Rachel Lin (left) plays Jenny, a bride-to-be drawn into a fantasy world by a charming Prince (Fernando Gonzalez), in I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!!
Few things are as ripe for satire as the modern wedding industry, and Catherine Weingarten’s I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!! gleefully plunges its horn into the target. This clever world premiere transforms one woman’s engagement anxiety into a satire about desire, denial, and the pressures placed on women to pursue happily-ever-after at any cost.
Jenny should be floating on air after getting engaged, but her fiancé, Sebastian, appears far less invested in their future than she is. When a Prince astride a unicorn enters her life, Jenny is swept into a surreal quest that blurs the line between fantasy and reality.
Jenny becomes addicted to Starbucks’ limited-edition beverage, the Unicorn Frappe.
Structured in 14 scenes, the play reveals that Jenny is less in love with Sebastian than with the fantasy of romance and the pageantry surrounding a wedding. Much of the tension stems from her refusal to acknowledge what seems obvious to everyone else: Sebastian is not only uninterested in planning the ceremony but also unready for the realities of marriage.
Weingarten weaves the themes of addiction and denial into the play from the outset. In the opening scene, wedding planner Darla and her new client Jenny sip coffee at a Starbucks in an unnamed Midwestern town while discussing Jenny’s dream wedding. Although Darla voices concern about Sebastian’s continued absence—“It’s getting to be crunch time. So really hope he’ll start coming to our sessions again”—Jenny’s buoyant enthusiasm keeps the conversation light. Yet her optimism masks a deeper unwillingness to confront the reality of her relationship, and in a later scene she dismisses Sebastian’s disengagement by invoking the familiar cultural refrain that “it’s more about the bride than the groom.”
Sabina Friedman-Seitz, as wedding planner Darla, listens attentively to Sebastian (Gonzalez) as he shares his vision of the perfect wedding. Photographs by HanJie Chow.
While the wedding-planning session between Darla and Jenny establishes the play’s premise, the introduction of the titular Unicorn Frappe in Scene 2 truly launches Weingarten’s satire and sets the plot in motion. Following her meeting with Darla, Jenny joins her best friend Cassandra—a poet who shares her emotional intensity but possesses a more realistic view of romance—at Starbucks, where Cassandra spots an advertisement for the coffee chain’s latest limited-edition beverage and persuades Jenny to give it a try.
The Unicorn Frappe’s four-day availability proves crucial to the plot. After her first sip, Jenny begins transforming from an eager bride-to-be into a young woman captivated by a fairy-tale Prince astride a horse named Pecan Pie. Significantly, the Prince first appears at that very moment, crossing the stage on his “stick-horse,” as Jenny catches a fleeting glimpse of him while Cassandra remains oblivious to his presence. Weingarten foreshadows the increasingly absurd developments to come in Jenny’s euphoric reaction to the drink and Cassandra’s immediate note of caution:
Meg MacCary plays Mom in Catherine Weingarten’s satire on the modern wedding industry.
Jenny: “It just tastes so happy
Like so many flavors in my mouth
Like I’ve never really tasted the flavor “unicorn”
Like had a unicorn in my mouth
Is it weird I want to order anotherrrr?”
Cassandra: “Umm, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea—What about your wedding dress?”
Alex Tobey directs at a brisk pace, an asset in a play whose increasingly wild and whimsical scenes must unfold seamlessly. Yet it is through the character of the Prince that the director’s vision comes most sharply into focus. Rather than presenting him as a genuinely romantic figure, Tobey stages the Prince as an intentionally ridiculous fantasy, outfitting him in a glittery costume that appears to have wandered in from a game of Candy Land. Mounted atop his “stick-horse” Pecan Pie, the Prince becomes a visual embodiment of Jenny’s escapist desires, underscoring that this royal suitor exists not in reality but in the fertile terrain of her imagination.
Tobey’s vision is ably supported by a strong five-member cast. Rachel Lin superbly captures both her character Jenny’s buoyant optimism and her growing inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Fernando Gonzalez deftly portrays the emotional disengagement of Sebastian while also investing the Prince with just enough sweetness and charm to make him an alluring object of Jenny’s imagination. Lindsley Howard’s Cassandra convincingly serves as both Jenny’s steadfast friend and voice of reason. Rounding out the ensemble, Meg MacCary lends warmth and wit to Jenny’s mother, whose observation that marriage resembles a comforting bath that gradually grows cold provides one of the play’s more grounded reflections on romantic expectations.
Beneath its fizzy humor, fairy-tale Prince, and candy-colored absurdity, I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!! offers a surprisingly incisive meditation on fantasy, addiction, and self-deception. Weingarten’s sharpest insight is that the sweetest indulgences—whether a limited-edition beverage, a dream wedding, or a perfect romance—can become dangerous when they keep us from seeing the truth.
I Wanttt a Unicorn Frappe!!! plays at The Tank (312 W. 36th St.) through June 21. Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; matinees are at 3 p.m. on Sunday, except on May 31 and June 7. For more information, visit thetanknyc.org.
Playwright: Catherine Weingarten
Director: Alex Tobey
Scenic Design: Benny Pitt
Lighting Design: Hayley Garcia Parnell
Costume Design: Olivia Hern
Sound Design: Amelia Way
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