KIM'S CONVENIENCE Comes to The Ahmanson Theatre Next Year
Performances run March 21—April 19, 2026.
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 26, 2025
Center Theatre Group has announced an additional play to complete the 2025/26 One CTG. One LA. subscription season, Kim's Convenience—the hilarious and heartwarming award-winning comedy drama about a Korean family-run corner store that inspired the popular Netflix hit series—at the Ahmanson Theatre from March 21 to April 19, 2026. Press Opening is on March 24.
Kim's Convenience is written by and starring Ins Choi and directed by Weyni Mengesha. It is presented by Soulpepper Theatre Company and Adam Blanshay Productions.
The play is included as part of the One CTG. One LA. and Ahmanson Theatre season ticket packages. Single tickets are available at CenterTheatreGroup.org.
Ins Choi said, “I'm so excited to bring my play, Kim's Convenience, to the biggest K-Town in North America. I have relatives in Orange County, Pasadena, and my uncle ran a convenience store, or a ‘liquor store' as he called it, in South Central—a bit of his story during the LA riots is featured in the play—yeah, lots of connections with LA, for sure. I'm super stoked not only for Koreans, or Korean churches, or Asian Americans in Southern California, but for all audiences to come and hear this immigrant story at this particular time in our collective history. Can't wait.”
CTG's Brindell & Milton Gottlieb Artistic Director Snehal Desai added, “We are delighted to welcome Kim's Convenience to the Ahmanson. Its celebration of family, identity, and community reflects so much of what we stand for at Center Theatre Group, and we can't wait for Los Angeles audiences to experience its humor, its heart, and its unmistakable humanity. It's a play that speaks to our current moment and makes for the perfect addition to our 2025/26 season.”
Kim's Convenience began life as a play when it originally premiered in 2011 at the Toronto Fringe Festival. A larger production was mounted the following year, directed by Weyni Mengesha, at Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto and became the highest-grossing play in the company's entire history. The show later had productions Off-Broadway, in London's West End, and Washington D.C. before its current tour, which will play Los Angeles this coming March. CTG is excited to welcome Ins, his hilarious play, and this city's very large Korean and Korean American community to the Ahmanson Theatre.
Kim's Convenience became a very popular television series that ran for five seasons on CBC Television and Netflix. This new revival by Soulpepper Theatre production will also be seen at A.C.T. in San Francisco, Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, The Old Globe in San Diego, and the McCarter in Princeton.
In Kim's Convenience, Mr. Kim works hard to support his wife and children with his Toronto convenience store. As he evaluates his future, he faces both a changing neighborhood landscape and the gap between his values and those of his Canada-born son and daughter. Playwright Ins Choi calls Kim's Convenience his “love letter to his parents and to all first-generation immigrants who call Canada their home.”
“Kim's has the universal appeal of an immigrant story: one generation comes over, the next generation grows up in the new country and the two clash,” said Choi, who in the original production played the son Jung, and now in this revival plays the father Appa. Choi added, “I hope it serves as a reminder that there's a whole life behind the counter at a convenience store — a life full of dignity, joy and dreams.”
In Toronto Life, Choi said, “A lot has been said about the positive impact Kim's has had on Asian representation. And playing Appa in Kim's has reminded me that acting is good for me. It's been wonderful. I hadn't realized how much I missed acting.”
Ryan Borochovitz said in the Toronto Next magazine, “Kim's has, since day one, always been both good and important. It's a piece of thoroughly enjoyable entertainment, and something that every Canadian should see in order to feel like they're properly participating in their own culture — as Shakespeare is to the English, Pushkin to the Russians, and Goethe to the Germans. That's right, Ins Choi might just be the closest that Canada has ever had to a national dramatist. This city feels like a better place with Kim's Convenience in it.'
Borochovitz continued, “Kim's has always been a story about inheritance. It's about immigrants who uprooted their entire lives to try giving their children new opportunities for happiness. It's about those children trying to make the most of that opportunity while struggling to fully appreciate the sacrifices their parents made for them. It's also about an aging man reflecting upon his life's modest accomplishments, hoping to imbue them with greater significance by passing it onto the next generation.”
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