Broadway World - Somewhat Recommended
"...LAVENDER MEN assumes a lot about the audience. Mostly that everyone is familiar with the homosexual references about Lincoln in the first place. I certainly wasn't. So, what happens during the performance, intentional or not can be confusing as well as disarming, especially for people who are not gender fluid, which seems to be the intent."
LA Splash - Highly Recommended
"...LAVENDER MEN is definitely a fantastic production which demands that the audience suspend reality in order to get into Taffeta's groove. But the transition is worth it. You'll see some unexpected "what-ifs" which may knock your socks off. This is a thought-provoking piece - but, at the same time, it's also entertaining and fun. In keeping with COVID-19 recommendations, the Skylight Theatre requires proof of vaccination and masks inside the theater."
Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended
"...Queer playwright Roger Q. Mason explores the love that dared not speak its name between Abraham Lincoln and his “close friend” Elmer Ellsworth in Lavender Men, at once a gay American history fantasia, a very public therapy session for its self-described “black, fat, femme” author, and one of the most stunning productions in town."
Stage Raw - Highly Recommended
"...Playwright Roger Q. Mason has fashioned a highly entertaining, controversial, and often "over the top" work that upends conventional teachings about the American icon, Abraham Lincoln (Pete Ploszek). Mason also plays Taffeta, the flamboyant narrator of the piece, who self describes as "a fabulous queer creation of color" and who calls the version of history that they are about to unfold a "fantasia.""
Ticket Holders LA - Highly Recommended
"...It is a miraculous and extremely important work that needs to have a huge future, hopefully with everything Los Angeles theatre treasures Jon Lawrence Rivera and Gary Grossman, artistic directors of, respectively, Playwrights' Arena and the Skylight Theatre Company, have worked so diligently to nurture and bring to such glorious fruition."
Larchmont Buzz - Recommended
"...The play is a tight 100 minutes without intermission, under the direction of Lovell Holder. The fantastic and all too real collide in unique and sometimes thrilling ways, as Taffeta journeys from downtrodden to supreme. The standing ovation at the end proves the audience was with her all along."
Theatrely - Recommended
"...Playwright and performer Roger Q. Mason fabricates an unexpected fantasia in Lavender Men, which made its world premiere at Los Angeles’ Skylight Theatre this month. Mason plays Taffeta, an exuberant femme with pink lids, feathery lashes, and the power to resurrect historical figures as a form of therapy."
