By Matthew Wexler
All Meek wants for Christmas is a Pound Puppy, a Speak & Spell, and a nuclear radiation detector. If you grew up in the late 80s, it’s a spot-on wish list. The first two reflect the biggest consumer grabs of the era. The last nods to the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. In Ro Reddick’s spectacular play Cold War Choir Practice, worlds collide, and a family explodes (literally) amid international tension, echoes of systemic racism, and a quirky chorus outfitted in Russian red.
Reddick’s unique world of magical realism finds roots in Syracuse, New York, circa 1987, where Smooch (Will Cobbs) lives with his feisty mother (Lizan Mitchell) and daughter Meek (Alana Raquel Bowers) above the Rolla-Rama Skating Rink. When his Black Republican and newly appointed Deputy National Security Advisor brother (Andy Lucien) arrives unexpectedly to drop off his mentally unstable wife (a scene-stealing Crystal Finn), old familial tensions resurface, along with unexpected plot twists echoing Top Secret! and similar spy satires.
History repeats, this time with a chorus
For anyone who had to read Alas, Babylon in school or sit through ABC’s The Day After—both nightmare-inducing post-apocalyptic narratives—Cold War Choir Practice will strike a nerve. But it’s hardly a museum piece. As the U.S. throws itself into another nuclear tantrum under the guise of self-preservation, Meek’s obsession with building a fallout shelter is all too real.
Director Knud Adams (Tony-nominated for English) proves, once again, his deft ability to sculpt wildly dense material, assembling a first-rate acting company that knows exactly what world they’re living in, a kind of Venn diagram of kitchen sink drama and fantastical shape-shifting.
None of that matters without the material to match. Cold War Choir Practice recently won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a well-deserved accolade that speaks to Reddick’s unique voice, not only as a playwright but also as a composer and lyricist.
At one point, the mercurial choir asks, “What is more dangerous than being alone in a world that uses the weak as fuel to spin on its axis?” Meek, at least, has an answer: “Peace is not a song you sing.”
Is ‘Cold War Choir Practice’ worth seeing?
5 out of 5 stars
Ro Reddick’s Cold War Choir Practice detonates: magical realism, a fractured family, and America’s gift for global anxiety.
- MCC Theater, 511 West 52nd Street
- Notable performers: Andy Lucien, Grace McClean, Lizan Mitchell, and Suzy Roche
- Running time: One hour and 35 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through March 29, 2026
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