There is a consilience of evidence: "Letting Go Of God" is a popular and critical hit!

   The Los Angeles Times, in a review by Rob Kendt, (Oct. 14, 2004) titled "Finding God's Funny Bone" calls her show "brave, hilarious" and a "gale-force breath of fresh air.

   Kendt noted that "the humbly sage Sweeney has needling questions that can't be swatted away... While she scores some easy, flawlessly deadpan laughs at the expense of Mormonism, Deepak Chopra, astrology and Catholicism, the tradition she says she was happily raised in, she is after much bigger game than cheap disdain. As she says to an imaginary God she's at last parting with near show's end: 'It's because I take you so seriously that I can't bring myself to believe in you.'"

Notes Kendt, "Sweeney delivers her monologue with her trademark blend of ironic confidentiality and best friend candor. "Believers of all stripes and intensities, as well as non-believers who may scoff a little too facilelywill be challenged and disarmed with stick-in-your-throat laughter by Sweeney's utterly uncynical, blusteringly honest testimony."

   The L.A. Weekly placed "Letting Go Of God" in it's Pick Of The Week and then it's "recommended" spot. L.A. Weekly's Steve Mikulan wrote: "At times 'Letting Go Of God' is gruesomely funny, especially when, during a Bible Study Class, Sweeney discovers the Old Testament's Cro-Magnon bigotry, while imagining the Christian Book of Revelation as a bad acid trip."

   Wenzel Jones, for Backstage West (Oct. 20, 2004) began his review by saying: "My vocabulary is deficient in superlatives... What she achieves, though, is a quiet perfection, accompanied rich laughter, which gently takes you by the hand and leads you through -- to employ the previous working title of the piece -- her beautiful loss-of-faith story."

Jones adds, "Watching Sweeney shamble about the lovely set, which is piled high with books and religious imagery, is like being privileged to spend a couple of hours alone with your very favorite person as she putts about her way-cool house." He concluded, "Sweeney may have lost her faith in God, but she's certainly restored mine in theater."

   Julio Martinez wrote in Variety, "Sweeney is a consummate storyteller with exquisite comic timing." Jeff Favre, writing for The Daily Breeze wrote: "This show is one of the most captivating, intelligent and emotionally honest pieces of theatre to come along in many years." Les Spindle, in Frontiers, wrote "This heartfelt and cerebral show leaves one with the warm glow of a consummate artist at the peak of her craft."

Julia Sweeney is an actress and writer who was on Saturday Night Live for four years and popularized the androgynous character, "Pat," which spun a feature film, "It's Pat." She also wrote and starred in a previous one-person-show, "God Said Ha!" chronicling the poignant, hilarious, and tragic ordeal taking care of her brother battling cancer and her family who descended on her small home to help take care of everyone. That show was made into a film by Miramax and won several awards, and into a CD which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Sweeney has appeared in several feature films, including. "Pulp Fiction," "Clockstoppers," "Stuart Saves His Family," "Stuart Little," and several TV shows, including two episodes of Frasier last year and and appeared as a nun in "Sex & The City." She also served as a creative consultant on "Sex & The City" for three years. Before "Letting Go Of God," Sweeney's second monologue "In The Family Way" ran off-Broadway at the Ars Nova Theatre in early 2003 and then in Los Angeles to very favorable reviews. Kathleen Foley, writing a review for the Los Angeles Times, wrote about "In The Family Way: "The phrase 'as comfortable as old shoes' certainly applies to Julia Sweeney. That's not damning with faint praise, either. In fact, after all her years 'in the business,' it's remarkable that Sweeney has so completely avoided the endemic industry snare of artifice and self-importance. That virtue is evident in 'In The Family Way,' Sweeney's show about her adoption of a Chinese girl. Chatty, intimate and bitingly funny, Sweeney gives a performance of such genuineness, it is almost anti-theatrical. She could just as well be chatting with friends at a coffee bar. That's a delicate deception, however. Sweet, yet salty, Sweeney may look as scrubbed and wholesome as the mom next door, but she has the comic timing of a Borscht Belt tummler."