Jonny-James Kajoba, Rob McClure, Matt Walker, Michael Genet (Photo: Russ Rowland)
Spare Parts
By Julia Polinsky
Just imagine: you are a gazillionaire tech bro super uber master of the universe. Everything money can buy, you can buy. But you can’t buy youth or health. Or, with sufficient planning and unlimited funds, can you? Spare Parts, a new play by David J. Glass now at Theater Row, posits that maybe, just maybe you can. But at what cost?
Zeit Smith (Michael Genet), the gazillionaire in question in Spare Parts, has put his plans in place, and is ready to do anything at all to get younger, healthier, at any cost (“Zeit” means “time,” by the way). He assigns his assistant, the hyper-efficient Ivan (Jonny-James Kajoba), to find scientists willing to do what’s necessary.
Enter the cautious, competent, appropriately rumpled Professor Coffee (Rob McClure), a researcher at Columbia who specializes in aging, and his jejune, tousle-haired, ambitious grad student, Jeffrey (Matt Walker). Coffey’s anti-aging research has had some positive results, extending the lifespans of lower life forms like worms; he’s the very model of academic thoroughness and makes sure his gene editing passes the university’s review boards etc.
Smith doesn’t give a damn about worms or review boards. He wants to be younger now. Coffey says that’s just not possible; the technology is decades away. His scientific caution and ethics nearly bitch the pitch until the lowly grad student pipes up with unethical and untried possibilities, talking of experiments that take the blood of young mice and transfuse it into older mice. The older mice live longer. Regardless of how slim the chances of success in a human, or the questionable ethics of the work, Smith is intrigued.
Jonny-James Kajoba, Matt Walker, Rob McClure, Michael Genet (Photo: Russ Rowland)
After some time spent belittling academia and its review boards, approvals process, and intellectual lockstep, especially after the US government’s cuts to research – oh, the irony of a tech bro noting DOGE’s contempt for academics and specifically Columbia University’s caving in to government pressure – Smith throws money at Coffee and Jeffrey until they can’t turn it down, and that’s the setup.
Speaking of setup, Scott Penner’s scenic design divides the set in 3 areas, apparently meant to be roughly two labs on left and right, and a central playing area with an enormous oval panel/screen that hovers over the center, visually making it the Most Important Space on stage. That’s where Zack Lobel’s lighting design focuses, in the center of it all. Ryan Gamblin’s music and sound design underscore the ominous, cueing “pay attention!” as hard as it can. Costume design from Amanda Roberge telegraphs character in all the right, subtle ways.
Playwright David J. Glass is also an MD, a biotech researcher, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard, and an Adjunct Professor in Genetics and Development at Columbia. Yes, as you might imagine, he does study the process of aging. Which is why, at times, especially in the early stages of Spare Parts, the play feels a bit more like a lecture and less like a play, talking science at the expense of plot or character. Things get more dramatic when Smith makes some personal comments about how Jeffrey the grad student is gay, and so is Ivan, the SuperAssistant. They inevitably are attracted to each other, and a subplot around them gets kludged into the show.
That romance subplot actually helps us make the play personal, and to understand Ivan, whose world is completely upended by some shocking late-play information from Smith. No spoilers, but the impact is huge and makes the show edge-of-your-seat by the end.
Jonny-James Kajoba, Michael Genet (Photo: Russ Rowland)
Kajoba’s performance is the best of show; torn from his moorings, Ivan carries the greatest ethical weight in Spare Parts, and that’s saying a lot. Matt Walker’s Jeffrey also makes the most of nuance. Rob McClure, an actor of astonishing talent and skill, has little to work with, and Michael Genet’s Smith is a one-note character who does not develop, but kudos to him for not making Smith a comic-book crazy corporate villain.
Spare Parts asks tough questions, many of which are actually being addressed in real time world around us. Well worth taking a look at one possible future. Or is it not future, but now?
At Theater Row, Theater Three
410 West 42nd Street
Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission
Through April 10, 2026
