Chris Whitaker

The Argyle Theatre and producer Hunter Arnold unofficially kicked off the holiday season early by announcing that a special filmed version of Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol starring one of the finest stage actors of our time, Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays, was released worldwide on Saturday, November 28.

Jefferson Mays is Scrooge again, and he's right on time.

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre unofficially kicked off the holiday season early today, announcing that a special filmed version of Charles Dickens' beloved holiday classic A Christmas Carol starring one of the finest stage actors of our time, Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays, will be released worldwide on Saturday, November 28.

I had the following to say about playwright Joshua Harmon' s play Bad Jews: 'Excessively harsh reality is at the core of most contemporary dramedies. A character cannot be rude or abrasive enough to arouse a viewer's attention or glean laughs. It's particularly characteristic of the irritating females who talk too fast, too loud and scream their shrewish lungs out. It makes me happy that I live alone; and yes, I do care and respect others and their feelings; but, being pleasant nowadays is considered boring and in drama, it will never win awards, so on with the show. ' Harmon's current play Skintight is receiving its West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse and star Idina Menzel's character Jodi is another shrewish female, selfish and most definitely in need of a lesson or two about how to treat others. The play has already been extended through October 12. It boasts a dynamic six person cast and is worth your time.

Get a first look at Idina Menzel in Skintight at the Geffen Playhouse!

Kimberly Hebert Gregory literally shines as bright as the Sun as she battles to find the Entity to show her the way to find inner peace, as her comic book battle as superhero Maasai Angel is child's play compared to the heartbreaking emotional pain in her real life. And her journey contains some of the most stunning visual displays ever seen in the smaller Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse! Playwright Inda Craig-Galvan and director Robert O'Hara have brilliantly brought modern-day issues such as race-motivated police shootings, gun control, personal responsibility, ratings-motivated media reporting, and parenting styles to the forefront in this world premiere, sure to go on to great fame worldwide following the Geffen run.

Both heartbreaking and highly inventive, Black Super Hero Magic Mama gives us the hero we have been waiting for.

The Geffen is currently hosting a world premiere adaption of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Adapted by Jefferson Mays, Susan Lyons and Michael Arden, this one-man production features Mays taking on nearly 50 different roles in a new adaptation, which is based on the edited version Dickens himself used for public performances. Let's see what the critics had to say.

A Christmas Carol/by Charles Dickens/adapted by Jefferson Mays, Susan Lyons, Michael Arden/directed by Michael Arden/Geffen Playhoous/Gil Cates Theater/through December 16 Another version of A Christmas Carol you moan? Well, take my word for it, you have never seen a produciton of the Dickensian classic quite like the one currently onstage at the Geffen Playhouse mainstage Gil Cates Theater. Adapted by the brilliant actor playing every role Jefferson Mays, Susan Lyons and brilliant director Michael Arden, A Christmas Carol becomes the perfect transition from Halloween, Dia de los Muertos

When Della and her Goddaughter Jen have a truthful heart-to-heart about making the decision whether or not the wedding cake will be baked at Della's Sweets, even though you may need a Kleenex, listen closely to the truthful honesty with which the lines are delivered by these two actresses dedicated to showing audiences that neither side is right nor wrong, just diametrically opposed and correct to each of them. And I am not revealing whether or not Della bakes the cake or even attends the wedding as the truth is revealed during the final moments of the play when THE CAKE proves that love is always the key ingredient in life.

From hit television writer/producer and acclaimed playwright Bekah Brunstetter (This is Us, Going to a Place where you Already Are), The Cake is a play inspired by a story still in the headlines. When Della, a North Carolina baker and devout Christian, is asked to bake a cake for her best friend's daughter, she is overjoyed. But that joy is short-lived when she learns the intended is another bride and realizes she is faced with an agonizing choice between faith and family. Struggling to reconcile her deeply held belief in "traditional marriage" and the love she has for the woman she helped raise, Della finds herself in strange new territory.

Amanda Peet may be best known as an actress, having appeared in films such as 'The Whole Nine Yards' and 'Syriana' and in TV shows, including the Duplass brothers' family dramedy, 'Togetherness.' But she's also a serious writer, with her second play, OUR VERY OWN CARLIN McCULLOUGH, now making its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse. Peet says that for the Geffen production, with a cast that includes Mamie Gummer, Abigail Dylan Harrison, Caroline Heffernan, Tyee Tilghman and Joe Tippett, she was most interested in examining the mother-daughter relationship and 'the idea of how to parent and to what degree you can keep your narcissism in check.'

The Geffen Playhouse presents world premiere production of Amanda Peet's Our Very Own Carlin McCullough. Check out photos from the production below!

Directed by Patricia McGregor at the Geffen Playhouse, this emotionally-charged play looks deep into the hearts and souls of its four characters, with all four actors brilliantly commanding the stage from start to finish. Caroline Stefanie Clay portrays Faye, the factor's UAW union rep who finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place when her supervisor Reggie (DB Woodside) informs her privately that the factory will soon be closing, throwing everyone out of work. Asking her to keep the information confidential to insure his own employment to the end, puts Faye, his mother's former lover who first got him a job at the factory, in a difficult position with her co-workers.

The third installment of Dominique Morisseau's acclaimed trilogy "The Detroit Project," SkeletonCrew follows four co-workers-Faye, Dez, Reggie and Shanita-at a Detroit auto factory in 2008. It highlights the layered relationships and drama of blue-collar workers navigating the instability and uncertainty in their personal lives and at work.

One thing for sure about Joshua Harmon's Significant Other is that all of the characters like to talk, nonstop, and while talking about the mundane, like dating, possible mates and themselves, they manage to be funny and serious simultaneously. Jordan Berman (Will Von Vogt) is gay and desperately seeking a partner. He has his eyes set on Will (John Garet Stoker), with whom he works, and is nothing short of obsessive in his approach to asking him out. Will is distant, and it takes Jordan a lot of effort to get

After a successful Off-Broadway and Broadway run, Joshua Harmon brings his affecting and hilarious play about finding and lacking love to the Geffen Playhouse.

What made the Hot List? THE ART COUPLE from Sacred Fools Theatre Company at The Broadwater, SELL/BUY/DATE at Geffen Playhouse, and ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL at Independent Shakespeare Co.'s new studio theater. Check out the latest recommendations below and go see a show! Reviews by BWW Sr. Editor Ellen Dostal (LADCC).

The reviews are in for SELL/BUY/DATE at Geffen Playhouse! A one-woman show ( both written and performed by Sarah Jones), SELL/BUY/DATE opened on February 27th, and has recently been extended through April 15th.

Have you ever wondered what the legal sex industry will look like in the future, given how rapidly our views on personal equality and freedom are changing? Certainly Tony Award-winning playwright and performer Sarah Jones has, given the subject matter of her new play SELL/BUY/DATE in which she takes on the role of an instructor presenting an honest, moving and even humorous look at the complex and fascinating subject, all while preserving the full humanity of voices seldom heard in the theater. Directed by Carolyn Cantor and brimming with Jones' masterful, multiple, multicultural characterizations, SELL/BUY/DATE asks the audience to participate as students in a study hall as Jones describes the historical research she will be presenting, recorded with futuristic mind-sharing technology which allows people to truthfully share their opinions on human sexuality and what part it has played in their lives as society evolved into an "anything goes" mentality.