The Oakland Tribune:
"Prince Gomolvilas and Brandon Patton's Jukebox Stories takes a classic idea—a meeting of artists who share their wares with a small, intimate group—and gives it a modern spin. The show alternates songs by Patton and stories by Gomolvilas, some of which are selected at random by audience members. To further intensify the audience-performer connection, Gomolvilas and Patton have devised 'Prince and Brandon's Totally Rad Low-Stakes Arbitrary Audience Participation Gimmick Bingo.' We all receive bingo cards filled with song and story titles. With each selection performed, we're invited to cross off the corresponding square on our cards until one lucky audience member has bingo and receives a prize. That's the kind of evening this is: fun, fresh and decidedly untheatrical. Jukebox Stories is a sturdy piece of post-modern cabaret, and Gomolvilas and Patton nicely fill their roles as hip, urban troubadours."
East Bay Express:
"If terrifyingly prolific playwright Prince Gomovilas thinks he can bribe a critic with a lousy single Handi-Snack serving of cheap pudding, he's wrong. However, his storytelling is another thing altogether, especially paired with the quirkily smart songs of soft-voiced Brandon Patton. The selections may be random, but there is still an organic cohesion, a satisfying blend of humor and poignancy. The pieces are political, personal, funny, biting, sad, raunchy, and above all honest. And because each night's selection will be different, it's an experience that invites repetition."
The Daily Californian:
One of the Top Ten Shows of the Year! "Fun and thoughtful, sincere and silly, part theater and part bingo game. Features a line-up of songs and stories that changes every night."
Praise for THE FABULOUS ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN QUEER
Back Stage West:
"Prince Gomolvilas lets his considerable imagination go off the charts in his latest play, The Fabulous Adventures of Captain Queer. Nerdy gay high school kid Quentin dresses up like Superman for Halloween. Because he has his initial embroidered on his shirt and because he gets bitten by a radioactive ladybug and thus imbued with amazing physical abilities, people assume he's Captain Queer, an anti-gay-bashing superhero. 'Stop calling me that,' he protests feebly as, to his chagrin, he keeps getting summoned to rescue more and more victimized gays. With projected captions, wacky movement sequences to represent violence—accompanied by cartoony shrieks of 'Slap! Slam! Ka-plow!'—and characters like a retired Nazi war criminal, the mutant Dr. Octopussy, and Quentin's relentlessly over-supportive Mom, the play is charmingly zany. The show generates consistent, and well-earned, yuks."
Bay Area Reporter:
"Gomolvilas peppers his comic-strip satire with a steady flow of playfully pervy images that give an edge to what could have been an elongated sketch. Captain Queer is a loosey-goosey comic take on the Spider-Man saga. Gomolvilas' humor has a kitchen-sink approach that manages to reference everything from Angels in America to PBS pledge breaks. But the spirit is so slap-happy that it's easy to go with the flow. "
Flavorpill SF:
"[The Fabulous Adventures of Captain Queer] has little interest in coy implication. It tells its story of an awkward gay teen and his budding superpowers (and sexuality) with broad, garish strokes. Unabashedly silly. Pop-cultural figures, anti-gay propaganda groups, and any notions of refined theatre are all spanked repeatedly. It isn't exactly in good taste, but it doesn't matter—everything here is still easy to swallow."
Praise for MYSTERIOUS SKIN
San Francisco Bay Guardian:
"Mysterious Skin, adapted from Scott Heim's novel, traces the trajectories of two young men from semirural Kansas who shared a childhood experience that shaped them in a way each is unable to control. Eighteen-year-old Brian knows something happened but has repressed a memory that, as it works its way to the surface, becomes an encounter with aliens. Neil has a nose for another kind of green men—they wind up in his wallet, the spoils from his career hustling older men. Gomolvilas does an impressive job of turning Heim's provocative story into an intriguing piece of theater. Graphic...disturbing. As the audience files out of the theater into the cold night, we're left to brood about the mysterious, hopelessly insular nature of our alien, altogether terrestrial selves."
