Off-Broadway Preview: I’m Almost There

Finding Your Way Home

BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE

Todd Almond was sitting a piano in a rehearsal room at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). He was talking to a room of invited guests about his new musical I’m Almost There. And then, in a moment, he was vamping some chords and talking slightly differently. The show had started.

In a moment, everyone was leaning forward in the chairs engaged with Almond’s character who was simply trying to get downstairs to meet the man of his dreams who had come by with coffee.  And yet, as it turns out, those flights of stairs would not be so easy.

As Almond described it to Connecticut Voice, the story is a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, perhaps writ small, but no less fraught with dangers, distractions, and delays.

He explained, “It’s loosely based on the day I met my husband and the fact that I knew he was the love of my life and that we’d be together forever. But I was not in a place where I was ready to allow that. And so I tell the story.”

The story includes various different stops as he descends the stairs, a cat in peril, potentially, and the oddball neighbors one may encounter in New York City, specifically the Lower East Side. As with the journey of Odysseus, each stop has its own lessons to teach, and there is a kind of magical realism aspect to the story.

Almond sums it up with a tagline: “Love at first sight is easy, but letting it through the front door is a goddam odyssey.”

The show is performed by Almond on the piano with the other characters played by Noah Max Amick who also plays bass and Erin Hill on harp and providing vocals. It is what is often called a chamber musical, heartfelt, and compelling.

The common notion of musicals is dominated by huge shows like Wicked, The Outsiders, or the Tony Award-winning Schmigadoon, but Almond has chosen to do something far more intimate and personal, even to the point of being autobiographical.

“As a theater maker, I’ve often been labeled as someone who doesn’t quite make musicals, which I used to take great offense to, but now I feel like that’s kind of my lane. I tend to make things that feel like some hybrid or some oddly shaped piece of theater that has a lot of music in it.”

Almond’s influences are not traditional musical theater figures either. He cites Kate Bush, David Bowie, and Laurie Anderson as influencing his own creative development. Almond’s work, however, is original, and his ear for interesting harmonies resonates through the songs he’s sampled, underscoring the stories beautifully.

Before arriving at BAM, Almond says, the first performances were in his living room. It then went to the Edinburgh Fringe where it was a sell-out and fan favorite and has evolved into a slightly larger production under the direction of David Cromer.

The show has evolved through its various iterations, and Almond says that he’s a different person today than when he started the process. At the heart, though, it’s still “about the anxieties and fears of falling in love or just connecting with another person, or just accepting who you are and letting someone else get close to you.

“I feel like this story is so strange and specific, but I do see people connecting to it and relating to it. So, whether you’re 25, 75, or 85, we’ve all had a version of this story.”

That, ultimately, is why we as audiences are so fascinated by quests. It’s about finally confronting challenges, overcoming them and finding our way home. It’s perhaps one of the most common human experiences, and in theater we get to have that journey vicariously and share in the hero’s triumph, no matter the scale. As Almond said, “My husband says I can turn any story into The Odyssey.”

That’s a very good thing, and let’s hope there will be many more.

I’m Almost There
BAM Fisher Space
321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
Tues-Sun 7:30 p.m.; Sat, Sun 2 p.m.; Sun 5 p.m. through June 28
Tickets from $48 here.

Editor’s Note: In addition to I’m Almost There, Almond did the orchestrations for Girl, Interrupted. Our CT Voice review is here.

Featured photo: Todd Almond
PHOTO CREDT: Michaela Boldovic, provided by the production, used with permission.
Posted June 11, 2026