LOS ANGELES INTERVIEWS

Next up at The Ahmanson, the Los Angeles premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s reimagined, Tony Award winning Oklahoma! opening September 15, 2022. I got a chance to toss out a few questions to the very game Barbara Walsh who plays Aunt Eller....

Center Theatre Group’s co-artistic director playwright Luis Alfaro curates and leads CTG’s L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival taking place over the course of two weekends, September 9-11 and September 16-18, 2022 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. I had the chance to obtain a few answers from this very...

The always working Carolyn Hennesy has finally found some time to mount the L.A. boards again. Carolyn takes on the co-title role of Mehitabel in Dan Gilvezan’s The Secret World of Archy & Mehitabel opening September 10, 2022 at the Whitefire Theatre. Moosie Drier directs the cast of Bill Chott, ...

The next show up for The Groundlings is their one-nighter Support Group August 29, 2022. I got a chance to chat with Emily Pendergast, one of the very funny Main Company cast members....

Next up at The Getty Villa, Sophocles' classic play Oedipus adapted by Jenny Koons, Andrew Morrill and Alexandria Wailes opening September 7, 2022. Jenny also does double duty directing the cast of Treshelle Edmond, Russell Harvard, Ashlea Hayes, Amelia Hensley, Matthew Jaeger, Gregor Lopes, Andrew ...

Producer/creator Jim Dooley reprises The Revue, his modern musical parody at The Bourbon Room September 17, 2022. In this edition, Rick Batalla takes over the directing reins from Matt Walker with the cast of Katie DeShan, Tiffany Daniels, Isaac Robinson-Smith and Philip McNiven. I had the chance t...

When funny ladies Allison Dunbar and Emily Pendergrast decided to produce a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood September 16th, they simply picked up their phones and called their Sister Groundlings to participate. The roster for September 16th includes current main company members, as well as Groun...

The national touring company of The Prom lands at the Ahmanson August 10, 2022 (with a preview August 9th). The story of a group of Broadway divas meshing with a small-town high school results in hijinks and lots of fantastic dancing. Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw reprises his Broadway directing ...

Jared Machado discusses his portrayal of Johnny in the musical American Idiot at Chance Theater....

Performance artist/comedian/ writer Kristina Wong (in partnership with API RISE) returns to East West Players with her new rendition of From Number To Name: Back To Life livestreaming August 5th through 7th. As Kristina described in her last interview with me: “From Number To Name is a devised the...

Next up at the Geffen Playhouse, the west coast premiere of playwright Fernanda Coppel’s King Liz opening July 21, 2022 (previews already begun). Jesca Prudencio directs the cast of Ray Abruzzo, Oscar Best, Nancy Linari, Evan Morris Reiser, Michelle Ortiz and Sabrina Sloan. I had the opportunity ...

Next up at the Fountain Theatre, the L.A. premiere of Tony Award-winner Steven Levenson’s If I Forget beginning July 23, 2022 (with previews starting July 20th). Jason Alexander (also a Tony Award-winner) directs the cast of Síle Bermingham, Caribay Franke, Matt Gottlieb, Samantha Klein, Leo ...

Playwright Peter Lefcourt’s Remembering the Future world premieres at the Odyssey Theatre July 16, 2022. Terri Hanauer directs the cast of Michael Corbett, Fatima El-Bashir, David Jahn, Andrew Neaves and Tarina Pouncy. I had a very enjoyable phoner with the multi-tasking, ever busy Michael....

The world premiere of The Streaming-verse of Madness: An Unauthorized Musical Parody has already opened at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre. This mash-up of pop song favorites doubles as the official re-opening of this Silverlake landmark. I had the opportunity to dig into the mind of Aidan Park, who essa...

World-renown performance artists Acrobuffos will be making their Southern California debut at The Broad Stage with their show Air Play beginning July 21, 2022. The husband-and-wife team of Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone have travelled the world performing their wordless, highly visual shows. Seth ...

The North American tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Moulin Rouge! The Musical has already begun its L.A. premiere at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre June 30, 2022. Tony Award winner Alex Timbers directs this touring cast led by Courtney Reed as Satine and Conor Ryan as Christian. I ...

Playwright Carolene Joy Cabrera King’s TOO MUCH SKIN will debut as part of SheLA’s annual Summer Theatre Festival July 15, 2022, at the Zephyr Theater.  Carolene depicts the story of Filipino siblings navigating assimilation and battling stereotypes via the world of cosplay and videos. Carolene...

The national tour of Freestyle Love Supreme lands at the Pasadena Playhouse July 12, 2022. This theatrical creation of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail and Anthony Veneziale’s received a Special Tony Award in 2020. I had a very delightful phoner with cast member Aneesa Folds....

Director Troy Whitaker discusses the play Blood Pig at the Actors Company @ LA Comedy Festival (Other Space Theater)....

The relaunched national touring company of Dear Evan Hansen returns to the Ahmanson June 26, 2022. Winner of six 2017 Tony Awards, a Grammy and a Olivier; this production stars Anthony Norman as the titular character....

Next up for Center Theatre Group’s fourth season of Block Party, D’Lo’s solo show To T, or Not To T? (A Comedic Trans Journey through (T)estosterone and Masculinity) beginning previews June 25, 2022 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. D’Lo hilariously takes us on his journey transitioning while br...

The National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen is in its fourth year of touring across North America, and will now have a new Evan Hansen! Anthony Norman (The Prom original Broadway cast, National Tour of Newsies, and more) is stepping into the lead role! Read BroadwayWorld's interview with the new star of D...

Ovation Award-nominated director Jonathan Muñoz-Proulx will succeed Director of Cultural Arts Jon Imparato (set to retire June 30) as the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center’s new Artistic Director.  Besides overseeing the Center’s two live performance venu...

Already opened at the Ruskin Group Theatre, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner through July 17, 2022. Lita Gaithers Owens directs the cast of Paul Denk, Lee Garlington, Brad Greenquist, Dan Martin , Mary Pumper, Vickilyn Reynolds, Mouchette van Helsdingen, Vincent Washington and Renn Woods. Lita mana...

The East West Players presents the rolling world premiere of Interstate, an Asian-American pop-rock poetry musical (opened last week). Jesca Prudencio directs the cast of Jupiter Lê, Kristian Espiritu, Jaya Joshi, Michelle Noh, Reuben Uy, Stefan Miller, Natalie Holt MacDonald and Krystle Simmons. ...