Q&A: Pax Ressler On Inhabiting The Songs Of Aimee Mann In Poor Judge

Pax Ressler has had a heckuva new year so far — with just a few week’s notice, the performer and Barrymore Award-winning composer has been thrown into the lead of Poor Judge, which opened this week at the Wilma Theater and runs through January 25th. Created by Pig Iron Theater from an original idea by Dito van Reigersberg (aka Philly’s beloved Martha Graham Cracker), the play features the music of Aimee Mann, wildly stretched and reformed into, as only Pig Iron can, “a live music mixtape is part spy story, part woeful tale of lost loves, and part Hollywood audition.”

This is the play’s second mounting (its first was in 2024), with music direction and arrangements by Alex Bechtel, and directed by Eva Steinmetz. Initially slated to reprise the lead role, van Reigersberg decided to step back due to health concerns. Enter Ressler. Well established within both the (often overlapping) theatre and cabaret communities — as well as a creator of two, dreamy, boundary-pushing synth pop records — Ressler has stepped in, with not a minute to waste. We caught up with them to talk about Poor Judge, the community around it, and what it’s like to, in this case, live inside the work of two great artists simultaneously — in this case, both Aimee Mann and Dito van Reigersberg.

Joey Sweeney: How familiar with the show were you previously?

Pax Ressler: I had seen it the first time around, with the rest of Philadelphia, in 2024 and was really impressed with the music and loved the show. I thought the music was really stirring and I thought Eva’s direction was so intricate and  brilliant — the way she brings together film and music and theater is really special. So that was my familiarity. But also, each person in the cast is a friend of mine and a lot of the collaborators are friends of mine. So it felt possible to jump in, mostly because I feel like they have my back and I can lean on them for so many different things.

Joey Sweeney: It sounds like you were already very much in that artistic family. What was your level, going into this, of Aimee Mann fandom?

Pax Ressler: I was mostly preached the gospel of Aimee Mann through Poor Judge in 2024. And since then, I have loved her music and the arrangements that Alex created for the show. But not a lot of familiarity before then. I think I arranged Momentum for a cabaret for Jeff Coon back in like 2015, but now I’m much more familiar, falling in love with her music, getting to sing it every night. It’s just a stunning portfolio of work; her ability as a songwriter is really amazing.

Joey Sweeney: Have you ever done a project like this where you really inhabit in a kind of further artistic way, you know, the work of a single songwriter?

Pax Ressler: I feel like I’ve certainly done projects that are like  — I don’t know if you’re familiar with Contradict This? That was the Bearded Ladies piece about Walt Whitman — that was more conceptual in terms of looking at a historic figure as opposed to a songwriter, and doing a bunch of music from their catalog. Which is also different — it’s so cool that you Aimee Mann came to the show in 2024, and like her blessing is on the piece. But, no, it’s my first time doing this kind of songwriter-specific work.

Joey Sweeney: Now that you’re in it, what is it like to be really swimming in the work of that one artist?

Pax Ressler: Yeah, it feels like a prismatic experience in some ways —  Poor Judge is not specifically just about Aimee Mann’s biography, or telling her life story through her music. It’s using a prismatic approach by offering a story to overlay Aimee Mann’s music. And it’s not a true story. It’s not Dito’s true story. It’s something we can put her music into, like as an empty box, and see what comes out. And I think that’s what her music does for me —  I see myself in the story she’s telling. So I think by telling a specific story, we’re hoping it’ll be universal enough that people can see themselves in Aimee Mann’s music. I don’t know if that makes any sense.

Joey Sweeney: It does! And also knowing that Pig Iron’s modus operandi is what they call devised theater, right? Is the play changing as you guys ramp up to the opening? How locked in is it?

Pax Ressler: Pretty locked in now. I’m grateful to have more time to learn, especially with an audience. But I would say that it really is a testament to the strength of Dito’s writing that even without him in the piece, it really speaks in a beautiful way on a different body, on a different person. I’m finding my way through trying to fill Dito’s gigantic shoes—  metaphorically, because we’re barefoot in the show — but also finding myself in it. Finding the place where Dito and I meet is kind of what the challenge has been for me, and the joy of feeling like I’m performing this show with Dito in some ways,  to find where we meet up on stage. 

Joey Sweeney:  It seems like the work actually gets to grow with someone else, you know, like the play did have a previous run, Dito had inhabited this role, but to me, having a new lead kind of pushes it further still, right? 

Pax Ressler: I think what resonates with me in what you’re saying is that there’s like a kind of learning that happens about the piece when there’s the challenge of integrating someone new.

Joey Sweeney: That’s what I mean. So, you are in the very unique position of being somebody who’s gone from audience member of this play to now being very much in inside of it. What is your elevator pitch to get somebody to go see this play? Why go see this iteration of Poor Judge?

Pax Ressler: I would say that for me as an audience member, Poor Judge was one of the most beautiful and rare things I’ve seen on stage in Philadelphia with the combination of music, theater, and film at the core, and an incredible group of musician artists who are giving you the best arrangements of your favorite Aimeee Mann tunes, and telling a story that is both nonlinear and deeply stirring and moving. I hear audiences saying that they both feel that it like unearths a lot of emotion in them, and also settles them at the same time. I just feel like it’s Philly’s best. It’s one of the best projects I’ve ever been a part of.

Poor Judge runs through January 25th; tickets available here.