Gabriela Carrillo News

Some stage shows just refuse to retreat into the sunset, and one of those is MAMMA MIA!, that enduring, unapologetically giddy jukebox musical, now getting a fun, vibrant new staging at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, under the direction of T.J. Dawson. With performances continuing in the city of La Mirada, CA through Sunday, November 21, this infectiously peppy show---featuring a book by playwright Catherine Johnson that wraps around songs made famous by ABBA---is certainly an invigorating way to welcome theatergoers back for live, in-person performances, especially those looking for a silly, non-serious respite from our current realities. If you're looking for some cute laughs paired with some terrific singing and dancing, this show should fit the bill.

MAMMA MIA! will preview on Friday, October 29, 2021 at 8 pm & Saturday, October 30 at 2 pm (with a press opening on Saturday, October 30 at 8 pm) and run through Sunday, November 21, 2021 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd in La Mirada.  

La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts & Mccoy Rigby Entertainment will welcome fans back into their newly renovated theatre to find yourself singing along to the electric and exhilarating, MAMMA MIA! Find out how to get tickets and learn more about the show.

Shane Scheel and his live show production company For The Record Live has found their new Hollywood home in The Bourbon Room. With their official re-opening, featuring Shoshana Bean, an impressive success (obvious from the love and applause flowing forth from The Bourbon Room audience.), FTR will follow up with be a concert from Alisan Porter (August 1st), and their new and improved production of TARANTINO LIVE, now TARANTINO LIVE: FOX FORCE FIVE & THE TYRANNY OF EVIL MEN (beginning August 5th). Had the chance to chat with Shane, FTR’s executive producer, on FTR staying connected during the pandemic, and their already planned shows and those hoped for scheduling.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, a couple of friends decided to stage a concert with a few unbelievably talented vocalists singing songs from Quentin Tarantino's roster of movie soundtracks and an actress from Death Proof reciting a few of her movie lines.

International City Theatre virtually presents The Last Five Years, an intimate, emotionally powerful musical by Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown.

Taking the film and its music to the next level, The Wallis and For The Record are presenting a holiday season encore of last year's LOVE, ACTUALLY LIVE world premiere in the Bram Stoker Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills through December 29. The multimedia presentation, adapted and directed by Anderson Davis with musical supervision by Jesse Vargas, turns the theater into a giant, immersive, cinema in a three-dimensional world where the film and live action seamlessly intertwine throughout the London setting. Each scene is a festival of excellent characterizations, extraordinary lighting effects and costumes, brilliant and fast-paced direction and choreography, and the joy of great music that perfectly expresses the mood and themes of the movie and jukebox musical LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE. No doubt this suburb holiday musical will be making its return to The Wallis each December!

Casting has been announced for The Wallis and For The Record's production of LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, the multimedia concert celebration of one of the most beloved holiday films of all time and the biggest, record-breaking hit in The Wallis' history, which is back by popular demand, now as a not-to-be-missed Los Angeles tradition with performances beginning the day before Thanksgiving (November 27) and running through the weekend following Christmas (December 29). Returning from the 2018 production are Rex Smith (RIAA Gold® recording artist), Carrie Manolakos (Broadway's Mamma Mia!, Wicked), Doug Kreeger (Broadway's Les Misérables), Tomasina Abate (For The Record's Scorsese: American Crime Requiem, Tarantino), Carson Higgins (international tour of Green Day's American Idiot) and the multi-dimensional Emily Lopez. New this year to the lineup of outstanding performers are Rogelio Douglas Jr. (In the Heights and The Little Mermaid on Broadway), Declan Bennett (Once, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Taboo in the West End, American Idiot and Rent on Broadway), Jon Robert Hall (Fox's Grease: Live, “Glee”), Chris Mann (NBC's “The Voice,” The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Tour), James Byous (Scorsese: American Crime Requiem, Netflix's 'Westside'), Ruby Lewis (Cirque du Soleil's Paramour, Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole), singer/songwriter/actress Aubrie Sellers (one of Rolling Stone's best country albums of the year), Gabriela Francesca Carrillo (American Mariachi, Netflix's Homecoming), Levi Smith (A Bronx Tale: The Musical, It's a Wonderful Life, Mary Poppins and The Music Man on Broadway), young singer/actress Nayah Damasen, John Battagliese and accomplished violinist Molly Rogers. 

The Wallis and For The Record present LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, the multimedia concert celebration of one of the most beloved holiday films of all time and the biggest, record-breaking hit in The Wallis' history, which is back by popular demand, now as a not-to-be-missed Los Angeles tradition with performances beginning the day before Thanksgiving (November 27) and running through the weekend following Christmas (December 29).

