The Appointment
“THE APPOINTMENT IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPROBABLE NEW MUSICALS IN NEW YORK. IT’S ALSO ONE OF THE MOST ENLIGHTENING.” — BEN BRANTLEY, NEW YORK TIMES
ABOUT THE SHOW
Scott’s Role - Lead Book Writer/Performer
It’s time to check in for The Appointment, the critically acclaimed and outrageous musical satire singing and dancing through the absurdity and hypocrisy of the American abortion debate. From the acclaimed company Lightning Rod Special (Underground Railroad Game), The Appointment was named to the “Best Theater of 2019” lists in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out NY.
Using cutting humor, catchy songs, and some very lively fetuses, The Appointment unpacks the many systems that disempower groups of people from making informed reproductive decisions with hilarious, devastating, and hilariously devastating results. In 2019 it was presented at FringeArts and New York Theater Workshop’s Next Door Series, and in 2023 it returned to New York for a limited, off-broadway run. This “thoughtful and profoundly imaginative show concludes in a silence that is all the more eloquent for the sound and the fury that preceded it.” - Ben Brantley, The New York Times
PRESS AND ACCOLADES
New Yorker Review, “This raucously pro-choice musical, by the Philadelphia-based theatre collective Lightning Rod Special, sniffs out taboos and hunts them down at the pace of a sprint.” -Vinson Cunningham
New York Times 2023 Critic’s Pick, “daring, clear-eyed work of political theater.” -Laura Collins-Hughes
Best Theater of 2019 New York Magazine, “As wild as it was, I can’t remember ever so exactly recognizing the destabilizing way it feels to have a womb in America.” -Helen Shaw
Best Theater of 2019 New York Times, “the show was as quietly thoughtful as it was boisterously, hilariously transgressive.” -Laura Collins-Hughes
Best Theater of 2019 Time Out NY
New York Times Critics’ Pick, “This thoughtful, profoundly imaginative show concludes in a silence that is all the more eloquent for the sound and the fury that preceded it.” -Ben Brantley
Seven Barrymore Award Nominations including Outstanding Musical and the Brown Martin Award
One Barrymore Award for Brett Robinson’s Outstanding Performance of a Supporting Actor in a Musical
Broad Street Review Review, “The Appointment’s genius [lies in] the compelling, matter-of-fact realism of its abortion-clinic scenes...”
Philly Life and Culture Review, “Lightning Rod Special does an impeccable job by getting their audience to think without being preachy. They indulge in humor to then catapult you into sincere truth.”
Philadelphia Dance Review, “The laughter that the show provokes becomes the glass of water we drink to digest the bitter pills the show prescribes.”
“A FEVERISH EXPLOSION OF THE ABORTION DEBATE THAT REPLACES RIGID POLITICAL VIEWS WITH A VISCERAL EXPLORATION OF THE EMOTIONS THAT FUEL BOTH SIDES.”
— RAVEN SNOOK, TIME OUT NEW YORK