We’ve all been there. You’re going about your day, then in the inner caverns of your brain, that jingle you heard years ago on TV creeps into your subconscious, and you’ve got “Cellino and Barnes, injury attorneys! 800-888-8888” stuck in your head.
Who are Cellino and Barnes? Why is that jingle so catchy? And whatever happened to them?
“Cellino V. Barnes” is a two-man comedic play that dives into the history of the very real lawyers Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes, who ran an injury law practice for several decades and gained recognition through their ever-evolving jingle. Written by Mike B. Breen and David Rafailedes and directed by Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse, the play stars Eric William Morris as Cellino and Noah Weisberg as Barnes.
The play follows the careers of the titular lawyers, from their beginnings in 1998 to their rise in the industry, to creating their iconic jingle, to the practice’s eventual downfall and the following lawsuit. Though the play is comedic in nature, it aims to show the true connection that Cellino and Barnes had in their time together.
“It’s a two-person absurd comedy take based on actual facts that occurred in these two injury lawyers’ lives,” said Morris. “It feels like it lives in the world of an ‘SNL’ sketch in terms of its tone, but we’re also trying to drive home some real connection between these two guys.”
“It’s the most laughs I’ve ever heard in a play. It’s not like every couple lines, there’s a laugh, it’s like almost every line is a laugh line. It’s surprising to us and I think to the audience — in a good way — that it’s got heart,” said Weisberg. “We don’t hit you over the head with a message, it’s mainly just a fun and funny night at the theater. But the amount of awe and little gasps and things that the tender parts and the life lesson parts is a great surprise to us each night.”
When creating the play, the writers (one of whom is from the Buffalo area, where Cellino and Barnes’ first practice was) aimed to create a story that is based in fact but done in the most satirical way possible. Though the actual story of Cellino and Barnes story didn’t have a happy ending (the firm dissolved between 2017-2020, and Barnes sadly passed away in a plane crash months after that decision was finalized in 2020), the writers wanted to lean into the actual dynamic between the two lawyers.
Despite playing the story up to be funnier, Morris and Weisberg say that the feedback they have received from people who knew the real Cellino and Barnes is that they captured what they were like together.
“We have had people actually from the firm, other lawyers, prosecutors, people that have worked with them and against them in the courtroom, who said that a lot of this is real. This is like the ‘SNL’ version of what actually happened,” said Weisberg.
“It really leans into the dynamic of the comedy. You sort of have a sense of who is trying to be alpha and who is trying to follow and the way that balances throughout the whole course of the play is sort of the arc of how it is and what we’ve heard,” said Morris. “Neither one of us can attest to ever meeting either of the two human beings were playing, but we’ve heard it sort of feels like that dynamic that [the writers] played with for comedy feels like a bit of the dynamic in real life, which is, which is neat.”
“Cellino V. Barnes” was recently extended and will run at Asylum NYC through Dec. 1. According to Morris and Weisberg, Asylum NYC is the ideal spot for a show like “Cellino V. Barnes.”
“It is so beautifully remodeled recently. It looks like what I think the set of ‘The Great Gatsby’ looks like on Broadway,” said Weisberg.
“All the people who work at the Asylum have been so fantastic to work with and the crowds that are coming in, it’s fun because it is balancing between crowds that would go to see a comedy show and crowds that are theater crowds,” said Morris. “It’s nice to feel that out because specifically, the neighborhood isn’t Times Square, but it’s literally 15 blocks south of that. So you kind of get a good cross-section of New York coming through there.”
Whether plays are your thing or not, Weisberg says that “Cellino V. Barnes” is perfect for any crowd, even if you don’t know who Cellino and Barnes are going in.
“I remember people saying about ‘Rent’ or ‘Hamilton’ that this is a musical for people that don’t even love musicals, and really, those were beautifully crafted traditional musicals in the shell of something we had never seen before. And I think that’s our show,” said Weisberg. “You could be like, I don’t like plays, but if you like ‘SNL,’ if you like sitcoms, if you like comedy, if you just wanna laugh at our show. I don’t see always a ton of theater people, people that come love it because they understand comedy and theater.”
Asylum NYC is located at 123 East 24th St. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit cellino-v-barnes.com.
