Unique doesn’t begin to describe the out-of-the-ordinary theatrical experience that is Julia Masli’s weird and wonderful, almost entirely improvised Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, a Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Touring Production now wowing audiences at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Not only that, but it’s nearly impossible to put into words what Masli’s one-woman-and-an-audience performance piece is all about other than to say it revolves around one Estonian woman’s sincere desire to solve problems whether they be large or small.

The problems may be as simple as an audience member’s concern about what costume to don for Halloween, no matter that English-as-a-second-language speaker Musli initially thought the dilemma in question was where to celebrate the holiday and not what to wear. Initial miscomprehension aside, she and the audience managed to kill two birds with one stone with the young man making plans to attend an audience member’s Halloween party as Mrs. Doubtfire.

Another audience member confessed to missing her native Germany and Masli found someone in the audience with German roots (albeit only a few words of German) to sit with her throughout the rest of the show.

 Another wanted to find a hobby that would allow him to use his hands, upon which Masli provided him and a volunteer helper with the necessary tools to repair and reassemble a straight-backed chair she’d smashed to pieces only a few moments before.

Someone else complained of feeling cold, and before you knew it, the young woman had more than one donated wrap to keep her warm, while a young man whose problem was he needed a haircut actually got his hair trimmed on stage by a member of Masli’s staff.

 Others’ problems were rather more serious, tops among them a young woman’s need to pay for pricey dental surgery, a dilemma Masli and her audience had already gone a long way towards solving by show’s end, though not before Masli as a European expressed disbelief that dental surgery wasn’t free in the United States.

And lest I forget, one fit young man ended up stripping down his birthday suit to take a shower on stage (privates masked by smoked glass), the portable shower in question just one of what must surely be a multitude of props and set pieces stored in the wings should the need for one of them arise.

 And in case you think that all of this adds up to little more than 80 minutes or so of entertaining theatrical fluff, my plus-one put it ever so eloquently when he described Masli as someone who “changes lives with her art by encouraging people to let go of their fears, release their anger, and take a chance on doing something new,” and I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Masli shares credit for this most unique of theatrical experiences with ingenious director Kim Noble.

 Lily Woodford’s magenta-hued lighting, Alessio Festuccia’s otherworldly sound design, and David Curtis-Ring, Annika Thiems, and Alice Wedge’s costumes (Masli sports a quirky headdress and a gold-painted, high-heeled mannequin leg where her right arm would normally be) add to the theatrical magic.

Last but not least, Sebástian Hernández performs his improvised sound score live on the saxophone as Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha reaches its final climactic moments.

Sarah Chapin serves as associate producer,  production manager,  and stage manager in addition to providing an “improvised lighting score.”

Brad Enlow is technical director and production supervisor. Jenny Slattery is associate producer. Bonnie McHeffey is general manager. Davidson & Choy Publicity are press representatives.

 I’m probably not the only audience member who attended Julia Masli’s Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha wondering (based on what I’d read) if this might be a bit too cringe for comfort.

I need not have worried. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha and its mission to bring us together in polarized times had me pretty much from its very first Ha.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
October 19, 2025
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Playhouse, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company