Dragon Lady Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Recommended
"...“Dragon Lady” works best as a one-person musical. Porkalob shares the stage with three extraordinary musicians (Pete Irving, Jimmy Austin and Mickey Stylin) who largely appear in the shadows of an inset space on the fabulous, garish red nightclub set by Randy Wong-Westbrooke. But she performs all the characters herself, and when she launches into song with her exquisite voice, moving from a range of high bell-like clarity to dusky lowdown in both original material by Irving and tweaked standards, the show is most fully alive."
Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended
"...Dragon Lady, Sara’s one-woman, tour-de-force performance honoring this badass matriarch, opened last night at the Geffen Playhouse. Directed by Andrew Russell, Sara brings grandma’s story to life across three generations of Filipino women and a total of 19 family members, all of whom she portrays herself."
LA Splash- Highly Recommended
"...Written and performed by an incredible Sara Porkalob, DRAGON LADY arrives in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse. Porkalob definitely qualifies as a shapeshifter as she assumes the roles of dozens of people who were important in her family’s life, including a terrifying gangster, her own kids as they begin to grow up, and pretty much every other soul that her grannie met in her long and eventful life. And, besides that, she has a heavenly voice to add sugar and spice to the often poignant and frequently funny goings-on as time passes and the Filipino-born Porkalob transitions to a tough life in the U.S."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...Broadway vet Sarah Porkalob pays loving tribute to her feisty Filipina grandmother while bringing to vivid life more than two dozen finely delineated characters and showing off exquisite three-octave pipes in her much lauded solo show Dragon Lady, now paying the most entertaining and compelling of visits to Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse."
Stage Raw- Highly Recommended
"...This production marks the Los Angeles premiere of Dragon Lady and is a strong choice in artistic director Tarell Alvin McCraney’s inaugural season. It’s heartening to see a story that not only breaks apart negative tropes about Asian American women — showcasing instead their humor and badassery — but also portrays a vigorous family drama that is both American and international. Across an ocean and three generations, Dragon Lady imparts a special kind of love — one that sails to the moon and back."
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
"...If you think your own family is…choose your euphemistic adjective…colorful, sprawling, embarrassing, unique, just plain nuts or any combination thereof, Sara Porkalob would like to introduce you to her clan, and she’s probably got you one-upped. DRAGON LADY, the one-person (and three-musician) story centered around the matriarch of the Porkalobs is an affecting musical journey across three generations of a Filipino family."