All Out: A Comedy About Ambition

I saw a 2 P.M. matinee of All Out: A Comedy About Ambition at the Nederlander Theatre with Wayne Brady, Jim Gaffigan, Cecily Strong, and Ben Schwartz, on Sunday, January 4. My first show of 2026!

All Out is a follow-up to last season’s All In: Comedy About Love, written by Simon Rich and directed by Alex Timbers. It has a rotating cast of big names who read short stories about ego, envy, greed, and New York life. Live music from the band Lawrence plays between segments.

I mostly enjoyed the show. My favorite story was Cecily Strong’s “The City Speaks,” told from the perspective of New York City. She talks about young people who come to the city, get chewed up, and either leave or stay and shape what comes next. It felt personal and cinematic, like The City We Became. It had energy and meaning and stuck with me. The other top moment was Wayne Brady as Oatsey, Paul Revere’s horse. That was genuinely hilarious and clever.

Jim Gaffigan’s Clobbo was a strong supporting piece. Ben Schwartz’s rich-kid fox was fun and playful.

All four performers are favorites of mine. I have followed Brady since his first Whose Line Is It Anyway? appearance in 1998. Gaffigan has been one of my go to comedians for decades. Schwartz is an improv hero of mine. I first knew Strong from SNL as one of my favorite performers there, but I also saw her New York stage debut in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which was excellent.

The live band Lawrence was excellent, and Gracie Lawrence is the real standout. Her voice is powerful, controlled, and impossible to ignore. Every time she sang, the room snapped to attention. The musicianship across the band was strong and polished. That said, the musical interludes felt long and very loud for me. Some songs repeated and stretched on, which pulled focus away from the storytelling. Shorter musical moments would keep the pace sharper and make the comedy land more often.

I sat Row L of the Mezzanine, seat 29 through TDF Passport. View was okay, though stage right was hard to see. I had a good time overall, but I didn’t feel compelled to buy a magnet. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5.