‘The Visit’ at Pasadena Playhouse Review: The ’50s Absurdist Comedy Is Too Smug in Its Peak-Bleak View of Venal Humanity, but Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton Are Worth the Visit

Sep 23, 2026 5:14pm PT ‘The Visit’ at Pasadena Playhouse Review: The ’50s Absurdist Comedy Is Too Smug in Its Peak-Bleak View of Venal Humanity, but Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton Are Worth the Visit

By Chris Willman

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Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

ChrisWillman

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Jeff Lorch/Pasadena Playhouse

When an “Amadeus” revival opened at Pasadena Playhouse in February, it was such a spectacular success on every level that you wouldn’t have minded if the keepers of the venerable San Gabriel Valley venue just turned over the keys to the place for a while to the two Tony winners most responsible for making it a smash: star Jefferson Mays and director Darko Tresnjak. And that’s kind of what the Playhouse has done. That dynamic duo is already back in Pasadena with “The Visit,” which has opened a mere seven months after “Amadeus” first hit the boards there. With a good number of cast and crew members carrying over from the previous production to rock us again after “Amadeus,” this looks, for the moment, like as close a thing to an official house company as you can get in a major theater nowadays.

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