By: Jim Manley
An Emmy-nominated filmmaker turns her unconventional Long Island childhood into a funny, heartfelt New York stage show about family, secrets, and the love that was hiding in plain sight.
In the summer of 1986, the New York Mets were on their way to a World Series championship, Kate & Allie was a hit on CBS, and two recently divorced Long Island mothers were about to make a decision that would change their families forever.
Grace and Dorothy decided to move in together.
Inspired in part by the popular sitcom about two single mothers sharing a household, the women combined their families, bringing four children under one roof in Setauket, Long Island. There would be shared responsibilities, backyard adventures, a new second floor for the kids, and even a swimming pool with a slide.
What the children didn’t know was that their mothers were building something much more extraordinary than a practical living arrangement. They were building a life together as a couple.
Now, four decades later, Emmy-nominated television and film producer Kate Barry is bringing that remarkable childhood to the stage in Kate, Allie and the ’86 Mets, an autobiographical solo comedy playing Asylum NYC November 5–10.
For Barry, whose career of more than two decades includes projects for HBO, Netflix, Disney+, and National Geographic, telling her own story was never part of the plan.
“I’ve loved telling other people’s stories; I always think it’s an honor for someone to trust you with their story,” Barry explains. “In a way, this felt like I was telling my mom’s stories, rather than my own!”
The idea emerged almost accidentally after Barry enrolled in a storytelling class at New York’s Irish Arts Center. Hoping to develop material for a screenplay, she began sharing memories of the summer her two families became one. Her instructor, Brad Lawrence, immediately recognized the theatrical possibilities.
“This is a one-hour show,” he told her.
Barry wasn’t convinced. Accustomed to working behind the camera, she had little interest in performing. But the story continued to grow, eventually becoming a sold-out New York storytelling festival performance and later a 23-performance engagement at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The more she explored her childhood, the more she realized how unusual, and unexpectedly universal, her family had been.
“I knew our family was unique, but because of Kate and Allie the TV show it seemed familiar,” she recalls.
As children, she and her siblings had little reason to question their new arrangement. There were neighborhood talent shows, camping trips, holiday gatherings, and elaborate family adventures. The household was full of humor, affection, and the everyday chaos that comes with raising four children.
“It kind of felt like we were the goonies,” Barry remembers.
Dorothy became another mother, and her daughter Lauren became Kate’s instant sister and best friend. The arrangement wasn’t simply convenient; it was family.
Only a few years ago did Barry learn the full truth: Grace and Dorothy had been romantically involved for 40 years.
“I thought it would have changed my understanding of my childhood more, but it just painted it all with love,” she says.
Rather than feeling deceived, Barry found herself admiring the courage it took for two women to create their own version of family in an era when openly living together as a same-sex couple could carry profound social consequences.
“They were brave, and they lived the life they wanted, built the family they wanted to have, and they did what they needed to do to protect that.”
Despite its emotional revelations, Kate, Allie and the ’86 Mets is decidedly a comedy, filled with recognizable New York personalities, 1980s references, and the sort of family humor that Barry says has always been part of her life.
“Thanksgiving is like a contest to see who can be funnier,” she says.
The show’s Edinburgh engagement revealed something Barry hadn’t anticipated: audiences too young to remember the 1980s were connecting just as deeply with the story as those who had lived through them.
Many younger attendees had never encountered a landline telephone, let alone the particular suburban culture of 1986. Yet they were fascinated by the family at the center of it all.
“It was the relationship of my moms, and my relationship with my family that they were connecting to on a deeper level,” Barry says.
For its New York engagement, directed by Alex Kagy, Barry is expanding the production with family photographs, home movies, archival footage, period music, and cinematic storytelling. She specifically chose Asylum NYC for its screen and technical capabilities, allowing her to bring her filmmaking instincts directly onto the stage.
And unlike her overseas audiences, New Yorkers won’t need an explanation of the Mets, Big Gulps, or the city’s famously colorful language.
The show’s future may extend beyond the theater. Barry is developing a feature film adaptation, Just Like Kate and Allie, and has also been approached about exploring the story as a television series.
“I absolutely envision the story on the screen, would love to see Grace and Dorothy in a movie theater,” she says.
For all its nostalgic charm, Barry’s story is ultimately about something timeless: the freedom to define family on your own terms.
In 1986, Grace and Dorothy quietly created a home that worked for them. Forty years later, their daughter is making sure the world hears the love story behind it.
Kate, Allie and the ’86 Mets runs November 5–10, 2026, at Asylum NYC, 123 East 24th Street, Manhattan. Performances are at 7 p.m., with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, November 7. The approximately 60-minute production is followed by an audience Q&A and reception.
Tickets and information are available on the Asylum NYC event page.
