THE PETERSON SHOW


The laughs come fast and furious amidst resurrected childhood traumas when five Cosby Show-style sitcom siblings find themselves reunited decades later in Janine Nabers’ The Peterson Show, the latest World Premiere Echo Theater Company must-see.

Grey’s Academy’s Kelly McCreary stars as former child actress Blair Humphries, not only “born into abject poverty in Maryland, the daughter of a heroin addict mother who died in prison and an HIV infected mail man” but also “orphaned and illiterate until the age of nine” and on the road to nowhere until being cast as one of five young siblings on “The Peterson Show,” a groundbreaking 1980s sitcom starring the now disgraced comedian-turned-sexual predator Hayword Peterson.

But that was thirty-plus years ago, and like her four TV brothers and sisters, Blair has moved on from her childhood stardom, in her case having just won a Best Actress Oscar for playing Ashtabula Jones, a “smack-addicted gang member who gets clean for her troubled son.”

Not all of Blair’s TV costars have fared nearly as well.

The loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of residuals has had Blair’s TV twin Ronika (Tamberla Perry) resorting to Only Fans to pay the bills and Dwight (Devere Rogers) has found that childhood success doesn’t mean a whit when you’re a flamboyant plus-sized adult.

Opting out of showbiz has had Elliot (John Clarence Stewart) faring considerably better as a successful corporate lawyer, and the same was true until recently for university professor Zoe (Kristen Ariza) until her refusal to remove “The Peterson Show” from her class syllabus caused her to lose tenure about the same time as her husband Ben lost all their savings to a very bad investment.

And if the five sitcom siblings have remained only sporadically in contact since their show went off the air, that’s about to change when tragic news about Valerie (Deanna Reed-Foster), the first of their two TV moms, has the shit hitting the fan.

Taking the real-life Cosby Show as her point of departure, playwright Nabers cleverly stirs in elements of other groundbreaking 1980s/90 African American sitcoms. (Like Fresh Prince’s Aunt Viv, the role of Melinda Peterson got recast mid-run with a lighter-skinned actress than Valerie. As in Sister, Sister, two of the Peterson sisters were fraternal twins. And following in Family Matters’ Judy’s footsteps, Ronika walked up the stairs and “Danielle Peterson” never came down again.)

All of this adds up to play whose sitcom-style laughs tickle the funny bone even as a) the issues it raises, and a considerably more dramatic second act, serve as a reminder that there was far more darkness than light on The Cosby, sorry, make that The Peterson Show set, and b) its characters debate the rightness or wrongness of systematically removing a TV game-changer from mainstream syndication and streaming platforms alike.

Director Michelle Bossy and an all-around sensational cast successfully balance the outrageously comedic and the starkly dramatic in a show that is guaranteed to inspire abundant heated post-performance discussion and debate.

Perry’s psychologically scarred Ronika, Ariza’s seemingly level-headed Zoe, Rogers’ intentionally over-the-top Dwight, McCreary’s selfishly self-protective Blair, Stewart’s teen idol-turned-adult heartthrob Elliot, and Reed-Foster’s caring but ultimately enabling Valerie are all six as good as it gets, and having talented teenager Journee Ross appear as Ronika’s younger self is a devastating stroke of genius.

As far as production design is concerned, The Peterson Show looks and sounds like a million bucks thanks to Michael Kramer’s multicam-sitcom-ready Patterson family home set, Matt Richter’s sunny/dramatic lighting, Wendell C. Carmichael’s eye-catching blend of contemporary and 1980s costumes, and Jesse Mandapat’s sitcom-evoking sound design (with special snaps to the starkness he gives an unseen Hayward Peterson’s imperious-meets-creepy voice).

Last but not least, Patrick McCollom has choreographed a 1980s Peterson kids dance number that opens Act Two with fabulosity and pizzazz.

The Peterson Show is produced by Chris Fields and Meghan McEnery. Sharon Freedman is associate producer. Randolph Perrine and Jolie Simmons make occasional brief onstage appearances. Meagan Prahl is intimacy coordinator. Beth Van Damn is art director. Erin Newsom is production stage manger. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Already on a roll with Olivia Dufault’s For Want Of A Horse and Erik Patterson’s F**king Strangers, Echo Theater Company makes it three provocative winners in a row with their latest gut-punching hit. Expect to be thinking about Janine Nabers’ The Peterson Show long after its dramatic fade to black.

The Echo Theater Company @ Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village. Through October 26. Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 4:00. Also Thursday October 1 at 8:00. No performance Saturday October 4.
www.EchoTheaterCompany.com

–Steven Stanley
September 28, 2026
Photos: Cooper Bates

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

 

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