Stage Takes

Hot Stalker at The Actors Company

Yasi Mousavi has created something truly special with Hot Stalker, a captivating one-woman show that is comedy, psychological thriller, and deeply personal memoir. From the moment the show begins, Mousavi keeps the audience laughing while simultaneously building an unsettling tension that has you gripping your seat.

Drawing from her experiences navigating culture, career, romance, mental health struggles, and substance abuse, Mousavi crafts a story that is both vulnerable and fiercely entertaining. The show goes far beyond stand-up comedy, utilizing audience interaction, multimedia elements, and inventive theatrical storytelling to bring her world to life. Every comedic beat feels purposeful, revealing another layer of the complex reality she is attempting to understand.

Funny, seductive, suspenseful, and emotionally honest, Hot Stalker constantly keeps the audience guessing. By the end, you’ll find yourself asking the same question that lingers throughout the show: what/who/which was the hot stalker?

Abby Normal: A musical about Epilepsy at The Broadwater

We are lucky that the Hollywood Fringe Festival is hosting the world premiere of Abby Normal, which the team mentioned is currently an abridged version. (Abby Normal. Ab-normal. Get it?) This original musical tackles the experience of living with an invisible disability through inventive storytelling, heartfelt performances, and a remarkable amount of theatrical magic.

The story follows Abby as she navigates life with epilepsy, represented onstage by a shadowy character named Seizure. Abby’s journey is both deeply personal and universally relatable. While the show offers some educational insight into epilepsy, its greatest strength lies in its focus on the emotional reality of living with a condition that others cannot see.

As someone with an invisible disability myself, I found Abby’s story especially moving. The musical beautifully captures the frustration of feeling misunderstood while also celebrating resilience, humor, and the search for the idea of being normal. The production makes exceptional use of the Broadwater Main Stage, transforming the entire space through imaginative direction, clever staging, and genuinely magical effects. The humor is equally effective, blending slapstick comedy with sharp relational humor that keeps the audience laughing without undercutting the emotional stakes. Abby Normal is funny, heartfelt, and deeply human; a powerful reminder that some of the most significant battles are the ones no one else can see.

Maggie at The Stray Theater

Maggie follows the story of a fly, and honestly, that’s all you need to know before diving into this delightfully bizarre adventure. Mandy Keen delivers clown work at its finest—fearless, physical, and completely committed to the absurd. What begins as a hilarious tale of a trash-dwelling fly searching for connection gradually reveals surprising emotional depth beneath the chaos.

Packed with audience interaction, unexpected turns, and impeccable comic timing, the show keeps the crowd engaged from start to finish. Keen has an impressive ability to orchestrate each moment, knowing exactly when to lean into the ridiculous and when to uncover the show’s surprisingly heartfelt core. Wildly funny, wonderfully weird, and genuinely moving, Maggie is the kind of Fringe experience that reminds you why live theater can be so magical: you never know where it’s going, but you’re thrilled to go along for the ride.

Straight Stoic Straightz: An Alpha Male Podcast

This will sell out, it’s a funny and relevant piece and the audience loved it. I couldn’t stop thinking of the Sabrina Carpenter SNL skit where three teen boys are doing a podcast. In this show, the boys break out into musical solos that expose their inner selves. I think it was a fun gag but it lingered on longer than necessary. The boys sit at their ‘studio’ so what unravels is their internal drama. Entertaining, relevant comedy.

Doofus at The Broadwater

Cole Triplett has so much energy and fully embodies what he is going for, a slapstick comedy clown show filled with physical humor and connection to audiences. Doofus picks out an audience member to be his fellow landlord at the landlord’s meeting. Here’s where I think it fell short. His fellow landlord didn’t seem to be as into it. Now, I know I cannot necessarily critique a non-participating performer but I feel many moments were missed. I don’t know, I’ll come back to this.