Cold War Choir Practice (MCC Theater)

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About the Show

A holiday tale of espionage, Reaganomics, and cult intrigue directed by Knud Adams.

Set during the holiday season, Cold War Choir Practice follows a young girl whose life is upended when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, returns home with his mysteriously ill wife. What unfolds is a darkly comic story infused with espionage, cult dynamics, Reagan-era politics, roller disco, and the haunting choral presence of the Syracuse, NY Seedlings of Peace Children’s Chorus.

The play is written by Ro Reddick (Throwback Island), whose work has been praised for its inventive mix of music and satire. Direction is by Tony Award nominee Knud Adams (English), known for his precision in staging complex, layered narratives. Together, they shape a piece that blends political drama with stylized performance and live choral elements.

Originally developed through Clubbed Thumb’s Summer works, where it was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, the play now comes to MCC Theater as a co-production with Clubbed Thumb and Page 73.

Critic Reviews (11)

“It’s a little weird, a little campy, and so silly that its message… is fed to you not like obligatory vegetables, but like a meal so rich you don’t notice it’s healthy.”
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“With Cold War Choir Practice, Reddick shows us life in the late-’80s in all its paranoid, hopeful, ridiculous glory.”
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"Reddick has a comic voice all her own and, thanks to the support of these three fine theatre companies, she has the right cast and director to support it. The Cold War has rarely been so amusing."
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"This period piece is a wildly imaginative theatrical fantasia of war anxieties mixed with family drama unfolding in and around a roller rink"
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"It is a fun, antic, and ingenious show that well deserves this remounting.”
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"Cold War Choir Practice, is a coming-of-age fantasia that embraces a wild array of genres and styles, leading us down a path filled with farce, music, and suspense"
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“Reddick has written a play about a working-class Black family navigating impossible choices in 1987, and that play is vital and urgent.”
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"promises a light, knowing comedy about a Black girl and her family in Syracuse, New York in 1987, but swerves into a dark cloak-and-dagger tale of the Cold War"
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