[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts 2026 Hollywood Fringe Festival review of The Lincoln Debate – part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2026.
The Hollywood Fringe brings together the most creative minds in the country to share poignant and intelligent ideas about the world and our human place within it. It also gives space for fun and improvised debate, and this is where the remarkably original The Lincoln Debate impressively falls.
This is a thesis not known to me as an English person, but apparently there is a healthy number of historians who surmise that Abraham Lincoln was gay and that he carried on a relationship with his friend and certified bedmate Joshua Speed for at least four years.
When I say “certified,” I mean that their supposed roommate situation was common knowledge, and at the time it was not considered that strange for two men to share one bed. Housing was scarce and beds scarcer, and Abraham and Joshua were young. Joshua’s bedroom was above his store, and Lincoln was new to the town, a poor student of law inquiring about room rates, so Joshua offered him his place for free.
The rest is history!
The Lincoln Debate is a play exploring the rumours and facts surrounding the relationship between these two men and how it impacted Lincoln in particular. The actors are divided in perspective, as is the audience. But as the story unfolds and the debate continues, it becomes more and more difficult for the naysayers to believe their puritanical assumptions.
What a riot this play was! For a start, how on earth did they find such an outrageously brilliant actor as Jason Reale to play Lincoln?! He really is the spitting image and gives such an inspired performance, with absolutely no boundaries, that he sets the tone for the entire play.
But then everyone is absolutely wonderful. Alex Price as Joshua is phenomenal as is Terry Ray as the ‘guide’ who acts like a kind of narrator, dragging us expertly through this hilarious and often sordid affair. And then there are the women in the lives of these two gays…I mean guys. The beguiling Angela Landis as Mary Todd and various other females and the sublime Kimleigh Smith as Fanny Henning and a good deal more besides!
I had no idea about any of this; I’m not sure my European origins made me any the more ignorant than many of my fellow audience members. But then that was a large part of the fun. Some know all, some knew nothing, and these fine actors were here to convince us all of the truth, regardless of our inclinations to either side of it.
The Lincoln Debate was definitely one of my favourite plays this Hollywood Fringe, and I saw a ridiculous number of them!
Funny, clever, beautifully written and gorgeously acted. A simple premise that evolved into a stunning and thoughtful play with enormous relevance to our current administrative pickle.
And what a roller coaster ride! Full throttle, non-stop barrage of ideas and strategies, memoir and rumor, fact and fiction. Did they or didn’t they? Were they or weren’t they? Do you or don’t you?
The Lincoln Debate is Fringe perfect and I absolutely love love loved it!!!
The Team
Written by Terry Ray
Directed by Steve Rosenbaum
Starring: Jason Reale, Alex Price, Terry Ray, Kimleigh Smith & Angela Landis
Originally developed for The Bent in Palm Springs
The play has earned seven Desert Theatre League Award nominations (including Best Comedy) and 8 BroadwayWorld Award nominations (including Best Play), winning 3 Desert Theatre League Awards, including acting honors for Jason Reale and Alex Price.