Gen Z Comedy’s Bumpy Leap From Online Reels to Live Theater

It seems there’s an emergence this summer of young female comedians in New York City taking the theatrical stage who, to some, represent the voices of Gen Z and Millennial women. It’s more likely they represent, as Lena Dunham says in the first episode of HBO’s “Girls,” “at least a voice of a generation.” But does this hyper-specific, chronically online, form of comedy translate well to live theater?Coming off a five-season run of HBO’s hit show, “Hacks,” Meg Stalter currently stars as Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s hilariously historically inaccurate hit Broadway show, “Oh, Mary!” It’s hard to imagine a more perfect Broadway role for Ms. Stalter, meaning both she has captured the spirit of Mary Todd Lincoln in creator Cole Escola’s image and that her limitations are clear. She’s a performance artist, a comedian, and a charmer, but the pleasure in her musical numbers are her gags, not her pipes.Ms. Stalter, like Mary’s predecessors Jinkx Monsoon and Maya Rudolph, brings her own twist to the character’s melodramatic musings. Some of her delivery is predictable and reminiscent of both her character on “Hacks” and her starring role in Lena Dunham’s 2025 Netflix show “Too Much.” In the cabaret-style medley in the final act of the show, as Mary is finally able to live out her dreams of becoming a cabaret star, Ms. Stalter’s nod to singer Lorde’s infamous habit of shushing her audience is a subtle yet successful example of bringing contemporary pop culture to Broadway.“Oh, Mary” started its Off-Broadway run in 2024 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, where “Cat Cohen: Broad Strokes” is running until September 25th. This one-woman show, written and performed by Cat Cohen and directed by Alex Timbers, advertises a retelling of the trials and tribulations of Ms. Cohen’s stroke and subsequent heart surgery by Dr. Love, a real cardiologist. Instead, it is more a lamentation on Ms. Cohen’s awkward moments from adolescence through adulthood. In a scenario where a Dr. Love fixes the hole in your heart through your groin, the jokes write themselves, and yet, Ms. Cohen fumbles her telling with disconcerting shrieks, boops, and shivers. Her attempts to be relatable and universal atomize her jokes to the point of nonexistence.As she flops herself around on stage, she mentions that she used to be “cringe,” something that my generation, Gen Z, tends to be intolerant to. As it happens, this is not my issue as most people’s aversion to “cringe” is really a reaction to the earnestness at the core of trying hard. Ms. Cohen lacks this sincerity. Even when sharing intimate details of her life, she does not have the confidence to rely on her own stories without turning to clichéd colloquialisms. Cat Cohen in ‘Cat Cohen: Broad Strokes.’ Matthew MurphyPlaywrights and performers seem to be struggling at present to decide between commenting on current events or creating fantasy worlds. Ms. Cohen’s set, designed by Derek McLane, is a Gothic-style room which could have been straight out of Anna Biller’s 2016 horror comedy film “Love Witch.” It seems hardly relevant to the overarching theme of the show, but regardless, is the one piece of escapism on offer.In Ms. Cohen’s 2022 Netflix special, “The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous,” she eerily foreshadows her medical emergency as she jokes about her hypochondria and having a “stroke” after speaking with an odd man. This special makes her current show feel like a regression. Can Ms. Cohen’s jokes be cited as the seminal work that inspires both the downtown comedians and the online it girls? Or is she contributing to the meaningless slop that tends to distill the female experience to constant musings about weight, the male gaze, and fears of being behind in life? Misery loves company, but if Ms. Cohen is the voice of millennial women, it may be time for an usurpation.Chloe Troast in ‘Pepper Slit.’ Emilio Madrid“Pepper Slit: Live in Her Living Room”, starring SNL alum Chloe Troast and playing in the East Village Basement until August 29, is a perfect combination of nostalgia for the old days of theater and an appeal to the comedy interests of a younger demographic through timeless innuendo and jokes about the cost of living in New York City. Her vocal talent makes up for some of the meandering numbers. Amid the absurdity, there is a throughline and a strong element of world-building, as is true of “Oh, Mary!” This is key to ensuring a show is more than a vanity project.As well-intentioned as I believe Ms. Cohen to be, there is something particularly unsettling about a show so self-referential that it simultaneously lacks emotional depth. I don’t want to feel like I’m hearing snippets from Instagram Reels while I’m present in the physical world. This is not to pit female comedians against each other, but rather to consider the effects of our online engagement on our interpersonal connections in the real world. The demand for shows that appeal to a chronically online audience is shown by the ticket sales and extensions for “Broad Strokes,” “Pepper Slit,” and “Oh, Mary!” The missed marks may simply be the growing pains of the arts adapting to an ever-changing social media landscape that has been unkind to our attention spans.

Gen Z Comedy’s Bumpy Leap From Online Reels to Live Theater

Gen Z Comedy’s Bumpy Leap From Online Reels to Live Theater

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