By: James Manley
By the time the transfusions begin in Spare Parts, the audience has already been warned: the science is real.
In recent years, a small but headline-grabbing group of tech magnates have turned to an unusual longevity strategy, infusions of blood plasma from younger donors, marketed as a hedge against aging. For David J. Glass, a physician-scientist who studies aging and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the spectacle was less a tabloid curiosity than a theatrical incitement.
“I was reading about these ‘tech bros’ who are getting blood transfusions from younger people,” Glass said recently. “That seemed quite alarming and worthy of a play.”
Spare Parts, his new drama opening at Theatre Row’s Theatre Three, takes that premise and pushes it into murkier terrain. Backed by a billionaire’s quest for eternal life, a team of scientists navigate radical aging research where discovery, identity, and consent collide. The play is less a cautionary tale than a pressure chamber. No one is purely villainous; no one emerges untouched.
Glass, who trained at the Manhattan Class Company and Playwrights Horizons before earning his M.D., occupies an unusual dual identity. He is currently a Vice President of Research at a biotech company, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and an Adjunct Professor of Genetics and Development at Columbia University. His previous play, Love + Science, was praised by The New York Times for its “meticulous drama” and even reviewed in the journal Science, a rarity for theater.
If that earlier work sought to humanize the laboratory, Spare Parts probes what happens when the lab is no longer insulated from extreme wealth and volatile politics.
“It is of great interest, and important medically, to understand how our bodies change as we age,” Glass said. “But we also want to make sure that this interesting science isn’t misunderstood or misused before we’re confident about applications to humans.”
That tension , between discovery and deployment , animates the play. The scientists at its center are not mad geniuses. They are ambitious, flawed, sometimes idealistic professionals navigating a research landscape increasingly shaped by private money.
“Government decision-making when it comes to science is currently in significant flux,” Glass noted. “So it was timely to examine what happens if the only decision makers are the most wealthy.”
The production features a cast led by two-time Tony Award nominee Rob McClure, joined by Michael Genet, Matt Walker, Jonny-James Kajoba, and Langston Reese. Together, the ensemble portrays a group of scientists and power players navigating the moral gray areas of cutting-edge aging research. Directed by Michael Herwitz, the performances focus less on spectacle than on the human tensions, ambition, doubt, loyalty and fear that surface when discovery collides with consequence
Photo Courtesy: Spare Parts The Play (Cast: Langston Reese, Rob McClure, Matt Walker, Jonny-James Kajoba, Michael Genet | Director Michael Herwitz and writer David J. Glass)
In Spare Parts, money does not simply fund research; it steers it. A billionaire patron’s fear of mortality exerts gravitational pull, bending ethical lines that might otherwise hold. The result is a series of choices that escalate from speculative to personal, raising questions about ownership of the body, the meaning of consent and the seductive promise of optimization.
Unlike many stage thrillers rooted in science, the play resists the comfort of moral clarity. There is no single rogue figure to blame.
“Scientists are human beings,” Glass said. “I’m a bit tired of seeing them presented as villains or cartoon-like characters. Understanding what drives them, and where things can go wrong, seems more helpful and relevant.”
The human scale of those decisions may be what makes Spare Parts most unsettling. Aging research, once confined to academic journals, has entered the mainstream lexicon, fueled by Silicon Valley evangelists and biohacking influencers. The line between legitimate medical inquiry and speculative enhancement grows thinner each year.
Glass is careful to distinguish the science itself from its applications. “I hope people understand that science isn’t the issue, rather how we use what we learn is the issue,” he said.
If the premise sounds grim, the tone is not unrelievedly so. Dark humor threads through the script, surfacing at moments when the absurdity of the real world eclipses satire.
“Laughter is part of our daily lives,” Glass said. “It allows us to see where reality slips into satire. If you had told me ten years ago that some of the things that are actually happening would happen, I would have thought you were kidding.”
In the play’s world, the ridiculous and the plausible sit side by side , a research breakthrough pitched like a startup, a moral compromise rationalized as innovation. The humor sharpens, rather than softens, the stakes.
At one point in writing the play, Glass found himself confronting a question more personal than theoretical: What would he do in his characters’ place?
“I was wondering what I would do if faced with the dilemmas and choices that the scientists in the play are faced with,” he said.
That inquiry , neither accusatory nor absolving , lingers beneath the action. The promise of living longer has always been entwined with deeper fears: of decay, irrelevance, loss of control. In a culture that prizes youth and productivity, immortality begins to look less like fantasy and more like a market opportunity.
Yet Spare Parts resists easy prophecy. Glass declines to dictate the post-show conversation. “I’ll leave that to them,” he said, with a laugh. “I don’t want to spoil the twist.”
Directed by Michael Herwitz, the production features scenic design by Scott Penner, lighting by Zack Lobel, sound by Ryan Gamblin, costumes by Amanda Roberge, and props by Sean Frank. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Spare Parts runs February 26 through April 10, 2026, with opening night on March 8, at Theatre Row’s Theatre Three, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City. Tickets and additional information are available at www.sparepartsplay.com.
