Hugo Armstrong News

Center Theatre Group's production of 'Amelie, A New Musical' at the Ahmanson Theatre opened December 16 and continues through January 15, 2017. Based on the motion picture written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant, 'Amelie, A New Musical' will have its Broadway premiere at the Walter Kerr Theatre, beginning performances on March 9, 2017 and opening April 3, 2017. Check out photos from the starry opening night below!

Center Theatre Group opened the Druid production of 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' this week. See all the fabulous photos from the event below.

Right at the start of Robert Schenkkan's mesmerizing Tony Award-winning play ALL THE WAY---now playing in an outstanding new production at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 2---actor Hugo Armstrong is introduced in what would become one of the most powerful, fiery acting performances I have witnessed on this very stage. Commanding, and yet remarkably relatable without ever traversing caricature, Armstrong deftly portrays one of American History's most complex leaders, our 36th President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Armstrong's powerhouse portrayal is the explosive epicenter of a richly dense, dialogue-heavy drama that recounts the rocky 11-month period leading up to Johnson's re-election as the leader of the world's most powerful nation. The play spends its entirety focusing on this contentious time which finds Johnson pushing for the passage of the Civl Rights Act---which itself incites a tug-of-war between his longtime pro-segregation Dixiecrat friends and the African-American community lobbying for rights that have been long overdue.

Samuel Beckett's classic ENDGAME opened last night, May 1, 2016, at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre. Directed by Alan Mandell, performances for 'Endgame' will continue through May 22. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, directed by Darko Tresnjak, featuring book & lyrics by Robert L. Freedman, music & lyrics by Steven Lutvak, and choreography by Peggy Hickey, opened at theAhmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.  Red carpet arrivals featured Jane Kaczmarek, Darren Criss, Shoshana Bean, Michael Arden, Obba Babatunde?, Jane Carr, Wilson Cruz, Jonathan Del Arco, Barrett Foa, Robert Freedman, Ivan Hernandez, Peggy Hickey, Jim Piddock, Marion Ross, Darko Tresnjak.  BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

Award-winning playwright Bathsheba Doran's heartfelt new work, THE MYSTERY OF LOVE & SEX, opened last night, February 21, 2016, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum and continues through March 20. BroadwayWorld has photos from the starry festivities below!

Center Theatre Group presents 'Sandbox@CTG: An Open Conversation with Playwright Will Eno,' in the rehearsal room at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for a special one-night-only DouglasPlus event, Monday, November 2, 2015, at 8 p.m.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' razor-edged new comedy APPROPRIATE opened this weekend on October 4 and continues through November 1, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' razor-edged new comedy APPROPRIATE opens this Sunday, October 4, and continues through November 1, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Nominees for the 2015 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards were announced on Thursday, September 24 on @ This Stage Magazine [ThisStage.la]. This year's Ovation Awards ceremony will take place Monday, November 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. The curtain will rise at7:30pm.

Rehearsals are underway for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' razor-edged new comedy APPROPRIATE opening October 4 and continuing through November 1, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Previews begin September 23. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast!

Members of the 'Pro99' movement of Actors' Equity Association have issued an open letter to AEA's newly elected president, Kate Shindle, in response to her victory and to her inaugural address as president of the national union for actors and stage managers. The open letter is signed by over 400 Equity members (listed below), including such notable names as Ed Asner, Francis Fisher, Sally Kirkland and Alfred Molina. The 'Pro99' movement formed in late 2014 in opposition to AEA's rollout of a new plan that will effectively force 'intimate theaters' in Los Angeles to pay Equity actors minimum wage, go 'non-union' or even close - despite an overwhelming vote against the plan by 66% of the Los Angeles membership on an advisory referendum. 'Pro99' members around the nation, who take their name from the current AEA '99 Seat Plan' that allows members to volunteer in smaller venues, oppose AEA's new promulgated plan. They are requesting that Equity leadership put a moratorium on the plan until local members' voices can be heard, and that the union work with its members to develop an alternative plan that will more realistically address the needs of the Los Angeles theater community.

Just in to BroadwayWorld! Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moisés Kaufman, began previews on July 15 and opens July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a stunning first look at highlights below!

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum last Sunday, July 26, 2015. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for BENT will continue through August 23.  Let's see what the critics had to say...

Martin Sherman's 'Bent,' a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened on July 26 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for 'Bent' will continue through August 23. (Previews started on July 15.) Check out a behind-the-scenes look below!

When Bent first premiered in 1979 its persecution of gays in Nazi Germany was a real eye opener. This was before the onset of AIDS...in the first scene, the depiction of Max's (Patrick Heusinger)one night stand and his gay relationship with a dancer could have been taken right out of contemporary West Hollywood were it not for the fact that we are told up front that the play takes place in 1934-36. The violence against gays that follows is staggering and horrifying. Deep down we knew that being homosexual had built-in problems and tensions, but did we really think about it so seriously? Did we really know how ugly it all was back then? And what about now? In spite of marriage equality in the US, in Kenya and in other areas of the world, the struggle for sexual freedom unbelievably goes on...to this very day. In a rare revival, Moises Kaufman brilliantly directs this new production of Bent at the Mark Taper Forum, and you'd be a fool to miss it. The cast is extraordinary, and Martin Sherman's poignant lyricism is simultaneously funny, touching and thoroughly riveting from moment to moment.

Martin Sherman's 'Bent,' a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, opened last night, July 26 at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for 'Bent' will continue through August 23. (Previews started on July 15.) Check out a look inside opening night below!

Martin Sherman's "Bent," a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will open at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum next Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. Directed by Moises Kaufman, performances for "Bent" will continue through August 23.

Martin Sherman's BENT, a groundbreaking drama about the rare power of love in the most inhumane conditions, will be directed by Moises Kaufman, began previews on July 15 and opens July 26 for a run through August 23, 2015, at the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum. BroadwayWorld has a stunning first look at the actors onstage below!