Max Wagner News

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance presents the premiere of Heidi Rodewald's A Lifesaving Manual on Saturday, May 7 at 6 p.m. PT. A Lifesaving Manual is a multimedia presentation that will be available for free on the CAP UCLA Online channel.

It’s the 1950s with a strict principal, a pretty girl named Toffee, and a glowing leading man. Literally. When the pretty girl’s family forces her to cut off her relationship with the “bad boy,” he drives his motorcycle to the local nuclear waste dump.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Weimar Republic: Germany 1918-1933, through two wide-ranging and dramatic programs led by Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, explores the musical culture of Germany's politically charged Weimar era. These concerts are given context by Weimar Variations, a collection of ancillary events curated by Stephanie Barron and Nana Bahlmann.

Moliere in the Park, presented in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, has announced its inaugural season.

Due to popular demand, Haven Theatre, in association with About Face Theatre, announces one additional week of performances of is hit Midwest premiere musical THE TOTAL BENT

Haven Theatre, in association with About Face Theatre, presents the Midwest premiere of THE TOTAL BENT, a dynamic new rock show about fathers, sons, social upheaval and the choice between salvation and selling out.

Haven Theatre, in association with About Face Theatre, presents the Midwest premiere of THE TOTAL BENT, a dynamic new rock show about fathers, sons, social upheaval and the choice between salvation and selling out.

Haven Theatre, in association with About Face Theatre, is pleased to announce casting for its Midwest premiere of THE TOTAL BENT, featuring text by Stew and music and lyrics by Stew and Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) and directed by Jeff Award-winning director Lili-Anne Brown.

Composer Heidi Rodewald, known for her collaborations with Stew on Passing Strange and The Total Bent, strikes out on her own in The Good Swimmer, a "pop requiem" that addresses issues of war, heroism, sacrifice, loss, and idealism. The moody, multi-layered song-cycle for guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, woodwinds, strings, drums, and vocals is performed by a nine-piece band led by singer David Driver. Set in the early days of the Vietnam War among a group of lifeguards, Donna Di Novelli's lyrics are a radical recontextualization of found texts, including a defunct lifesaving manual. A cast of young singers in their teens and early 20s at the start of their professional careers-Jeremy Weiss, Sophia Byrd, Naseer Sleets, Joey LaPlante, Luke Bob Robinson, Papa Holt, and Kennedy Kanagawa-vividly conveys the sense of young people being thrust into a historical moment they have no control of. Their shattering experience brings the audience to a galvanizing realization: we truly honor our fallen soldiers only when we defy the political drumbeat of a senseless war.  

STEW & THE NEGRO PROBLEM - the powerhouse indie rock band fronted by longtime collaborators Stew and Heidi Rodewald - will perform a one-night-only concert at THE TOTAL BENT/NATIVE SONG DOUBLE RECORD RELEASE PARTY, featuring selections from the duo's two most recent recordings, on Monday, June 18 at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker St.) in Manhattan.  Doors open at 7 pm for the concert beginning at 8 pm.

Adrienne Visnic's solo cabaret 'Who. What. Wear.' will be making it's West Coast debut at the prestigious Rockwell Table & Stage on Sunday, June 3rd at 8pm! Her previous solo cabaret, Sunny Side Up was nominated for a Broadway World Best Cabaret Female Artist.

Haven Theatre is pleased to announce its 2018-19 Season, kicking off this fall with its fourth consecutive DIRECTOR'S HAVEN, three short plays showcasing the talents of early career directors. Helming this year's productions are Charlotte Drover, Anna Sung-En Medill and Dani Wieder.

The Wilma Theater, in association with Evamere Entertainment, presents Stew and Heidi Rodewald's Tony Award-winning musical in this major Philadelphia revival.

The Wilma Theater, in association with Evamere Entertainment, presents Stew and Heidi Rodewald's Tony Award-winning musical in this major Philadelphia revival.

The west coast premiere of THE VIEW UPSTAIRS bursts with a high-energied hodge-podge of some great vocals, charming performances and wonderfully executed choreography. Playwright Max Vernon, through the eyes of a present-day electronically dependent fashion designer, retells the stories of victims of a fire by arson at the gay bar UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans back in June of 1973.

Haven Theatre has announced two of the three productions featured in its upcoming 2017-18 Season, including one world premiere - plus an exciting Midwest premiere already set for the company's 2018-19 Season.

JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS receives a first-rate mounting with a cast of powerful singer/actors, backed by a nimble four-piece musical ensemble, and directed and staged with ingenuity of movement that complement the Jacques Brel tales being performed. These Jacques Brel songs serve as little nuggets, little gems of short stories. Dan Fishbach ably directs this revival of Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, stringing these 24 gems so nicely together.

Naughty, funny, dark and romantic: Odyssey Theatre Ensemble presents a revival of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, the off-Broadway hit by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman that introduced American audiences to the Belgian singer-songwriter known as the "Bob Dylan of France." Director Dan Fishbach and musical director Anthony Lucca helm Jacques Brel… for a July 1 opening at the Odyssey, where it will continue through Aug. 27.

With the names of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul  (Oscar winners for La La Land and Tony Award frontrunners for this year's DEAR EVAN HANSEN) attached to DOGFIGHT, one might have high expectations while awaiting the opening notes to sound at The Hudson Mainstage. DOGFIGHT consistently scores with topnotch singing, dancing and musical accompaniment throughout. Nicci Claspell steals the entire show as Rose.

Selda and Derek return to Los Angeles' Rockwell: Table & Stage with featuring some of LA's TOP TALENT on Monday, April 24th with TRICOASTAL: The Songs of Selda & Derek...and friends.