Berkshire on Stage

The audience is told before Parallel Lives opens at the Albany Civic Theater that Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy, the playwrights and former stand-up comics, wrote their Obie winning piece in the mid-1980s. Therefore, we should reflect on that time as we watch this play, remembering the AIDS crisis, long before the Me-Too movement and more widespread exploration of diversity.

Originally, Gaffney and Najimy played all of roles in this series of sketches reflecting universally experienced life events and stereotypes. However, Director Amanda Dorman chooses to cast five different women instead. In the program, both printed and on-line, we are not given any information about the name of each sketch or who is in each one. Given that two women look very similar to each other, I struggled to determine what role each character was playing, or that some women in some scenes are playing men. Given that I am unfamiliar with this play, I took some time to realize that there is no through-line nor connection amongst the characters as the play unfolds.

Nevertheless, the play has a clever opening with Amanda Conlon and Katie Weinberg presenting as supreme alien angels creating the earth and humans along with sex roles, different skin tones, the male ego, the pain of childbirth, and the All-Mighty Cliff who must approve these decisions. I am hopeful that the play is going in a funny direction filled with irony and parody.

The next scene reflects the dated nature of this play. Josephine Tracey and Debra Burger play a young couple driving in a car to a club. Given that Burger is much older than Tracey and playing a male, I am unsure whether the age difference is intended and whether the male is going to abuse the female. Rather, the club turns out to be a gay bar and Tracey, a stereotypic Valley Girl with an anxious, irritating laugh, is worried a woman is going to kiss her or recruit her into a gay lifestyle. As I mentioned, the themes and concerns are dated. The scene ends awkwardly and reminds me of many Saturday Night Live sketches which have similar disappointing endings.

The sketches continue, some more successful than others. We see a tampon commercial and imagining how men would act if they dealt with periods. We watch teenagers see West Side Story and realizing the similarities to Romeo and Juliet. Conlon does an incredible mimed performance of showering and getting ready to go out, including shaving, waxing, putting on make-up and doing her hair. I wonder about the point of this sketch.

A particularly funny scene depicts a Disney Mother Support Group in which the mothers of Snow White (Betty White), Nemo, Bambi, Ariel, and Cinderella (Barbarella) complain that Disney kills all of them off before the movie begins, leaving them with no roles in the story. What a great commentary.

Another dated sketch shows an aunt discovering her nephew is gay after pushing him to find someone to marry. This was written before gay marriage was legal and choices in sexuality were more accepted. The story does not hold its impact.

While all five women, including Rita Machin, give solid performances, Conlon and Tracey stand out in their comedic talents and ability to play different characters. Their chemistry is akin to Amy Poehler and Tina Fey of SNL fame. They sing together effectively in “Sister Women Sister.”  They flirt with each other in a bar, playing an unavailable man and a discouraged woman. I look forward to their time on stage. If there were just two women on stage, as in the original production, I have no doubt, both actresses could easily play all parts.

Director Dorman moves the cast easily across a stage with black platforms, boxes, and benches designed by Dorman and Adam Coons. Sheena Johnson, Costume Designer, mostly dresses the women in black, with some accessories to denote different characters, and more elaborate costumes and headdresses when the supreme beings start the show and the second act.

At times, I need brighter stage lights by Lighting Designer, Oona Newman, to be able to see the characters clearly.

I know that Gaffney and Najimy’s Parallel Lives was appreciated more warmly when it premiered decades ago. Had this play been trimmed to the more timeless sketches, or some sketches updated, it might prove more effective now. Yet, it is still not obvious how the sketches connect, nor does each sketch end satisfactorily.

Unfortunately, despite the energy the cast puts into this show, I left Albany Civic Theater wanting.

Albany Civic Theater presents Parallel Lives by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy, directed by Amanda Dorman, September 18-October 4, 2026. CAST: Debra Burger, Amanda Conlon, Rita Machin, Josephine Tracey, and Katie Weinberg. CREATIVE TEAM: Scenic Designers Amanda Dorman and Adam Coons, Costume Designer Sheena Johnson, Lighting Designer Oona Newman.

Performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 3 pm at the Albany Civic Theater, 35 Second Avenue, Albany, NY 12209. Tickets $20 for Adults; $10 for Students. Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at https://www.albanycivictheater.org/reservetickets