Draft:Michael Breslin
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[edit]Michael Breslin is an American playwright, composer, lyricist, screenwriter, and theatre director. His work often addresses internet culture, popular music, and queer performance. He is the co-creator, with Patrick Foley, of Circle Jerk, a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Breslin also created the musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (The New Group, 2025) and This American Wife (Fake Friends, 2021), and directed Invasive Species, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2024 and transferred to London’s King’s Head Theatre in 2025. In film, he co-wrote the forthcoming feature The Wives, produced by Apple Studios and A24 and starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Career
[edit]Breslin is a co-founder, with Patrick Foley, of the New York–based performance collective Fake Friends.
His new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse premiered Off-Broadway with The New Group at the Vineyard Theatre in 2025. Former The New York Times chief critic Ben Brantley described it as “the best musical to date about living online.”[1] In her Critic’s Pick review for the Times, Rhoda Feng called Breslin’s songs “catchy as hell,” with “the tingle of soda pop reaching a tender spot at the back of your throat,” and praised the production’s “exuberant intelligence.”[2]
Circle Jerk, a 2020 livestreamed play by Fake Friends that satirized internet meme culture and far-right discourse, was named a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and later restaged in person at the Connelly Theatre in 2022.[3] In her review for Vulture, Helen Shaw described the livestreamed work as “a true, non-sterile hybrid of theatre and film… queer as hell,”[4] and later called the stage iteration “a hype-beast comedy of the extremely online.”[5] According to Vinson Cunningham in The New Yorker, Breslin and Foley “are formidably smart writers and performers.”[6]
In 2021, Breslin and Foley created This American Wife, a hybrid live-stream performance exploring reality-television culture and queer spectatorship. The work was streamed from a real suburban McMansion. The New Yorker'’s Michael Schulman cited the production among the “Best Performances of 2021,”[7] and Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times named it one of the “Highlight Theater Moments of 2021.”[8]
As a director, Breslin staged Invasive Species, a play by Maia Novi, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2024 before transferring to London’s King’s Head Theatre in 2025.
Critics in both cities highlighted the production’s blending of meta-theatre and dark comedy. {{cite news}}: Empty citation (help)
In addition to his stage work, Breslin co-wrote the forthcoming feature film The Wives, produced by Apple Studios and A24 and starring Jennifer Lawrence. {{cite news}}: Empty citation (help)
Awards and recognition
[edit]Breslin and his collaborator Patrick Foley were named finalists for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for their livestreamed play Circle Jerk.[3]
Circle Jerk won an Obie Award and was nominated for a Drama League Award.[9][10]
Circle Jerk was also cited by Vulture as one of the “Best Theatre Moments of 2020.”[11]
Breslin and Foley’s hybrid production This American Wife was listed by The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman among the “Best Performances of 2021,”[7] and was named one of the “Highlight Theater Moments of 2021” by Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times.[8]
Breslin contributed to the online event Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, which won a Webby Award for Virtual & Remote Entertainment in 2021.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ Brantley, Ben (14 May 2025). "Review: 'The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse' Is the Best Musical to Date About Living Online". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ Feng, Rhoda (14 May 2025). "'The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse' Is a Critics' Pick". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ a b "2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalists: Drama". Pulitzer.org. 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ Shaw, Helen (21 October 2020). "Review: 'Circle Jerk' Streams a True, Non-Sterile Hybrid of Theatre and Film—Queer as Hell". Vulture. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ Shaw, Helen (15 June 2022). "'Circle Jerk,' a Hype-Beast Comedy of the Extremely Online, Returns to the Stage". Vulture. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ Cunningham, Vinson (27 June 2022). "Goings On About Town: 'Circle Jerk'". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ a b Schulman, Michael (27 December 2021). "The Best Performances of 2021". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ a b McNulty, Charles (28 December 2021). "Theatre Highlights of 2021". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ "2022 Obie Award Winners Announced". American Theatre. 14 February 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ "Drama League Announces 2021 Nominees". Drama League. 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ Shaw, Helen (23 December 2020). "The Best Theater Moments of 2020". Vulture. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ "2021 Webby Awards: Virtual & Remote Entertainment Winner – Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical". The Webby Awards. 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2025.