What if dogs could finally tell us what they think of us?
In The Dog Show: Come. Sit. Stay., acclaimed comedy writer, lyricist, and producer David Adam Javerbaum gives them the microphone. The winner of 13 Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards, and an 11-year veteran of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Javerbaum brings his sharp comic voice to this inventive new stage work.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel
Javerbaum imagines the answer through a rapid series of monologues spoken from the perspectives of different dogs. Puppies, pampered pets, police dogs, and others hold forth on car windows, baths, house-breaking, and the peculiar demands of life with humans. The premise is simple, but the varied canine voices give it comic range.
Director Richard Israel must bring an unusual range of characters to life—from a pampered Rodeo Drive dog carried in a $4,800 bag to a bewildered pet abandoned by its owner. An award-winning theater director, producer, and former actor, Israel has spent more than two decades directing acclaimed productions and received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Milton Katselas Award for Career Achievement in Direction. Here, he turns Javerbaum’s absurd situations—a sled dog at work, a puppy resisting housebreaking—into recognizable human experiences. As each dog’s image appears on a screen, an actor gives voice to its thoughts. Israel grounds the comedy in expressive physical performances that honor canine instincts while reflecting human anxieties, vanities, and needs.
Photo Credit: Jeremy Daniel
The four-person ensemble brings impressive stage experience to the material. Jordan Matthew Brown, best known for playing Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, is joined by Tony Award–nominated actor, singer, and dancer A.J. Shively. Broadway veterans Gizel Jiménez and Angela Reed complete the cast: Jiménez brings vocal range and dramatic depth to her characters, while Reed displays a versatile comic touch across the show’s monologues.
Fast paced and sharply observed, the monologues explore the private anxieties, fixations, and joys of dogs. Each character differs in breed, size, and outlook, yet all share one unwavering conviction: squirrels are the enemy. Beneath the punch lines, the production finds something affectionate and familiar in the bond between dogs and people.
For 90 minutes, the audience serves as the dogs’ confidant, entering a world that is funny, anxious, loyal, and unexpectedly moving. At select performances, dog owners can even reserve a chair for themselves and a pet bed for their companion. Zipper, a border collie, offers the evening’s defining insight: “As much as we need you, you need us more. Dogs are your greatest invention—the only one that loves you.” The line captures the show at its best: playful in concept, perceptive about people, and deeply affectionate toward the animals who may understand us better than we understand ourselves.
