Ahmanson Theatre News

Sterling's Upstairs at The Federal has set Sunday, December 9 as auditions for the 7th consecutive year of LA's Next Great Stage Star®, it was announced today by producers Michael Sterling and Tony Monsour of Michael Sterling & Associates in Los Angeles, CA. www.msapr.net. For the second consecutive year - author, actress, concert headliner, and arts philanthropist Barbara Van Orden joins Sterling and Monsour by gifting LA's Next Great Stage Star® with the Barbara Van Orden Grant which provides invaluable assistance to production of the annual competition.

The new musical Kinky Boots, from four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein (book) and Grammy Award-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper (Music & Lyrics), will begin preview performances on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) on Tuesday, March 5, 2013, with an official opening night set for Thursday, April 4, 2013. In anticipation of the musical's big debut, a new Kinky Boots billboard just went up in Times Square. Click below to watch a time-lapse video of the installation!

Rachel York stars in "Anything Goes" with Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter, Original book by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton, and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse and New book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, will play Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre, beginning previews tonight, November 27, opening on November 28 and running through January 6, 2013. The show is directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall.

Voting is now underway for the Los Angeles Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

The Fred Ebb Foundation (Mitchell Bernard, Trustee) in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the eighth annual Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters to Sam Willmott. The award, named in honor of the late award-winning lyricist Fred Ebb, will be presented by David Hyde Pierce tonight, November 26th from 6-8pm at a by-invitation-only ceremony in the Penthouse Lobby of The American Airlines Theater.

There is a casting change in The Second City's "A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!" presented at the Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre. Ron West will join the cast to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Joe Flaherty was originally announced in that role but needed to leave the production for personal reasons. The twisted telling of Charles Dickens' holiday classic will open November 29 and continue through December 30, 2012. Previews begin tonight, November 24.

The Blank Theatre's annual holiday production of "The Santaland Diaries" by David Sedaris, now in its fourth year, again stars Paolo Andino and is directed by Michael Matthews. "Santaland" began preview performances on Friday, November 16, and opening night is set for tonight, November 24 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood.

ARTINFO's Patrick Pacheco and NY1 theater reporter Frank DiLella sat down with architect and producer David Rockwell to talk about his most recent set designs for the Broadway musicals Kinky Boots and the upcoming Houdini. Watch the interview below! Rockwell has also designed sets for Broadway's Dead Accounts, Elf, The Normal Heart, Catch Me If You Can, A Free Man Of Color, Legally Blonde, Hairspray, All Shook Up, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Rocky Horror Show.

Complete casting has just been announced for the new production of RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA, which begins performances in January on Broadway. RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA will perform at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway at 53rd St).

The new Broadway revival of "Anything Goes," Cole Porter's timeless classic musical theatre masterpiece, opens at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre on November 28, 2012 at 8 p.m., and continues through January 6, 2013. A preview performance will take place on November 27.

The Second City cast has put together a series of short chats, interviews and goofing-around videos for A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!, opening at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre on November 29th (previews begin on November 24th) and continuing through December 30th, 2012. Watch all 10 below!

Voting is now underway for the Los Angeles Awards and continues until December 31, 2012. Winners will be announced in early January. Check out the live standings below!

Noted television personality, author and political gadfly Stephen Colbert has an issue with Charles Dickens over The Second City's "A Christmas Carol: Twist Your Dickens!" The two writers of the new holiday classic, Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort, are former and current writers, respectively, of "The Colbert Report."

The Blank Theatre's annual holiday production of "The Santaland Diaries" by David Sedaris, now in its fourth year, will again star Paolo Andino and be directed by Michael Matthews. "Santaland" begins preview performances tonight, November 16, and opening night is set for Saturday, November 24 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood.

The LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the 2012 season, were presented last night, November 12, at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. Check out photos from inside the ceremony below!