Ahmanson Theatre News

Legacy of Light, a new play by Karen Zacarias, anchors the sixth annual FusionFest of new work and completes the Cleveland Play House's 84-year run at 8500 Euclid Avenue.

Bella Vita Entertainment, with Anthony Gruppuso, Calvin Remsberg, and Tricia Stabile announces the Los Angeles premiere of Glory Days. Glory Days has music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire and book by James Gardiner, and will be directed by Calvin Remsberg. Glory Days will preview at 8 pm on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18 with opening night at 8:00 pm on Saturday, March 19 and run through April 24 (Thursday through Sunday) at the Lillian Theatre.

A particularly bold 2011-2012 season of four major musicals and an imaginative drama was announced today for the Ahmanson Theatre by Michael Ritchie, Center Theatre Group Artistic Director.

9 to 5: The Musical was nominated for four 2009 Tony® Awards including Original Score and received a record breaking 15 Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its winners and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre for the year 2010.

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its winners and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre for the year 2010. Announcements were made at a ceremony held on Monday, March 14 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank.

The 2011 Garland Award recipients were announced today, honoring the best of Los Angeles theatre. Under the voting system each Garland winner was named on at least three critics' 'Best of 2010' lists. Each critic listed up to five nominees for each category except performance, up to 10 nominees for performance in musical productions and 10 for straight plays. Here are the critics' lists, minus the winners. The critics who voted are Jeff Favre, Hoyt Hilsman, Travis Holder, Eric Marchese, Dany Margolies, Dink O'Neal, Melinda Schupmann, Madeleine Shaner, Les Spindle, Neal Weaver, and Jennie Webb. Back Stage thanks them, as we hope you will when you see them this year, for their perpetual devotion to Southland theater large and small.

In response to the increase in the numbers of student suicides stemming from anti-gay bullying, Center Theatre Group (CTG) is releasing a video for the It Gets Better Project

Casting is complete and rehearsals have begun for The Blank Theatre Company's final production of its 20th anniversary season, the West Coast premiere of The Temperamentals. Directed by Michael Matthews, The Temperamentals will begin preview performances on Saturday, April 9, 2011 and is set to open on Saturday, April 16 at 8pm. The engagement will run through Sunday, May 22.

The explosive Broadway hit 'American Idiot' will be presented in Los Angeles next spring as part of Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre's 2011-2012 season at the Los Angeles Music Center. The 2010 Tony Award-nominated Best Musical, called 'thrillingly raucous' and 'emotionally charged' by Charles Isherwood of The New York Times, will be presented March 14 through April 22, 2012, at the Ahmanson Theatre, with the opening set for March 16.

The Civilians (Steven Cosson, Artistic Director), the award-winning New York-based theatre company known for projects investigating real life topics, has announced full casting for its LET ME ASCERTAIN YOU: PRETTY FILTHY, a one-night-only cabaret performance at Joe's Pub on March 4, 2011 at 9:30 PM.

The Author by Tim Crouch plays the Kirk Douglas Theater.

The passionate modern classic, 'Burn This' by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson, has now begun rehearsals under the direction of Nicholas Martin. Previews for 'Burn This' at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum are March 23 - May 1, 2011, with opening set for April 3. The cast includes, in alphabetical order, Brooks Ashmanskas, Ken Barnett, Zabryna Guevara and Adam Rothenberg.

Bella Vita Entertainment, with Anthony Gruppuso, Calvin Remsberg, and Tricia Stabile announces the Los Angeles premiere of Glory Days. Glory Days has music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire and book by James Gardiner, and will be directed by Calvin Remsberg. Glory Days will preview at 8 pm on Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18 with opening night at 8:00 pm on Saturday, March 19 and run through April 24 (Thursday through Sunday) at the Lillian Theatre.

William Atherton, Matt Cavenaugh, Lisa O'Hare, Millicent Martin and Jason Graae are the acclaimed film, Broadway and West End stars who will lead the cast of Reprise Theatre Company's second production of the 2010-2011 season, 'Gigi', playing February 15 to February 27, 2011 (press opening February 16, 2011) at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. The musical - with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe -- will be directed by veteran musical theatre director David Lee, with choreography by Peggy Hickey and musical direction by Steve Orich.

Starting this month on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's powerful new production of Tracy's Lett's August: Osage County. This grand, gripping new play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play as well as the Drama Desk Award for Best New Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play. Tracy Letts' August: Osage County tells the story of the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together at their Oklahoma home when the patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and secrets, the family must also contend with Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the center of this storm. This powerful production exposes relationships between unforgettable characters who present themselves with unflinching honesty. Recommended for mature audience, ages 16+. Contains profanity, mature themes, sexuality and drug use.

Starting this month on the Hubbard stage is the Alley Theatre's powerful new production of Tracy's Lett's August: Osage County.

As its first production in their new home at the historic Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton, 3D Theatricals opens with THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, that wonderful, effervescent 2006 Broadway musical concoction. A Tony Winner for Best Book and Best Score, this insanely funny musical comedy is a reverent, if wildly sarcastic homage to the American Jazz-Age musical, those frothy, lighthearted screwball comedies that captivated so many fans with its fun and frivolity. 3D Theatricals' production features TV star Sally Struthers as Mrs. Tottendale.

Victory Gardens continues its 2010/11 Season with the world premiere of The Boys Room by Ensemble Playwright Joel Drake Johnson, directed by Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner. The Boys Room marks Shinner and Johnson's sixth collaboration-A Guide For The Perplexed, Four Places, The End of the Tour, Before My Eyes, all at Victory Gardens, and Tranquillity Woods for Steppenwolf's First Look series. The production runs January 21 - February 20, 2011 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. The Press Opening is Monday, January 31, 2011, at 7:30 pm.

February 9th marked the opening night for the five-time Tony nominated production of '33 Variations' with Jane Fonda at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. '33 Variations,' written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, continues through March 6, 2011. Watch the coverage of opening night at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles below!