Local comic legends Tony Braithwaite and Jennifer Childs may not be married in real life, but their faux-marriage has entertained Philly audiences for decades.
‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married‘ hits the stage at Plays & Players Theatre starting Tuesday, April 2, and with it, Braithwaite and Childs do a lot of funny faking… again.
‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’ first debuted in 2013. In fact, ‘Married’ is but one of the six, long-continued cabarets that Childs and Braithwaite have made together.
“Between both of us being comedy history nerds — parsing every word, every move, chapter and verse of comic legends from Burns & Allen to Nichols & May — and the chemistry that Tony and I had and recognized early on, audiences, and even fellow actors thought that we were a couple,” says Childs while seated next to Braithwaite. “That didn’t make my actual husband very happy.”
Childs is married to fellow thespian Scott Greer, the man who first introduced her to Braithwaite during casting calls and audition sessions for local theater comedies throughout the 1990s.
“In the 90s, when Philadelphia became this bourgeoning hot spot for theater, there was this unofficial company of actors, artists, directors and designers who went from show-to-show,” notes Braithwaite. “Jen and I were two of those people. When I came back from L.A. to do ‘Death of a Salesman’ at the Arden, I became fast friends with Scott Greer – then newly coupled with Jen. We all had simpatico, but within the next 10 years, being in a ton of shows together, I found that Jen and I had comedic chemistry. And ‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’ grew out of that.”
Reuniting, then, for this 2025 iteration of “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” – complete with its nightly “Newlywed Game” pop-up for attending lucky couples – is as simple and easy as it is complex, and is as romantic as it is risqué.
Now, that’s marriage.
The duo – respectively, the artistic directors of their companies, 1812 Productions and Act II Playhouse – each start sentences that the other complete. They follow each other’s thoughts with similar queries and looks, that is, when they aren’t busy appearing as if they’re getting ready to correct each other.
“We can both quote easily from our comedy favorites, and there is always a lot of overlap,” says Childs.
Childs explains that their first collaboration, ‘The Big Time,’ was a vaudeville-style comedy revue. Co-star Greer described it as “pre-hipster,” noting that it emerged well before today’s ironic comic detachment—long before handlebar mustaches and vintage ice cream parlors became trendy.
“Doing a comic throwback to the turn of the last century such as that was a risk,” she says.
“We didn’t know what a risk it was, so to have it payoff and be so successful was validation,” adds Braithwaite.
It is from there, and their precise rhythmic execution of iconic Burns & Allen’s schtick (George Burns and Gracie Allen being the vaudeville era’s most notable wedded comics) that gave Childs and Braithwaite the green light to do addition comedy history plays as well as their humorous cabaret based on the joys and foibles of married life.
“We made ‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’ so we could do the comedy that we loved – everything from the great couple comic duos from the past to our take on the lounge act, T.B. & Jennie singing Captain & Tennille and Sonny & Cher songs,” says Childs.
“It didn’t exist before, so we had to do it ourselves,” says Braithwaite. “And we just added a new, nightly element where we play our version of ‘The Newlywed Game’ with members of the audience. At the end of the show, we’re going to renew their wedding vows on stage. Add to that the fresh stuff that we just throw in, and the improvisation that those sketches require, and ‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’ is a genuine mix of the old and the new.”
‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’ is on stage at Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, from April 2-13. For information and tickets, visit 1812productions.org
