Terry Morgan
I’m combining two reviews in one article this week, one unique solo show at the Pasadena Playhouse and a sequel to a popular play at East West Players. These productions are not connected in any way; I just saw them in the past few days and decided to cover both. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (yes, there are seven ha’s in the title and they’re all lowercase) arrives here after successful and award-nominated runs in Edinburgh, London, Melbourne and New York. Julia Masli created and is the sole performer of the piece, but by the end of the performance it seems like a quarter of the audience is onstage taking part. It’s sweetly amusing, sometimes quite moving and unlike any show I’ve ever seen before. Oh, and, by the way, I liked it!
Above photo credit – Jeff Lorch.
The beginning of the piece seems like performance art, as Masli (dressed in an unusual blue outfit with a directional mic atop her head and a mannequin leg covering her left arm) descends into the audience amid low lighting and ethereal music to interact with it. She speaks to individual people, saying “ha” or making some other noise the audience member is encouraged to mimic. I found this section of the show to be needlessly obscure, but thankfully Masli moves into the main point of the production quickly.
She asks individual audience members if there is a problem she can help with, a look of wide-eyed curiosity on her face. On the evening I saw the show, the problems ranged from the easily solved (needing an idea for a Halloween costume to being thirsty – Masli got the person some water) to more difficult issues (being homesick for one’s original country or being scared about giving birth for a second time). The most memorable and touching exchange involved a woman who couldn’t afford the amount required for a dental surgery, which was $4500 even with insurance. Masli had the audience do the math and announced that if everyone in the theater donated approximately $11.50, this woman could get the surgery she needed. Masli asked the woman to put her Venmo information up on the stage, and the result was very moving. People all around me in the theater were donating. It was such a flood of kindness it was hard not to be emotionally affected. The woman in question was crying with overwhelmed happiness. I don’t know what the ultimate result of this situation was, but I know that evening demonstrated that the power of theater, from the artist and audience both, can be truly remarkable.
I’d describe what Masli does as charitable crowd work, but that doesn’t fully encompass the appeal of her show. She’s a charming performer, full of deadpan wit, and she’s very good at reacting to whatever information she gets from the crowd in real time. The show is going to be different at every performance depending on the specific audience members’ problems, so this review is merely a snapshot of one iteration. As the show proceeds, people are brought onstage to help with their requests, which led to two guys fixing a broken chair, one woman working out her fear of singing in public, one lady taking a nap, and one brave fellow taking a shower – these were all happening onstage simultaneously by the end of the show. The message I gleaned from ha ha ha…was that the actions of one well-meaning person trying to help can affect and create an entire community. That’s a pretty great achievement for a solo show, or, for that matter, any show.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha is presented by Woolly Mammoth Theater at Pasadena Playhouse and plays through November 9, 2025.
Tickets are available at https://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org/
Playwright Prince Gomolvilas’ new show, Paranormal Inside, is a sequel to the 2022 play, The Brothers Paranormal. I reviewed the latter show favorably, enjoying its mix of supernatural thrills and familial drama. I commented in that piece about how one of the wonders of the play was that it would still be compelling and interesting even if you removed the supernatural element. It seems that Gomolvilas was feeling similarly, because the spooky stuff takes a backseat to themes of exploring ancestry in Inside, but unfortunately comes off as talky and kind of silly despite the best efforts of its talented cast.
In 2012, years after the events of Brothers, ex-paranormal investigator Max (David Huynh) is married, and his wife Bincy (Christine Corpuz) is expecting a baby. His father-in-law, Somboon (Alberto Isaac), doesn’t much care for him, and that situation worsens when one evening Max attempts to strangle Bincy in his sleep. Max begins to exhibit other alarming signs of supernatural influence, so out of desperation he goes to visit his friend Delia (Tamika Simpkins) at her café in Vegas. Delia had exhibited a talent for dealing with paranormal situations in the past, but now she’s holding the world at a distance, although her niece Tasha (Aja Hinds) and Tasha’s fiancé Ethan (Davide Costa) are doing their best to break down her resistance. When Max appears at Delia’s door, it’s pretty clear that he’s possessed, but the question is, by what or whom?
Huynh, who was so good as the fake paranormal investigator having to come to grips with the reality of the supernatural in Brothers, is sadly stuck here with a role in which he basically has to act crazy or possessed for the majority of the time. He gives it his best, but one can only writhe around and act worried so long before it gets repetitive. Simpkins is terrific as the cranky but kindly Delia, and Isaac is wryly amusing as the annoyed Somboon. Hinds is strong as the persuasive Tasha, and Costa is quite funny as the well-meaning if out of his depth Ethan. Finally, Corpuz excels as Bincy, whose only concern is the safety of her baby.
Director Jeff Liu gets good work from his actors, and one of the paranormal set pieces was so impressive that the audience I saw it with burst into instant applause while it was going on. The problem with this show is not the production but the play itself, which purports to be a supernatural thriller but whose heart is a story about staying true to one’s roots. Gomolvilas sets the audience up for paranormal mayhem with Act One, but delivers an underwhelming denouement in Act Two, in which the importance of ancestry is handled in a somewhat goofy way.
Paranormal Inside isn’t a bad show, but it feels like two different plays stitched together that don’t merge successfully.
Paranormal Inside is presented by East West Players at The David Henry Hwang Theatre and plays through November 2, 2025.
Tickets are available at https://www.eastwestplayers.org/
Pauline Adamek
