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 “Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different,  then finding myself in there.”  ― Meryl Streep         

Click through each slide show to see pictures from each production...

Hello Kitty Must Die; the musical, made its world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2023.

Produced by Alchemation Productions, HKMD, sold out every performance to rave reviews!

Click to see reviews and pictures with the cast and crew! 

     On Monday March 18, 2019, Ann Hu performed a staged reading in NYC, of the one woman show "Hello Kitty Must Die", written by Gail Rastorfer and Kurt Johns, based on the book by Angela S. Choi; produced by Davenport Theatricals.

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 Here are some comments from the audience survey:

  "Ann Hu was the most riveting performer I have seen in years.Her energy, comedic timing, presentation and      

    interpretation. She is a star in the making."

  "Ann. Period."

  "Hello Kitty IS Ann Hu. She IS the show. Without her it’s nothing"

  "Loved the depiction of the Chinese family. Loved Ann’s creation of the father."

“Especially fine is Hu as Fenny. Her facial expressions convey more about her conflicting emotions than other actors may utter in a thousand words.” — Alex Demyanenko, Capital and Main
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“With Hu delivering the standout supporting turn, taking a clichéd part and, like Hattie McDaniel in Gone With The Wind, making it rich and multilayered.”
— Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
 
“Chinese maid, Fenny (endowed with humanity by Ann Hu)” —Ed Rampell, Hollywood Progressive
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“Ann Hu (Fen “Fenny” Gao) is delightful and charming, she brings cheer and innocence to every scene while letting us know of the innate fear that consumes her.: — Tin Pan L.A.
 
"Ann Hu playing the role of the Chinese maid being told what happens to "yellow" people is a show stopper. Her unforgettable and emotional performance didn't leave a dry eye in the theatre." - Rosalind Marmel, Hollywood Patch

“Ann Hu is forbearing as the racially-insulted maid from China” — Theatre Spoken Here

“Ann Hu and Alex Best effectively offer up totally believable performances as Fenny, the subservient maid and Alex, the accommodating driver of the Taylor household.” — BroadwayWorld

In January 2015, Hu had the fortune to be a part of the original science fiction horror feature, 5th Passenger.

 

Starring Morgan Lariah, with director Scotty Baker at the helm and a stellar sci-fi cast including Marina Sirtis, Tim Russ, Manu Intiraymi, Doug Jones and Armin Shimmerman, Hu blasted off into space!

 

Production wrapped in late February, and the film can currently be seen on multiple streaming platforms.

     In May 2013, Hu worked with The Road Theater company again in "Cooperstown", a new play by Chicago playwright, Brian Golden, which opened as a mainstage production in the Road's new space on Magnolia.
 
"...Why the owner’s pampered but lonely wife (charming Ann Hu) keeps dropping by to talk him into..."
- LA Times Review
 
"Grace is played by Ann Hu who gives a striking performance of a woman trapped in an abusive marriage and a pure forbidden love."
- NoHo Arts District
 
"Grace has much more on her mind than baseball! (A heartfelt performance by Ann Hu)..."
- Tolucan Times
 
 

     Hu debuted with The Road Theater Company, in this five women musical, "The Baby Project", a musical by Lori Jaroslow.

 

     She played six different characters in a span of two hours; a young emotionally unavailable Jewish mother of four (Bette), an urban teenage Los Angeles high school student (Cindy), a middle aged South Asian fertility doctor (Dr. Kalyani) , a Valley girl-esque medical receptionist of a sperm clinic (Karen), a male fertility doctor (Dr. Hitton), and a sprightly Chinese social worker and adoption agent (Chin).

 

"And the other women on stage (Jillian Easton, Ann Hu, Kasi Jones and Susan Boyd Joyce) all play many roles, of both genders, with impressive versatility."  -LA Stage Times

     In the Off-Broadway World Premiere of "The Bilbao Effect", Oren Safdie's sequel to Private Jokes, Public Places, Hu played the lead role of Mitsumi Yoshida, under the direction of Brendan Hughes.

