Neighborhood Watch
Jackalope Theatre Company
2025
Jeff Awards Recommended
“Harsh Gagoomal plays Mo Rizvi with deft emotional range, a bearded, swarthy Middle Easterner who has moved into a house in white suburbia.”
— Bill Esler, Buzz Center Stage
“Herb and Gagoomal as Becca and Mo have fantastic chemistry, and their flirtations are delightfully coquettish. But revelations from Mo’s past threaten the couple’s tentative harmony.”
— Tristan Bruns Newcity Stage
“Harsh Gagoomal does a phenomenal job of acting and holding the play together; his timing is brilliant.”
— Julia W. Rath, Around The Town Chicago
Security
Kane Repertory Theatre, Virtual
2021
“Oscar nominee Eric Roberts is Brian, a Homeland Security officer charged with keeping the borders of the United States safe. Riaz, played with great emotion, by Harsh Gagoomal, is a 17-year-old Englishman with Pakistani antecedents.”
— Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide
“Kane Repertory Theatre’s online production of 'Security’ by Hammaad Chaudry is a powerful production, realistic and thought-provoking. In the role of the British detainee is Harsh Gagoomal, who also is an amazing actor, giving an equally powerful performance, with a strong intensity expected of a young male with the cynicism of youth. The chemistry between the two actors is what gives this amazing theatrical work its bite.”
— Anna Hessel, People & Places
“Chaudry offers a well-crafted script that keeps its focus squarely on the interplay between victim and oppressor. Brian and Riaz are humanized, but also serve well as stand-ins for greater political constructs. We care what happens to them and at the same time see how their plight echoes the ongoing struggle between Empire and Colony.”
— Noel Schecter, Newcity Stage
Guards at the Taj
Underground Railway Theater
2018
Voted Best of Boston Theatre 2018
Nominated Best Play, 2018 IRNE awards
“Friends since childhood, their names are Humayun and Babur, portrayed by Jacob Athyal and Harsh Gagoomal, respectively. Both actors deliver marvelously textured portrayals; Humayun and Babur may ultimately be pawns in a large and ruthless game, but Athyal and Gagoomal endow them with an individuality and specificity that elevates the moral and emotional stakes of “Guards at the Taj.”
— Donn Aucoin, The Boston Globe
“Athyal and Gagoomal have remarkable chemistry and are giving performances of tremendous range and depth.”
— Christopher Ehlers, DigBoston
“Gagoomal is utterly convincing as a man coming undone by imperial decree.”
"Director Gabriel Vega Weissman has managed to cast a dream team with Athyal and Gagoomal, who project an uneasy arc of affection that rises and falls throughout the piece, as old friends with different temperaments will have. Both actors have wonderful comic timing, which works well against some of the script’s more sorrowful moments.”
— Ling-Mei Wong, SAMPAN
— Michele Markarian, The Theater Mirror
“Celestial luminary that it is, Guards at the Taj will break your world and put it back together again. If not for the amazing acting and stagecraft, then watch it for its glorious beating heart.”
— Johnson Huynh, The Tech
“Featuring Jacob Athyal as the serious guard and perfect foil for the exceptional comedic talent of Harsh Gagoomal.”
— Susan Mulford, Boston and Beyond
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Red Theater Chicago
2017, 2018
3.5/4 Stars - The Chicago Tribune
2017 Top 5 Shows (#1) – The Hawk Chicago
2017 Best Revival of a Play Nomination – Broadway World
"Gagoomal is smooth and honest as an operator with a soul."
— Sarah Bowden, Theatre by Numbers
"Tey’s performance was alive and encouraging, and his fellow cast members provided lots of laughs amid their ever-developing signature moves. Harsh Gagoomal excelled as Mace’s friend VP, and Semaj Miller brought two tons of energy to his elaborate entrance as Chad Deity."
— Sarah Bowden, Theatre by Numbers
Listen to our WGN Radio Feature with Amy Guth and Jen Bosworth:
"Amy Guth and Jen Bosworth are back in action tonight for Patti Vasquez! On tonight’s show they welcome actors from 'The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity' (Harsh Gagoomal, Semaj Miller, and Mickey O’Sullivan) who discuss their impressive run at the Red Theatre."
An Octoroon
Company One Theatre/ArtsEmerson
2016
Elliot Norton Award Nominated
"Harsh Gagoomal (who also plays three roles: the assistant, Pete and Paul) is a chameleon able to inspire pity one moment, elation the next – but always with the melancholy undertone demanded by his roles."
— Anastasya Partan, CulturePeel
"Harsh Gagoomal, deadpan funny as BJJ's harried assistant in the framing scenes, is sweet and quietly strong as the young slave Paul and suitably excitable as the shuffling old retainer Pete."
— Jan Nargi, Broadway World Boston
"Harsh Gagoomal, in blackface, jumps between offensive if guilt-inducingly funny stereotypes as an elderly Uncle Tom called Pete and a whiny slave boy called Paul."
— Carolyn Clay, The Artery
"Lastly, a South Asian assistant is given the black face roles in a touching though largely silent performance by Harsh Gagoomal."
— Clint Campbell, Edge Media Network
"The real stars burst forth around the traditional A-plot, in the form of various house slaves, field hands, and other characters that once lingered in the dramatic background. Harsh Gagoomal stoops to play the ancient house servant Pete, a folk-figure as ludicrous in his worship of the Peytons, and in his quarrels with the other “no-account” slaves, as he was at home in his original nineteenth century context. Gagoomal turns sprightly as he morphs into Paul, the quadroon tap-dancing prankster all the white people like to fawn over."
— Fabiana Cabral, My Entertainment World
See below for some excerpts from a column in wbur's The Artery, "Unmasking Identity in Company One's 'An Octoroon'" by Spencer Shannon. Read the full article here!
“When I see these three faces that I have come to know and love as these three faces, and then we layer on this paint, and we say, ‘You are now this thing,’ … That in and of itself rings your brain a little bit,” [Director Summer Williams] says, referring to the fluidity of the three male leads' identities.
When asked what they hope to inspire in viewers, the casts’ answers are instantaneous: Awareness. Introspection.
“I think Tennessee Williams said, ‘Good playwrights pose questions, not answers,’” Gagoomal says. “I don’t know if [audiences] need answers at all. But I hope they come out with a s---ton of questions.”