Hilarious & Electric “The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits” opens at Soho Playhouse in New York City
The cast of “The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits” which makes it New York City debut on March 2nd at Soho Playhouse.
Michael Shaw Fisher is arguably one of the most talented and hardest working playwrights in Los Angeles. His recent musical send-up of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, Exorcistic, now twice having graced the stages of the Big Apple, will soon be joined by The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits, Fisher’s latest biting and hilarious lampoon of social studies, biology, economics and politics for adults. The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits will enjoy its New York City Off-Broadway premiere, opening March 2nd at Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam St.) in lower Manhattan. Rabbits launched its world premiere at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival, when it caught the eye of Soho Playhouse Producing Artistic Director, Darren Lee Cole, and after seeing their brush-up performance at The Broadwater Second Stage earlier this month, it’s easy to see why.
When a dinner party thrown by mild-mannered Bobby (Schoen Hodges) and his prudish, mousey wife Elise (Leigh Wulff) involves Bobby’s ex-wife and her new husband, things are bound to be a little off. Add to that the revelation that Bobby’s ex-wife is a highly successful author and sex therapist and her new husband is a loaded businessman, Elise is not only aware that their modest lifestyle could color the proceedings, but she’s also afraid of coming off as too suggestive. So off with the Marvin Gaye record, but keep the oysters for dinner? All is off balance as the couple race to the finish line to get everything right. Little does the modest, mild-mannered couple in their meek apartment know, but that their lives are about to be thrown into a fleshy, carnal firestorm. When a dinner party needs a “safe word,” common sense alone should tell you that you’re out of your league.
Enter the firestorm. Danielle (Rebecca Larsen) and her slimy yacht rock husband, Carson (Richarson Cisneros-Jones) don’t necessarily enter, they swoop, and without hesitation, begin to dig and pluck at the strings of their milquetoast host and hostess. What unfolds is a twisted financial agreement that because Carson is “unable,” Bobby will father Danielle’s child, and through osmosis of human folly, greed and stupidity, the four agree to the lascivious act and to the obscenely bloated lump sum attached. The evening commences, leaving no salacious (yet tastefully for the stage) forbidden fruit unsampled. When the deed is done, the contract fulfilled, and the dosh transferred to Bobby & Elise’s bank account, that's when even more is revealed and the real sparks start to fly. Sparing spoilers, you will have to take the trip down the rabbit hole to see the rest for yourself.
Reminiscent of the works of the late Christopher Durang, this unapologetic firecracker script, directed by its author, is a hilarious, stylized hop down the rabbit hole of adult human frailty; a nightmare scenario out of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous that turns its cast and audience on their comedic heads. This powerhouse ensemble cast truly “rises” to the occasion, with Hodges and Wulff being the much-needed anchor in this storm, and in this game of high/low status, Larsen and Cisneros-Jones place their indelible comic stamp on this well-rounded one act, which astonishingly, ends on a very touching and haunting note.
New York City, you’re on notice. After months of blizzards, cold and freezing weather, it’s time to warm up the proceedings just a skosh. And if you think Rabbits is all but “heteronormative,” guess again.
The Amazing Sex Life of Rabbits runs through March 28th and is not to be missed.