Candide

Rock of Ages

Sweeney Todd

“I got blood on my cello!"

Overhearing that exclamation one night backstage at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, Stephen Sondheim, Broadway's master manipulator of words, was struck by its oddity.

“Do you realize," he said to the young woman with the soiled strings, “that you just crafted a sentence that has probably never before been heard in the course of human history?"

It may not be the last time that phrase, or some similar declaration, is heard in the wings of the Eugene O'Neill, where a radical new production of Mr. Sondheim's radical old musical Sweeney Todd opens on Thursday.

REVIEWS

Desperate Measures

(received nominations for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical and Outer Critics Circle for Best Supporting Actress)

“...Lauren Molina, as Bella, gives one of those uproarious performances that used to make people stay home on Saturday nights to see on The Carol Burnett Show. She mugs unmercifully, belts out a sassy strip number and, [has an] homage to Groucho and Harpo's classic mirror scene in Duck Soup.” – BroadwayWorld

“…with Lucille Ball-worthy mugging and double takes broader than the side of a barn, Molina shamelessly steals every moment she’s on stage.” - The Broadway Blog

Ten Cents A Dance

“Pretty much everyone is close to perfection here… with Ms. Molina as the dewiest…” – The New York Times

Wonderful Town

“Delightfully daffy as aspiring actress and man-magnet Eileen…”
– Time Out Chicago

“Lauren Molina, whose speed, lightness and coloratura voice are custom-made for the role…” – Chicago Sun Times

“Molina shines with her nearly flawless portrayal of a naïve yet glee-loving gal.” – Third Coast Review

“Lauren Molina plays a fine line between precocity and man-predator, succeeding brilliantly.” – New City Stage

“…delightful Lauren Molina, boy does she sparkle with personality” – Around the Town Chicago

Marry Me A Little
“Ms. Molina, who played Johanna to perfection in the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, is something else again, a quirky, angular beauty with a sharp-edged sense of humor whose limbs look as though they’re made of taffy. I last saw her on stage four months ago in the San Diego premiere of Nobody Loves You and delighted in her comic energy. She’s just as funny in Marry Me a Little, but what you’ll remember here is the intense wistfulness with which she puts across Mr. Sondheim’s famously ambivalent ballads (“Keep a tender distance / So we’ll both be free / That’s the way it ought to be”). Not only does she nail the title song, but I’ve never heard a more affecting performance of “There Won’t Be Trumpets.” Might Ms. Molina be poised for musical-comedy stardom? It certainly looks that way.” – Wall Street Journal

“…both [Lauren Molina and Jason Tam] bring emotional transparency to their roles, providing a quietly affecting counterpoint to the guarded ambivalence inherent in many of Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics.” – The New York Times

Sweeney Todd
“All-Consuming Honesty and Range” – New Yorker
“Perfect as Johanna” – Wall Street Journal

Rock of Ages
“Mr. Taylor, in rosy-cheeked Pee Wee makeup and goofball German accent, shares a preposterously funny duet with Lauren Molina, as an earth-girl activist, on Ms. Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” – The New York Times

“…[Taylor's] second-act number with Lauren Molina, irreverently funny as a hippie protester, nearly stops the show.” – TheaterMania

The Rocky Horror Show
“Broadway’s Lauren Molina runs with the role of Janet and makes her almost poignant, not to mention she has amazing pipes on songs like “Over At the Frankenstein Place” and “Touch-a, Touch Me.”
– The Morning Call

Nobody Loves You
“Keep an eye out for Lauren Molina, who plays a drunken, sex-crazed
contestant on Nobody Loves You…” – Wall Street Journal

“Spot on” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“Lauren Molina is a scene-stealer as Megan… great comic chops… irresistible…” – U-T San Diego

“Molina, who has great comic chops, helps the scene strike an irresistible note of satire…” – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Meet Me In St. Louis: A Live Radio Play
“…show-stealing performance by petite dynamo Lauren Molina…”
– Philadelphia Inquirer

