Ahmanson Theatre News

Broadway leads Nicolas Dromard (Mary Poppins), Carrie Manolakos (Mamma Mia) and Leah Horowitz (Follies) will join 15 other Broadway and Hollywood performers in helping to kick off the inaugural season of the Transcendence Theatre Company's Broadway Under The Stars in Jack London State Park concert series this summer in Sonoma, California tomorrow, July 14. Check out the stars in rehearsal in the photos below!

STATE OF THE ARTS (SOTA), the critically acclaimed weekly performing arts radio series which previously, since its May 31, 2010 premiere, aired live on Mondays from 4:00 - 4:50 pm PST on the LATalkRadio.com Network, is moving its weekly broadcast to Thursdays beginning Thursday, July 19, 2012, it was announced today by State of the Arts co-producer/co-hosts and theatre professionals MICHAEL STERLING & PAUL STROILI. Guests on July 19 will include TV, Broadway star and Tony Award nominee CHRISTOPHER SIEBER (Shrek The Musical, and co-star with George Hamilton in the U.S. National Tour of La Cage Aux Folles; and Film and Television star ESAI MORALES (La Bamba, NYPD Blue, Caprica - Syfy TV's prequel to the series Battlestar Galactica).

Shawn 'JAY Z' Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson and The National Theatre of Great Britain present the return of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Broadway and National Theatre of Great Britain production of Fela!, which just opened last night, July 12, for a limited run of 32 performances only at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street). BroadwayWorld was there for the big openeing night, and we bring you photos from the first curtain call below!

Shawn 'JAY Z' Carter, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Ruth & Stephen Hendel, Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson and The National Theatre of Great Britain present the return of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Broadway and National Theatre of Great Britain production of Fela!, which just opened last night, July 12, for a limited run of 32 performances only at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street). BroadwayWorld was there for the big openeing night, and we bring you photos from the star-studded arrivals below!

Winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards Victoria Clark will perform Broadway standards, contemporary fare, and several art songs live in concert at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival on the Main Stage on Monday, July 30 at 7:30pm.

Universal Pictures Stage Productions/Glenn Ross, Beacon Communications/Armyan Bernstein and Charlie Lyons and Executive Producers Kristin Caskey and Mike Isaacson previously announced that the new musical comedy Bring It On: The Musical would open on Broadway on Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at The St. James Theatre (246 W. 44th Street) direct from a 13-city National Tour, for a 12-week limited engagement through Sunday, October 7, 2012. Previews begin tonight, Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 8pm.

Tickets are on sale now for "Radiate" featuring Jomama Jones at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The off-Broadway smash hit show is coming to Los Angeles for two nights only in a workshop presentation as part of DouglasPlus programming, on August 3 and 4, 2012, at 8 p.m.

Michael Riedel reports in today's The New York Post that 'It appears that Jujamcyn's got "Kinky Boots" and will put it in the Al Hirschfeld Theatre next spring following an out-of-town tryout in Chicago in the fall. Jujamcyn's co-producer will be Hal Luftig, who's on a roll with the hit revival of Evita.'

Broadway stars Nicolas Dromard (Mary Poppins), Carrie Manolakos (Mamma Mia) and Leah Horowitz (Follies) will join 15 other Broadway and Hollywood performers to launch Transcendence Theatre Company's opening Broadway Under The Stars concert entitled Dream The Impossible Dream.

The West Coast premiere of The National Theatre production of War Horse opened on June 29 at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Previews began June 14, and performances for the powerful drama will continue through July 29, 2012 before embarking on a national tour that will hit 30 U.S. cities during the 2012-2013 season. Go inside opening night on the star-studded red carpet in the video below!

Pittsburgh CLO will present Fiddler on the Roof, July 13-22 at the Benedum Center. This classic tale is filled with 'memorable music, rousing dances and a touch of human wisdom.'

Storytelling on stage is at its theatrical best when all the technical elements utilized blend together so smoothly that you take for granted that they are there at all. Such is the case with the amazing War Horse, based on a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo in which a young boy Albert (Andrew Veenstra) attempts to groom his foal Joey to adulthood as a farm horse, only to lose him to the ravages of World War I in England and France. Boy gets horse, boy falls in love with horse, boy loses horse, but... If you love animals and understand and respect what transpires deepdown between man and beast, you will love War Horse, as, in spite of the war horrors depicted, love is at the very core and champions above all else. Now in its US tour, War Horse is fortunately with us at the Ahmanson through July 29 only, and this beautiful production must not be missed.

"War Horse," like any fine stallion, has a award winning pedigree, and has won the trifecta in terms of the mediums in which it's tale has been told. It began as a novel 28 years ago, was staged as a play at the National Theatre in London 5 years ago, and last year received a motion picture adaptation courtesy of Steven Spielberg. On Friday, it finally made its Los Angeles theatre debut, with the premiere of the National Tour at LA's Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre.

The West Coast premiere of The National Theatre production of War Horse opened yesterday at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Performances for the powerful drama will continue through July 29, 2012. View red carpet photos below!

Producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig have announced the full cast and creative team for the World Premiere of Kinky Boots, the new musical that brings together four-time Tony® Award-winner Harvey Fierstein (Book) and Grammy® Award-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper (Music & Lyrics). Directed and choreographed by Tony® Award-winner Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots will play the Bank of America Theatre (18 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL) beginning October 2 through November 4, 2012, in advance of a Broadway opening.

The West Coast premiere of The National Theatre production of War Horse opens tonight, June 29 at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Previews began June 14, and performances for the powerful drama will continue through July 29, 2012 before embarking on a national tour that will hit 30 U.S. cities during the 2012-2013 season. The winner of five 2011 Tony® Awards, War Horse has been seen by over 2 million people worldwide and is currently playing at New York's Lincoln Center Theater, in London's West End, and at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre. Future productions of War Horse are planned for Australia, Berlin and South Africa, as well as a UK Tour. Want to go behind the scenes of the stunning production? Click below!

As previously reported, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 is headed to the West End, with an opening night set for October 16 at the Manchester Opera House. The Daily Mail announces today that Jackie Clune will play 'Violet,' alongside Bonnie Langford as 'Roz,' Natalie Casey as 'Judy,' Ben Richards as 'Franklin Hart' and Amy Lennox as 'Doralee.'

Victoria Clark, Harriet Harris, Ann Harada and Peter Bartlett will join Laura Osnes as Cinderella and Santino Fontana as the Prince in a workshop of the new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CINDERELLA August 2nd and 3rd in New York, it has been announced by the musical's producer Center Theatre Group in association with Robyn Goodman, Stephen Kocis and Jill Furman.

The final two weeks of performances begin today for Roundabout Theatre Company's Tony Award-winning production of Anything Goes. Scheduled to run through August 5th, the musical must end on Sunday, July 8th, 2012. Directed & choreographed by 2011 Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, Anything Goes is playing on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (124 West 43rd Street).

Brimmer Street Theatre Company has announced it will present the world premiere of All Your Hard Work by Miles Brandman, directed by Michael Matthews, at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood, with performances beginning on Thursday, July 19. Opening night is set for Saturday, July 21 at 8:00. All Your Hard Work will play a strictly limited engagement through August 25.