Review: EULOGY, or HOW TO PLAN YOUR OWN FUNERAL (AND HAVE FUN DOING IT) at 12th Ave Arts

 At the theater’s entrance, audience members are handed a packet of tissues sealed with a photo of a frowning man in a birthday hat—Brendan Healy. The program looks like a memorial pamphlet, complete with “In Loving Memory of Brendan Healy” printed across the front. The projected backdrop displays the pulpit of an ornate church. A performer shakes hands with audience members and shares his condolences.  But that person, we soon learn, is the deceased. It’s his funeral. Brendan Healy takes the stage, ready to deliver his own eulogy.

Eulogy, or How to Plan Your Own Funeral (and have fun doing it!), written and performed by Healy, directed by Sophia Franzella, and produced by Pony World Theatre, is exactly what its title promises: man with a fatal disease walks us through the process of planning his own funeral, step by step. Flowers. Music. Obituaries. What to do with the body. But the structure, which could easily feel too dark or too silly, sits in a sweet spot of earnestness. When there is humor, it feels cathartic, much like the laughter rippling through real funerals. It’s a practical guidebook built out of his lived experience with cystic fibrosis. The stories, largely in chronological order, consist of the highs and lows of his life with the disease, loosely inspired by the item on the checklist.  

Healy is a magnetic performer. He speaks plainly, without self-pity, wanting to bring his audience into his story. A proper funeral, he tells us, should not be light-hearted but have a sense of bereavement. There’s a desire to educate in his storytelling that feels professorial. Infographics and all. His voice carries the authority of someone who’s a subject matter expert in his own mortality. He’s also a prop master, using items such as bubble wrap, IV stands, and giant lungs to punctuate moments with more emotion. The stagecraft adds to the show’s Alton Brown, “Good Eats” vibe. And like the best professor, Healy incorporates approachable and compelling interactive components to the show. 

Throughout the evening, Healy wrestles with the complexity of living with a terminal illness when medicine keeps granting “extra time.” What happens when you outlive your prognosis? His reflections are candid and quietly devastating. Eulogy moves with the calm certainty of someone who’s had this conversation many times before. There’s no melodrama, no rush toward catharsis—just an unflinching look at something we all eventually face. By the time the lights fade, it feels as though we’ve been part of a service rather than a show, invited to mourn and to reflect, but also to prepare.

While the show is largely a solo act, Healy is occasionally joined by a small ensemble, “The Pallbearers.” They add subtle sound, movement, and light choreography to frame certain scenes. Sometimes their presence enhances the tone of the moment. Other times, they pull a bit too much focus. 

Eulogy, or How to Plan Your Own Funeral is a remarkable piece of theatre: unsentimental, precise, and profoundly moving. Brendan Healy keeps the tone heavy but never hopeless, weaving moments of laughter into a meditation on mortality that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. 

Grade: A-

Eulogy, or How to Plan Your Own Funeral performs at 12th Ave Arts through November, 15th, 2025. For tickets and information, email infoponyworld@gmail.com.  

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Best Musical - Top 3

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8.5% of votes

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