“Why is it still like this?” Janice sighs to Eliza. It’s 1992, and Eliza is the brainy new recruit at a small-shop architecture firm. But she’s struggling to get a foothold on even the lowest rung of the company ladder, and starts making moves to blow the lid off their pandora’s box of office politics and social maneuvering, in this sharply hilarious black comedy. Rebeck brings her trademark blistering wit to the workplace in this darkly funny and all-too-relevant comedy of gender politics.

WP Theater proudly presents, by special arrangement with Segal NYC Productions, the Off-Broadway premiere of What We’re Up Against from award winning playwright Theresa Rebeck (Mauritus, Seminar, NBC’s “Smash”), directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Dry Land, Empathitrax), starring Skylar Astin (Spring Awakening, “Pitch Perfect”), Marg Helgenberger (The Little Foxes, “CSI”), Jim Parrack (Of Mice and Men, “True Blood”), Krysta Rodriguez (First Date, NBC’s “Smash”), & Damian Young (All My Sons, “House of Cards”).

Certainly an all-too-relatable play, What We’re Up Against, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt and now playing at the WP Theater, relies very heavily on its dialogue. Fast-paced and yet annoyingly overly verbose at times, this well-structured play by award-winning playwright Theresa Rebeck visits the fundamentals of sexism and favoritism in the workplace. Eliza, a skilled architect, is eager to make her name at the firm she worked for, but seems to be kept in the corner. It’s been five months of sitting in a cramped office given nothing to do, when all the talented architect wants to do is design. Although Eliza is not always a likable character, Krysta Rodriguez who plays her is a very likable actress. Her character can’t seem to get a foothold on even the lowest rung of the architecture firm, but Rodriguez certainly stands at the top of the ladder on the stage when it comes to her spot-on delivery in this play. Krysta’s only female co-worker, the older and more experienced reluctant colleague, Janice, played by CSI’s Marg Helgenberger, seems to be unwilling to take notice of young Eliza’s struggles. Chauvinism rears its ugly head in this office of “boys club” mentality; 1992, whe …Read more