THE TENDER TRAP Comes to The Edge Off-Broadway Theater

After their 2024 debut Women Beware Women, Blue in the Right Way will present its second production, a reimagining of Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith's THE TENDER TRAP, directed by Kevin V. Smith, July 3 - July 12, at The Edge Off-Broadway Theater, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. Press opening Thursday, July 3 at 7:30pm. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm (no performance on July 4), Sunday at 2pm, and Monday July 7 at 7:30pm. Running time, including the intermission, is currently 2 hours and 45 minutes. 

New York bachelor Charlie Reader enjoys a life surrounded by attractive women who cater to his every need. When his married friend Joe comes into town from Indianapolis to discover a cure for the common cold, he finds himself fascinated by Charlie's set-up and what seems like a playboy's paradise. But while juggling relationships with Sylvia, Julie, Poppy, and Jessica, Charlie soon finds himself writing checks his charm can't cash.

Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith's Broadway comedy, immortalized as a 1955 Technicolor film starring Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds, offers a light-hearted window into mid-century America. In Blue in the Right Way's daring 2025 revival, the original's romantic facade is deconstructed to reveal the suffocating social structures lurking beneath. Director Kevin V. Smith's staging unfolds as a fevered nightmare of gender performance, featuring the female characters as an ever-present chorus that witnesses and disrupts the male-dominated narrative. The production's utilization of Jiu-jitsu choreography eroticizes the male form and transforms physical comedy into a seductive power play that exposes the homoerotic undercurrents of the classic buddy comedy. The sinister and layered design of Blue in the Right Way's award-winning artistic team weaponizes the mid-century American aesthetic to create a startling work of visual performance art from an iconic piece of comedic American pop culture.

The cast of THE TENDER TRAP includes Alex Amaya (he/him, Charlie Reader); Daiva Bhandari (she/her, Sylvia Crewes); Kaylah Marie Crosby (she/her, Poppy Matson); Allyriane Huq (she/they, Julie Gillis); Noelle Oh (she/they, Jessica Collins); Nicholas Russo (he/him, Earl Lindquist); Andrew Shipman (he/him, Joe McCall).

The artistic design team includes Daiva Bhandari (she/her, producer); Tianxuan Chen (any with respect, scenic and lighting designer); Katie Klocke (she/her, composer); Alaina Moore (she/her, costume, hair and makeup designer/props supervisor); Eme Ospina-López (they/them, video and projection designer); Kevin V. Smith (Kevin/Kevin's/?, director/producer); Vee Villareal (they/them, assistant production manager/props supervisor); Huhao Yang (he/him, sound designer and engineer).