Rosie is Red And Everybody is Blue, the new play at Capital Rep in Albany through May 18, is a situation comedy or a dramedy. It is not meant as a putdown. Rosie is a woman who was widowed a year earlier and drives the local school bus. Her brother-in-law (Montae Russell) moved in to tend to his sick brother and never left, driving her crazy. To make things more complicated, her depressed adult son (Chris Blunt) has moved back home. She appears to be the glue that holds everything together. But is that true?
Not only does it look and feel like a Norman Lear sitcom from 50 years ago, as the Times Union review suggests, but I also heard the Sanford and Son theme in the lead-in to a scene. It’s more “familiar than fresh,” but solid, with some witty banter.
Rosie is played by Inga Ballard, who was in the great Cap Rep production of Sweat in 2024. Maya Jackson plays a young woman from her past.
The local kid
Rosie was written by Capital Region native and Christian Brothers Academy alum John Spellos. He’s written screenplays and stage plays before producing and directing documentaries. He returned to writing in 2021. “Rosie” was the play selected from theREP’s 2023 Next Act! New Play Summit to receive further development with the theatre, and ultimately lead to this world premiere production.
The most entertaining part of the afternoon of April 26, though, was during the intermission. There were a whole bunch of folks sitting immediately behind me who were old friends of the playwright.
As my wife briefly left the row, I stood up. Spellos saw his compatriots, so he came into the row and started talking to them, telling him about some sort of neurological difficulty that he had had before the production. They had not heard about it.
He was involved in the casting, but he was pumped up on pain medicine. Watching a bunch of videos, he was having trouble making any kind of discernible distinction. He did want Inga Ballard, though, because he had seen her before and wanted her in this show. It was a bit surreal
