How the Writer/Activist V (Formerly Eve Ensler) Is Addressing Climate Change Through Musical Theater

V, formerly known as Eve Ensler, is a Tony Award-winning playwright, author, and activist celebrated equally for groundbreaking stage plays like The Vagina Monologues and her global humanitarian work to end violence against women and girls through her V-Day and One Billion Rising campaigns. Her works like In the Body of the World, Emotional Creature, and The Apology are transformative pieces of writing that explore trauma, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit against all odds.

Now, V’s stage attention is on the climate crisis. With collaborators Justin Tranter, Caroline Pennell, and Eren Cannata, and Diane Paulus (and contributor Idina Menzel), V has crafted the theatri-concert Dear Everything, receiving its New York premiere at Terminal Five on January 30. Originally titled Wild: A Musical Becoming when it premiered at American Repertory Theater in 2021, it’s the story of a group of people who discover power they never knew existed when faced with the impending destruction of their local forest.

The one-night Manhattan engagement, which features V as narrator and guest appearances by Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson, is the chance to see the latest version of the show on its feet, after it’s Wild run was curtailed by Covid several years ago. Here, V tells us what to expect.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

It’s unfortunate that now seems like the perfect time to be discussing a musical about climate change.
It’s a little scary how perfect it feels. It’s beyond.

But I know you and your colleagues have been working on it for a long time.
We’ve been developing it for about five years. We did one iteration up at A.R.T. in 2021 when it was called Wild. It was going really well, and then every single person in the cast got sick. We had a sold-out run, which we couldn’t do, which was disturbing. But then we started thinking about what we learned and how we could create something that was in keeping with the message of the show, that’s sustainable, that’s flexible, that can move. We’ve come up with this new iteration and we’re launching it at Terminal Five to discover whether it’s going to work.

Tell me about the show itself.
What I love is that the piece is driven by young people. We’re telling you a story about a town in which young people stood up and something quite amazing happened as a result. It’s been an incredible process working with Justin Tranter, who is one of the great pop songwriters. He’s been Grammy-nominated, and he wrote Chappell Roan’s big hit last year, “Good Luck, Babe!” We’ve also been working with Caroline Pennell on the story slash lyrics slash music. And Diane Paulus is directing.

And we have these young people on the Dear Everything Youth Council who are going to be helping people get involved in action and working to inspire people to commit themselves to not having human beings perish off the earth.

Can you explain the concept for this new version and how you intend for it to be flexible?
I think because the music is pop, it’s harder to make that work as a quote-unquote musical, you know what I mean? Now, I’m narrating it and it’s a story told with music, but it feels in keeping with what we want it to be. We’ve gone from pushing it into a musical to creating the new form that we need in the times we’re moving into. Theater has become so expensive and so much harder to do. A lot of people can’t afford it.

All you really need are singers, a narrator, and a choir, and you can put it on anywhere [as a fundraiser]. You could do it in a town hall, you could do it in a massive theater, you could do it in a church. With The Vagina Monologues, we did it off-Broadway and then it went out everywhere and people got to raise money for their communities and they lifted-up organizations by doing it. That’s what I’ve always dreamed theater can do.

Right now, what we need is art that inspires people, that gets them to think, but also moves them to know. A lot of people right now are feeling overwhelmed with everything, and we need to remind ourselves that if we allow ourselves to connect with the earth and with each other, we will know what to do. We can’t go to sleep, and we can’t get overwhelmed with fear. That can’t happen.

So many people turn to you for inspiration because of your activism. What do you say now when people mention how full of despair they are?
One of the things I’ve always believed is that sometimes the most dire, extreme circumstances can catapult us into our greatest imaginings. If we see this time as that, maybe this is a doorway that’s opening that would allow us to really become who we want to be. We will need to depend on each other and protect the earth with each other more. I think that’s how we’ve got to see this time, as opposed to going into despair.