The first production photos of Love Me arrived on the day the show opens at SoHo Playhouse, where Drew Michael, the Emmy-nominated former Saturday Night Live writer, makes his Off-Broadway debut in a solo piece he wrote himself. Opening night is Thursday, October 29, and the engagement is limited to 22 performances.
The show reaches New York by way of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it ran in 2023, and is presented here as part of the 2026 New York Comedy Festival. What separates it from Michael’s stand-up is the delivery. Every audience member wears headphones, and the story of his lifelong search for love unfolds in five chapters, one for each of five relationships, carried as much by a cinematic sound design as by the man on stage. Reviewing the Fringe run, The Guardian called it “an inventive and intimate set that narrows to a heartfelt conclusion.”
Directing is Prashanth Venkataramanujam, Michael’s longtime collaborator and a Peabody winner as co-creator and head writer of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. His other credits include Bill Nye Saves the World and the Netflix film Best of the Best. Sound design is by Tony nominee Daniel Kluger, with Chelsea Zalikowski as visual access engineer. Evan Bernardin Productions is general manager.
The producers are Deaf West Theatre (artistic director DJ Kurs, managing director Jeff Perri), OHenry Productions, Nimitt Mankad and Venkataramanujam himself. Deaf West’s hand is visible in the new pictures: one catches a deaf audience member in the house, another a crowd in the Auracast-enabled headphones the show is built around. The Los Angeles company, best known in New York for its Broadway revivals of Big River and Spring Awakening, is also marking its 35th season with its first New York gala, at Joe’s Pub.
Before this, Michael was best known for his television work. His writing for Saturday Night Live brought his first Emmy nomination, and his two hour-long HBO specials, Drew Michael (2018) and Red Blue Green (2021), each earned him a Writers Guild nomination.
Love Me runs at SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, through Sunday, November 22. Tickets are on sale now through our Love Me page.
