Arts & Entertainment

'I Hope They Serve Beer on Broadway': Tucker Max Comes to Central Jersey

The show runs through Nov. 5 at the Black Box Theatre at George Street Playhouse.

By Jennifer Bradshaw 

Tucker Max, a figure both reviled and worshipped, is the star of a new show opening in New Brunswick this week. 

"I Hope They Serve Beer on Broadway by Tucker Max" will open at the Black Box at George Street Playhouse on Wednesday, Oct. 30. 

Max, known for his egregious tales of sex and debauchery, is the inspiration for the show. 

Played by actor and award-winning bartender Dan Stern, the character of Max takes the audience through tales of his adventures in a performance space that has been fully converted into a bar, complete with librations on tap. 

New Brunswick's own Dan Swern is directing the show through his production company SmugBug, LLC.

Earlier this year, the talked-about show, authored by playwright Christopher Carter Sanderson, ran off-Broadway for about a month. 

After that engagement, the show was scheduled to go into a commercial run that was ultimately canceled, leaving Swern able to take the production to New Brunswick. 

Based on stories in Max's books, the eight cast member production takes place in an immersive space, to the point where audience members can even go up to the bars and be served drinks by the cast while the show goes on around them. 

According to Swern, this production idea is what Max himself had wanted to see with staging.

Playwright Christopher Carter Sanderson called Swern's staging idea "brilliant," and said Max's character in his books are what generates such curiosity around him. 

"If you love Tucker Max, you want to see him on stage. If you hate Tucker Max, you want to see him on stage," he said.

Max is a controversial figure who has generated a lot of discussion on the internet from people who either love him or hate him. But the show is written in a way that removes the Max-centric filter present in the books. This shows the consequences of his actions, whether it be through the reaction of the other characters, or the reaction of the audience laughing both with, and at him, Sanderson said.

Because of that style of writing, some of Max's strongest critics praised the New York production of the show, with writers for Cosmopolitan.com and feminist website Jezebel backing it. 

"Jezebel"and feminists in general see these stories as kind of an Aesop's Fables of what not to do, but in a safe way because there is nothing in here other than consensual sex," Sanderson said. "So that's a fairly safe context to talk about good behavior and bad behavior."

Sanderson said he did not have major expectations for the play while writing it, stating that his interest in telling Max's stories was "Pure artistic inspiration."

"The show is even more popular than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams," Sanderson said.

"I Hope They Serve Beer on Broadway by Tucker Max" runs October 30-November 5 at the Black Box at George Street Playhouse.

Tickets are $18, and include three free drinks, sponsored by Stoli Vodka. 


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