The first reviews for “Proof” starring Daniela Ruah are out! Read what the critics are saying so far 😉

Bryan Buss at EDGE Los Angeles:

David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play “Proof” premiered in Los Angeles for a limited engagement at the Hayworth Theatre with a haunting and spare production. Directed by Aliah Whitmore and sensitively acted by Daniela Ruah in the central role, the four-character story is a complex meditation on the fine line between genius and madness.

Ruah plays Catherine, a 20-something left adrift after the death of her gifted mathematician father, Robert (James Whitmore, Jr.), for whom she cared through the mental illness that defined the end of his life. Catherine, a math whiz herself, struggles with living in her father’s shadow as well as the fear that she may have inherited her father’s psychosis. Her life is upended when she meets Hal (Dustin Seavey), an ex-graduate student of Robert’s, who finds a brilliant-if-it-can-be-quantified proof, and when her sister Claire (director Whitmore) decides to sell the childhood home Catherine still lives in.

A major player on the hit television series “NCIS: Los Angeles,” Ruah gives a nuanced performance navigating romantic feelings for Hal, thoughts of her own failure (her father was already successful by the age she is now), frustration at the sexism in the world of mathematics, and terror at being uprooted from the only home she’s known. She’s both introverted and outspokenly straightforward, the two of which are each masking her pain.

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Gil Kaan at Culture Spot LA:

Whitmore Eclectic mounts David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Proof” at the Hayworth Theatre for a limited engagement.

“Proof” centers on Catherine, a possibly brilliant mathematician who may or may not have inherited her father Robert’s mathematical genius and/or his mental illness. Putting her own college education on hold, Catherine has been her father’s caretaker for the last five years. He has long bouts of madness with intermittent spurts of sanity. Catherine justifiably (or not) resents her older sister Claire who gets to live her own life in New York, all the while paying the many bills to support the unemployed Catherine and their demented patriarch in Chicago.

Present-day action takes place around Robert’s funeral, with flashbacks to various periods of time Catherine has had real conversations with her father alive (as opposed to imaginary conversations with him as an apparition).

“NCIS: Los Angeles’” Daniela Ruah has the unenviable task of making Catherine sympathetic enough to want to spend almost two hours in a theater with her. James Whitmore, Jr. plays Robert as an oft-times lovable oaf with spells of intellectual virtuosity amidst his frequent states of confusion. As Robert’s protégé Hal, Dustin Seavey succeeds in conveying his enthusiastic determination to uncover the significance in his mentor’s writings. Seavey also nails the geekiness in his so un-slick seducing of Catherine. Aliah Whitmore imbues Claire with just the right blend of sisterly concern and frustration with the ever-pendulant, combative Catherine. Whitmore also doubles as director, directing her two leads to perform their lengthy speeches with high intensity and volume.

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These are such great reviews! Congrats to Daniela and the entire cast and crew for a job well done!
“Proof” runs through May 12 at the Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.