Swedes in the States was on the ground for the West Coast premiere of Lara McCarthy’s sharp, disarming dark comedy, and left thoroughly entertained.
There’s something quietly subversive about a play that bills itself as a “feel-bad comedy” and then proceeds to make you feel, if not exactly good, then at least wonderfully understood. That’s the particular trick Hollywood Treatment pulls off, and it does it with the kind of wit and precision that reminds you why live theatre still hits differently.
The production, created and directed by the Swedish-Canadian creative duo Lara and Greg McCarthy, is running for a limited four-show engagement this June at Santa Monica Playhouse, where it is presented as a guest production. After a sold-out Off-Broadway debut at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre in New York City in 2025 and a sold-out fundraising preview in Santa Monica this past April, the play has returned to the city that inspired it, and the homecoming feels earned.
Three performances took place last weekend: Saturday June 13 at 4PM and 8PM, and Sunday June 14 at 6PM. Guests were invited to mingle in the courtyard with a complimentary welcome drink one hour before each show.
Love, Ambition, and a Therapist’s Office in Los Angeles
Set inside an LA therapist’s office, Hollywood Treatment follows a group of creatives navigating the blurred lines between personal relationships, professional ambition, and the performance of self. The central question it keeps circling back to: Does love need to be sacrificed at the altar of success?
It’s a question creator Lara McCarthy has lived with. “I’ve spent years wondering if love must be sacrificed at the altar of success,” she says. “This play is a glitzy, cynical, and comedic dive into that question.”
The result is fast-paced, edgy, and surprisingly heartfelt, a Hollywood satire that has genuine emotional grounding beneath its sharp surface. The ensemble cast, drawn from theatre, television, and film, brings the material to life with the kind of comedic timing that makes an hour feel like it passes in twenty minutes. As one reviewer noted after the New York run, “Rarely do you say, ‘I wish this play were longer.'”
The production is candid about what it’s doing and unapologetic about doing it well. It celebrates women in film and theatre, LGBTQ+ representation, and the kind of storytelling that doesn’t clean itself up for easy consumption. That combination — intelligent, irreverent, and emotionally honest — is exactly what the Santa Monica premiere delivered.
Swedish Roots, Santa Monica Soul
The McCarthys may be a Swedish-Canadian team, but Hollywood Treatment is unmistakably a Los Angeles story. Lara grew up here, spent years navigating the city’s entertainment industry, and channeled those years of accumulated experience — the ambition, the heartbreak, the therapy — directly into the script. The production is being simultaneously developed for film and television, and watching it, you understand why: it has the architecture of something that wants to live in multiple formats.
Slate One Entertainment, the McCarthys’ production company, presented the show as part of an expansion that already has its sights set on longer future runs. This June’s four-performance engagement at Santa Monica Playhouse feels less like a finale and more like a launchpad.
An Evening Made Possible by Community
One of the weekend’s performances has a particularly community-minded dimension: the Saturday June 13 evening show at 8PM was designated pay-what-you-can, with complimentary refreshments, made possible in part through AoR Microgrant support from the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, as part of the Art of Recovery initiative. The program was established in the wake of the pandemic to bring culture back to Santa Monica, supporting local artists and revitalizing community-centered programming.
Sponsors and Supporters
Productions like this don’t happen without people who believe in them early. The premiere event was organised by Lisa Agerman of Second Home PR, who also handles public relations for the production — and whose presence in LA’s Swedish cultural ecosystem is, at this point, essentially a permanent fixture. Agerman is the creative force behind the Swedish Lucia celebration at Cara Hotel in Los Angeles, one of the most beloved Scandinavian cultural events on the city’s annual calendar. She has worked with some of the most prominent Swedish names in Hollywood, including serving as a collaborator to power couple Joel Kinnaman and Kelly Gale, and playing a key facilitative role behind Dolph Lundgren’s documentary series about his life in Los Angeles.
Sponsor and supporter Dr. Daniel Benhuri MD, concierge physician and a familiar face in the LA wellness community, was among the guests mingling in the courtyard before the show, a fitting presence at an evening that had as much warmth off stage as on it.
The premiere’s wine was generously donated by Un’Sweet, the elegant low-sugar label co-founded by Agerman herself — poured throughout the evening and, frankly, a very on-brand choice for a night that was sophisticated without taking itself too seriously. Additional support came from Lanie and Andrew Graham, as well as local businesses and private donors whose contributions helped make the community feel of the event anything but ceremonial.
Hollywood Treatment is a guest production at Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th Street, Santa Monica. Three performances remain this weekend: Saturday June 13 at 4PM, Saturday June 13 at 8PM (pay-what-you-can), and Sunday June 14 at 6PM. Tickets at SlateOneEntertainment.com. For more information, contact Sl*****************@***il.com.
