Broadway World - Not Recommended
"...I can forgive the fact that opening night ran significantly longer than we were told it would. I can forgive the belabored rhythms as actors struggled to unload bricks of unnatural dialogue. I can also forgive the way every actor in this piece is stylistically in a different world from the others- one shouting as if we were in a theatre four times as large, another straight off of the Disney Channel. I cannot, however, forgive the presentation of a melodrama which parrots the course of the past two years without a single original joke (Tiger King? Zoom fatigue? In 2022?!), a single original observation (quarantine was difficult? In 2022?!), or even an interesting 'what if' moment (What if someone you love contracts COVID? What if the pandemic unearthed people's true colors? In 2022?!)"
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...Skillfully helmed by Jon Lawrence Rivera, APARTMENT LIVING has the added bonus of a talented cast who bring life to the tale. Special kudos to Charrell Mack, who personifies the conflict faced in a relationship on a crash course with something that can’t be ignored, controlled, or stopped. Congratulations are also in order for Alex Calle’s scenic design, whose fluid walls make scene changes adroit and speedy. The entire production team deserves a nod, including lighting design by Azra King-Abadi, costume design by Mylette Nora, sound design by John Zalewski, and projection design by David Murakami."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Boni Alvarez takes us back to the early months of the pandemic in Apartment Living, the latest Playwrights’ Arena/Skylight Theatre Company World Premiere, and assuming you’re okay with reliving those days of apprehension and uncertainty, Alvarez’s latest offers an adeptly balanced mix of comedy and drama, laughter and fears performed by an all-around fabulous acting ensemble and featuring the most ingenious set design in town."
Showmag - Recommended
"...While it is not messy by any means, Apartment Living, written by Boni B. Alvarez and produced at Skylight Theatre in conjunction with Playwrights Arena, is brilliant - yet confusing. The play is so cinematic that the hardworking stage crew has to work double-time on set changes, ingeniously created by set designer Alex Calle, to accommodate the staccato-timed scenes divided among two interior apartments, a store, as well as a spillover nether-space."
Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended
"...Jokes about Tiger King and quips about Zoom fatigue garner chuckles, but Apartment Living is at its best when it lets us in on all-too-fleeting moments of human connection – when Cassandra unexpectedly finds common ground with a chatty White Lady (Rachel Sorsa) at the grocery store or when Dixon lovingly prepares an overly spicy meal for his mother. Apartment Living attempts to neatly encapsulate the surreal experience of living through 2020, but maybe we won’t truly have perspective for several years to come. Maybe the best we can do is cling to the very moments we’ve been missing."
Theatre Notes - Highly Recommended
"...To borrow from the Nobel prize winning author, Gabriel García Márquez, playwright Boni B. Alvarez’ new play could be called “Love in the Time of Covid,” but his play, Apartment Living, is an ideal fit for the emotional angst of these times of uncertainty fueled not only by the pandemic, but worse, a vicious war in Ukraine and the shadow of Putin’s threat of atomic weapons. Arrgh! Every day it gets worse and the covid variants seem to be endless."
Discover Hollywood - Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Boni B. Alvarez takes the audience on quite a journey through the many months of fear, illness, protest and riot until finally salvation of sorts as all is tidily reconciled. Director Jon Laurence Rivera moves his cast through their many scenes involving the intricacies of the very mobile set by Alex Calle that cast and crew ably maneuver."
Ticket Holders LA - Recommended
"...The gifted Alvarez's Apartment Living is a promising play but still seems to need a little time to grow. Although his dialogue is sharp, quick, and often very funny, his characters could be far richer if we would be given a chance to know them a tad better. Sometimes it feels these days still-evolving young playwrights are thinking of a future for their work in film and television, conspicuously writing only quick four or five-minute scenes that are the lifeblood of those other mediums and thereby robbing theatre audiences of having time to fall in love or at least care more about their characters' plight."
