Brianna McDonnell takes the Hollywood Fringe Pageant stage with a world premiere that’s equal elements daring, good, and lengthy overdue. And there are solely two exhibits left.
In case you’ve been following plus dimension media for any period of time, Brianna McDonnell will not be a brand new title. She’s the Los Angeles-based performer, artistic producer, and founding father of The B Phrase, the media firm constructed on one very clear premise: fats folks need to see themselves on display screen, in editorial vogue, in tales, and on stage. Absolutely. With out apology.
And now, she’s taking that premise to its most private and highly effective type but.
Large with a B is McDonnell’s one-woman present, and it’s having its world premiere as a part of the 2026 Hollywood Fringe Pageant. The present is directed by Ken Sawyer, with music route by Lindsay Aldana. It runs one hour and is rated for audiences ages 10 and up.
The viewers has already spoken, and the decision is unanimous: don’t miss this one.
Who Is Brianna McDonnell?
In case you want a fast refresher: Brianna McDonnell moved to Los Angeles to pursue musical theater. When she couldn’t discover herself within the media she beloved, she constructed her personal. The B Phrase began as a plus dimension vogue weblog and grew right into a full media firm, producing authentic content material, vogue editorials, and quick movies coated by Cosmopolitan, Mic, Huffington Publish, and sure, proper right here at The Curvy Fashionista.
We coated her beautiful Nineteen Seventies Laurel Canyon-inspired vogue movie again in 2021, a tribute to Mama Cass that showcased precisely the form of creator Brianna is: somebody who doesn’t look ahead to a seat on the desk. She builds the desk. She units it. After which she invitations everybody in.
Large with a B is the following chapter. And it could be essentially the most highly effective one but.
What Is Large with a B?
This can be a solo musical theater expertise, written round and carried out totally by McDonnell herself. Half cabaret, half autobiography, half cultural reckoning. The present traces her private journey by life in a bigger physique, the load the world assigns to the phrase “massive,” and what it truly means to take up area by yourself phrases.
The origin of the present is as compelling because the present itself. In her personal phrases, posted to Instagram simply earlier than the primary preview:
“I’ve not carried out on stage in ten years. Tomorrow is our first preview of ‘Large with a B’… I’ve had a dream of performing a one girl present, possibly my complete life, however I didn’t have it written? I’ve by no means executed Fringe? I used to be instantly nervous after which excited in regards to the problem and electrified by the concept of going through my very own concern.”
She closed the submit with this:
“That is actually a dream come true. Thanks for dreaming massive with me. See you on the theatre!”
That context issues. This isn’t a cultured star doing a victory lap. This can be a creator who wrote the present, constructed the manufacturing, confronted a decade-long absence from the stage, and confirmed up anyway. Each assessment in that room has been earned.
Licensed reviewer Bellina Logan put it plainly: Brianna is daring, good, and exquisite, praising the present as very enjoyable, heartfelt, and intelligent, with considerate route from Ken Sawyer.
Licensed reviewer Azur Glynn laughed, cried a number of instances, and referred to as it a priceless play stuffed with effectively curated musical accompaniments. Her message to anybody on the fence? If in case you have ever felt too little, an excessive amount of, too massive, and had it made you’re feeling small, do your self a favor and see this play.
That’s not well mannered applause. That’s life recognition.
What Occurs When You Put That Story on Stage
There’s a particular form of theater that doesn’t simply entertain you. It locates you. It finds the a part of you that has been ready to be seen and holds up a mirror. That’s what Large with a B is doing to audiences proper now, and the proof is in how persons are speaking about it afterward.
Licensed reviewer Logan Allison referred to as it the return to the stage of a fearless performer, saying the present is so earnest it makes you’re feeling like you’re sitting listening to a buddy. That phrase, earnest, retains developing. Not polished. Not carried out. Trustworthy in the best way that solely somebody who has lived the story could be.
The present strikes by Brianna’s life chronologically, weaving authentic songs and acquainted Broadway showstoppers into the narrative. Licensed reviewer Elizabeth Herron described the expertise of watching Ken Sawyer’s route maintain the story flowing fantastically, with the piano and songs working as an ideal combine intermingled with the story. The staging, she famous, makes use of crimson velvet curtains, a lighted make-up mirror, a piano, a video display screen, and even a few candelabras to construct Brianna’s world. It’s particular. It’s theatrical. And it lands.
What the present is definitely about, beneath the cabaret staging and the music, is the load of two phrases: fats and regular. Licensed reviewer Elizabeth Herron mentioned these two phrases carry a lot weight, each actually and figuratively, and that Brianna delivers a heartwarming story of rising up surrounded by them, sharing her journey from childhood to the current, from the excessive numbers on the dimensions to her pursuit of appearing and musical theater, all the best way to a closing rendition of ABBA that had the viewers in tears.
That final element issues. This can be a present that makes you snigger after which catches you off guard with how a lot it strikes you. Licensed reviewer Dona Rice referred to as it a journey audiences weren’t anticipating, one which introduced laughs, tears, and relatability for days. And authorized reviewer Jennifer Lynn mentioned Brianna’s highly effective stage presence, voice, and comedic timing make the present relatable to anybody who has ever felt lower than, or been advised they’re an excessive amount of.
That’s the by line. Not simply plus dimension ladies. Not simply fats folks. Anybody who has ever been made to really feel like they have been the unsuitable dimension, in any sense of that phrase.
Licensed reviewer Julia Haimowitz, who noticed the present as a musical theater lover, mentioned her solely critique was that she wished she might have heard the songs in full. The pageant format required cuts. The viewers wished extra. That’s the very best downside a present can have.
And authorized reviewer Nathaniel Dolquist, who caught an early preview, mentioned merely: it’s wonderful to see what a multi-hyphenate like Brianna can create for a pageant like this.
A multi-hyphenate who wrote it, stars in it, and constructed the manufacturing firm behind it. That’s the half that doesn’t get mentioned sufficient. Brianna McDonnell didn’t look ahead to this present to be greenlit. She made it exist.
Why This Issues Proper Now
We’re in a cultural second the place plus dimension illustration is concurrently extra seen and extra underneath menace than it has ever been. There’s extra plus dimension presence in vogue campaigns than a decade in the past. There’s additionally a renewed cultural obsession with thinness, weight reduction medicine marketed as options to the so-called downside of current in a bigger physique, and an leisure business that also too typically treats fats ladies as punchlines or cautionary tales.
Large with a B lands proper in the course of all of that and refuses to play alongside. This can be a present rooted within the full expertise of being a lady in a bigger physique navigating the world, the style business, the leisure business, and her personal id. That’s not a small factor to placed on stage. That’s an act of artistic resistance dressed up as cabaret.
And the viewers is feeling each second of it.
Two Exhibits Left. Get Your Tickets.
Large with a B performs its last two performances at The Cats Crawl (Fundamental Area), 660 N Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004.
Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Sunday, June 28, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Seize your tickets at hollywoodfringe.org/tasks/13892 and study extra about Brianna McDonnell and The B Phrase at thebwordblog.com.
Two exhibits. One stage. Go.
