Some Reviews for :
As We Babble On
East West Players, in association with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, has another entertaining hit on their hands with the world premiere of playwright Nathan Ramos’ As We Babble On. Ramos' very clever, contemporary script (lots of screen grabs of texting and emojis) weaves a sometimes funny, sometimes heart-warming, always real tale of Benji, a gay Asian-American comic book artist and his close family of friends. - Broadway World
Millennials get their turn in the East West Players spotlight in Nathan Ramos’s World Premiere comedy As We Babble On, a crowd-pleasing Asian-American take on Friends with more than just laughter on its mind. The most entertaining and promising original play I’ve seen at East West Players since Washer/Dryer debuted three years ago, As We Babble On concludes EWP’s 52nd season with sizzle and sass. 52 years old has rarely seemed so young. - Stage Scene LA
The exciting new play penned by EWP’s See Change Playwriting Competition Winner Nathan Ramos explores intersectionality, sexuality and personal agency in the digital age with striking clarity, mixing astute observations about gender, race, and social class with a thoroughly modern twist <…> The play sheds a light on oft-underrepresented people in the arts, including LGBTQ Asian Americans and hapas, providing them with a full platform to explore their failings, faults, and futures. Moreover, the play highlights important dialogue across communities, tackling workplace discrimination, xenophobia and feminism with aplomb <…> Without delving into oppression Olympics, the character-first production asks honest questions about our own assumptions of race while avoiding platitudes and social sermonizing In this fashion, Babble examines the pitfalls of the self-starter generation in the information age, cleverly pitting its cast of twenty-somethings against obstacles both intimate and institutional. It’s a delicate tightrope act that makes for an exceptional, insightful viewing. Strung between these admissions of personal and professional failure is a relentless sense of hope, buoyed by triumphant self-discoveries, witty banter, and plenty, plenty of laughter. Hyphen Magazine
It is a large order: give an empathetic sense of what life is like for artistic persons of color trying to get ahead. Inject humor, avoid or explode stereotype, and evince hope using forms interconnected with the comparatively youthful generation beginning to feel empowered to make or coordinate change. The good news: by and large Nathan Ramos’ “As We Babble On,” receiving its world premiere at East West Players, in association with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, does quite a lot of what was ordered. - Daily News
Nathan Ramos is a part Korean, part Filipino, full American young gay playwright who likes to write stories for people who look like him and have the same experiences he has, “but instead of focusing on the suffering,” tries to “focus on pushing toward the joy and possibility of our personhood. I like when the sunshine punches through the gray,” he told angryasianman.com. As We Babble On is exactly that. It presents the struggles of young adults to achieve their dreams in a difficult economy, but with a good dose of humor added to it. - The Fume of Sighs
‘We were really looking for fresh, new voices that both reflected the landscape now and were looking forward. Base Degrees is whip smart and very, very funny’ - Snehal Desai- Artistic Director, East West Players