There are undoubtedly other productions worthy of merit in 2015 which I did not cover. This list is based only on what I saw and reviewed.
(alphabetical listings; Equity, Equity-waiver & Non-Equity productions are mixed)
(artists performing outside LA may be included in performance categories)
No set, costume, or technical awards. I leave that to the bigger awards and to the expertise of those who really know those fields inside out.
Musical Theatre West (MTW) opens its 2015-2016 season with Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning musical My Fair Lady, October 23 - November 8, 2015, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Tickets are now on sale, as well as season subscription packages (to include West Side Story, Sister Act, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) for subscription savings. For tickets, go to www.musical.org or call (562) 856-1999, ext. 4. Tickets start at $20. BroadwayWorld brings you a first look below!
Fourth time's the charm for Musical Theatre West as the award-winning regional theater company opens its 63rd season with the 1956 Lerner and Loewe Broadway classic MY FAIR LADY. Retaining the effervescent wit and jubilant spirit of the original, MTW's irresistibly beguiling, top-notch local revival---now on stage at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach, CA through November 8---is a thoroughly enjoyable production from start to finish. Filled with wit, charm, memorable tunes, and timeless, often uplifting humor, MY FAIR LADY is basically the comfort food of classic musicals... and MTW wisely sticks with this winning formula. After all... why mess with a near-perfect classic?
Called by many the perfect musical, My Fair Lady based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion has perhaps the wittiest and showiest debate between the sexes. Shaw despised marriage and loved to magnify human frailty, both female and male. And with Lerner and Loewe to create the book, music and lyrics, the result is a creation with music and story that flow together in ideal harmony. Even when it's at its abrasive best, it's funny; even when Professor Henry Higgins (Martin Kildare) is obnoxious, selfish and self-centered to the hilt, we cannot help but laugh with him...and love him. Despite what a man says about a woman, he cannot live without her, and vice versa. We were born to live in a love/hate relationship, to be at each other's throats and in the next second, rolling around in the hay. It's all a part of life and Shaw, and Lerner and Loewe displayed the ups and downs of romantic living better than anyone else...period. Now in an absolutely loverly production at MTW, Long Beach, the show plays through November 8 only.
Musical Theatre West (MTW) opens its 2015-2016 season with Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning musical MY FAIR LADY, October 23-November 8, 2015, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
Musical Theatre West (MTW) opens its 2015-2016 season with Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning musical My Fair Lady, October 23 - November 8, 2015, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Tickets are now on sale, as well as season subscription packages (to include West Side Story, Sister Act, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) for subscription savings. For tickets, go to www.musical.org or call (562) 856-1999, ext. 4. Tickets start at $20.
Musical Theatre West (MTW) opens its 2015-2016 season with Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning musical MY FAIR LADY, October 23-November 8, 2015, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.
The charming new regional production of the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh musical spectacular MARY POPPINS---currently playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through June 21---has found a lovely, practically perfect Poppins in Hart of Dixie's Brandi Burkhardt, who confidently channels the nanny we all love with her lovely singing voice and a pitch-perfect demeanor that's at times bold, at times cheeky, and altogether beguiling. As for the show itself, it's quite a delightful crowd-pleaser, filled with colorful first-rate visuals, spectacular dancing, festive songs, and an infectiously enthusiastic cast that tries its best to win over its audience. And, boy, they definitely do!
Disney's and Cameron Mackintosh's MARY POPPINS, a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film, with original music & lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman and book by Julian Fellowes, featuring new songs and additional music & lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, just opened at La Mirada Theatre and runs through June 21, 2015. Scroll down for photos from the musical's opening night festivities!
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's thoughtful, riveting character study GOOD PEOPLE continues at the La Mirada Theater for the Performing Arts through October 12. Buoyed by impressive performances, this excellent regional production of the Tony Award-winning play shines the spotlight on the class divide and examines the lengths some go to for self-preservation.
LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT opened the first production in its 2014-2015 season with the Tony Award-winning GOOD PEOPLE, written by David Lindsay-Abaire(Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers) and directed by Jeff Maynard(Broadway Bound, Boeing-Boeing). GOOD PEOPLE will feature Katie MacNichol, Anne Gee Byrd, Gigi Bermingham,Wyatt Fenner, Sophina Brown and Martin Kildare. Check out the pics from opening night below!
LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT present the first production in its 2014-2015 season with the Tony Award-winning GOOD PEOPLE, written by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers) and directed by Jeff Maynard (Broadway Bound, Boeing-Boeing). GOOD PEOPLE will feature Katie MacNichol, Anne Gee Byrd, Gigi Bermingham, Wyatt Fenner, Sophina Brown and Martin Kildare.
LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT present the first production in its 2014-2015 season with the Tony Award-winning GOOD PEOPLE, written by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Fuddy Meers) and directed by Jeff Maynard (Broadway Bound, Boeing-Boeing). GOOD PEOPLE will feature Katie MacNichol, Anne Gee Byrd, Gigi Bermingham, Wyatt Fenner, Sophina Brown and Martin Kildare.
Like a beautiful painting Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza is a true work of art. With discordant music not unlike that of Stephen Sondheim, written for a small chamber orchestra, feelings of love - from all kinds of people -fuel passionately. Without the right actresses to play the American mother and daughter visiting Florence, the play loses its fragility and inner beauty. This production could not be more divine. Patti Cohenour as Margaret Johnson and Erin Mackey as her decidedly different daughter make sparks fly with their glorious acting and singing.
Truly one of the most elegant, though underrated musicals of the new century, THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA---now on stage in a lovely new production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 23---follows the uneasy journey that a loving, though over-protective mother must embark on when her daughter discovers the wonderfully vulnerable world of adult love. Filled with a gorgeously sweeping score by Adam Guettel and an insanely talented cast, this Italian journey surely ranks as one of the best, most attractive musicals SCR has mounted in recent years.
An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by ElizaBeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs today, Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.
An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runsJan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage. Tickets are available online: www.scr.org. Check out photos of the cast below!
An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.
An Italian vacation, young love and a parent's heart-rending decision are all part of the award-winning Broadway hit, The Light in the Piazza, book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Kent Nicholson, The Light in the Piazza runs Jan. 24-Feb. 23 on SCR's Segerstrom Stage.
