The Potluck tickets

A daring musical about legacy and survival.

A performer sits at a table with framed photos, flowers, and a guitar, flanked by large grayscale face cutouts; a band and projected face appear in the background.

A group of musicians perform energetically on stage under colorful lighting, playing instruments including saxophone, bongos, and banjo, with some people holding props.

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Musicals

About The Potluck

In 1979, five labor organizers and activists were murdered at a protest in the streets of Greensboro, NC, by members of the KKK and the American Nazi Party. A year later, César James Alvarez was born into the survivor community and named for two of the victims. 37 years after that, César got a commission to write a musical about the Greensboro Massacre, but it turned into a show about ghosts… and capitalism…and how to recuperate from trauma that happened to you before you were even born.

The Potluck is a new musical featuring a 12 person intergenerational cast that conjures the soft side of the revolution, and tells a story about what to do when the government is actually trying to kill you.

Run time

2hr 30min. Incl. intermission.

Venue

Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons

Start date

June 30th, 2026

End date

August 9th, 2026

Jul 20

The POTLUCK registers as a you'll never have as challenging and rewarding experience as this in the theater ever again with this revolutionary musical entity that defies categorization. Ingredients = historical incident [1979 Greensboro Massacre of 5 civil rights workers], family connections, writing a musical on commission, a seance, a potluck dinner in memory of, dancing mops, a marching band, mom and dad, the non-binary writer, an onstage kitchen, etc etc etc - "fold" together, then stir vigorously.

Jul 16

PRO - Cesar Alvarez's musical performance piece is an uneven mash-up of his fulfilling a commission & his procrastination in doing so with a desire to come to terms with the radical past of his parents Highly theatrical & often musically thrilling CON - Alverez's meta handwringing becomes tedious until his segue into his parents' radicalization which enlivens & propels much of the evening

Jul 4

Charming cast of actors and actor/musicians. BUT... they move slowly, they talk slowly, they sing slowly, everything is too long and too slow. The topic is a horrific historical moment of violence including a 7-minute live video of the event. The rest of the 2 1/2 hour show offered little more. It seemed like I sat through a wear-me-down EST meeting/memorial for the 5 killed protestors. Not my taste.