Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Mateo Alexander ©2025  Benjamin Gooch & Dinah Berkeley

Mateo Moreno teams with Alexis Black to create Happily After Tonight, a new play that brings fairy tale and literary characters into a contemporary urban setting with a dark and twisted undercurrent. Moreno pens the piece, co-directs, and stars as the sinister Wolf character while Black co-directs and oversees stage combat.

In Happily After Tonight, Aurora, the widely publicized princess in a coma, awakens from her slumber and then goes to hide out from the paparazzi in a bar run by Red and her sister Alice with Rapunzel as a ditsy cocktail waitress. Still traumatized by the Wolf attack she narrowly survived as a girl, Red is desperate to keep Alice safe, but her sister is lured to the Wonderland party by Jefferson Rabbit just as Red finds out that the Wolf has reemerged and is coming for her. Red must engage the help of Aurora and the pesky (Prince) Charming to find Alice before the Wolf does!

The project employs the support of a crew of designers including costumes by Julianne Kroboth, lighting by Amanda Woodward, set by Kate Rance, music by Daniel A. Weiss, projections by Manuel De La Portilla, sound by Quinn Kiesow, art design by Stephanie Layton, and blood fx by Emma Servant. The project employs a highly effective use of video and projected images in the storytelling. The costumes are patchwork but earnest, and deeply inventive in their concept and construction. And though the fight sequences can be gratuitous, they are intricately choreographed and staunchly performed by the cast.

Mateo Alexander ©2025  Michaela Alyse Tomcho, Mateo Moreno and Sarah E Jacobs

In fact, over all this is an ensemble of very committed actors, with an obvious zeal for performance, whose varying comic sensibilities range from improv to musical theatre styles, but blend in the multi-faceted world of Happily After Tonight. Sarah e Jacobs leads the cast as Red, imbuing the role with honesty, strength, and compassion. Benjamin Gooch instantly endears himself as the bumbling, pompous, but somehow charming Charming. And Asher Bailey steals his scenes with an explosively energetic and dazzlingly liberated rendition of the (very mad) Hatter. Jevon McFerrin is a suave and sure Jefferson Rabbit, Dinah Berkeley brings sincerity to Aurora, and Michaela Alyse Tomcho makes Alice loveable even as the irresponsible little sister type. In fact, the entire cast gives their full gusto to each role, most members of the ensemble playing multiple recognizable fairy tale characters.

In watching the performance, I did wonder if this script would be better as a film. The transitions and structure as well as the location changes and the arc of the action might be served better in the movie medium. The piece also combines three drastically different worlds which might more easily blend in a film:  a silly comic style for some fairy tale character scenes, a dark, sinister tone around the Wolf and his scenes, and then a sci-fi/fantasy world for Wonderland. So considering the success of the multi-media work involved in the production, it seems that this company has the skills and resources to create a movie version.

Happily After Tonight is perfect for those who enjoy indy, noir-style shows, particularly one that combines grotesque torture, ridiculous comedy, and extended action sequences. Happily After Tonight marries high-energy performances with exemplary A/V and what must be rock star work each night by technical director Ashanti C Ziths and stage manager Matt Van Slyke.

Happily After Tonight plays at The Barrow Group Theatre, 312 West 36^th Street, 3^rd floor, through Saturday, July 28^th. Remaining performances are Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 PM. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased through SmartTix.com.