David Allen News

Broadway in the H.O.O.D will debut the Pulitzer Prize-winning whodunit, A Soldier's Play at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts' Troesh Theatre January 11, 2019 - January 13, 2019 for four dynamic performances.

The Marsh Berkeley has announced that due to popular demand it has scheduled an extended run of Lisa Rothman's hit show, Dragon in the Drop-Off Lane. This hilarious and cautionary tale describes what happens when Rothman's Oakland-raised kids venture into the fairytale world of Marin, where all the children seem to know how to sew, speak in a "Crystal Cave whisper," and decorate their (vegan) gingerbread men with stevia icing, carob chips, and unsweetened coconut flakes. Of course, no fairytale would be complete without a fairy godmother to help Rothman reckon with her parenting choices.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is excited to announce three new Jazz Residency teams for the 2018-19 season: David Allen, Raquel Salas Rivera, and Diane Monroe; Dan Blacksberg with Yosef Goldman; and Dariel Peniazek., Maya Peniazek, and Ariacne Trujillo. Collaborating with the Kimmel Center throughout winter and spring, each team will work to create a new project that is relevant and engaging to the Philadelphia community. In the residency's sixth consecutive year, all three of these new works will focus on how the United States is coming to terms with the question of identity and these artists' struggles to define belonging.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Indianapolis Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Those who have happily misspent hours in the universe of role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons), as well as n00bs (newbies), former geeks, parents of geeks, and anyone who has ever attended high school will find resonance in SHE KILLS MONSTERS, the comic romp by award-winning playwright Qui Nguyen (Vietgone)presented by Foothill Theatre Arts. In this rollicking drama Agnes, born without a single nerd cell in her body, finds herself ven­­turing into the imaginary world of homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, evil cheerleaders, and warrior maidens that was her geeky sibling's role-playing refuge. This heart-pounding homage to D&D, teen alienation, love and loss creates a winning comic drama called, "Breathtaking. Hilarious, heart-wrenching,' by Broadway World.  

Iconotheatrix presents [title of show] November 1-11, 2018 at Obsidian Theater. In [title of show], Jeff and Hunter, two struggling writers, hear about a new musical theatre festival. However, the deadline for submissions is a mere three weeks away. With nothing to lose, the pair decides to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi and Larry on the eighty-eights. With the cast in place, Jeff and Hunter begin a conversation about what to write about.

Iconotheatrix presents [title of show] November 1-11, 2018 at Obsidian Theater. In [title of show], Jeff and Hunter, two struggling writers, hear about a new musical theatre festival. However, the deadline for submissions is a mere three weeks away. With nothing to lose, the pair decides to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi and Larry on the eighty-eights. With the cast in place, Jeff and Hunter begin a conversation about what to write about.

Those who have happily misspent hours in the universe of role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons), as well as n00bs (newbies), former geeks, parents of geeks, and anyone who has ever attended high school will find resonance in SHE KILLS MONSTERS, the comic romp by award-winning playwright Qui Nguyen (Vietgone)presented by Foothill Theatre Arts.

Los Altos Hills will be alive with The Sound of Music this summer, when multi-award winning Foothill Music Theatre presents the Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award-winning musical. This beloved musical, set in Austria in 1938, follows novice Maria Rainer who becomes the governess for the von Trapp family, capturing the hearts of the seven children and their father, a widowed naval captain. As the Nazis occupy Austria, the family is forced make decisions which forever change their lives, fleeing their home in pursuit of freedom. Director Milissa Carey, music director William Liberatore, and choreographers Brett and C.J. Blankenship breathe new life into this classic tale of hope, love, and family. The Sound of Music will play July 19- August 5, 2018(press opening: July 20) at the Smithwick Theatre, I-280 & El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. Tickets ($12 - $32) and information can be found at www.foothill.edu/theatre or by phone at (650) 949-7360.    

Aurora Theatre Company will add seven performances to its Bay Area premiere of DRY POWDER, the razor-sharp and whip-smart comedy that skewers the world of high finance by Sarah Burgess.

George M. Cohan has been attributed to being the father of the American Musical, whose works are the very roots of Broadway and musical theater that we know today. Without his numerous contributions to the American theater, Broadway as we all know it probably wouldn't even exist. This is the idea that's drummed rather loudly and patriotically by the ending of YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, the 2004 stage musical now in the midst of its Southern California regional premiere via Musical Theatre West. A fairly entertaining, if inescapably old-fashioned jukebox musical that paints rather broad strokes rather than giving a deep dive into Cohan's life story, this new production continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through July 22, 2018.

