Saloon Girls
Written by August Kiss Fegley, Alison Newton and Katie Kunkel; Directed By Katie Kunkel
59 E 59 Theatres | 59 East 59th Street, NY, NY
July 16 - July 19
Ah, Saloon Girls! A title so drenched in Americana it practically reeks of tobacco smoke, cheap whiskey, and the distant twang of an out-of-tune upright piano. One needn’t reach far into the annals of history to conjure the dusty tableau the title evokes—the frayed, feverish epoch of American expansionism, that tumultuous land-grab era of the late 17th century (though, one might gently nudge the dramaturg to revisit their historical timeline, as the westward rush was more of an 18th–19th century affair). Nonetheless, the image holds: settlers clawing civilization from the soil, the lonely sprawl of ranches and homesteads giving way to nascent towns, and at the beating, brash heart of each—yes, the saloon.
The saloon: both refuge and theater, where society’s weary men sought liquor, levity, and liberation from the drudgery of toil. And inevitably, where women—often marginalized, sometimes mythologized—found their own niche in an ecosystem that was rowdy, male-dominated, and rarely lawful. Thus enters the saloon girl: part entertainer, part confidante, part entrepreneur. An archetype forged not in the fires of domestic respectability, but in the dusty footlights of survival.
It is into this smoky, morally ambiguous setting that Saloon Girls plants its flag. To its credit, the piece does not attempt to moralize. Rather than diving into the tired debate of whether these women were “whores” or “soiled doves,” it chooses instead to sketch—lightly, perhaps too lightly—the intertwined lives of five women and their madam, women who survive and even flourish within their own chosen margins.
The thrust of the narrative—a long-lost sister arriving to seek out her kin—is more of a narrative lasso than a plot; it attempts to corral the emotional stakes, but ultimately lacks the depth or duration to root the audience in the characters’ journeys. This is, one suspects, by design. The true interest of Saloon Girls lies not in story, but in tone, texture, and tableau. It is less a play than a collection of character portraits—flickers of personality, glimpses into moments of shared vulnerability or riotous camaraderie.
Yet herein lies the production’s central conundrum. Authored collectively by August Kiss Fegley, Alison Newton, and director Katie Kunkel, the script bears the unmistakable hallmarks of creation-by-committee. There is an abundance of stories, yes, but not enough story. An embarrassment of characters, but a famine of arcs. Facts abound; what’s missing is the marrow: motivation, stakes, consequence. We are shown who these women are, but not why they are. The result is akin to flipping through a well-curated scrapbook—interesting, even moving at times—but emotionally distant.
Director Katie Kunkel navigates these waters with admirable grace, coaxing fluidity from what could easily have become an episodic tangle. The staging is nimble, efficient, and appropriately intimate for the cozy black-box setting of 59 E 59’s Theater C. Wisely, Kunkel leans into spectacle where substance is sparse. A significant portion of the production is devoted to the physicality of the women’s labor—dancing, performing, seducing—and here the production shines. Choreographer and intimacy coordinator Willow Funkhouser deserves a hearty curtain call for crafting movement that both titillates and informs. The audience is reminded that for these women, dancing is not a dalliance—it is a trade, a transaction, a tactic.
The ensemble—Fegley, Newton, Zoya Ansari, Aubree Ann Williams, Chloe Mutebi, and Olivia Tyrrell—are a promising constellation with each actress inhabiting her role with commitment, though the constraints of the script rarely allow them to soar. When they do break through, the effect is electric, and one longs for more of these moments: more conflict, more intimacy, more risk. Fegley as Marvel from her opening moment with a stripping, storytelling tease sets the tone, mother when she needs to be, sister when she needs to be, lover when she needs to be. Mutebi as Estelle, her lover, is very much the enchantress, providing the allure of a young Eartha Kitt. Ansari as Bim finds the charm in a youthful naivete, even in her first case of the clap. Newton as the down-to-earth Lucky about to give birth provides that fetishism wakeup call that yes, there are men that will find a way to eroticize and objectify even a pregnant woman. Williams as Stevie, Marvel’s sister, may walk in all-puritan but believably succumbs to her surroundings out of necessity. Tyrrell as Madam Pearl Calico is all no-nonsense as the entrepreneur in charge, but convincing when she has to do the right thing by her girls.
In sum, Saloon Girls is a vibrant and heartfelt homage to women too often relegated to the margins of history. It is not a complete play, but rather a loving pastiche, an atmospheric gesture toward stories that deserve fuller telling. With characters that win an audience over, perhaps Fringe-length “less is more” is setting the bar way too low for a tale such as this that is yearning to tell so much more. The writers developing the characters further, giving each of the actresses an opportunity to spread her wings, would inspire a greater commitment from the audience as well. With refinement and sharper dramaturgical focus, it would blossom into a more cohesive work. For now, it remains a spirited evening of theatrical sketchwork—one foot in the past, the other dancing on the boards.
Saloon Girls played its last performance on July 19.
Presented as part of East to Edinburgh at 59 E 59 Theatres
Review by Tony Marinelli.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on July 24 2025. All rights reserved.