Geffen Playhouse is now accepting applications for the 2019/2020 cycle of The Writers' Room playwrights group, it was announced today. Now entering its second year, the next group of playwrights chosen will begin their residency in September 2019. The Writers' Room initiative was first developed and launched in 2018 under the direction of Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Matt Shakman.
Geffen Playhouse today announced eight productions that will make up its 2019/2020 season, with one additional production to be announced. This marks the second lineup curated by Artistic Director Matt Shakman and the 24th season for the Los Angeles theater. The season will launch Tuesday, August 20, 2019 and run through Sunday, July 19, 2020.
The Cinema Audio Society Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing Motion Picture - Live Action was presented to the sound mixing team from “Bohemian Rhapsody” of John Casali, Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin, Niv Adiri, CAS, Mike Tehrani, Glen Gathard, Jemma Riley Tolch.
Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole/book by Colman Domingo & Patricia McGregor/music supervision:John McDaniel/directed by Patricia McGregor/Geffen/Gil Cates Theater/through March 17
A much anticipated musical in Los Angeles has been Lights Out: Nat 'King' Cole, which has received previous tryouts back east. Penned by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor, who also directs the piece, the show is supposedly based on real facts from Cole's life and includes most of his standard hits arranged by John McDaniel. Currently onstage at the Gil CatesTheater of the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, Lights Out is spectacular entertainment, especially from Dule Hill as Cole and Daniel J. Watts as Sammy Davis Jr. but its book is in need of some major retooling.
It is December 17, 1957 in the NBC Studio in Burbank where Cole's final 30 minute TV variety show is about to be presented live with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and Randy Van Horn Singers. Fifteen minutes to air time, Cole is in a deep state of depression over this being the final show. Why? He has millions of fans. Southern states have refused to continue paying for advertising on the show. Cole is a Negro, pure asnd simple. In spite of his fame, it's Lights Out for him. Guest star Peggy Lee has not shown up and friend Sammy Davis Jr. comes in to replace her with his amazing style of frantic comed
The Geffen Playhouse Unscripted podcast has been renewed for a third season with PodcastOne, the nation's largest advertiser-supported podcast network, it was announced today. In addition, Tony-nominated Rory O'Malley (Hamilton, The Book of Mormon) has joined the podcast series as its new full-time host.
Geffen Playhouse will present the West Coast premiere of The Niceties, it was announced today, written by Eleanor Burgess (Chill, Start Down) and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, Career Suicide). This world premiere production of The Niceties is currently running at McCarter Theatre Center in New Jersey, and replaces Antigone on the Geffen Playhouse 2018/2019 season lineup.
BroadwayHD, the world's premiere online streaming platform delivering more than 250 premium live productions to theatre fans globally, today announced that the Geffen Playhouse production of the Drama Desk Award-winning piece The Lion will debut on the platform December 6. The Lion will join Pulitzer Prize-winning show Long Day's Journey Into Night, and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Play Thom Pain, as the third title to stream on the platform, in partnership with Geffen Playhouse. The show is directed by Kevin S. Bright, an Emmy Award Winning Executive Producer of the hit television series Friends and produced by Gil Cates Jr (Executive Director of Geffen Playhouse) and Eva Price (Tony-Winning Broadway Producer), and Executive Produced by Bright, Candice Abela Mikati and Fouad Mikati.
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
Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays (and his many characters) will grace the Gil Cates Theatre stage of the Geffen Playhouse for his one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL, already in previews, with opening night set for November 7, 2018. I had the chance to pick Jefferson's witty mind for some very fun answers to my semi-serious inquiries.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., founding partner of The MirRam Group and founding president of the Hispanic Federation, are bringing their Puerto Rico relief efforts to Los Angeles! The father and son duo will participate in an intimate conversation regarding Puerto Rico's progress towards long-term recovery from the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria and Hamilton's upcoming limited run in Puerto Rico, it was announced today.
The world premiere adaption of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol at Geffen Playhouse will extend for one week and run through December 9, it was announced today. 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.
Multi-hyphenate Steven Spielberg will receive the Cinema Audio Society Filmmaker Award at the 55th Annual CAS Awards on February 16th, at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown.
More than $100,000 was raised at the exclusive one-night-only reading of Terms of Endearment presented by Berlanti Productions and Jessica Queller at the Geffen Playhouse, it was announced today. All proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Stand Up To Cancer and Geffen Playhouse's New Play Development Program.
Have you ever wished for one more chance to say something to someone who has passed away suddenly? What if there was an organization that could arrange for messages to be delivered to those who have died by pairing you up with someone terminally ill who agrees to deliver that message once they have passed on? Would you do it? And what if it was extraordinarily expensive with no way of knowing if your message was ever received? That is the simple magical premise of THE UNTRANSLATABLE SECRETS OF NIKKI CORONA, a new play written by Obie Award-winning playwright Jose Rivera, premiering at the Geffen Playhouse through October 7.
Berlanti Productions and Jessica Queller will present an exclusive one-night-only reading of Terms of Endearment at the Geffen Playhouse, it was announced today. All proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Stand Up To Cancer and Geffen Playhouse's New Play Development Program.
Geffen Playhouse today announced the full cast for its production of Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning Jose Rivera's (Motorcycle Diaries, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot) The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona, directed by Obie Award- and Drama Desk Award-winning Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Cost of Living). This world premiere marks the launch of Artistic Director Matt Shakman's inaugural season for Geffen Playhouse.
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.
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.