“Lauren Molina alone is worth the price of admission. In the radio play, she portrays Tootie, the youngest of the Smith family sisters, and their Irish maid, Katie (among others). Tootie has the lisp to end all lisps and is a spunky troublemaker. But she’s the kind of kid you can’t help but to like and forgive quickly (and you will forget she’s being played by a grown woman). And Katie gives some wise and humorous advice about men to Tootie’s older sisters – it’s all about “a touch of the Irish.” There are laughs throughout the show, but Molina extracts most, if not all, of the belly and burst-out-loud ones. She is hilarious. Molina starred in last year’s holiday production, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” as well. If BCP’s gift to audiences is that Molina stars in the holiday production each year, that’s one I wouldn’t even think of complaining about or returning.”
– New Hope Free Press

REVIEWS

“She's part Mary Martin, Lucille Ball, Kristen Wiig and [fill in the blank with your favorite opera star because Molina has one of the most powerful and flexible voices in the annals of Broadway].”
– Alicia Anstead, Harvard Review

The Skivvies 

“Indie rock, alt-cabaret, new burlesque: Whatever you call it, the jolly musical comedy of the Skivvies, a troupe of entertainers who perform in their underwear, joyfully rock...Wielding instruments as if they were toys, the Skivvies’ leaders Nick Cearley...and his mischievous curly-headed partner Lauren Molina, treated the stage like a glorified sandbox for grown-up children. With their fellow musicians...they played jet-propelled, humorous mash-ups of songs from near and far in an accelerated jug band style...The Skivvies are paradoxically sophisticated and innocent...they tempt you to rush back to childhood and forward into the future at the same time."
– The New York Times

“The Skivvies have managed to carve out a niche that we never knew needed to exist: It's part Weird Al-parody and part sexy burlesque...an unusual explosion of satire and sultry." – Out Magazine

“...At a Skivvies show, audiences will find love and friendship with their fellow humans, artists of varying ages, shapes, sizes, body types, all of whom are on stage to entertain, enlighten, illuminate and make people happy. There is no envy, jealousy, self-consciousness or self-loathing. There is no feeling of judgment anywhere. There is no negativity at a Skivvies show, only solidarity in art and companionship. Audience members will leave a Skivvies show happy that they came, glad that they participated, and feeling filled with humanity." – BroadwayWorld

People Magazine named The Skivvies as the “Most Playful Performers" in the “Most Talked about Bodies of 2014" Issue

“The Skivvies are best thing to happen to NYC nightlife in years...a shot of pure joy to the heart... A MUST-SEE! Repeatedly!!!" – Perez Hilton

“...Distinctive musical style, highly original... smart... sophisticated... ingenious..." – The Wall Street Journal

“...a hot musical comedy duo specializing in unexpected arrangements, incongruous mashups and, of course,  highly toned displays of skin." – The New York Times

“Favorite New Band" – Sports Illustrated

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

“At the other end of the Charlie Brown power structure is Molina as an overpowering, even bullyish, Lucy. If she weren’t so agile at playing up Lucy’s more cartoonish aspects – her wildly pliable face, for instance – she could be scary. But Molina is a powerhouse of a performer and is often the one driving the show.” – Cincinnati Enquirer

“Lauren Molina is a fierce and hilarious Lucy, embodying the character's obnoxious, self-absorbed, and scheming hijinks perfectly.” – Talkin Broadway

“The standout of the group is the rambunctious and delightfully shrill Lucy. But every actor is so stunningly talented and performs so effortlessly that the production feels like watching a group of friends jam and fool around together…Molina brings an exceptional intensity to Lucy that works because of her steadfast commitment to the character’s bombastic nature.” – City Beat

The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter - York Theatre

“She's aces on "The Tale of the Oyster," supplying it with a real build and characterization, not an easy thing with this oddball number.” – TheaterMania

“The slinky, rubber-faced Lauren Molina, peering through a lorgnette, lists the honor roll of celebrities taking up pitchforks in "Farming" and, weary of the glamour of it all, amusingly wails the upper-crust lament "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)." She also makes the most of the thoughtful, melancholy "I Loved Him (But He Didn't Love Me)," a reverse-engineered torch song in which the singer discovers that her passion lasts only as long as her beloved's indifference.” – Lighting and Sound America

“Lauren Molina deftly handles comic gems, singing "The Tale Of The Oyster" with kewpie doll energy, embracing the Lower East Side flavor of "Hot House Rose", and hinting at an oncoming breakdown in the one-percenter torch number "Down In The Depths (On The 90th Floor).” – BroadwayWorld

