“Crowd-Pleasing Theater to See,” New York Times, Helen Shaw

“As the summer heats up, our critics are raving about these seven not-to-miss Off Broadway shows.”

Eric Marlin’s cryptic play about camp and its discontents isn’t exactly — or solely — a play. The director Ilana Khanin treats Marlin’s disorienting and archly funny text as if it were a avant-garde choreographic score: For the first section of the 65-minute show, it’s like a dance of the minimalist Judson Church variety; then it becomes a drag re-enactment, as if a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” shadow cast had decided to act out “Casablanca” instead.

New York Theatre Review, Theresa Buchheister

I got swept away last night, over and over again, by the pearl in MY oyster, this beguiling play, written with twisting humor and roiling inner monologue that becomes outer monologue by Eric Marlin and directed by Ilana Khanin with an unique choreographic sensibility shared by great directors like Richard Foreman and Tina Satter.

If you want to have some new art crushes, you should go see this show

“Soapbox: Objects in Motion (July 2026)",” Staff Picks, Reuven Glezer

If the authenticity is buried deep within, Ilana Khanin’s artful production excavates. Layer by layer of light, proppage, and a bit of metatheatrical fun brings the work closer to an unknowable surface and then, at last, the drag performance which volleys between camp, recreation, & transformation in a way the best drag does. 

Theatre Clique, Brian Eugenio Herrera

“Imagine my surprise, delight, and wonder to encounter one of the most — I can’t think of a better word — stimulating shows I’ve seen in recent memory. Visually stimulating. Intellectually stimulating. Sensorially stimulating. Emotionally stimulating. Technically stimulating. The whole contraption was a giant stim that left me buzzing but becalmed. As I observed immediately afterwards to friendly acquaintance (and veteran theatre taste-maker) who happened to take the seat next to mine, What a World! What a World! somehow felt both like a throwback and utterly of this moment.”

“artful physical vocabulary.”

“Thanks to Marlin’s script, Khanin’s astutely physical direction, and the captivating central performances by Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg (all four major talents to keep an eye out for), the defiantly stupid-smart oscillations of What a World! What a World! proved an unexpected — and unexpectedly exhilarating — experience.”

“What a World! What a World!: What a Play!”, Thinking Theatre NYC, John R. Ziegler and Leah Richards

“The pair deliver Marlin's often heightened language with compelling artistry and humor, sometimes complementing it with stylized synchronized movement, while director Khanin does not shy away from some effective extended pauses and periods of quiet as a counterbalance.”

“Challenging notions of…camp… in Eric Marlin’s WHAT A WORLD! WHAT A WORLD!…,”Interludes, Adrian Dimalig

“As deceptively directed by Ilana Khanin, What a World! What a World! unfolds with precision and genuine curiosity.”