Previous attempts have been made to bring George M. Cohan's life to the stage. None is remembered, however, as much as the 1942 film starring James Cagney. Book writer David Armstrong has constructed a much more realistic account of Yankee Doodle Dandy, tryimg to avoid the traps of Hollywood glamor and tinsel, currently onstage at MTW Long Beach at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts through July 22 In spite of the fantastic cast and sturdy direction and scintillating choreography by James Rocco, it turns in a rather weak account of the father of the American musical comedy (1878-1942). Not that you shouldn't see it; go for the cast and the sheer entertainment value of the music alone that set the scene for Rodgers nd Hammerstein and others to follow.

The Council of Spiritual Practices founder Robert Jesse will join actor Adam Strauss for an insightful free talkback "Psychedelics and Spirituality in the 21st Century" following the Friday, June 29 8:00pm performance of The Mushroom Cure at The Marsh Berkeley. Through CSP, Jesse was instrumental in forming the psilocybin research team at the Johns Hopkins University, and he is one of its co-investigators.

Celebrate America and the beginnings of our country's musical theatre history with a new look at the life of George M. Cohan in the Southern California premiere of Musical Theatre West's (MTW) production of Yankee Doodle Dandy! at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center July 6-22, 2018.  For tickets go to www.musical.org, call (562) 856-1999 ext. 4 or visit the MTW Ticket Office.  Tickets start at $20.

The co-producers behind The Kilbanes' Weightless, a hit rock opera-retelling of Ovid's Metamorphoses, as well as New York's Obie Award-winning The Tricky Part and Lucille Lortel Award-winning All the Rage, return to San Francisco with a new production of A Lesson From Aloes, to be presented at Z Below. Written by internationally-acclaimed playwright Athol Fugard and directed by Obie Award winner Timothy Near, this inventive revival will feature a star-studded cast of regional theatre's finest actors. A Lesson From Aloes will be presented June 3 - 29, 2018 (press opening: Thursday, June 7, 2018) with performances 7:30pm Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2pm Sundays at Z Below, 470 Florida Street, San Francisco. Tickets ($25-$50) and information can be found at www.alessonfromaloes.com or by phone at 415-626-0453.

Los Altos Hills will be alive with The Sound of Music this summer, when multi-award winning Foothill Music Theatre presents the Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award-winning musical. This beloved musical, set in Austria in 1938, follows novice Maria Rainer who becomes the governess for the von Trapp family, capturing the hearts of the seven children and their father, a widowed naval captain. As the Nazis occupy Austria, the family is forced make decisions which forever change their lives, fleeing their home in pursuit of freedom.

On Wednesday May 11th, 2018 Evolution Theatre Company hosted a staged reading of Charles Busch's The Lady In Question to benefit their 2018 Season. A freewheeling satire of patriotic 1940s thrillers. A glamorous concert pianist is challenged when a handsome American professor engages her aid in rescuing his mother from a Nazi prison. The reading was be held in the Schottenstein Property Group Pavilion of the Columbus Museum of Art.

Iconotheatrix will present their production of Avenue Q- School Edition March 22-31, 2018 at Obsidian Theater. Winner of the Tony 'Triple Crown' for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, Avenue Q- School Edition is part flesh, part felt and packed with heart. The laugh-out-loud musical tells the timeless story of a recent college grad named Princeton, who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way out on Avenue Q. He soon discovers that, although the residents seem nice, it's clear that this is not your ordinary neighborhood. Together, Princeton and his new-found friends struggle to find jobs, dates and their ever-elusive purpose in life. Filled with gut-busting humor and a delightfully catchy score, not to mention puppets, Avenue Q- School Edition is a truly unique show that has quickly become a favorite for audiences everywhere.

The Marsh, acclaimed as a premier venue for solo shows and new works, welcomes a collaboration between lauded playwright Lynne Kaufman and award-winning director Robert Kelley with Two Minds. Returning to The Marsh after her hit run of Acid Test: The Many Incarnations of Ram Dass, Kaufman's new drama re-envisions the relationship between two men who changed the way people think. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky's groundbreaking research on how people make decisions won the brilliant Israeli psychologists a Nobel Prize and a McArthur Genius Award. The pair was intellectually so aligned they could finish each other's sentences, but emotionally their differences tore them apart. Two Minds weaves together the story of their unique partnership as well as their troubled friendship.

The 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, revealed its feature film lineup championing the discovery of emerging voices and celebrating new work from established filmmaking talent. To close the Festival, Tribeca will World Premiere The Fourth Estate, from Oscar®-nominated director Liz Garbus, which follows The New York Times' coverage of the Trump administration's first year. The Centerpiece Gala will be the World Premiere of Drake Doremus' sci-fi romance Zoe starring Ewan McGregor, Lea Seydoux, Rashida Jones, and Theo James. The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 18-29.