Playwright Dan Caffrey may have bitten off a bit more than he can chew in Kaiju, his satirical mashup of Godzilla-style creature features and pretentions/clueless post-performance talkbacks, but I so enjoyed the World Premiere comedy now playing at the Road Theatre on Magnolia that I can’t really complain.

For the first forty-or-so minutes of Kaiju’s ninety-minute running time, you’d be excused for assuming that what you’re watching is nothing more than a wacky spoof of 1950s/’60 Toho Studios Giant Monster Movies like Godzilla, Mothra, or Rodan.

And indeed the duo initially sharing the stage in Kaiju (literally “strange beast” or “mysterious creature” in Japanese) are the reptilian Apex (Cherish Monique Duke) and the mammalian Goliath (Leandro Cano), whom we first glimpse towering over a decimated North Hollywood (a bit of scenic design brilliance by Lacey Anzelc).

And though each is willing to share the blame for the mass destruction below, only Goliath seems moved by the carnage the two have wrought, unintentionally in his own case, considerably less so in hers.

Goliath had, after all, been perfectly content spending centuries lying under the ground as human templegoers worshipped him from above.

Apex, on the other hand, had spent the past 45 million years holding her breath at the bottom of the ocean until, like Goliath, a “clickity-clacking” brought them both out of hiding and facing a hostile world bent on killing them by any means possible, air and ground attacks simulated by Japanese American stagehand Shinji (Genki Hall) garbed head to toe in black like a Kabuki kuroko.

Philosophical debate and interspecies hanky-panky ensue, upon which actors “Manuel” and “Amelia” take their bows and the latter, as the theater’s Community Engagement Director, announces a “Post-Show Discussion” (don’t call it a talkback or Q&A) during which audience members like Sondra (Noa Levi-Ari), Kyle (Billy Baker), Roy (Jon Snow), Lee (Gabie Faulkner), Rani (Sapna Kumar), and Maggie (Ann Hearn) are invited to have, as moderator Amelia put it, “a conversation about the play and its themes, rather than costumes or set pieces or anything else having to do with the logistics of the production,” though not before an Indigenous Land Acknowledgement gets oh so solemnly made. (Perhaps not surprisingly the first comment turns out to be a question that anyone who’s sat through a Post-Show Discussion can predict will be asked.)

Less predictable are the directions this “conversation” (a word Amelia uses a whopping seventeen times) takes as it veers into cultural appropriation, the difference between “Dynamation” and “Suitmation,” cancel culture, and the personal lives of the “audience members” engaging in this conversation.

And the best (or worst) is yet to come.

Kaiju may not be for everyone, but there’s enough there to keep a significant chunk of the audience engaged and entertained for ninety minutes and ready for their own Post-Show Discussion (whether official or in the lobby after the performance on the drive home).

Ken Sawyer’s direction only adds to the fun as do the cast’s uniformly sparkling performances, in particular Duke’s as an English-accented Apex and a pseudo-intellectual Amelia.

Cano is a delight as both the sensitive Goliath and play-within-a-play writer Manuel, whose graduate school mentor Maggie (a droll Ann Hearn) just happens to be in the house as is his co-worker Sandra (a delightful Levi-Ari in “Manuel’s biggest fan” mode).

Add to that Hall’s perky Shinji, Baker’s “I just want to listen” Kyle, Snow and Faulker’s feuding couple Roy and Lee, and Kumar’s plain-talking Rani and you’ve got an all-around splendid cast who make those of us in the actual audience feel part of the show.

Nicholas Santiago’s city-on-fire projections are some of his most spectacular, Derrick McDaniel’s lighting is downright electrifying, Ryan McRee’s sound design ups the scare factor considerably as does Nick Harral’s original music, and the one-and-only Mary Jane Miller’s theatergoer-wear and Shealyn Biron and Lee Diemer’s monster costume designs are as fabulous as they are fun.

Danny Bernardo, Krista Conti, Troy Guthrie, Ethan Haslam, Victoria Hoffman, Kate Huffman, Ivy Khan, Rafi S. Perez, and Shaun Tuazon make up the production’s alternate cast.

Kaiju is produced by Taylor Gilbert and Danna Hyams and presented by The Road Theatre Company and BroadStage. Cerise Preston is associate producer. McRee is associate director. Maurie Gonzalez is production stage manager. David Elzer is publicist.

Kaiju may not float everyone’s boat, but if schlocky monster movies are your thing and you enjoy it when theater gets meta, you’ll likely have as good a time at the Road as I did on opening night.

The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Through November 1. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 2:00. Alternate cast performances on October 13, 14, and 15 at 8:00.
www.RoadTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
September 25, 2026
Photos: Ken Sawyer

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Dan Caffrey, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Broad Stage, The Road Theatre Company