Assassins

“For me, the standout performance was Lauren Molina as Squeaky Fromme. Her portrayal of the Charles Manson acolyte is a complete balance of honesty and humor. Her facial expressions are perfect: watch her when she asks John Hinckley (played with great awkward earnestness by Lucas Dixon) if he can play “Sympathy for the Devil” on his guitar and you’ll see what I mean. She is the first singer I’ve heard who understands that belting the entirety of “Unworthy of Your Love” is not a requirement to convey the passion that Fromme feels for Manson. And I know that Molina is a vocal powerhouse." – Onstage Blog

“Unworthy Of Your Love” is a pitch-perfect ’70s soft-rock hit, soulfully performed by John Hinckley (Lucas Dixon) and Lynnete “Squeaky” Fromme (Lauren Molina)...Squeaky Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore (Julia Murney) are enormously funny as a recurring comic-relief duo — the two actresses have excellent comic timing, and Murney’s nervous energy plays well against Molina’s strung-out languor." – New Haven Review

“For the most part, the would-be assassins are zanies and crazies, with some, like the two women who targeted President Ford, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (Lauren Molina) and Sara Jane Moore (Julia Murney), played for laughs...Fromme’s duet with Reagan’s would-be assassin Hinckley, “Unworthy of Your Love,” is a plaintive cry for significance, showing Hinckley’s obsession with Jodie Foster and Fromme’s with Charles Manson. The irony of such an earnest big number in service to these two—and Molina and Dixon are both very good as and look very much like their respective characters—points up what makes Assassins work so well: there’s a daytime soaps element to the self-conceptions of these killers, as if the purpose of life is to be immortal in the media." – New Haven Review

“There’s no denying that the Rep’s production of “Assassins” is both stylish and engaging, and the cast is, across the board, superb, with Molina, Murney, DeRosa and Henry especially delivering some memorable moments. Then there are the two female assassins, Fromme and Moore. Molina and Murney have several scenes together, and the chemistry between the drug-addled young woman besotted by Charles Manson and the somewhat ditzy suburban housewife who can’t shoot straight is delightfully humorous..."  – Connecticut Theatre News and Reviews

“Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme (a bughouse Lauren Molina)" – New Haven Register

“Lauren Molina as Fromme and Julia Murney as Sara Jane Moore (both attempted and failed to kill Gerald Ford) bring humor and pathos to their roles" - CT Post Chronicle

Candide
 “…a petite firecracker with comic brilliance and a soaring voice.”
– Chicago Sun Times, Hedy Weiss

“…a feisty and comically agile Lauren Molina…wows with her
high-flying coloratura soprano in the showstopping number ‘Glitter and be Gay’.” – Daily Herald, Scott C. Morgan

“…golden-voiced…” Variety, Steven Oxman

“Molina nails Cunégonde’s legendary aria ‘Glitter and Be Gay.’ ”
– Time Out Chicago, Kris Vire

“Despite all the talent that spills across the stage, Molina (also a
Helen Hayes Award-winner) rises above the rest. To be a great comic
actor is one thing; to be blessed with an ability to hit those big,
operatic notes is another. But it doesn’t seem fair when the two fit
in one lovely, waifish body. She brings the house down in an act-one
moment of long, rolling notes that’s both comic and awe-inspiring.
Molina astonishes from start to finish.” – Alexander Stevens, Wicked Local Dover

“‘Glitter and Be Gay’ is a comic masterpiece, yet Molina also leaves
the goofiness behind to bring off poor Cunegonde’s ruin with the
nuanced assurance of a tragedian; this is a performance for the
history books.” Thomas Garvey, The Hub Review

“Molina is just wonderful…She brings comic zest to Cunegonde’s aura of self-delight and heart-rending poignancy to her downfall.”
– Don Aucoin, Boston Globe

“Molina brings operatic panache and funny flirty timing to Cunegonde, her number “Glitter and Be Gay” one of the standouts of the evening, a miraculous collision of shame and self-admiration that makes for razor-sharp, black comedy.” – Bill Marx, The Art Fuse

“Cunegonde may be the ultimate musical theater soubrette and Lauren Molina flawlessly sings this most difficult of roles. She is also
hilarious, turning self obsession into comic gold. Assisted by
Zimmerman’s droll staging, her rendition of “Glitter and Be Gay” is
genius – about as funny a ten-minutes as you’ll spend in the theater
this year.” – EDGE Boston, Robert Nesti