Damien Warren-Smith (Photo: Austin Ruffer)
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins
by Deb Miller on September 8, 2026
After winning multiple awards and selling out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, London’s West End, and the Edinburgh Fringe, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is now making its US debut at Off-Broadway’s Studio Seaview. The super-wacky, rapid-fire, no-holds-barred solo comedy, written and performed by Australian native Damien Warren-Smith, takes us on a literary adventure like no other.
In the course of an hour, his alter-ego Garry Starr, determined to prevent books from becoming extinct, combines comedy, clowning, mime, singing and dancing, aerial and floor acrobatics, acting and improvisation, and audience interaction and voluntary participation, in dozens of zany segments. Each is based on an iconic title published in the Penguin Classics series and each is tenuously but cleverly connected to the next for a non-stop transition from one to the other.
Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books in the 1930s, envisioned a “dignified but flippant” symbol for his new book publishing business in the UK. His secretary suggested a penguin and another employee made some sketches at the London Zoo. In keeping with the colors of the image and the desire of Lane, Warren-Smith appears on stage in a white ruff, black top hat and tails (dignified), orange flippers, and nothing else (flippant, to be sure!).
The uninhibited nakedness, from the moment he directly addresses the audience, sets the uproarious tone and serves as the center of his madcap performance. Needless to say, this “classics stripped bare show” comes with a warning: the production is strictly limited to ages 18+ and includes full nudity, along with haze, a rotating and reflecting disco ball, and strobes (lighting by Lily Woodford-Lewis).
Damien Warren-Smith (Photo: Austin Ruffer)
Under the active direction of Cal McCrystal, the “Starr” moves (and initially waddles and flaps) vigorously around the stage, furnished with a central revolving office chair. Before the show begins, we see him seated in it, from behind, with clouds of smoke rising above him, and then, after he spins around to face us, coming from a different part of his anatomy. It not only triggers the unrestrained humor immediately, it also makes us wonder: how did he do that? At audience left is a trunk filled with hilarious, themed props, and, on the right, a bookshelf holding the original Penguin Classics he selects (with orange, black, and white covers), seen on a large-scale live-feed upstage projection screen (set by Takis).
Among the celebrated works from the canon of fiction he reimagines, leaping inexhaustibly through titles, characters, and stories, are Around the World in Eighty Days and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, both of which are done with riotous moves that, amazingly, still leave him standing. He includes a few current political notes, one in reference to The Communist Manifesto, another to Nineteen Eighty-Four; conflates Hamlet with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” while holding a skull; and embodies Moby Dick (no need to elaborate; the title says enough).
Other sections feature a merger of Treasure Island and The Little Prince, with a buried artifact found by a volunteer in a most unexpected place. That, his wild ride through The Waves, over our seats to The Beach Boys’ hit “Surfin’ USA,” and an audacious volunteer segment on The Grapes of Wrath, with grapes, elicited not just yuks of laughter from the crowd, but also yucks of laughing disgust. And perhaps the most surprising bit of all is The Jungle Book, with a sidesplitting twist you won’t see coming (even though we’ve been told), as fully embraced by a willing member of the audience. To say any more would ruin the never-ending shock value and fringe-style humor, so no spoilers here. It’s best just to experience it for yourself, if you’re not easily – or even not-so-easily – offended.
Damien Warren-Smith (Photo: Austin Ruffer)
One more observation about the content of the show: cultural attitudes towards public nudity tend to be more accepting and permissive in Europe and Australia, and less restrictive than in the US; the body is seen as natural, not solely sexual or indecent. In Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, Warren-Smith employs his – every bit of it – for outrageously comedic purposes.
When he first called for volunteers on the date I attended in NYC, the audience was extremely hesitant; several members he directly asked to participate (including the many reviewers he saw taking notes) declined. But as the show progressed and the boisterous guffaws never stopped, there was a dramatic shift in the response, with a steady increase of enthusiastic volunteers throughout the full house. It’s a testament to our need for unapologetically absurd fun in troubled times and his extraordinary ability to provide it.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins
At Studio Seaview
305 West 43rd St.
Running time: 60 minutes, no intermission
Through October 11, 2026
