“Truly amazing… courageous… unearthly spirit of a true survivor”
“Truly amazing…..thanks to the unearthly collaboration of Aaron and Sakata, this Master Class is one of the most significant highlights of the season in LA…..in the gifted hands of this director and his courageous leading lady, artists, wannabe artists, and their admirers alike will be swept away by the unearthly spirit of a true survivor…..”
Entertainment Today
“Sakata’s timing, presence and emotional resources are imposing”
“Master Class remains a remarkable construct, and it gives Jeanne Sakata a rich opportunity….Sakata meets the measure of the role’s demands….Sakata’s timing, presence and emotional resources are imposing.”
Los Angeles Times
“Sakata is mesmerizing… intense moments of unbearably sad emotional fragility”
“In the sections where the controversial diva drifts into fantasy…..Sakata is mesmerizing. And when she falls into a one-person dialogue between her challenging character and Maria’s boorish paramour Ari Onassis, she is uncanny in the delineation between the two—and as heartbreaking as a Piaf song in her reactions to the conversations. Sakata also seamlessly intertwines the rise and fall of this great artist’s infamous braggadocio with intense moments of unbearably sad emotional fragility.”
Entertainment Today
“A stunningly bittersweet turn”
“There is a stunningly bittersweet turn from Jeanne Sakata as Qing, the dottery, lovable old servant left behind when the family leaves for a new life.”
Entertainment Today
“A brilliant performance”
“Jeanne Sakata gives a brilliant performance as the aging servant Qing.”
Backstage
“Sakata’s old Qing…a melancholy apparition who seems to have limped out of a Lu Hsun short story”
“Sakata’s old Qing, with her snowy mane and unnerving voice, is a melancholy apparition who seems to have limped out of a Lu Hsun short story.”
LA Weekly
“Sakata, as the ancient servant…moves the plot and the characters forward by sheer energy”
“Jeanne Sakata, as the ancient servant who is caught in the middle by the changes of her world, moves the plot and the characters forward by sheer energy.”
Pasadena Star News
“The amazing Jeanne Sakata”
“Mimi’s thrill-seeking abandoned lover…the amazing Jeanne Sakata.”
Backstage
“Sakata supplies a hell-raising turn”
“Sakata supplies a hell-raising turn as the sexually voracious Natalie.”
Variety
“Sakata’s triumph in what seemed an impossibly demanding role…triply wonderful”
“Jeanne Sakata’s Ovation Award for her amazing performance in RED was applauded by me with special enthusiasm. Sakata’s triumph in what seemed an impossibly demanding role was an age-and-gender-bender. Her portrayal of an aging male Chinese opera star playing a female was triply wonderful.”
Backstage
“Sakata gives an awe-inspiring portrayal… RED simply could not be in better hands”
“As Hua, Jeanne Sakata gives an awe-inspiring portrayal of a proud practitioner of a dying, outlawed art… giving Hua a severe exterior, Sakata teaches us what it means to equate one’s life and art entirely, yet releases Hua’s buried humanity gracefully in his most desperate moments…..a finely-tuned, inspired work, RED simply could not be in better hands.”
Backstage
“Inspired… Sakata is superb throughout”
“In an inspired bit of cross-gender casting, Sakata is superb throughout.”
Los Angeles Times
“Playing against type… brilliant performance”
Playing against type, Jeanne Sakata turns in a brilliant performance as Hua Wai Mun, world famous for his female impersonations in the ancient Chinese opera.
Long Beach Press-Telegram
“Impressively wide-ranging… deeply moving”
“The impressively wide-ranging Jeanne Sakata plays Hua, in the most successful portrayal of a man by a woman I’ve seen since Linda Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan in THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY. It’s a deeply moving performance, and Sakata has all of the moves—from the nettled pique of a prima donna to the gentle delicacy of a court dancer to the poignant sadness of a deposed monarch.”
Los Angeles New Times
“Transcendent… Sakata is simply magnificent”
“Transcendent…..Sakata is simply magnificent as the monumentally self-righteous artist who is determined to preserve the traditions of this past even though he knows it will mean his destruction.”
Los Angeles Daily News
“Jeanne Sakata’s Himiko remains a vivid, painful, incandescent presence in the mind and spirit”
“Jeanne Sakata’s Himiko remains a vivid, painful incandescent presence in the mind and spirit of the viewer for many days.”
Syracuse Stage