Extra Dry
Written and performed by Michelle Renee Johnson, Directed by Lila Rachel Becker
Presented by the New York City Fringe Festival
Under St. Marks Theater 94 St. Marks Pl New York NY 10009
April 5 at 3:40pm, April 6 at 8:10pm, April 11 at 8:40pm, April 17 at 6:30pm
Extra Dry, written and performed by Michelle Renee Johnson, is an honest, frank, and refreshingly candid portrayal of alcohol addiction. As we all know, the disease of alcoholism has no face. Those most unsuspecting can be silently suffering the most. Johnson takes on the horrifying realities of being plagued with alcoholism from the time she studied abroad as a young college student through her young adulthood.
The scene design was particularly poignant. A white rectangular bar lit with LED lights stood across from a microphone. Director Lila Rachel Becker ensured, through blocking, the believability of how Michelle ventures back and forth between telling the story in real time and speaking into a microphone to shift focus into a stand up routine. Throughout the performance, she blacks out repeatedly on stage. Not only do we morbidly come to expect it, but the impact of watching her drop to the floor remains striking and jarring. You cannot help but question how someone could drink to this extent without trying to judge. While this repetition borders on predictability, it ultimately enhances the unsettling nature of addiction.
Johnson is unapologetically brave and true to herself the entire time. Not once do you see her flinch or even cringe at the thought of what the audience might be thinking. As she coolly mixes drink after drink for herself, there is something almost cathartic in witnessing her control over the narrative. She is able to relive these painful moments with emotional distance, and in doing so strengthens her bond with sobriety.
When watching the show, it does not immediately occur to you that this is a true story until she mentions a tattoo she designed while drunk, “quinoa.” At that very moment, she flashes the audience with the exact tattoo she described, and that is when it hits. She is the story. This is her life.
While she brings us into this compelling journey through her active addiction, the ending feels abrupt. Johnson quickly arrives at her decision to become sober but does not fully explore how she got there or what sobriety means to her now. A deeper reflection on that transformation would give the piece a stronger sense of completion. As engaging as the stories of excess are, understanding how she sustained recovery would offer a more fully realized portrait of her journey.
As part of the New York City Fringe Festival, this raw confessional underscores theater’s ability to move beyond entertainment into confrontation and reflection. Extra Dry finds its power in the act of sharing, transforming personal history into something communal, where shame is not erased but faced head on.
Review by Bianca Lopez.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 21, 2026. All rights reserved.
