Leontyne Mbele-Mbong AEA
Actress, San Francisco Bay Area, CA
THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE, Herta Ayrton - TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, AK - 2020
"For a character who is both a sharp-witted, independently minded woman, and quintessentially British, I cannot imagine a better casting choice than Mbele-Mbong, a seasoned Shakespearean actress with an impressive resume of classical theater roles. Mbele-Mbong’s skillful, almost effortless command of the role made Ayrton’s presence the highlight of the show for me. Ayrton’s character is the kind of supportive, take-no-nonsense friend every girl deserves, and Mbele-Mbong captured her essence perfectly."
- Sarah Komar, The Arkansas Traveler - 12/03/2020
BULL IN A CHINA SHOP, Jeannette Marks - Aurora Theatre Company - 2019
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong enthusiastically portrays Jeannette Marks with a fine mix of contradiction – charming and vibrant in private, though steely in public and fiercely committed to her ideals."
- Victor Cordell, For All Events - 11/15/2019
"...inspiring Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as Marks is a bold, outspoken suffragette. ... As Jeanette Marks, the extraordinary Mbele-Mbong takes daring avant-garde positions, taking to the streets for women’s suffrage."
- Barry David Horwitz, Theatrius - 11/26/2019
"There’s fantastic onstage chemistry between Stacy Ross’ swaggering, authoritative Woolley and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong’s wry and playful but tempestuous Marks that lends the audience an emotional investment in their romance"
- Sam Hurwitt, Mercury News - 11/19/2019
"As Marks, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is equally powerful in her portrayal of a woman determined not to be the 'wife' ..., but instead to be her own powerhouse center of independent thought and action..."
- Eddie Reynolds, Theatre Eddys - 11/18/2019
MACBETH, Lady Macbeth - African-American Shakespeare Company - 2019
"Mbele-Mbong carries herself with distinct regality and a sense of subdued but ever-present power that continuously prompts silent battles for control between her and Macbeth. In refreshingly masculine dress — jeans, black vest and tied scarf — the actress’s striking command over every drop of her audience’s attention makes Lady Macbeth’s slow, drastic unraveling all the more impactful."
- Daryanna Lancet, Dailycal - 7/19/2019
HAMLET, Gertrude - SF Shakes - 2017
"Mbele-Mbong’s Gertrude can alter the whole course of a scene just with a weighty touch of her husband’s shoulder, and her telling of the drowning of Ophelia, Hamlet’s sometime beloved, does the production’s most vivid service to Shakespeare’s language. She floats each successive phrase as if it’s a whole new world unto itself, one that’s feathery in delicacy yet acute in power to wound."
- Lily Janiak, SFGate - 7/29/2017
LEAVING THE BLUES, Lettie - New Conservatory Theatre Center - 2017
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as Lettie gives an impressive performance and her expressions of love for Alberta are intense."
- Richard Connema, Talkin' Broadway - 03/2017
To the role of Lettie, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong brings her own sense of inborn majesty and decorum. She moves and speaks with a pride that is deeply felt of who she is and what she is – including her identity as a lesbian at a time the word could not be spoken. Her expressions of love for Alberta are palpable while her exasperations of Alberta’s refusal publicly to recount their love are expressly visible in her voice, her eyes, and her entire stature."
- Eddie Reynolds, Theatre Eddys - 03/12/2017
GOOD PEOPLE, Kate - Role Players Ensemble - 2016
"...Kate, an upper-middle-class literature professor played with cutting passive-aggressive resentfulness by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong."
- Sam Hurwitt, San Jose Mercury News- 2/1/2016
"As Mike’s wife Kate, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong adds another plum role to her stellar resume. ... Her bravura performance of constrained nervousness is outstanding."
- Susan Steinberg, The Independent - 2/11/2016
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong’s Kate is delicately poised in her success while bound to the chaotic social forces that demand battle, which she delivers."
- Jim Strope, Examiner.com - 1/30/2016
RICHARD III, Queen Elizabeth - Impact Theater - 2015
"Queen Elizabeth, played by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, carries herself so regally you feel like bowing to her at the end; the dynamic scenes between her and Richard III are particularly striking."
- Sarah Goldwasser, The Daily Californian - 3/5/2015
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong brings passionate pathos to the role of the queen..."
- Sam Hurwitt, San Jose Mercury News - 3/2/2015
"...with special ups to Queen Elizabeth (Leontyne Mbele-Mbong) for [her] powerful performances..."
- Anna Pulley, East Bay Express - 3/4/2015
BREAKFAST WITH MUGABE, Grace Mugabe - Aurora Theater - 2014
"As embodied by an alternately seductive, casually confidential, downhome and innately imperious Leontyne MbeleMbong, Grace may be the most dangerous person Peric faces."
- Robert Hurwitt, SF Gate - 11/18/2014
"The tone is set the minute Leontyne Mbele-Mbong first walks on stage. So commanding is Mbele-Mbong’s Grace Mugabe, you recognize she’s a fine match for her husband. Exquisitely sensitive to the impact of style, status, and gesture, she lacks the buffoonery that defines her husband – and is all the more chilling because of it."
- Cy Ashley Webb, Stark Insider - 1/24/2014
"The leader's highly regal wife Grace (a fierce Leontyne Mbele-Mbong)..."
