Gail Johnston

Theatre 40’s hit immersive drama The Manor- Murder and Madness at Greystone returns for its nineteenth season at the Greystone Mansion January 18, 2024.  Martin Thompson directs the cast of Darby Hinton, Eric Keitel, Daniel Leslie, Carol Potter, Nathalie Rudolph, David Hunt Stafford, Amy Tolsky, John Combs, Katyana Rocker-Cook, Gail Johnston, Kristin Towers-Rowles and Peter Mastine. John managed to carve out some time to answer a few of my queries.

The Manor- Murder and Madness at Greystone is by now a Los Angeles/Beverly Hills institution. The play, returning for a nineteenth season, surpassed its 200th performance in 2014. This will mark its first engagement since 2020.

Theatre 40 will present the staged reading of a new play, Basement Follies, on Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. The play is written and directed by Theatre 40 company member David Datz.

Theatre 40 will present a play reading via Zoom on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. PST. The new play is Person in the Basement, written and directed by Theatre 40 company member David Datz. His cast includes Harry Herman, Gail Johnston, Charlotte Williams, David Westbay and Meghan Lloyd.

This universally appealing play is bound to be a hit thanks to the sure-fire comedic direction by Howard Storm, an A-List comedian early in his career who subsequently became one of the busiest directors of television comedy, on a single a?oehome during renovationsa?? set by Jeff G. Rack which represents the homes of all 3 couples, often simultaneously without a bit of confusion as to who is where with whom. It's an amazing feat of direction, performed to perfection by a talented cast.

Renovations for Six has its U.S. Premiere at Theatre 40, in the Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90212, July 18- August 18, 2019. Thurs.- Sat. at 8:00, Sun. at 2:00. The performance on Friday, July 19 will begin at 7 p.m.

Norm Foster has written over sixty plays which have been produced all over the world. Selections from this most-produced Canadian playwright have been included at Theatre 40 for many years, but this time the group is excited to present the U.S. Premiere of his appropriately titled new play SCREWBALL COMEDY which pays homage to this classic genre of entertainment. Emerging in the 1930s, screwball comedies were a wild new strain of fast-talking farces involving battles of the sexes and a world forever on the brink of chaos. The elements included a male and female who may be adversarial at first but are ultimately ideal for each other. Think of the classic films It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby and My Man Godfrey during which some farcical or slapstick action occurs, including snappy patter and crackling dialogue with bits of off-color humor thrown in, with the plot ultimately leading to the female gaining the upper hand in the relationship.

As backstage comedies go, Opening Night is not on a par with the farcical Noises Off or with the flamboyant My Favorite Year, but it is a sweet play just the same with uber belly laughs and miles of heart. Now onstage at Theatre 40, a fine cast and steady direction make the play within a play Opening Night a definite worth see through June 16.