Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – At SoHo Playhouse, Gabe Mollica’s SOLO dissects male friendship with sneaky rigor and unassuming charm

• By drediman
• February 16, 2023
• No Comments

Last night, I attended Gabe Mollica’s Off-Broadway one-man show Solo, which is currently enjoying an extended run at the charmingly vintage SoHo Playhouse. In essence, the show — which has been making the rounds in the comedy circuit, including a stop at the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals — is a sneakily rogorous dissection of male friendships, and in the 31-year-old comic’s particular case, the scarcity of them in his adult life.

Mollica is a distinctive stage persona, simultaneously charming and unassuming. Although much of his schtick relies on familiar self-deprecating humor, there’s a quiet confidence and intelligence that underlies his brand of comedy. Rarely does he reach for the obvious belly laughs; instead, he opts for a richer kind of humor that’s more inherently tied to his skilled storytelling (in which he neatly weaves together his intense love of Stephen Sondheim and young heartbreak with Taco Bell binges and late night video gaming). Throughout, his soothing, decidedly low-key but approachable delivery ensures that his punchlines and nuanced observations are sharply felt and land all the more potently.

Mollica’s show — unobtrusively yet observantly directed by Greg Walloch — continues the trend of a certain type of comedy act, one that straddles theatrical monologue and stand-up comedy. Indeed, just this season, Mike Birbiglia (The Old Man and the Sea) and Colin Quinn (Small Talk) scored highly visible successes on Broadway and Off-Broadway, respectively. You can safely add Solo to that list of accomplished successes.

RECOMMENDED

SOLO
Comedy
SoHo Playhouse
1 hour (without an intermission)
Through February 25