LOS ANGELES TIMES - "Critic's Choice"
It’s ultimately the numbers, overseen by musical director Keith Harrison and choreographer Lisa Hopkins, that drive Saltzman's affecting narrative, sold by the accomplished ensemble...superbly effervescent…audiences should be bewitched.
ADVOCATE - (National On-Line Edition)
If you're anywhere near Southern California, by all means go see ‘Falling for Make Believe.’ Here's hoping it will be performed elsewhere soon as well. If you're not familiar with Rodgers and Hart, it's a great introduction; if you are, you'll be, well, beguiled again.
LOS ANGELES WEEKLY
...offers tender moments, two dozen of the pair's greatest hits and a sobering glimpse at the backstage paradox of Lorenz Hart.
BROADWAY WORLD
You can't help but be awed and swept away by the music, and mourn the loss of such a tremendous talent...‘Falling for Make Believe’ is to be commended for telling the story of one of Broadway's most notorious romantics. It's the preface to a man, on how we met, that the world can never forget.
BURBANK LEADER
Harry Truman once said, "The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know." ‘Falling for Make Believe’ offers something very new indeed.
STAGE AND CINEMA
Mark Saltzman is one smart cookie. He approaches his new bio-musical of the legendary Lorenz Hart with a passionate curiosity about the great man’s life and career: Intellectual curiosity about what was and imaginative curiosity for what might have been. ...And, oh, the Rodgers & Hart songs which are magnificently arranged and sung in this Colony Theatre world premiere.
STAGE SCENE LA
The brief but artistically blessed life of legendary Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart now serves as the inspiration for ‘Falling for Make Believe’, a Colony Theatre world premiere musical that entertains, elucidates, and ends up this spring's most unexpected treat.
LA STAGE TIMES
Mark Saltzman's new musical at the Colony is much more than a revue, masterfully capturing not only the wit and melancholy of Hart's lyrics but also the angst of his closeted, alcoholic adult years.
MUSICALS IN LA
This gem of a new musical contains some of the best theater music ever written, showcased by the surprising story of the man who wrote the lyrics. It's a compassionate tale simply wrought that doesn't over-sentimentalize its subject but offers a thoughtful look at the price of genius and one poet of Broadway's gift of words.
NOHO ARTS DISTRICT NEWS
The Colony Theatre has a winner in this production of Falling for Make Believe. It is a welcome addition to Los Angeles theatre and a MUST SEE.
MYBURBANK.COM
The Colony Theatre ends its “Season of Premieres” with a base-clearing home run. Falling For Make Believe combines terrific Broadway song-and-dance with a compelling drama of the life of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD PATCH
Dark, gritty and unsettling. But that, in turn, is what makes Mark Saltzman’s book the masterwork it is.
LA STAGE TIMES - Don Shirley - Best of 2013 LA Theater
“Falling for Make Believe.” Musicals that piggyback on existing scores by the greats don't get much better than this glimpse into the closeted life of Lorenz Hart and his very platonic and sometimes stormy relationship with his composing partner Richard Rodgers. Although Mark Saltzman's book has its own "make believe," it hews much closer to the truth than previous fictional depictions of Hart. In its premiere at the Colony, directed by Jim Fall, it already had been streamlined to a fast-paced length that many shows reach only in their second or third productions. So where and when is this show's second production? I want to see it again.
