Stage West News

Santa Monica Playhouse presents Actor's Repertory Theatre (ART) in the return engagement of the 'dazzling' (Daily Bruin) original Jewish musical, BACKSTREET, a passionate and whimsical portrait of life, love, and loyalty played out by a family of Backstreet Ladies in a house of Jewish 'working girls' in the New York ghetto, circa 1905. This gem from the Playhouse Jewish Heritage Program by the creators of the immensely popular Sholom Aleichem quartet of plays - Author! Author!, Because of You, The Clown Prince and The Great Fair - and part of the ongoing Santa Monica Playhouse (SMP) 50th Anniversary Celebration of Theatre, opens May 15, 2010.

The Bay Area's award-winning Rough and Tumble will close the World Premiere of A HISTORY OF HUMAN STUPIDITY, the company's first commission for the stage, and second collaboration with acclaimed playwright and former Neo-Futurist Andy Bayiates (43 Plays for 43 Presidents), on April 25th.

'We are delighted to present LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, THE MUSICAL,' states Christopher B. Manos, Producer of Theater of the Stars. 'This exciting new show will bring back fond memories for so many of us who loved the books and the hit television series.

Megan Mullally will reprise her role as Ron's (Mullally's real-life husband Nick Offerman) conniving ex-wife Tammy on 'Parks and Recreation'for their third season, airing in the fall.

Actors Theatre's final production of the season, 'No Child,' will run on Stage West at the Herberger Theater Center from April 23-May 9. Nilaja Sun's critically acclaimed solo show gives us a glimpse of life in the New York City Public School System, complete with students, teachers, parents, principals, and even the security guard. This 2007 off-Broadway breakaway hit has been performed all around the country.

The ghosts who have taken up residence with The Production Company are a restless lot, filled with a crackling, questing vitality rarely found even among the living. As embodied with disquieting fierceness by Sara Lilly, David Ross Paterson, and Skip Pipo in COPENHAGEN, this endlessly fascinating play by Michael Frayn is directed with surgical exactitude by August Viveirto to a fever pitch. These spectral presences just won't stop haunting one another with their questions and revisions and caveats. Give them the courtesy of your full attention, and you'll find them taking possession of your own imagination as well, probably raising your blood pressure in the process. They prove themselves electrifying companions.

The ghosts who have taken up residence with The Production Company are a restless lot, filled with a crackling, questing vitality rarely found even among the living. As embodied with disquieting fierceness by Sara Lilly, David Ross Paterson, and Skip Pipo in COPENHAGEN, this endlessly fascinating play by Michael Frayn is directed with surgical exactitude by August Viveirto to a fever pitch. These spectral presences just won't stop haunting one another with their questions and revisions and caveats. Give them the courtesy of your full attention, and you'll find them taking possession of your own imagination as well, probably raising your blood pressure in the process. They prove themselves electrifying companions.

Having recently departed Broadway's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, it seems Megan Mullally is putting her energy into her project, Karen: The Musical, based on her Will & Grace alter ego, Karen Walker.

Megan Mullally will join the cast of the Starz's television hit, 'Party Down.' Mullally joins the cast after the departure of GLEE star Jane Lynch, who starred in season one. Lynch left the show in order to continue her work on GLEE. Mullally's character will debut April 23rd.

Piven Theatre will end its production of Emilie Beck's Number of People, directed by Emilie and featuring Piven Ensemble Member Bernard Beck on April 18th.

THE MODERN STAGE presents 'MIRACLE DAY,' a new play written and directed by TOM SIME, Writer in Residence at 45 Bleecker in New York. This romantic comedy-drama is a bittersweet story about extreme happiness-and what comes after.

Actors Theatre's final production of the season, 'No Child,' will run on Stage West at the Herberger Theater Center from April 23-May 9. Nilaja Sun's critically acclaimed solo show gives us a glimpse of life in the New York City Public School System, complete with students, teachers, parents, principals, and even the security guard. This 2007 off-Broadway breakaway hit has been performed all around the country.

Musical Theatre West's new season offers something for everyone: From the Tony-Award winning musical ANNIE, which introduces many families to Musical Theatre for the first time, to our number one patron-requested show-Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS, to maintaining our commitment to producing newer works such as the World Premiere of the New Roger Bean musical SUMMER OF LOVE, to the recent New York hit THE WEDDING SINGER, we at MTW continue to promise to provide the highest quality of Musical Theatre to our region solidifying our claim as Southern California's Premier Musical Theatre Company!'

Welcome to Leenane, a small village in the rugged landscape of County Galway. It might seem to be a typical Irish village, but there's something a bit different about it. The young parish priest, Father Welsh, puts it this way: 'I thought Leenane was a nice place when first I turned up here, but no.

The Modern Stage presents MIRACLE DAY, a new play written and directed by TOM SIME, Writer in Residence at 45 Bleecker in New York. This romantic comedy-drama is a bittersweet story about extreme happiness-and what comes after. The action is interwoven with an original rock score composed and played live by Vern Woodhead and Yana Davydova of the Brooklyn band The Epicures.

THE COMMON AIR, a new social comedy written by Alex Lyras and Robert McCaskill, directed by Robert McCaskill and performed by Alex Lyras, will open at 45 Bleecker Street Theatre on Wednesday, April 14, 2010. Performances begin Wednesday, April 7

The ghosts who have taken up residence with The Production Company are a restless lot, filled with a crackling, questing vitality rarely found even among the living. As embodied with disquieting fierceness by Sara Lilly, David Ross Paterson, and Skip Pipo in COPENHAGEN, this endlessly fascinating play by Michael Frayn is directed with surgical exactitude by August Viveirto to a fever pitch. These spectral presences just won't stop haunting one another with their questions and revisions and caveats. Give them the courtesy of your full attention, and you'll find them taking possession of your own imagination as well, probably raising your blood pressure in the process. They prove themselves electrifying companions.

Celebrating the theatrical playground that is terraNOVA Collective, this special evening will begin with a Welcome Reception at 7pm in the upstairs theater at Performance Space 122 with appetizers and drinks. The Mainstage Performance will begin at 8pm.

Welcome to Leenane, a small village in the rugged landscape of County Galway. It might seem to be a typical Irish village, but there's something a bit different about it. The young parish priest, Father Welsh, puts it this way: 'I thought Leenane was a nice place when first I turned up here, but no.

Piven Theatre Workshop will host a pre-show event in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 11, 2010 at 1:15PM, prior to the matinee performance of Number of People. The hour long program will feature speeches by Rabbi Josh Feigelson, Campus Rabbi & Senior Director Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University, and Fr. John Karjte, Chaplain and Director of the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University; a special performance of 'Raining Season' by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Teen Committee on Conscience; and Hannah Senesch's song 'Eili, Eili' led by David Y. Chack, President of the Association for Jewish Theatre.