The Nicholist #17
The Best Theatre of 2023
Welcome to The Nicholist! My weekly list of pop culture where I gush on everything that’s got me obsessed.
Another year has come to pass, and with it, another outstanding year of theatre. Here’s my recap of the absolute best of 2023.
The Bottoming Process by Nicholas Pilapil (IAMA Theatre Company)
A romantic comedy about an interracial couple grappling with issues of race, sex, power, and the model minority myth. Starring George Salazar (Broadway’s Be More Chill) in a “tour-de-force performance”1 with Rick Cosnett (TV’s The Flash) and Julia Cho (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries), The Bottoming Process had people obsessed.
“COMPLEX…Pilapil’s voice and commentary shined.”—Los Angeles Times
“AN INTELLIGENT PLAY about race, assumptions, appropriation, and white privilege.”—KCRW
“UNIQUE…a subtle mixture of lyricism and playful comedy with a punch.”—Glamgical
“Screams Tennessee Williams...hones in on a specific Filipino experience with Filipino TALENT.”—Diaspora
“ELEGANTLY NUANCED…an ideal mix of humor and sobriety...clever, savvy, and consummately contemporary… deserves broad national exposure.”—People's World
“AN UNFORGETTABLE PLAY...I was stunned.”—Hollywood Flip
“FUNNY…a unique and sharp voice...the love child of Pride and Prejudice and Queer as Folk.”—Stage and Cinema
God Will Do The Rest by Nicholas Pilapil (Geffen Playhouse)
A family dramedy about the complicated ways Filipino Americans grapple with their love and duty to family. God Will Do The Rest featured powerhouse performances from some of the starriest Filipino American talent in Los Angeles (Olivier Award-nominated Jon Jon Briones, 13 Reasons Why’s Timothy Granaderos). By the end of it there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
The American Theatre Magazine podcast The Subtext named the God Will Do The Rest its play of the month in March.
“This is an excellent multi-generational play about family and all it's wonderful complications and contradictions.”
My Dog Died; and Other Concerns by Nicholas Pilapil (Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA)
A solo play about exactly what the title warns. A playwright named Nick2 struggles to overcome newfound loss in his heart, only to be confronted with hidden traumas behind memories he once thought were the truth. Raw, hilarious, shocking—what more can you want in a theatrical experience?3
if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets by Nicholas Pilapil (American Stage)
After an award-winning year in 2022 with performances off-off Broadway, Los Angeles, and back to New York City again, 2023 was another great year for this drama inspired by the Stop Asian Hate uprising of 2021.
The year took if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets to audiences in Florida and the play was published by Samuel French in their iconic Off Off Broadway Festival Play anthology series. What was once a must see is now also a must read! Get your copy.
Raved the Culver City News.
Okay, but like, my name is Nicholas not Nick.
sneaky link: watch the full play here.