Trapped: The Weekend and the Search for Love
Written & Performed by AKIL e. pinckney
Presented by LIKA-WISE Entertainment LLC, Presented by the New York City Fringe Festival
Sun April 5 at 5:20pm, Tue April 7 at 6pm, Sat April 11 at 2pm, Sat April 18 at 10:20pm & Sun April 19 at 3:40pm, 2026
A one-man musical with finesse. That’s how I would describe Trapped: The Weekend and the Search for Love, written and performed by AKIL e. Pinckney.
We’re all searching for love. All kinds of love. Akil demonstrates the lengths one can go to to keep it, even if it’s toxic for us. But what he does differently is the way he tells this story.
How does love – something so pure, so aspirational, so… lovely — turn on us and turn us into shells of souls? It was refreshing to see a show that concentrates on the very real, very anxious, very toxic repercussions love can thrust upon us.
We meet CJ, an extra reaching for tv & film star dreams, who gets trapped in an elevator. It's Valentine’s Day. From there, we get a flashback of his weekend, where we meet his Ex and characters he’s come across in his travels.
Akil plays all of them, showing impeccable range. He single handedly takes on a number of characters, each with a different wardrobe, personality, accent, and singing-style. When we cut back to CJ talking to his ex in his apartment, the lights turn red, his breathing grows short, and he hides away in the bathroom to center his nervous system.
Akil has crafted a show that jumps through time, so you’re going to have to go along for this artful ride. When strapped in, you feel every one of CJ’s feelings as your own. They hit close to home. Unapproving parents, unapproving partners, questions of giving up, the inability to fill an empty cup, and unrequited everything. The world feels against you.
Then, something seemingly random happens. One random phone call that changes perspective, which then in turn changes everything. You no longer give up. You fill your own cup. The elevator gets running again, and you're no longer trapped. And now with beautifully written musical numbers in your book!
Akil teaches us that the best kind of love in order to love others is for ourselves. That's how we shine our light. It wasn’t a search after all.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Amanda Montoni.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 6, 2026. All rights reserved.
