By Marilyn Lester***Who’s a good boy (or girl)! Why, your dog, of course! Canis familiaris, of which there are up to an astonishing 500 breeds worldwide, is wondrous; dogs have super powers beyond our meager capacities. Dogs can apprehend human emotions, read facial expressions, perceive intentions, understand vocabulary and distinguish between subtle vocal tones
. Plus, they can smell vastly more than we can and hear way, way beyond our abilities. But what are our canine companions actually thinking? That answer is in the new Off-Broadway comedy at The Triad Theater: The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay, a charming, delightful, delicious and feel-good play by 13-time Emmy Award winning writer David Javerbaum (head writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), smartly directed by Richard Israel.
The happiness begins at the outset: a series of images of the show’s logo is projected, each containing the face of an irresistible canine. Those beautiful, furry faces immediately bring joy; who could resist? Thence appears A.J. Shively as “Merrick” (as in David, get it?), the welcoming producer of the show, who is, after all, a dog. And we’re off, as four actors express the 
thoughts of two dozen canines, delivering monologues and unfiltered opinions from their perspectives as their images are projected behind them. Human channels, Jordan Matthew Brown, Gizel Jiménez, Angela Reed and Shively may possibly have been dogs in former lives. Their preternatural interpretations, from recitation to physical actions, are deeply “real.” Shively, particularly excels at physicality; his gangly Great Dane was priceless.
Comedy abounded. Brown, as a dog mentalist, performed his act among the audience, sniffing patrons closely before ma
king psychic pronouncements. Brown also portrayed an earnest police dog, in a “scared straight” segment with troubled youth. And it also fell to him to deliver the monologue most far from comedy, portraying a cute puppy that’s eventually abandoned by his human on the side of a road. The transition of emotion from happiness to despair in a shelter is heartbreaking, yet the monologue does reflect the reality of many pets who experience such betrayal. Kudos to Javerbaum for including an issues that’s outrageously not uncommon.
The petite Jiménez, perfectly cast to portray small dog breeds, charmed as the tiny dog whose human carries her
in a large handbag, as well as a puppy being potty trained. “I peed on the carpet,” she says innocently, “because, well, I had to pee.” Reed is both touching and humorous as an old dog. With perfect timing she announces, “It’s true.” And explains she can’t learn new tricks. Reed also portrays a Westminster Dog Show winner—a perfect and pampered toy poodle, as well as a retiring sled dog who’s a celebrated Iditarod winner. Jiménez and Shively discuss dog spirituality. And in a very clever bit, the quartet humorously interact as canines in a dog park.
But what does it all mean? Cannily, in The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay, Javerbaum does hold a mirror up to our own foibles, but the ultimate moral of the story falls to Shively/Merrrick. With eloquence, he reveals that although dogs may be our greatest “invention”—a wonderment studied and parsed through a human lens, the greatest truth known to all dogs is simple: now is forever.
But The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay isn’t forever. Fetch those tickets now, for the show plays at The Triad Theater (158 West 72nd Street, NYC ) only through Sunday, November 29.
Photos by Jeremy Daniel
