Writer, stand-up comic, performer of the stage and screen, long-time Emmy-winning co-host of ABC’s talk show The View, and native Brooklynite Joy Behar has now brought My First Ex-Husband, her original acerbic collection of stories of love, marriage, and divorce, to the Off-Broadway stage for a limited engagement at MMAC, appearing in the inaugural rotating cast of four women that changes every four weeks (a recent trend on the NYC stage, as with Pen Pals and All In), sharing intimate no-holds-barred perspectives on the desire to move on from messy relationships that no longer work, or never really did.
The show opens with Behar (divorced from her first husband in 1981) taking center stage, script in hand, at a lectern and stand-up microphone, then introducing the show and its stars (through February 23) – Susie Essman (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Tovah Feldshuh (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and Adrienne C. Moore (Orange is the New Black) – who enter one by one, all stylishly dressed in black (with Olivera Gajic serving as costume consultant), and take their seats, arranged in a row of four behind her (theatrical design consultation by Design Contact).
Directed by Randal Myler, the show is presented in the format of a series of readings of eight first-person monologues by eight different women, with each member of the cast embodying two of them, and projections on the large center screen identifying the title of each segment (projection design by Christopher Ash). There is no narrative arc or theatrical staging, just the individual stars taking turns standing at the mic, referring to the script, and embracing the women’s personalities, speech patterns, and demeanors, as they relay the failed marital experiences that ultimately drove them to choose divorce. Based on hours of deep-dive interviews Behar conducted several years ago with a number of divorcées, the stories have been redacted by her, with their permission, to lend her signature sardonic wit to the tales, to close each with a happy ending for the women, and to leave the audience laughing and celebrating their new beginnings.
The women’s reasons for loving, then leaving, range from he was handsome but moved them out of the city to the middle of nowhere in “Walla Walla Bang Bang” to he became increasingly happy and comfortable as a cross-dresser in “Clothes Make the Man?” (both captivatingly delivered by the excellent Essman); his rampant philandering in “Where Are You At” and “The Drummer’s Wife” (told with hilarious adamance by Moore); he was controlling and insulting to her in “The Widow” or she was in an Orthodox marriage arranged by their families, which remained unconsummated for a year (the former is the least compelling of the tales but Feldshuh brings the latter to life with engaging emotion and humor); and finding more comfort, support, and love from a woman than with her husband in “The Touch” (which ends with a double entendre) or tiring of the constant demands of her sexaholic spouse, even into his 70s, in “Get Off of Me” (with Behar surprisingly blowing lines in both at the press preview I attended, despite having the script in front of her, but using her direct-address stand-up comedic skills to recover). All are filled with explicit language and unflinching revelations in the service of explaining their need to get out and to start fresh, in this reading on the strength, courage, and resilience of women.
If you’re expecting a fully staged play, My First Ex-Husband isn’t one; it’s strictly a script-in-hand reading, with the stars assuming the feelings inherent in the stories they tell and offering special appeal to seasoned women of a certain age who’ve been through it (as was the case with the majority of the audience when I was there).
The casts for upcoming show dates will be as follows: February 26-March 23, award-winning comedienne Judy Gold, Emmy winner Susan Lucci, Cathy Moriarty, and Tony winner Tonya Pinkins; March 26-April 20, Obie winners Talia Balsam and Veanne Cox, Emmy nominee Jackie Hoffman, and Andrea Navedo.
Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes, without intermission.
My First Ex-Husband plays through Sunday, May 18, 2025, at MMAC Theater, 248 West 60th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $156-186, plus fees), go online.
