urban excavations

ta-da!
Featuring Josh Sharp
Greenwich House Theater
July 7, 2025 – September 27, 2025 [extension]
production site

As soon as I saw the big screen and otherwise bare stage confronting us at Greenwich House Theater (previously Barrow Street Theatre and before than, well, I’m a relative newcomer, only here 15 years at this point, but the more things change, the more things stay the same) my stomach threatened to drop. My years as a social science researcher, in too many professional meetings and conferences and presentations, suspected Power Point slides, and usually you can say and mean it: nothing good can come from this.

Let me now saw, in the writing and performance hands of Josh Sharp and directing hands of the masterful Sam Pinkleton, much good does in fact come from this. Power Point is exquisitely utilized as humor device, choreographed to deliver as well as comment on the content provided by Sharp as he spins a tale of his youthful magician aspirations, his mother’s illness, his acceptance of his own sexuality and coming out process. Ta-da indeed.

The rhythm of his dialogue, every word of which appears on the large screen behind him, is mesmerizing and exactly calibrated. This 80-minute show whizzes by, providing many small laughs and hearty guffaws, of recognition and revelation, along the way. So put on your glasses; reading is an essential part of this one man stand up adventure. We are warned that there will be 2000 slides (which he calibrates for us as one very 2 and a half seconds to make it through in 80 minutes). Buckle up for this worthwhile ride.

ta-da! is much more, you will find, than a technological feat of verbal dialogue delivery at various speeds. As in any truly memorable standup set, this show contains revelations of self, intense and intimate stories that we are more than open to hearing form this charming and disarming personality. As Sharp articulates the structure, the first “act” is the story of his coming into his own sexuality and coming out at 22, while the second “act” is “Giving. Pathos” — the story of his mother’s diagnosis and treatments for ovarian cancer. He has crafted a tribute and an engagement after her death with his mother, introducing us to her and allowing him to great her himself in the course of the show.

There is a bit of magic at the tail end of the show (or better said, some engagement with audience based on assessment of audience members as they enter, no revelations from me on this score), that works smoothly. Sharp can work an audience with great skill. And he leaves us with memories both of a mother well loved who loved him well, and a skillful hand at working an illusion and a projection clicker.

© Martha Wade Steketee (July 21, 2025)

Playwright + Performer| Josh Sharp
Director | Sam Pinkleton
Set Design | Meredith Ries
Lighting Design | Cha See
Video Design | Stivo Arnoczy
Sound Design| Fan Zhang
Music | Daniel Kluger
Magic | Skylar Fox