The Dog Show. Come. Sit. Stay.
Have you ever wondered what dogs are thinking? Multiple Emmy and two-time Grammy Award winner David Javerbaum has, and he even wrote a new comedy about it. The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay, now playing a limited Off-Broadway run at Triad Theater, is presented as a series of monologues by an array of different breeds of dogs from the playwright’s imagined canine perspectives.
Directed by Richard Israel, a rotating cast of four – AJ Shively, Jordan Matthew Brown, Gizel Jiménez, and Angela Reed, at the performance I attended – doesn’t bark much but speaks the thoughts and feelings of the anthropomorphized dogs they represent. Set on a mostly bare stage, with five music stands and stools, microphones, and projections of the pooches they give voice to on an upstage screen (dog slide creation by Anthony Patryn), the actors are intentionally “‘leashed’ to their scripts” to give focus to the words.
Of course, these masterful actors don’t just stand there and read. They clearly know and embrace their lines, embody their canine characters with movements and gestures, facial expressions and vocal intonations that bring them to life. They also reveal what’s on the minds and in the hearts of the beloved pups, while directing our attention to the funny, meaningful, and poignant words they share, through more than twenty short, engaging, and adorable segments that elicited audible “aaawwws” from the audience throughout the intimate cabaret-style house.
The ever-compelling, award-winning Shively takes the role of the lead dog, opening the show at the central downstage stand with an explanation of the theme, joking about how difficult it is to get a dog off book or even to read, and the one thing they all have in common (no spoilers here, but it involves another furry non-domesticated species). He returns repeatedly in hilarious skits combining physical comedy with such concepts as questioning the idea of playing fetch (wondering why, if his Dad wants the ball, does he throw it away?); how important and rewarding it is to be the big brother of a baby human; and how much he wishes his people would drop pieces of the chicken they’re eating so he could have some.
Each of the other members of the cast also takes multiple turns center stage in the roles of a variety of breeds, all with their own distinctive personalities, emotions, and opinions. Among many other things, the soft and sweet-sounding Jiménez tells us what it’s like to be pampered by a wealthy Mom and to be carried around in a handbag that cost way more than she did; explains the “three incidents” for which she won’t apologize because she had to do it then and there; and gazes at the starry sky with Shively, while contemplating her belief in the great “Bow Wow,” backed by transcendental music (sound design by Brandon Hilfer and mood lighting by Zach Pizza).
Reed’s segments include recounting her multiple awards as a champion toy poodle and what the judging involves, and how exciting it is to be riding in a car with her head out the window, feeling the wind, smelling everything, and seeing other dogs, with arms thrown up and a big “woo hoo!” Brown not only tells us why dogs hate to take a bath, but also appears as a stern police dog, and a psychic dog, who walks through the audience, sniffs select people, and channels visions of who they are and what they’ve been doing.
The most touching scenes are Brown’s heartbreaking account of being abandoned by an unstable Mom, becoming a street dog, and finding a new home, but with the fear of being hurt again; and Shively closing the show with the heartfelt moral of the undying love and connection between dogs and their people.
If you love dogs as much as Javerbaum does (and I do!), be sure to follow The Dog Show’s titular commands to “Come. Sit. Stay.” You’ll be glad that you did. It will leave you all fuzzy and warm, and anxious to get back home to cuddle with your own fur baby.
The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay
At Triad Theater
158 West 72nd St.
Running time: 80 minutes, no intermission
Through November 29, 2026
