Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes

I have always regretted not seeing Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in The Music Man when I was in New York in 2022, and the show closed prior to my next trip in 2023. This regret has created urgency for me to see original casts with performers I love before the show closes. Case in point: Redwood. I did my job and had my ticket, but it was sadly canceled and refunded before I got into town. Other examples are The Jonathan Larson Project (missed it), SMASH (got in before it closed!), Sondheim’s Old Friends (got in before it closed!), and a little Off-Broadway play called Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.

For my first trip of 2025, I had done my research and discovered that Hugh was performing in this Off-Broadway play at Minetta Lane Theatre. The only catch was that I would have to extend my trip to see the play, as it was not playing at all during my dates I had booked in NYC.

I booked a front row seat for the play at its first show back on Tuesday, June 10, and I decided to go ahead and extend my stay until that Friday. Thanks to this show’s schedule, I was able to also add in Oh, Mary!, Maybe Happy Ending, Sunset Blvd., and Just in Time. In other words, Hugh gets credit for me getting to see some of the best shows I have ever seen! Thanks, Hugh!

When I got off the subway in Greenwich Village, the first thing I observed was, “Oh, this is nice! I’m not in Times Square anymore!” All of my other shows were in the theatre district, and I was also staying in the theatre district, so the quiet and charm of “the village,” as a local Broadway performer instructed me to call it, was a breath of fresh air, perhaps literally.

Prior to the show starting, a woman comes on stage and is re-arranging the furniture and set pieces in this play’s minimal set up. At the time, you might assume it is tech crew running a bit behind on their duties, as they usually perform these tasks before the house opens. We eventually realize this stagehand is actually Ella Beatty, one of the two leads in the show and Hugh Jackman’s scene partner. This pre-show detail ends up being significant to the story.

At other shows, the first performance back after many days off can be a bit rough. Not for Hugh Jackman and Ella Beatty. Hugh’s stage presence and acting performance quickly remind us why he is the legendary Hugh Jackman. He is just the best.

The woman sitting next to me is barely awake, and she explains she is an ICU nurse from London, and she flew into NYC for one night only, just to see Hugh Jackman. She was able to meet Hugh and get a picture with him before the show. At one point in the show, Hugh sits down at the edge of the stage, and he was immediately in front of her. I glanced at her, and she was clearly in heaven. Her one night travel adventure was worth it.

Early in the show, Hugh begins pushing a cordless lawnmower across the wooden stage floor. It is a brilliant prop, as I cannot think of a more efficient way for the playwright to let us know the character is outdoors on his lawn, presumably in front of his house. So efficient, and the character didn’t need to announce to us that he was in his yard. We firmly believe that wooden stage floor is absolutely a lawn. Hugh knows how to deliver it just perfectly, so it’s also just the right amount of funny that a somewhat noisy lawnmower is in use on stage.

If you have read about this performance, you know that Hugh sometimes interacts with the audience. At our show, he said “bless you” to a patron who sneezed, and later, when an audience member sneezed so violently that we all jumped in our chairs, he of course addressed it, causing quite a bit of laughter in the audience, before he finally went back to, “now where was I?”

As the title suggests, the play covers a very serious subject matter, and Hugh indeed makes us cringe multiple times throughout the show. The story works perfectly with a male lead where you might want to have just a bit of empathy (we love Hugh, right?). Don’t worry, the playwright knows what she is doing.

At the end of the show, you understand why the show started the way it did. I left this trip feeling like I had seen one of the best plays I had ever seen, and I did rank it “best play” for my trip (I rated Oh, Mary!, which I also loved, as the play with the most laughs). I liked it so much, I sent the play info to a local theatre in Seattle and encouraged them to consider programming it for an upcoming season. This was before I learned that the very first reading of this play was actually at a different local theatre in Seattle, Seattle Rep - ha!

While Hugh and Ella are fantastic casting, this story by Hannah Moscovitch can stand on its own and be excellent with any talented cast. I do always enjoy discovering new talent, and it was a pleasure to discover Ella Beatty’s talent. Ella is a Juilliard graduate and is also the daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, so she fits right in working alongside Hugh Jackman. To be clear, it was Ella’s talent, education, and hard work that made her fantastic in this show.

This show closed on June 18, and I am grateful I got to experience this production and this incredible cast before it closed. I also enjoyed this venue and will be on the lookout for shows at this location in the future.

See more show reviews from 2025.