Van Reigersberg said 'Poor Judge' opens with a devastating breakup before plunging into the worlds of Hollywood and difficult jobs.
The Wilma Theater is bringing back 'Poor Judge: A Pig Iron Production,' the Barrymore Award–winning dance-theater cabaret set to the music of Grammy-winning artist Aimee Mann.
After earning three Barrymore Awards and drawing praise from Mann herself, 'Poor Judge' returns for a limited run due to popular demand.
Conceived by drag queen and Pig Iron Theatre Company co-founder Dito van Reigersberg, the production explores love, ambition, and the dark side of the American success story told through Mann’s catalog. The revival is directed by Eva Steinmetz, with musical direction and arrangements by Alex Bechtel, and reunites the original cast of Philadelphia-based actor-musicians: Emily Bate, Bechtel, Josh Machiz, Izzy Sazak, Jackie Soro, van Reigersberg, and Justin Yoder.
'Poor Judge' runs from Jan. 13 to 25, with performances presented in the Wilma’s 300-seat theater, followed by an on-demand streaming presentation available worldwide from Feb. 2 to 22.
'Poor Judge' is a live music mixtape that’s part spy story, part woeful tale of heartbreak, and part Hollywood audition. Through vignette and song, the dance-cabaret offers glimpses of an inviting, seductive Los Angeles and its shadow — the frightening underbelly of the American success story.
The production’s musical repertoire comprises 10 songs from the renowned singer-songwriter’s four-decade career, including the Academy Award-nominated single 'Save Me' from Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film, 'Magnolia'; 'Goose Snow Cone' from the 2017 Grammy Award-winning album 'Mental Illness'; and 'I’ve Had It' from her debut solo album 'Whatever.'
While van Reigersberg initially conceived 'Poor Judge' in 2022, he was forced to put the project on hold after he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia that same year. Van Reigersberg spent the majority of 2023 undergoing chemotherapy and receiving a bone marrow transplant while continuing to work on the project with director Eva Steinmetz.
“We'd already done a workshop of it when I was diagnosed," van Reigersberg said. “There's always the fear of like, ‘Oh no, there’s this piece – the sails have billowed and now it's not going to set sail.' As I was in the hospital. I had chemo for this leukemia, and then I had a bone marrow transplant, which is also a very tricky thing to do.”
During that treatment, van Reigersberg said he would email Steinmetz or Bechtel and then they would talk about the piece and van Reigersberg would listen to the songs and get excited.
Van Reigersberg thought about the best order of the songs and how that set list would tell a particular story in that order. He said those were things that he was able to work on, even during his treatment and recovery.
In 2024, van Reigersberg emerged triumphant and cancer-free, going on to perform in the world premiere of 'Poor Judge' at the Wilma.
“I think it's a good time to do the show again and it's a show that I really love doing,” said van Reigersberg. “It not only wants to have more life here in Philly, but we'd also love to take it on tour. It's a piece that has an interesting, weird sense of humor that we took from Aimee Mann. Her lyrics are both melancholic and funny and I think the piece is also that way.”
Van Reigersberg said 'Poor Judge' opens with a devastating breakup before plunging into the worlds of Hollywood and difficult jobs.
“It has a pretty light touch even though when it hits a melancholic cord, you really feel it,” he said. “I'm really proud of how totally complex it is. There are times where it's laugh-out-loud funny, and there are times where people are like, ‘Oh, that song makes me cry.’”
Van Reigersberg said one of the most compelling aspects of the piece is that the band and the cast are one and the same—the actors are the musicians, and the musicians are the actors.
“All seven people — we are most of the time playing instruments as well,” he said. “It makes it feel intimate and beautiful — we're both a cast of actors and a band.”
“This piece is experimenting with the form of how you tell a story with music,” van Reigersberg adds. “It's warm and it's reaching to the audience and wants to include them.”
'Poor Judge' is on stage at the Wilma Theatre from Jan. 13-25. More information and tickets are available online at wilmatheater.org
