Interview: Rodney Hicks on INHALEEXHALE, Plus Discomfort and Laughter for All

For Rodney Hicks, INHALEEXHALE has never been about arriving at a fixed destination. Instead, it has been a years-long act of listening. Listening to actors, audiences, collaborators, and the shifting cultural moment the play exists within. That process continues this winter with the one-night-only public performance at The Laurie Beechman Theatre on February 23, 2026.

With only one public performance and a limited-capacity venue, INHALEEXHALE isn’t something audiences can simply “catch later.” It’s a single-night invitation into a piece that has been years in the making.

“It’s been fascinating to watch how the piece keeps telling me what it needs,” Hicks says. “Every version of it has revealed something different.”

Set within a museum exhibit called the “Understanding America Tour,” INHALEEXHALE unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes in which four actors portray more than twenty characters. The tone is bold, fast, and frequently hilarious, but the ambition underneath is anything but lightweight. Hicks is interested in creating a space where audiences can laugh, recognize themselves, and feel unsettled, sometimes all at once.

“I don’t want to sit through something that’s going to make me feel worse,” he explains. “But I do want to turn the mirror [to the audience].”

The upcoming presentation marks the first time INHALEEXHALE will be performed for a paying audience that includes members of the general public alongside friends, colleagues, and industry professionals. That distinction matters deeply to Hicks.

“This will be our first public reading of the play for a paying audience,” he explains. “For the first time, the audiences will be mixed with the general public, friends, colleagues, and industry. All the other readings were friends, colleagues, and industry. So I’m actually bonkers about that part of it.”

The Beechman performance, in particular, offers an intimacy that aligns with the piece’s DNA. “[Director] Josh [Rhodes] and I, we knew that this is an intimate piece and we’re seeking an intimate space for it,” Hicks says. “Where people can really just be immersed in it. The close proximity for the audience and actors is going to be a good thing.”

He’s especially intrigued by the social nature of the venue itself. “I really love that people get to eat and drink while they’re watching the show,” he adds. “There’s something about that, especially with this show. I can’t wait for the moment when people stop eating and they’re like, ‘Oh, hold on. I gotta watch this.’”

While INHALEEXHALE engages directly with race, culture, queerness, and American identity, Hicks is careful to distinguish intention from instruction. “This play isn’t coming from Rodney’s lived experiences,” he points out. “I literally made up this whole thing.”

That distance, paradoxically, allows for greater closeness. Audiences frequently recognize people they know or even parts of themselves within the characters. “People have said, ‘Oh my God, I have an aunt like that,’ or ‘My family’s like that,’ no matter the color,” Hicks notes.

At its core, the play asks viewers to practice empathy without rushing to judgment. “Let’s give a little empathy,” he says. “Unless someone’s just blatantly nasty, let’s not assume. Let’s see where it’s coming from. Let’s actually be in a room of all races and watch a play that’s on race and culture without being a play on race and culture.”

For Hicks, comedy is the Trojan horse. “How can we actually make it laughable?,” he asked himself as he created it. “And not just laughable, but how can we be moved by it? How can we understand ourselves better—our humanity, rather? That’s really what the play is asking.”

For theatergoers who love work that’s smart, fast, funny, and unafraid to poke at the things we usually avoid talking about in mixed company, INHALEEXHALE offers exactly that kind of charge.

Much of INHALEEXHALE’s evolution has been shaped by the actors who’ve inhabited it over the years. Several cast members in the upcoming performance, such as Christopher J. Hanke, Crystal Lucas Perry, and Michael James Scott, have been involved with the piece for more than three years.

“They are brilliant, both separately and as an ensemble,” Hicks says of the whole cast, including newcomer Elizabeth Stanley. “They are at once incredibly funny and deeply human. At the same time, they are powerfully moving in this play.”

Because the structure requires four performers to embody more than twenty characters, casting is not merely about talent but also transformation. “It takes a very specific, highly skilled actor who can pull that off,” Hicks admits. “It’s exciting to watch them do it.”

Each reading has unlocked new dimensions. “Jessica [Vosk] came in [for the January 31, 2024 industry reading], and I’d not seen the character in that way before,” Hicks recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ Every person who has said yes to being a part of the world of this piece has helped deepen and challenge my understanding of the play.”

Known to Broadway audiences for originating the role of Bob in COME FROM AWAY and also appearing in the original casts of shows like THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS and RENT, Hicks says writing has fundamentally changed how he approaches the rehearsal room.

“It has helped me in so many ways,” he explains. “It helps me with patience and realizing the work that’s being put in. It takes years to make it seem like you just made it happen.”

That shift has also reframed his sense of gratitude. “It really shifts from, ‘Oh, I have to do this show,’ to ‘I get to do this show. I get to work on this piece,’” he says.

Looking ahead, Hicks is clear-eyed and hopeful. “I see an Off-Broadway production,” he says. “Whether it’s limited or open-ended.” And he envisions it with a rotating cast, allowing people to revisit the work to see their favorites step into these characters a la OH, MARY’s Broadway run.

Success for INHALEEXHALE isn’t defined by personal gain for Hicks. “I don’t want this play to be successful because of what it’ll do for me,” he points out. “It’s what it will do for others.”

What he ultimately wants is simple, and radical. “Josh and I say it all the time. We want everyone to feel uncomfortable,” Hicks says with a smile and a laugh. “Equal opportunity discomfort. Equal opportunity laughter.”

Early audiences didn’t just watch INHALEEXHALE, they responded to it. They laughed out loud, talked back to the characters, and found themselves unexpectedly implicated in what was unfolding onstage. It’s the kind of theatrical experience that reminds you you’re in a room full of other people, reacting in real time, and one that’s best experienced live, together.