Too Fat for China

 Too Fat for China
The RAT NYC
October 13, 2026 

Photo courtesy of Too Fat for China

Too Fat for China is a solo comedy show about the agony of adoption, written and performed by Phoebe Potts.  After touring around the country and winning United Solo’s “Best Storytelling Show” and BroadwayWorld’s “Best Solo Show” (2025), Ms. Potts is settling in for a limited run at The RAT NYC in Dumbo, Brooklyn.  The show is a funny and candid telling of the journey she and her husband embarked on to adopt a child.  Ms. Potts opens her heart in this sixty-minute show.  The audience responds with admiration for her honesty, self-awareness, and determination. 

Phoebe Potts starts the show telling stories of growing up in Brooklyn in a Jewish family.  Inside her head is a newsroom of reporters, observing and gathering information for her to process.  Her first big question is: Why did she gain so much weight after her mother pushed the importance of being thin?  When she is married, she finds out she is unable to have a baby.  After numerous unsuccessful fertility treatments, she and her husband decide to adopt.  When looking at international adoption opportunities, Ms. Potts reads the small print and finds out that China has a BMI requirement.  Yes, she is “too fat for China.”  That option is out.  This opens her eyes to the fact that adoption is a business that serves an advantaged clientele.   She becomes aware how her white privilege allows her to be a “customer” for this business.  This gives her pause, but she continues to participate, until she finally finds what her heart desires. 

Photo courtesy of Too Fat for China

Every challenge and obstacle Ms. Potts faces along the way makes her self-assess.  With the help of the newsroom of reporters in her head, she reviews the facts, her desires, and her responses.  There is humor and sincerity in these moments, allowing the audience to get to know her.  She continues her search for a baby, while expanding in self-awareness and submerging in vulnerability.  As she gets closer to achieving her goal, she builds stories to tell her little one about their shared backgrounds and how they found one another to become a family. 

Phoebe Potts took one year to write this story before touring it around the country.  She said she was driven by a need for absolution for her participation in the process.  She wanted it to be funny and beautiful so the story would get the attention it deserves.  She strove to make “a direct hit to the bloodstream by telling people” about herself.  Ms. Potts wonderfully succeeds with every one of these objectives.  Every time she pauses to review the elements that seem off about the adoption process, she continues in spite of herself.  The audience asks themselves the same questions she does in these moments.  They viscerally understand and continue on the journey with her. 

Too Fat for China is playing at The RAT NYC (68 Jay St., storefront suite, Brooklyn, NY 11201) on Tuesdays at 6:30 through November 24.  You will truly enjoy embarking on this journey.  Go see it!  

You can also sign up for Ms. Potts’ monthly newsletter, The Complainer, through her website, phoebepotts.com. 

Domenick Danza