, cuts through the platitudes, directly reaching out to anyone who has ever experienced loss—or will. So…everyone.
Luisa: This was hot on my list to see, but I missed it. How exciting that I can now listen to it and still get the theatrical experience because it was recorded in front of a live audience.
“If this is one of those robocalls, please delete my number,” orders Reinalda Paraíso, a painter whose work lies at the heart of C. Quintana’s new play, The 126-Year-Old Artist. On the other end of the line is Yésica Ortega, a young, queer, Latine curator who “discovers” Reinalda’s work at a flea market and becomes obsessively determined to make a name for them both. However, as the women are thrust into the spotlight, this audaciously colorful and engrossing new commission for the Audible Emerging Playwright Fund proves the path to success isn’t always straight and that the truth isn’t always black and white.
Portions of this audiobook contain mature language. Listener discretion is advised.
Playwright C. Quintana was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, she received funding and creative support to develop The 126 Year Old Artist.
An uproariously opinionated chorus of female voices (Portia, Tala Ashe, and Melissa Dougherty) provides the galloping cadence to Mathilde Dratwa’s new play Dirty Laundry, a comedy-drama that puts everything on the table to explore the extremes of human emotion.
A woman (Alison Pill) finds herself grappling with both grief and anger following the sudden death of her mother and the shocking revelation of her father’s infidelity. Her father (Reed Birney), on the other hand, is just trying his best to verbalize his own complicated feelings about love, loss, lust…and household chores.
And the other woman (Marsha Mason) simply wonders: Is she still “the other woman” when the original woman is gone?
Playwright Mathilde Dratwa was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, she received funding and creative support to develop Dirty Laundry.
Considered “perhaps the most important American play of this century” by The Daily Telegraph, the Tony Award-winning Best Play has arrived on Audible. Based on Howards End by E.M. Forster, The Inheritance takes place in New York City decades after the AIDS epidemic. Eric Glass is a political activist engaged to his writer boyfriend, Toby Darling. When two strangers enter their lives—an older man and a younger one—their futures suddenly become uncertain as they begin to chart divergent paths. In this epic examination of survival, healing, and class divide, three generations of gay men attempt to forge a future for themselves amid a turbulent and changing America.
Luisa: Whoah. It is hard to imagine this epic piece as an audio experience because some of the moments that stayed with me the most were silent ones. It was a two part play and I did it all in one day, but it might be nice to break it up when listening, so you can digest it slowly.
A father learns that closing the door to his past means shutting his daughter out in Good Enemy, Yilong Liu’s haunting and hopeful new play.
When Howard makes a surprise cross-country trip to visit his college-aged, TikTok-loving daughter, he’s forced to confront the realities of their relationship and the rift between them—a rift caused by Howard’s refusal to face memories of his life as a young man in China.
In a smart, thrilling story that deftly weaves two generations and two continents amid sweeping social changes, Good Enemy explores the power of human connections…affirming that no one lives an “ordinary” life, no matter how hard they might try.
Portions of this audiobook contain mature language. Listener discretion is advised.
Playwright Yilong Liu was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, he received funding and creative support to develop Good Enemy.
Center of the YOUniverse is an out-of-this-world spectacle starring Tituss Burgess and Jane Krakowski with music, laughter, and (probably) the salvation of humanity from its self-inflicted doom. Unaware of just how brightly the other one shines, Tituss and Jane will attempt the impossible: a double-booking. In a unique blend of song and storytelling, they’ll stop at nothing to upstage each other and steal the spotlight…until they realize the true purpose of being ridiculously attractive and having immeasurable talent: to unite and heal the world. It’s an outrageously fun and weird show full of pop and theatrical duets. A clash of divas and dueling vocals. It’s the show that the world didn’t know it needed until reading this blurb.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Critic’s Pick that served Broadway “raucous comedy and nonstop pleasure” has made its way home to Audible. Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid already grappling with some serious questions of identity when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. But here’s the rub! Revenge doesn’t come easy to Juicy, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man in search of his own happiness and liberation. From an uproarious family cookout emerges a “smart, fearless, and wildly entertaining” (Chicago Tribune) examination of love, pain, and joy from writer James Ijames and director Saheem Ali.
This audio play contains strong language and deals with mature themes. Listener discretion advised.
Luisa: This Pulitzer winner was a JOY when I saw it at The Public. I immediately thought to myself, I’d love to read this – but now I can listen to it instead with the benefit of the original cast doing the reading!
Starring four-time Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominee Laura Linney and Tony Award nominee Jessica Hecht, Summer, 1976 is an intimate and insightful exploration of friendship, ambition, and the struggle for independence.
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn, this critically acclaimed Broadway hit chronicles the lives of two young mothers as they forge an unlikely bond during the summer of America’s Bicentennial. As the days heat up, they navigate a tumultuous relationship and discover how friendships define us, divide us, and permanently alter our sense of ourselves.
A fully immersive listening experience and a must-hear for theater enthusiasts everywhere, Summer, 1976 is a deeply moving portrayal of the small moments that can change the course of our lives.
Jen: I saw Jessica Hecht on stage at Signature Theatre starring in Letters From Max, and that was the beginning of my love affair with her incredible and unique voice. Along side Laura Linney in Summer, 1976 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Hecht delighted me with her expressive portrayal of Alice the innocent housewife, and now I am thrilled to be able to experience that performance again via Audible!
About Luisa
Luisa Tanno is dance and yoga teacher, movement coach, massage therapist, and writer. She is also theatre lover through and through. She sees shows as often as she can, writes about them as a guest blogger, and post about them on Instagram. She has a BFA in Musical Theater from The New School, is a performing singer/songwriter, and still dips her own toes into theater as a playwright and actor from time to time. Inspiration is her super power, – and her wonder drug – and she delights in sharing it with you!
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