- Karen D'Souza, San Jose Mercury News - 11/14/2015
"A fine cast works an intelligent script well together, a real ensemble. ... Both Leontyne Mbele-Mbong and Adrian Roberts distinguish themselves in what at first appear to be side roles--they take the opportunity afforded to make real characters out of Mugabe's enterprising younger wife, of his deadpan security man."
- Ken Bullock, Berkeley Daily Planet - 11/14/2014
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong shines as Grace Mugabe..."
- Emily S. Mendel, Berkeleyside.com - 11/17/2014
MEDEA, Medea - African-American Shakespeare Company - 2014
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is a fearfully potent Medea. ...
Mbele-Mbong's vital Medea embodies the core of Euripides' tragedy with quicksilver shifts between unreasoning rage, practicality, grief, erotic subterfuge, maternal qualms and an unsettling aura of otherworldy powers."
- Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle - 03/09/2014
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is riveting as Medea, keening in despair one moment and seething with fury the next, but easily manipulating others with sly charisma when necessary to set up her revenge. And when plotting unimaginable horrors for those she loves most as part of her bloody revenge, she makes you feel how achingly painful it is for her, that she knows exactly what she's doing and is resolved to do it anyway."
- Sam Hurwitt, The Idiolect - 03/12/2014
"..we hear [Medea's] tortured screams of grief and rage. Thrillingly emitted by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, they are the howling roar of a powerful wounded animal, powerfully emotive. ...
In this production the story is told with great clarity, and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as Medea has the necessary physical, vocal and emotional range to encompass this classic part. She gives an impressive and memorable performance, with the help of a highly capable supporting cast."
- Charles Kurger, TheatreStorm - 03/21/2014
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong's brilliant performance highlighted African-American Shakespeare's production of Euripides' Medea. In grief, rage, and vengeance, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong's dignity and poise form the necessary center of this tragedy.... Under the strong direction of Dawn Monique Williams and the regal stage presence of Leontyne Mbele-Mbong, the story is hammered into the unmistakable shape of a great tragedy, making a fine audience experience."
- Jim Strope, SF Examiner - 03/09/2014
"Mbele-Mbong shifts with finesse among Medea's varied facades: at one instant totally distraught and tormented, at other times in full control of her emotions. She can be sly, manipulative, sensual, commanding, affectionate or furiously homicidal, yet each of those qualities is credible at the moment she displays it."
- Leo Stutzin, Huff Post San Francisco - 03/11/2014
SHEHERAZADE 14 - Playwrights' Center of San Francisco/Wily West Productions - 2014
"My favorite play of the evening was The Duck, by Vonn Scott Bair, directed by Cayabyab. The premise is ”ripped from the headlines” with a twist. Mbele-Mbong plays Hope, an appropriate name for a character who does not give up. Her monologues are gut-wrenching as she describes what her life has become. The Duck is a well-crafted and beautifully acted short play, with Homan and Galloway delivering solid supporting performances."
- Madame de Vionnet, A Beast in the Jungle - 06/13/2014
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Beatrice - African-American Shakespeare Company - 2014
"Nowhere will you find a more delightfully sassy Beatrice..." - Linda Ayers-Frederick, For All Events - 05/26/2014
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Mistress Ford - African-American Shakespeare Company - 2013
"Fredericks and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong strike sexy, in-control sparks as Mistresses Page and Ford, as much in plotting their revenge as in their scenes with Falstaff." - Robert Hurwitt, SF Gate - 05/05/2013
FENCES, Rose - Altarena Playhouse - 2012
"...Rose, played by a standout Leontyne Mbele-Mbong..."
- Adam Mulvihill, Laney Tower Online - 02/02/2012
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong provides the center of gravity for this show; combining superb acting with a noble heroic grace as Rose: a woman who celebrates life as much as love."
- Jeff Smith, Alameda Sun - 02/10/2012
RAISIN IN THE SUN, Ruth - African-American Shakespeare Company - 2012
"Mbele-Mbong and Jacobs are both outstanding. Mbele-Mbong makes Ruth a woman adrift in her own circumstances, yet resolute in her desire to change. Hers is an understated, but extremely muscular characterization." - Pat Craig, San Jose Mercury - 05/15/2012
MACBETH, Lady M/Ross/ensemble - Woman's Will - 2008
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong's insidiously smooth Lady Macbeth is an oasis of eloquence and dynamism. She's also a swaggering Ross and a ghoulish murderer..."
- Sam Hurwitt, East Bay Express - 10/22/2008
"...this production leaves audiences most spellbound with a well-done Lady Macbeth. ...it is Lady Macbeth, played by Leontyne Mbele-Mbong who, also taking on at least seven other roles in the production, leaves her audience wanting more. ...
When Leontyne Mbele-Mbong plays a male role, she is totally believable, and as Lady Macbeth, she is noticeably different--more womanly but not cliche or camp."
- Jack Morgan, Play Shakespeare.com - 11/03/2008
"And does it work? Only like gangbusters. There is real magic between Weak and Mbele-Mbong, who plays Lady Macbeth; and when things turn violent, particularly at the end when the fighting becomes almost vicious, it produces an enormous visceral reaction from the audience."
- Pat Craig, Oakland Tribune - 10/17/2008
TWELFTH NIGHT, Orsino - Woman's Will - 2006
"Leontyne Mbele-Mbong is a captivatingly smooth and casually virile Orsino, the lovesick duke Viola falls for..."
- Robert Hurwitt, SF Gate - 07/12/2006