[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Janora McDuffie’s solo show, Earth, Wind & Car Fire, directed by Joseph Megel and produced by Jessica Lynn Johnson, at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2025.
Earth, Wind & Car Fire is one of those very rare solo shows that successfully walks the line between comic, soulful and heartbreaking. Janora McDyffie’s life is a mixture of all of these things and much more, but it is how she engages her audience and unfolds her story in her own indubitable way that really belies description. She is a master storyteller. And as she guides us through each chapter of her life that she is choosing to share, for there can be no mistaking how much she must have left out, we fall for her…hard.
With Earth, Wind & Car Fire, Janora very cleverly uses every talent at her disposal to charm us and tell her story. Music, movement, humor, and an alarmingly ability to draw us into her world, share pivotal moments that shaped her life and still do. Love, career, sexuality, human rights, and more love, they all share a part in this wonderful storytelling play.
Janora doesn’t need to embellish. There’s no drama, no elevated language or attempts to manipulate our attention. She is so mesmerising as a person that she hardly needs to demand our focus. Janora opens herself up, like a flower, and lets us in. The result of this is a beautiful piece of highly personal and revelatory theatre. Memorable, purposeful, fluid and finely drawn. The best kind of solo theatre feels like you have just met a friend, one that you will have for life. Janora McDuffie’s Earth, Wind & Car Fire feels exactly like that. I can still hear her words in my head days and days later!
Directed by Joseph Megel and produced by Jessica Lynn Johnson, of Soaring Solo fame, this combination of phenomenal talent produces a magical, warm-hearted romp through Janora’s world. Sitting in the theatre surrounded by those who love her, admire her, and a few of us for whom this was a first meeting, I could tell that her story and her talent were affecting us all in the same way. We held on to every word, we pondered every question, and we were thrilled to be a part of her continued success.
Best narrative solo show this Hollywood Fringe!! Bravo!!!
****
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