A Los Angeles Theatre Review: ‘You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World!’

I’ve only seen two productions directed by Zi Alikhan, the first being Frou-Frou: A Menagerie of Sorts just two months back which riffed Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie into a wild and excellent adventure. Now, with the world premiere of Keiko Green‘s You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! at the South Coast Repertory, I’ll make it a point in the future to watch any play he will direct as well as any play written by Green because it’s just that good.

Backed by one hell of an ensemble cast, this dizzying electropop dramedy is without a doubt an exceptional delight for all that will make you laugh hysterically and tug at all your heart strings.

Since Greg’s terminal diagnosis, he’s felt a deep connection to the Earth — and to save himself, he’ll need to save the planet. Viv desperately wants to savor every last minute with her husband. Meanwhile M, our emcee, searches desperately to find meaning in the chaos of their final year with Dad. A heartfelt family story and joyful theatrical event, as magical as the world itself.

At the core of this play is a man coming to terms with his stage four cancer while his wife and grownup child must come to terms with his unravelling mind and erratic behaviors about the end of the world. While on the surface it would seem that this play is a rather serious affair, Keiko Green infuses so much surreal and absurd comedy that you as the audience member are taken on a wild ride where we encounter a distorted version of Greta Thunberg, a green army man come to life, and a giant talking frog and rat. But the play never loses sight of the pain one endures when they’re about to lose a beloved family member and judged solely from the written perspective, the play script is a riveting work of art that I cannot wait to see mounted in other theatre companies and studied & performed by actors worldwide (the script’s universality lends itself to infinite diversity possibilities, which I’ll detail at the end of this review).

River Gallo anchors the play as our narrator and child to Greg (Joel de la Fuente) and Viv (Alysia Reiner). These three leads are simply fantastic and I utterly believe them as a family that adore, love, and frustrate the living daylights out of each other. Fuente and Reiner in particular are dynamite. Supporting them are an incredible ensemble cast made up of Anna LaMadrid, Sharon Omi, and Rafael Goldstein who play a variety of characters that were just unforgettable in their own unique way, with each character brilliantly brought to life by these actors. I would totally sign up to see a spin-off of Sharon Omi as the giant frog and Rafael Goldstein as the giant rat arguing about their extinct woes to a warped version of Greta Thunberg played by Anna LaMadrid any day.

The technical elements add so much to this show as the scenic design by Adam Rigg (a major highlight being when Goldstein appeared inside a television set and then crawled out of it as if he came straight out of The Grudge), costume design by Lux Haac, lighting design by Barbara Samuels, sound design by Noel Nichols & Uptown Works, and projection design by Nicholas Hussong all contribute beautifully in realizing Alikhan’s directorial vision in a house that slowly becomes stripped away with the inevitable passing of Greg. With all these elements, a shoutout must also be made to stage manager Kathryn Davies and assistant stage manager Lauren Buangan for coordinating all these pieces together with precision. Within the meta and fourth wall breaking moments that occur throughout the play, the creative team’s efforts only adds to the script in telling this universal story of loss that will resonate with every single person who has ever experienced such tragedy in their lives.

Being a huge fan of genre and all things fantastic, my only disappointment with the play (this part I’ll say next is a huge spoiler so stop reading now) is that there really isn’t an end of the world in the a literal sense but interpreted as how the family feels when enduring such a tragic loss. All the fantastical elements that we see teased in M’s introduction and what happens throughout the play are only but the wild imagination of Greg working overtime as he desperately believes that playing a part in saving the earth may yield a direct correlation to saving his own life. One could possibly make the case that when the giant rat ordered Greg to dig a giant hole in their front yard, this was a evident sign that something fantastic came out of that as life grew out of his endeavors.

The most significant praise I can give to this production (other than it’s freaking great) is that the ethnicity of the characters do not matter at all as the play is a universal story about cancer and as such, it is not a story that is reserved only for white hetero people to tell. Cancer affects us all and thus the casting for this world premiere was wonderfully diverse with strong cases that can be made for many of the characters for their genders to be easily swappable or left ambiguous. If other theatre companies put up this play (as they should), I sincerely hope they also cast a wide net in both areas of racial & gender inclusiveness. And yet at the same time, the diversity of this cast didn’t feel forced because the writing allows room for such universality to exist. Because of this and so much more, I just adore this play and I hope you will too.

First Night: April 11, 2025
Regular Performances: April 12 – May 3, 2025
American Sign Language Performance: Saturday, April 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Recommendation: Ages 16+
Running Time: Approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.
Tickets: $35-$114 and can be bought here

You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! features haze effects and flashing lights.

Post-Show Discussions
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 (Actor Talk)
Thursday, April 24, 2025 (Actor Talk)
Sunday, April 27, 2025 (Community Conversation)