The Wallis and For The Record present LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, the multimedia concert celebration of one of the most beloved holiday films of all time and the biggest, record-breaking hit in The Wallis' history, which is back by popular demand, now as a not-to-be-missed Los Angeles tradition with performances beginning the day before Thanksgiving (November 27) and running through the weekend following Christmas (December 29).

After a most successful run last December, For The Record's LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE encores at The Wallis beginning November 27, 2019. FTR pairs the actual screening of the 2003 perennial holiday hit film Love Actually with live singers and a 15-piece orchestra on stage complementing the movie's soundtrack. I got the chance to grab a few minutes and some behind-the-scenes with the prolific, ever busy, For The Record Live executive producer Shane Scheel.

Feinstein's at Vitello's newest monthly series, mostlyNEWmusicals, continues Monday, 10.7.19 with selections from 2 musicals by acclaimed composer and recording artist Kevin Ray. The cast features Broadway's Rhett George (MEMPHIS, WICKED, SWEET CHARITY) along with Tommy Hobson (“Fresh Beat Band,” Ovation Award winner: AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' at La Mirada), Laura Dickinson (“Phineas and Ferb,” 4x Grammy® winner, 3x Emmy® winner), Eric B. Anthony (B'way: THE LION KING, Skylight Theatre: BRONCO BILLY), Gabriela Carrillo (PRINCE OF EGYPT at Tuacahn, AMERICAN MARIACHI at South Coast Rep), Marisa Matthews (EVITA at San Diego Rep, upcoming ROCK OF AGES in Hollywood), Elysa Gomez (Las Vegas: ROCK OF AGES, world premiere: CONGA), Miatta Lebile (CBS Diversity Showcase), Kelley Dorney (NICE WORK at Musical Theater West, GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE at 3D and Tuacahn), and Bella Hicks (national tour: BEEHIVE, AMERICAN IDOT at La Mirada) and Justin Luciano (WEST SIDE STORY at VA Rep).

Feinstein's at Vitello's newest monthly series 'mostlyNEWmusicals' continues Monday, 10.7.19 with selections from CENTRAL AVENUE BREAKDOWN and NOTES FROM JUAREZ by acclaimed composer and recording artist Kevin Ray. Tickets are available now at www.feinsteinsatvitellos.com.

Serving as the gloriously buoyant 56th season-opening production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, AMERICAN MARIACHI---which continues performances through October 5, 2019---is a wonderful play about the love of family and the love for achieving personal dreams. Playwright José Cruz González's joyful, musical-leaning play combines gorgeous music with broad comedy and touching drama that gives a fresh spin to the story of pioneering women subverting expectations to achieve their dreams in a world dominated by men's old world outlook.

Feinstein's at Vitello's newest monthly series, mostly NEW musicals, returns Monday, 10.7.19 with selections from musicals by acclaimed composer and recording artist Kevin Ray, featuring a starry cast from LA and Broadway! Tickets are available now at www.feinsteinsatvitellos.com.

Powerhouse vocalist/actress Emma Hunton (onstage for many a UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL PARODY OF...  show) switches gears, exhibiting her directing prowess in her inaugural directorial UMPO production of A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. Hunton keeps the punchlines, the pop songs, the sweet moves coming at you in a machine gun-pace with just enough time to react with laughter or applause. As expected of a project from UMPO executive producer/writer Kate Pazakis, UMPO: A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN consists of her very clever selection of pop songs to further the narrative, combined with some of the wittiest lines to parody the already existing funny moments of the Penny Marshall-directed A League of Their Own.

Coachella Valley Repertory's (CVRep's) production, the first in its spectacular, new theater building, is highly enjoyable. Most of the acting, singing, and dancing is superb and two of the leads - David Sattler (Anatoly) and Gabriela Carrillo (Florence) - demonstrate an electrifying stage presence.

Pride of Southern Utah announces the theme Everyone Belongs for the third annual pride celebration to span a week of festivities.

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre is a breathtaking musical with originality and depth, theatricality and spectacle. It is without a doubt worth continued development, and it is already very close to ready for a Broadway bow, cast album, and eventual licensing. The world deserves to see and hear the gift that the creative team and Tuacahn have already given to Utah audiences.

 Tackling one of its biggest seasons to date, Tuacahn Center for the Arts in southern Utah is pleased to include several Broadway stars glittering among the cast of the regional premiere of Matilda the Musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and the first large-scale version of the Stephen Schwartz supervised production of Prince of Egypt.