You know that feeling you get when you binge an entire season of a great podcast in one sitting? Your brain is buzzing, you’re emotionally sated, but you’re also kinda fried? That’s New Born, currently playing Off-Broadway at Minetta Lane’s Audible Theater as the third and final piece of Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman’s TOGETHER project’s second season.
The good news: Playwright Ella Hickson’s ambitious triptych of monologues is presented with staggering skill. Director Ian Rickson strips everything to the barest bones, with minimal sets and no frills, and remains true to Audible Theater’s mission of raw storytelling.
3 monologues, 1 staggering evening
The first piece, which involves a new mother (the deliciously neurotic Sepideh Moafi) scrolling through celebrity social media, is funny, brittle, and heartbreaking. The second piece (the strongest of the evening) features the enrapturing Marianna Gailus as a young woman who makes drastic choices while searching for a lost friend. Finally, Hugh Jackman closes as an affable tree surgeon who finds love only to lose passion. His piece is the most metaphor-infused, and he makes every image land with quiet, magnetic sorrow.
However, at nearly two intermission-less hours, the emotionally charged evening proves to be too much of a good thing. By the time Jackman quietly floors you, you’re already spent. These three lives, spanning continents and chance encounters, never quite cohere. Each monologue is superb alone, but I found myself wishing for a pause, a breath—anything to process one “aha” moment before the next one hit.
Theater lovers with strong attention spans (and stronger bladders) will leave awed by the acting, writing, and direction. Hickson is a genius. Rickson a purist. The acting is top-notch. But I found myself strangely relieved when it was over.
Honestly? This stripped-down, voice-driven style might work better through AirPods on an Audible account. Live, it’s a feast. But this feast left me feeling a tad stuffed.
It wants better content.
Is ‘New Born’ worth seeing?
Hugh Jackman and company are extraordinary in Ella Hickson’s New Born, a brilliant, breathless evening that leaves you awed, spent, and wishing for just one breath between blows.
- Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane, New York City
- Notable performers: Hugh Jackman, Marianna Gailus, and Sepideh Moafi
- Running time: 110 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through June 8, 2026
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