WINNER: Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre
American Academy of Arts and Letters
WINNER: Elliot Norton Award for Solo Performance
Boston Theater Critics Association
Short-listed for BEST MUSICAL at Edinburgh Fringe
One of THEATER MIRROR and BAY WINDOWS top 10 shows of 2024
additional support from: New England Foundation for the Arts, Connecticut Office of the Arts, New Jewish Culture Fellowship, Yaddo, New Harmony Conference
WINNER: Jean Kennedy Smith & Musical Theatre Awards from The Kennedy Center
“raw & wrenching…a remarkable achievement”
The Boston Globe
“pulsating” & “enthralling”
Theater Mirror
“an emotionally-charged…road trip”
The Sleepless Critic
ABOUT THE SHOW
Get in, we’re taking a road trip.
DRIVING IN CIRCLES is a solo-ish show for singer-storyteller and live band smashing together confessional monologue, stand-up comedy, and rock concert. Set to a sometimes whispering, sometimes screaming art-rock score, DRIVING takes an intimate, autobiographical look at the aftershocks of childhood sexual abuse rippling through a darkly funny, deeply felt, defiantly hopeful journey across the bodymind-altering landscapes of trauma towards something like happiness.
Interweaving live performance and archival video, live music and tracked sounds, present meaning-making and past remembrances, DRIVING is not a re-creation of violence: it’s about what happens around and after intimate violence, about finding hope and community, about rejecting radical individualism and learning how to sit with the hard stuff together.
Praise for the Boston production:
“propulsive score”
“a fusion of urgency & a ferocious eloquence”
“flashes of humor & warmth”
“There are times…when words burst out of Jay Eddy in such a headlong torrent that they seem to be racing one another to the end of the sentence. And there are times when the words emerge very slowly and deliberately, as if Eddy wants to underscore the effort it’s taken to translate this raw and wrenching story into theatrical terms. At either tempo, Eddy is a fiercely compelling performer. And Driving in Circles is a remarkable achievement.” - Don Aucoin, The Boston Globe
“powered by an astonishingly cool folktronica score”
“Eddy is an assured performer, alternately enraged, playful, and reflective, and their songwriting, orchestrations, and emotive voice make for as enjoyable a night of musical theater as you’re likely to experience this or any other year.” - Mike Hoban, Theater Mirror
“Eddy is a powerful, edgy, & expressive singer”
“Now here is something refreshingly different. Directed with energizing flair by Sam Plattus…Driving in Circles is essentially an emotionally-charged concert road trip through…events that have shaped Eddy’s life. It is powerful, sad, and disturbing at times, but is also hopeful, charming and lighthearted on this unpredictable road to healing…Eddy’s enthusiasm and interactive style is relatable, warm, sincere, and funny.” - The Sleepless Critic
