A nerdy gay college theater kid and the school’s hunky hockey team captain take an instant (but definitely not permanent) dislike to each other when auditioning for a same-sex romantic two-hander in Shak Kanish’s promising new play Melt, playing this weekend only at the Lee Strasberg Institute’s Marilyn Monroe Theatre.

College junior Eli (Kanish) has been unsuccessfully trying out for school plays for the past two years, which just one reason why Ryan’s (Nicholas Scott) cocky self-assurance when he signs up to audition brings out the worst in Eli. (“It’s a play. There’s acting. You’ll probably hate it. Goodbye.)

Imagine then Eli’s surprise when Ryan actually returns to read for the role of Jordan, and though the hockey jock beats a hasty retreat when he learns his character will have to (or get to) kiss another boy, drama professor-playwright-director Finch (Travis Lincoln Cox) evidently sees enough of what he’s looking for that when the cast list is posted, the two names on it are Eli’s and Ryan’s.

As rehearsals progress, we learn a good deal more about the two young men.

We learn that Ryan comes from a well-to-do local family, that his mother has been out of the picture for years, and that his father’s love for his athlete son may depend at least in part on the number of hockey trophies Ryan can accumulate.

Still, compared to Eli’s parents, who pretty much froze him out of their lives when he came out to them, Ryan’s dad is a veritable saint, and a major college donor to boot (and that includes paying for the school theater’s all new Michael Hale Lighting Rig).

It doesn’t take a romcom expert to figure out that Eli and Ryan’s hate-at-first-sight won’t last for long, not given Ryan’s penchant for wiping his forehead with his hockey jersey (the better to show off his rock-hard abs), and especially not once the seemingly mismatched duo have gotten past first impressions to discover what lies beneath the façades they’ve been showing the rest of the world.

That being said, not everything in Melt works quite as well as it might in future iterations.

The extreme homophobia confronted by both Eli and Ryan (the former from his parents, the latter from his teammates) might seem less, dare I say, dated in the 2020s if Kanish’s script made it clear that the two college students are living and studying somewhere in Red State America, and “What If?” (the absolutely gorgeous song Kanish has written and performs at the end of the play-within-a-play) might come less out of left field if it were suggested somewhere along the way that the two-hander the boys are starring in is actually a musical.

Also in the minus column, Melt’s uncredited scenic design comes across more workshop than fully-staged production, and often necessitates time-consuming scene changes.

On the decidedly plus side, I have nothing but good things to write about the performances that directors Fabiana Mendici and Chris Prinzo have elicited from their stellar cast.

Kanish is a natural as Eli, as sweetly awkward as he is self-defensively acerbic, and one heck of a singer to boot; Scott’s cocky but undeniably likable (and hot-as-blazes) Ryan generates plenty of George Clooney-Julia Roberts sparks between himself and Kanish; and Cox is not only leading-man handsome, Finch’s two decades of his own repressed trauma give him chance to show some powerful acting chops.

Miles Berman’s lighting and sound designs are both well thought out and executed, and though I’m less fond of music director Surya Miele’s rather generic between-scenes underscoring, having Miele on piano and Rory Glassford on guitar (both topnotch musicians) perform live is a nifty touch.

Jaden Harris Shaw plays Ryan on June 15 at 5:00.

Though not yet the polished finished product it has the potential to be, even as is, Melt (in the immortal words of Renée Zellweger to Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire) pretty much had me from hello. Or to paraphrase what snowman Olaf told Queen Elsa in Frozen, some plays (even imperfect ones) are worth melting for.

Marilyn Monroe Theatre at the Lee Strasberg Institute. 7936 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Through July 13. Friday at 7:30. Saturday at 5:00 and 8:00.
https://linktr.ee/melttheplay

–Steven Stanley
June 11, 2026
Curtain call photos: Steven Stanley

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Marilyn Monroe Theatre at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Shak Kanish