‘Triple Threat’ and ‘Just For Us’ Reviews: Two About One
Two solo shows, "Triple Threat" and "Just for Us," are provoking New York audiences with their fresh takes on identity and belonging.
Singer-actor-dancer. In show business, it’s called a Triple Threat (★★★★★). For James T. Lane, it’s a double entendre and the title of his phenomenal, autobiographical, Off-Broadway solo play. From an early age, the gay, black South Philadelphia native churned with talent.
So much, in fact, that his mother enrolled him in a magnet school for the performing arts. It would lead to a European Tour of Fame, but not before drug and alcohol addiction nearly dropped the curtain on his life.
It’s rare to see a one-person piece that takes us from the extreme merriments of song and dance to the deep, dark corridors of despair and back again. Through the embodiment of several characters, Lane recounts his story and reveals his all-too-true and traumatic journey.
Little is left to the imagination, but this is what makes it so authentically edgy and raw. Too often, autobiographical shows force shock value or sanitize the script in order to make the star look good. Lane has nothing to hide and no shame to suffer. Whether he’s confronting sexual abuse at the hands of a father figure or detailing his own escapades in bathhouses while strung out, there is a sense that this will not end well.
On the contrary — and without disclosing the ending — a cursory online search reflects that Lane is now quite successful. In 2004, he sought help for addiction and continues to share his path to recovery.
Along the way, he’s secured several roles on Broadway including Richie in the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line and Paul in 2019’s Kiss Me, Kate. He rotated through various supporting characters in Chicago until landing the part of leading man/lawyer Billy Flynn earlier this year alongside Jinkx Monsoon’s Mama Morton.
Perhaps his favorite part is simply playing James T. Lane. “Every morning, I wash my face and look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, beautiful man. I love you.’ I need to be on my side first thing in the morning,” he shares near the end of his 90-minute testimony. In print, it reads like self-help psychobabble. On stage, it is a humble, yet defiant assurance that his personal demons will not win.
Director and choreographer Kenny Ingram guides with a steady hand. Emmanuel Delgado’s lighting, DJ Potts’s sound design, and video designer Tij D’oyen’s work enhance the story through vivid flashbacks, projected onto Teresa L. Williams’ practical set.
Due to the heavy material, Triple Threat is sometimes tough to watch and a possible trigger for those who have had similar life experiences. Yet it serves as an unflinching morality tale and a miraculous story of redemption.
Is it possible to empathize with white supremacists? Alex Edelman thinks so. The young, hilarious, deeply profound Jewish comedian is currently sharing his all too real experience in his solo show, Just For Us (★★★★★) — and just about everyone should see it. Edelman finally lands on Broadway after touring the globe and earning multiple Off-Broadway extensions.
After being on the receiving end of an anti-Semitic tweet, the comedy writer turned stage star replied to his haters until finally accepting an invitation to a meeting of White nationalists in Queens. With brass and bravery, he attends the gathering — not as a participant of course, but as a pure observer.
What follows is a story that can only be told by someone with as much insight and gifted comedic ability as Edelman. Over the course of 90 minutes, he describes the event, held in “the most diverse borough of the most diverse city in the World” and then drops the punchline: “You can’t even get 17 Nazis together without a Jew being sat right there in the middle of them.”
By no means does he condone the group’s ideologies. Yet he delves into their twisted psyches and attempts to grasp what life is like for people with no community nor identity. Along the way, he mines the depths of his own Jewish faith to find at its core, empathy.
This fascinating piece is more than a mere solo show. It’s a study of humanity and the lengths we are willing to go to truly understand one another. In the process, it leaves us in fits of laughter and deep contemplation. One can only hope that streaming services are circling to film this and bring it to as wide of an audience as possible.
Just for Us is playing through Aug. 19, at the Hudson Theatre, 141 W. 44th St. in New York. Tickets are $54 to $215. Visit www.justforusshow.com.
Triple Threat is playing through July 30, at Theatre Row, 410 W. 42nd St. in New York. Tickets are $39 to $84. Visit www.bfany.org/theatre-row/shows/triple-threat.
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