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Performances are underway for Olivier-nominated writer Joe White’s U.S. premiere of Blackout Songs. Directed by Rory McGregor, Blackout Songs also marks the American stage debut of Abbey Lee and the New York stage debut of Owen Teague who star in this unflinching study of love, addiction, and memory. Read the reviews here!
This strictly limited 6-week engagement will run through February 28, 2026 at The Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater in The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.
Blackout Songs is an achingly intimate portrait of two people in love, addicted, and bound to each other. After a chance encounter at an AA meeting, a decade-long affair blazes through ecstasy, relapse, and recovery – chasing the impossible hope that the same person who breaks you might also be the one that saves you.
Austin Fimmano, New York Theatre Guide: Teague and Lee’s chemistry is electric and arrestingly physical, almost like watching a choreographed dance. Lee is particularly mesmerizing, and it’s difficult to keep your eyes off of her as she sweeps across the stage. When Her addresses the audience in the last scene, the rawness in Lee’s performance moved more than a few in my audience to tears.
Frank Scheck, New York Stage Review: Scott Pask’s minimal set design serves the abstract narrative well, while Stacey Derosier’s lighting and Brian Hickey’s sound design and music are integral to the proceedings. Blackout Songs proves a bit repetitive at times and probably would benefit from some paring of its 95-minute running time. But there’s no denying that it packs a powerful punch.
Emily Chackerian, 1 Minute Critic: Blackout Songs also delivers moments of brightness. Lee is particularly magnetic, playing Her with a sharp blend of wit and vulnerability. The gaps between memories/scenes feel cavernous, though the physical transitions themselves are smart and sleek, thanks in large part to lighting design by Stacey DeRosier and staging by director Rory McGregor and movement consultant Sarah Parker.
Joshua M. Hayes, Josh at the Movies: In the authenticity, a deep love emerges that neither character may be willing to embrace. Part rom-com, part harbinger on the dangers of alcoholism, the intimacy of Blackout Songs brings an aching realism to the stage with imagination and creative staging.
Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: While director Rory McGregor moves his cast nimbly around the wide wood-panel-lined stage that represents multiple locations in their on-again-off-again affair (designed by Scott Pask and lit by Stacey Derosier), he doesn’t bring much clarity to White’s challenging nonlinear script — which wallows in narrative confusion as it plunges both the audience and the characters into repeated bouts of alcoholic amnesia between some harrowing depictions of addiction at its worst.
Average Rating:
72.0%
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