San Francisco Chronicle:
"Deeply moving and riveting. The undercurrents of dangerous and wannabe humorous sexuality in both teens' stories erupt in a gripping, sad, and disturbing [scene] before the intermission. But as dramatic as that moment is, it pales beside the depth of drama Gomolvilas finds in the second part of Heim's story. Raw...graphic...written in fire. Bracing, poignant, and unsettlingly honest."
The Advocate:
"Scott Heim's acclaimed novel uses UFOs as both plot and metaphor in the tale of a Kansas teen trying to solve the riddle of his own alienation. And Prince Gomolvilas's worthy theatrical adaptation retains the novel's sorrowful intensity. Disturbing, forthright, and believable. The drama [is] razor-sharp and lacerating."
Praise for BOYZ OF ALL NATIONZ: THE RISE AND FALL OF A MULTI-ETHNIC BOY BAND
Washington City Paper:
"Although Prince Gomolvilas's amusing concept—a post-NKOTB, pre-'N Sync boy band with casting straight outta Benetton—looks at first like a one-joke story, Gomolvilas has created a Behind the Music-style story that's packed with witty lines and surprisingly fleshed-out characters [in Boyz of All Nationz: The Rise and Fall of a Multi-Ethnic Boy Band]. No mere pinups, his Boyz aren't without talent, brains, or baggage. Ray-Ray maintains his cool by reading Buddhism for Black People and scorns bandmate Brick as 'an Asian guy imitating a white guy imitating a black guy.' Bob tries to erase his family's wealth and whiteness by smoking lots of weed. Jace, the cross of Hispanic Catholicism around his neck, complains primly about his bandmates' blasphemy and frets about whether he's the 'ugly one.' Middle-aged ex-monkey trainer Jerry, the mastermind behind the Boyz, gets a nice scene in Act One in which we see him, alone, watching his proteges in their 'world debut' at the Pentagon City Mall food court, that reveals both the humor and the pathos inherent in Gomolvilas's story. The songs, including 'Put Your Eggs in My Basket' and 'Oh Let Me Lay You Down (I Wanna Lick You Up),' are perfectly awful (and I mean that as a compliment)."
Washington Blade:
"A sweet story about a guy connecting with his best self, and along the way sends up the ripe-for-spoofing world of boy bands. The songs perfectly parody the bubblegum genre...devilishly funny...clever lyrics. In between goofing on boy bands and ethnic stereotypes, Gomolvilas has inserted some nice tender moments into Boyz."
Curtain Up:
"Is commercial success possible for an ethnically diverse American band? Boyz is a light-hearted, irreverent play about a band of questionable talent struggling against its own diversity as it tries to make it big.... Nerdy and sometimes prurient songs. Witty and confrontational. Comedy at the expense of cultural taboos and moments of human compassion."
Praise for BEE
The Washington Post:
"Bee is a barbed parable about bias in contemporary America, a cerebral comedy suggesting that if human beings try hard enough, they can transform an angry, alienated world into a better place. The play begins with an improbable premise: At a bus stop in Las Vegas, a straightforward, independent African-American woman named Gina asks a question of a shy Korean-American man, Devon. The young man is astonished. For a year, he has been invisible. The play examines red-hot racial, gender, generational, and economic issues."
San Jose Mercury News:
"A brainy, sassy, refreshing amalgam of kitsch and sociology. Gomolvilas conjures up the best kind of ambiguity, the kind that makes you think, makes you question the world around you and your place in it."
Bay Area Reporter:
"The playwright's new work certainly casts wide and bravely its apiarian net. After all, how many playwrights today are digging deep into the festering wounds of racial resentment, which here is not played out in the usual black-white scenarios, but which gains power from its unexpected perspective. Bee is a good showcase for Gomolvilas's strengths as a writer, as he gets ample opportunity to display his sly wit and an ear for bracing dialogue."
