LOS ANGELES INTERVIEWS

I had the incredible pleasure of talking to Marilu Henner on her upcoming show at the Write-Off Room Music and Memories on September 23, 2023. She completely wowed me with her uncanny detailed memory of her illustrious career. Marilu is only one of twelve people in the world who has hyperthymesia, ...

Those who attend the Hollywood Fringe Festival (HFF) surely know the married couple, Matthew Quinn and Bertha Rodriguez, producers and venue managers who have been putting together many selections since HFF began in 2010 via their company Combined Artform and Asylum venues. Continuing the celebratio...

Next up at the Pasadena Playhouse, the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Rapp’s Pulitzer Prize finalist The Sound Inside opens September 10, 2023 (with previews starting September 6th). Cameron Watson directs the cast of Amy Brenneman and Anders Keith, as Bella Lee Baird a Yale professor and her stude...

The world premiere of Howard Skora’s Freud on Cocaine opens September 8, 2023, at the Whitefire Theatre. Howard also directs this comedy based on Freud’s Cocaine Papers with the cast of Jonathan Slavin, Barry Brisco, Kim Hopkins, Aaron LaPlante, Sara Maraffino, Sigute Miller and Amy Smallman-Wi...

Next up for The Group Rep, John Murray and Allen Boretz’ zany comedy Room Service opening September 8, 2023, at their Lonny Chapman Theatre. Mareli Mitchel-Shields directs the large cast of Fox Carney, Joe Clabby, Joseph Eastburn, Tommy Jacobs, Jessica Kent, Sam Logan, Will Maizel, Matthew McLaugh...

The Los Angeles premiere of actor/writer Les Kurkendaal-Barrett’s The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen begins August 31, 2023, at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre....

Prolific writer Garry Michael Kruger is bringing the world premiere of his latest play, Walking In Space, to Theatre West for a five-week run beginning September 8, directed by Arden Teresa Lewis. It centers on a family in crisis with a drug-addicted single mother needing the assistance of her child...

The first of playwright Lisa Sanaye Dring’s simultaneous world premieres in southern California Hungry Ghost opens August 26, 2023, at the Skylight Theatre, with the second SUMO starting September 26, 2023, at La Jolla Playhouse. The much-in-demand Lisa graciously made some time between pre-produc...

Next up at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Center Theatre Group (in association with IAMA Theatre Company) present Alexis Scheer’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord opening August 27, 2023 (already in previews). CTG’s associate artistic director directs the cast of Ashley Brooke, Aliyah Camacho, Samantha Wynett...

Rogue Machine Southern California Premiere of Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning just opened August 19, 2023, at the Rogue Machine at the Matrix. Rogue Machine Theatre’s artistic director Guillermo Cienfuegos directs the cast of Roxanne Hart, Evangeline Edwards, Samuel Garnett, Stephen�...

Seventeen years ago, Susan Priver starred as Flora opposite Henry Olek as Edward with Shelly Kurtz as the match seller in Harold Pinter’s A Slight Ache, a tragicomedy of manners that takes a funny, ominous, and unsettling journey into the human psyche. All three actors will reprise their roles in ...

The world premiere of Graf’s play Exit Wounds is taking place at International City Theatre in Long Beach for a three-week run, August 25 through September 10, directed by ICT producing artistic director caryn desai [sic]. I decided to speak with Wendy on her process for creating the play, being a...

Next up for the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, the world premiere of OTE’s Artistic Director Ron Sossi’s Elephant Shavings opening August 19, 2023 (with previews beginning August 16th). Ron directs his script with the cast of: Denise Blasor, Diana Cignoni, Jack Geren, Jeff LeBeau, Cameron Meyer and G...

HRS Productions and Orgasmico’s Exorcistic: The Unauthorized Rock Musical Parody of The Exorcist has taken up residence at Three Clubs in Hollywood playing Fridays and Saturdays through September 22, 2023. This original rock musical co-directed by Chadd McMillan and Alli Miller-Fisher, features...

It is hard to exactly box the show into a genre. The seeds of this show were planted, she recalls, partially in response to an earlier performance about “fallacious senses of intimacy with an audience” in which she and her collaborator “vomited confessions” at an audience in front of paintin...

The West Coast premiere of Mischief Theatre Ltd.’s Peter Pan Goes Wrong opens August 11, 2023, at the Ahmanson (with previews beginning August 8th). Adam Meggido directs the zany cast of Bartley Booz, Matthew Cavendish, Bianca Horn, Harry Kershaw, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Ellie Morris, Charlie R...

The U.S. tour of Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon, Les Misérables lands in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre beginning August 1, 2023.James Powell and Laurene Connor co-direct a cast of 40+ triple threats. Le Miz veteran Steve Czarnecki returns this time in the roles of Factory Foreman and ...

Jiggs Jurgess’ The Red Suitcase world premieres August 12, 2023, at the Broadwater Theatre Main Stage. Del Shores directs this co-production of P3 Theatre Company, the Del Shores Foundation and Beard Collins Shores Productions with the cast of Emerson Collins, Kristen McCullough, Bruce Melena, Ch...

David Hunt Stafford (pictured) is the Artistic Director and Managing Director of Theatre 40, posts he has proudly held since 2000 at the professional theater company located on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. I decided to speak with David about the current plays running in rep during July a...

A stellar cast of Broadway babies and leading men will gather for one-night only this Sunday evening July 30, 2023, to honor the late, great Stephen Sondheim in Everybody Rise! A Sondheim Celebration. Curated by Robert Longbottom and Kevin Stites, Kevin conducts the most talented cast of Patti LuPon...

Krysta Rodriguez reprises her role of Cinderella for the remainder of the Broadway production of Into the Woods at the Ahmanson through July 30, 2023....

Just opened at the Pasadena Playhouse, recently crowned recipient of the 2023 Regional Tony Award, the Los Angeles premiere of Pulitzer Prize-finalist Zora Howard’s Stew. Tyler Thomas directs the cast of LisaGay Hamilton, Roslyn Ruff, Jasmine Ashanti and Samantha Miller. LisaGay graciously found s...

Writer and performer Susan Leslie is probably best known in the theatre world for her long association with writer/director, Del Shores, having appeared in six of his plays. And this month, she will be directing Martyna Majok’s play Ironbound, with three performances July 14-16 at The Broadwater S...

Given recent events and political drama, including propaganda used to sway the public, nothing should surprise modern audiences when it comes to politics. But perhaps the most well-known dramatic representation of political intrigue takes place in Shakespeare’s classic play Julius Caesar, which ce...

Although a reflection and a response to his own relationship with the theatre, Bernardo Cubría hopes his newest play, Crabs in a Bucket will reflect “larger themes than what it means to be a theatre person” and laughingly wishes that even people he hasn’t personally invited will come to see i...