 

"The performers all acquit themselves well, particularly Hu, who delivers long paragraphs of dense architectural history and theory as casually as if she were ordering coffee..."  - Backstage Magazine

 

In line with her knack for 'being a kid' Hu, co-stars in an episode of PBS Channel Thirteen's kids show, 'Cyberchase; Bianca's Fifty Percent Solution" Check out the photos to the left and Click the link to watch!!

 

 

     Twice Hu has been blessed to portray the role of Margaret Kim in Oren Safdie's "Private Jokes, Public Places." She briefly understudied the role in New York Off-Broadway and though she did not go on then, she did in her reprise of the role, in the New England Premiere of the piece at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) in Cape Cod.

 

"Ann Hu stars as Margaret, the student whose work is under scrutiny. Her performance is dead-on as she manages to convey a world of nerves and anxiety, frustration, desire for praise, need for distinction, and a steadfast clutching to her tenuous beliefs."

- Provincetown Playhouse Review

 

"...Ann Hu blooms along with her character, Margaret..."

-Boston Globe

 

   Hu portrayed Hope in "An Infinite Ache" first in Maine at The Public Theater, with actor Pierre Diennet, under the direction of Janet Mitchko, and again at the Triad Stage in North Carolina, with Jay Putnam directing, opposite actor Brian Louis Hoffman,

 

"...Diennet and Hu command the stage, giving a stunning performance."

-Sun Journal, ME"

 

"Themselves young, if accomplished, actors, Hu and Diennet impart a wisdom greater than their years..."

-The Portland Phoenix, ME

 

"Ann Hu...brainy, vivacious, and vulnerable. She makes us care about Hope nearly as much as 'Charles' does, which - as the title indicates - is a great deal."  -TheaterMania.com, Triad Stage, NC

 

 

 

     Hu made her Off-Broadway debut playing the role of "Rose Hsu Jordan" in the original New York cast of "The Joy Luck Club", by playwright Susan Kim, based off the best-selling book by Amy Tan.

 

     The role is played by Rosalind Chao in the film, one of Hu's role models growing up.


     The show ran for ten months at the St. Clemens Theater and Theater 4 with the Pan Asian Repertory. The costumes were gorgeous. The cast was wonderful, and so was the food backstage!

 

     The New York Times reviewed, "Indeed the most memorable scenes in the play, the drowning of Rose Hsu's (played by Ann Hu) little brother at the beach...are so wrenching on the stage that they nearly blow the rest of the action right out of memory."

   

     GAME FARM introduced Hu to a new friend, the 'teleprompter', and surprisingly proved to herself, just how easily she could improv technical yet comical dialogue in front of a camera and crew under pressure.

     She frequented the amusement parks on the Universal Orlando lot as much as she could, had her first encounter with a Floridian Crocodile thanks to a flat tire alongside the highway, and worked with sports celebrities like Kelly Clark (Women's Olympic Snowboarder), Shaun Murray (Professional Wake boarder), Ricky Williams (Miami Dolphins), and Clint Mathis (US Soccer Champion).

     Unfortunately, GAME FARM only shot seven episodes in one full season. But it was some of the most fun Hu ever had in front of a camera! The reel is up on her videos.

     Hu has played the tour de force lead role of Geri Riordan in Lanford Wilson's "Redwood Curtain" twice.

     First at the Schoolhouse Theater in NY under the direction of Lisa Milinazzo and again at the Dorset Theater Festival in Vermont under the direction of Gregg Brevoort.

 

"...Ann Hu has the role and under the sensitive direction of Lisa Milinazzo, she gives a sterling, versatile performance. That's enough to warrant a visit to the Schoolhouse."

--The News Times Neighbors

 

"Ann Hu is thoroughly convincing as the unsophisticated young Ameriasian woman, driven to understand how and where she belongs in the world..."

--The Manchester Journal

 

 

 

 

     Hu was still attending New York University when she was cast in Tony award winning producer John Glines', "Butterflies and Tigers", a seven actor ensemble piece based on true stories from the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

    

     After performances, audience members who were victims of the Cultural Revolution would often remain seated, crying in their seats, healing from the memories the show had conjured. 

 

"The most notable member of the ensemble is Ann Hu. Hu possesses emotional range and is believable consistently." --BuzzNYC
 

 

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