Praise for DEBUNKING LOVE
San Francisco Examiner:
"Two parallel episodes in Adam's love life are the subject of Gomolvilas's new play [Debunking Love]. Gomolvilas peppers his script with some fetching and original comedy, continually breaking the theatrical frame to amusing effect. Beguiling...very funny...unexpectedly moving. There's enough originality and sharply observed quirks of language to keep you pretty well entertained. Gomolvilas isn't afraid to tackle some tough issues in a manner that makes you eager to see what he'll do next."
San Francisco Frontiers Newsmagazine:
"This is an identity-based play whose political ambitions are fulfilled in its very writing. Debunking Love gives voice to an underrepresented minority. The play's core conundrum is rich in emotional and cultural complexities. Gomolvilas writes clear, clever dialogue."
OutNow Newsmagazine:
"Focused and tight. Provocative in theme and at times extremely funny in execution. Debunking Love really debunks a number of myths and stereotypes. It doesn't mince words examining or poking fun at them either. This is an engrossing play on many levels that wouldn't have worked in the hands of a lesser playwright."
Praise for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
The Business Times:
"The prize-winning play [The Theory of Everything] by Prince Gomolvilas is a refreshingly easy look at Asian-American issues of race, gender, and identity, layered with deeper questions of life and death. The setting is magical—a starry night on a Vegas rooftop; the premise absurdist—contemplating life and life changes on a 24-hour vigil for UFOs; the players real—seven people who from force of habit drift back onto the rooftop of the Chapel of Love for one of their regular get-togethers. Three generations of Asian Americans are at crossroads in their lives; it's a clever mix of problems rooted both in Asian identity as well as with the general human condition. Gomolvilas's writing is tight, intelligent, and funny. Its essential strengths are its likeable characters and sharply-written dialogue. Theory stands out as a play worth seeing, for its humor and humanity."
The Straits Times:
"Gomolvilas is smart enough to avoid wrestling this heavyweight theme [of Asian identity] with portentous seriousness. Instead, he attacks it with sharp jabs of observational humor. Gomolvilas is a brilliant writer of comic monologues. Irony and empathy are effortlessly melded, so that you can laugh at the characters while feeling a growing warmth for them."
Los Angeles Times:
"A play titled The Theory of Everything should think big and mess with a lot of ideas. In its easygoing way, Prince Gomolvilas's comedy is pleased to comply. This writer is developing a strong voice."
Praise for BIG HUNK O' BURNIN' LOVE
Los Angeles Times:
"Some people feel pressure to marry once out of their 20s. Winston should be so lucky. If he doesn't marry by his 30th birthday—in four days—he will spontaneously combust. End of story. So goes the premise of Big Hunk o' Burnin' Love. A romantic comedy with a touch of parable. Highlights a new, fluid comic voice—one that unself-consciously incorporates ethno-cultural information on its Thai, Chinese, and white characters with no discernible explanatory, 'educational' strain. Big Hunk announces the arrival of a playwright with a sure and steady comic style."
Aisle Say:
"A vehicle that pokes fun at the cultural realities of an Asian (in this case, Thai) family trying to find assimilation in America without compromising entirely the core values and traditions that are geographically left behind. The play also addresses the familiar issues of race, gender, and identity in a modernistic, sometimes hilarious manner."
The Northern Virginia Sun Weekly:
"Delectably loopy. Big Hunk touches on the gaps between generations and cultures, the fragility of hopes and fears and the difficulties of maintaining one's Old World identity in a land that is almost too new for its own good. There are plenty of inspired one-liners and witty observations about marriage, family, and ethnicity."
Praise for Praise's Sake
OutNow Newsmagazine:
"Gomolvilas is an activist playwright. The genius of his work is the balance he is able to maintain between substance and humor. The end result is that you will leave a Gomolvilas play having had a number of good laughs and a lot to seriously talk about, too."
