LOS ANGELES INTERVIEWS

The 25th Anniversary North American Tour of MAMMA MIA! makes its Los Angeles stop at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre beginning November 14, 2023. Reprising her role of Donna Sheridan, Christine Sherrill leads the cast of 30. Phyllida Lloyd directs and Anthony Van Laast choregraphs this three-week li...

The musical workshop of The Manager world premieres at The Bourbon Room November 13th and 14th. The real-life story of the six degrees of separation between Elvis, Colonel Tom Parker, Ricky Nelson and Louis Jay Pearlman is told through the original songs by Ben Susskind. Steve Josephson directs the ...

The smash jukebox tribute Scissorhands - A Musical Tribute returns with an all-new, immersive staging opening December 1, 2023, at The Bourbon Room (with previews starting November 24th). This hilarious parody of the 1990 classic film Edward Scissorhands features their unique take on such pop hits a...

Collaborative Artists Bloc & Support Black Theatre will West Coast premiere Nikkole Salter’s Lines in the Dust November 4, 2023 at the Matrix Theatre. Desean K. Terry directs the cast of Kelly Jenrette, Erica Tazel and Tony Pasqualini, with Kelly and Erica playing the dual roles of Beverly and Den...

The West Coast premiere of Howard L. Craft’s Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green begins November 12, 2023, at the Fountain Theatre. Joseph Megel directs this one-man outing starring J. Alphonse Nicholson. J. Alphonse made some time out of his rehearsals to answer a few of my queries....

The Group Rep inaugurates their 51st anniversary season with Kander & Ebb’s 70, Girls, 70 opening November 10, 2023, at their Lonny Chapman Theatre. Bruce Kimmel directs the cast of Cynthia Bryant, Regan Carrington, Kay Cole, Fay DeWitt, and more. Barbara, who shares the role of Ida with Suzy, sat...

The final production of East West Players’ 57th Season, the Tony Award winning musical Spring Awakening opens October 29, 2023 (with previews already begun). Former EWP Artistic Director Tim Dang directs the cast of Mia Sempertegui, Thomas K. Winter, Marcus Phillips, Madison Grepo, Tamlyn Tomi...

Each Halloween Season, many horror and science fiction offerings hit our stages. This year, David P. Johnson is bringing his Sally Spectre: The Musical back to Theatre West weekends through October 29. A combination horror and morality play, it centers around the ghost of a 5-year-old girl trying to...

Akram Khan Dance Company world premieres its Jungle Book reimagined at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage October 26, 2023. Akram Khan Dance Company member Jan Mikaela Villanueva found some time from their performances in Ottawa, Canada to answer a few of my queries....

Their 2023/2024 season opens on October 28, 2023, with A Beatles Celebration featuring the Classical Mystery Tour band who will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the first Beatles U.S. tour in 1964 as well as the Beatlemania they inspired. I spoke with the group's president Kelly Ruggirello about t...

Up next at The Geffen Playhouse, Samuel Baum’s The Engagement Party West Coast premieres October 12, 2023 (with previews already in progress). Darko Tresnjak directs the cast of: Richard Bekins, Bella Heathcote, Brian Lee Huynh, Mark Jacobson, Wendie Malick, Brian Patrick Murphy, Jonah Platt...

Roger Q. Mason will present a live reading of Hide and Hide as part of the 2023 LAX Festival October 20, 2023, at the L.A. Dance Project. Jessica Hanna directs the two-hander with August Gray Gall and Amielynn Abellera. ...

Oracle reader and Feng Shui consultant Vicki Iskandar will be presenting her just released The Chinese Five Elements Oracle at Vitello’s Velvet Martini Lounge as part of their Tarot Week, October 22, 2023....

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Verdi Chorus, the group’s Music Director and Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, pianist/vocal coach Victoria Kirsch, and actor Linda Kelsey created This, and My Heart, A Portrait of Emily Dickinson and Her Worlds Through Text and Song, to be p...

Last year’s Garry Marshall Theatre production of Cindy & The Disco Ball returns reincarnated as Cindy & The Disco Ball: The Musical opening October 7, 2023. Both Joseph Leo Bwarie and Christine Lakin reprise their co-directorial roles of this retro retelling of the classic Cinderella story. Christ...

The North American tour of Hadestown returns to the Ahmanson Theatre for a limited 16 performances starting October 3, 2023. Rachel Chavkin directs the cast of Amaya Braganza, Lana Gordon, Will Mann, Matthew Patrick Quinn, J. Antonio Rodriguez, Marla Louissaint, Lizzie Markson, Hannah Schreer, Sevon...

La Cage, an immersive variety show inspired by the La Cage Aux Folles nightclub (which opened in 1981 on La Cienega Blvd) will launch the Hollywood Roosevelt’s iconic Cinegrill Theatre October 5, 2023, and then run every Friday through January 19, 2024. Original La Cage member Tommi Rose steps int...

Eli Bauman’s 44 - THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL re-opens October 13, 2023 at The Bourbon Room (with previews beginning October 11th). Eli himself directs his reimagined satire of the Obama campaign with the cast led by T.J. Wilkins as Barack and Shanice as Michelle , with Kevin Baile...

In this video, watch as Company national tour stars Britney Coleman and Judy McLane chat with Richard Ridge about their iconic roles, the genius of Sondheim, and so much more!...

Michael Kearns presents his 16th Solo Show It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir as part of CIRCA: Queer Histories Festival October 11, 2023 at the LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valenti Theatre. Long-time collaborator Ryland Shelton directs Michael. Michael graciously agreed to this, our fourth in...

James G. Hirsch & Robert A. Papazian’s Love Among the Ruins begins its limited engagement at the El Portal Theatre October 8, 2023 (with previews starting October 6th). Michael Arabian directs the stellar cast of JoBeth Williams and Peter Strauss. After decades in successful careers in television,...

In her tribute cabaret/theater act, Ms. Tucker Will See You Now, Los Angeles native Laural Meade shares her admiration of Jazz great Sophie Tucker by performing her rollicking songs, bawdy stories, and dirty jokes at the historic Gardenia Supper Club in Hollywood. It’s your chance to travel back t...

Aaron Poser’s Life Sucks. will have its Los Angeles premiere, September 30,2023 at The Broadwater Main Stage (with previews beginning September 24th). Barry Heins directs this reimagining of Anton Chekhov's classic play, Uncle Vanya with the cast of: John Ross Bowie, Anne Gee Byrd, Olivia Castanh...

The Los Angeles premiere of Anna Ouyang Moench’s Birds of North America opens September 23, 2023, at The Odyssey Theatre (with previews starting September 20th). Peter Richards directs this narrative of a father and daughter relationship with the cast of Arye Gross and Jacqueline Misaye. I got the...

Director Marissa Chibás encountered Jose Rivera’s Cloud Tectonics when it “first came into the world” 28 years ago, but feels the story about an apocalyptic storm is startlingly prescient for contemporary LA audiences. “The play is about mystery and magic,” she surmises, “how we mis...