Am I Roxie? Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...In "Am I Roxie?," a world premiere one-woman-show at the Geffen Playhouse, Roxana Ortega, a working actress and alum of the Groundlings Theatre's Sunday Company, revisits the period in her life when she was the caregiver for her mother, whose memory was unraveling."
Stage and Cinema- Somewhat Recommended
"...Within five minutes of “this fiercely funny one-woman tour-de-force” (so says the publicity), actress Roxana Ortega is already fighting back tears about losing her mother due to Alzheimer’s. Thus begins her sappy and self-centered new play, Am I Roxie?, now playing at Geffen Playhouse in Westwood."
LA Splash- Highly Recommended
"...Skillfully helmed by Mexican writer/director Bernardo Cubria, a tale which could be depressing and infinitely sad morphs into an outrageously funny story as the idiosyncratic Roxie tries all her skills and optimistic plans - often to no avail - to "cure" her mother's illness or to at least make her life more meaningful during the journey."
LA Theatrix- Highly Recommended
"...Written and performed by Roxana Ortega and directed by Bernardo Cubría, "Am I Roxie?" is a one-woman dark comedy, currently running at the Geffen Playhouse through Oct. 5. The show pulls the audience into Ortega's world as she takes on the most challenging role of her life: becoming her mother's caretaker. Along the way, she wrestles with family, loss and identity in a story that is both deeply personal and universally resonant."
TheaterMania- Somewhat Recommended
"...The Geffen Playhouse is launching its new season with playwright Roxana Ortega's Am I Roxie?, a tender one-person confessional about parenthood, obligations, and finding love in the most traumatic places. Portraying a version of herself, as well as her family members and friends, Ortega recollects and reconceptualizes the six years she spent caring for her ill mother."
Stage Raw- Recommended
"...Ortega’s love letter to Carmen is also one to herself as Roxie confronts her faults and discovers the inner strength to begin to overcome them. By the finale, Roxie has gleaned that she is her mother’s daughter — and symbolically vice versa — and that their expedition together was just as cathartic for her mother as it was for her."
Larchmont Buzz- Recommended
"...The manic moments are fun, but it's the quiet ones where Ortega really breaks through. Six years with an Alzheimer's patient are not all song and repartee. Carmen had immigrated to the United States from Peru at age 22 with creative urges that went largely unfulfilled. Roxie is in some ways living the life her mother might have dreamed of for herself, yet yearns to be a mother herself, a major theme of the Am I Roxie?"
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
"...AM I ROXIE? 's depth is sublime. Couched in laughter and self-deprecation, the poetry, the relationships, the visions all slow-build to a pinnacle of triumph by the end of the story. Ortega, herself, the victor, dreamer, daughter and holder of pure exultation having been one with it."