Returning to Hollywood by popular demand, platinum selling recording artist and Tony Award nominated actor Sam Harris brings his new holiday show Unwrapped! to Catalina Jazz Club for one performance only on Thursday, December 19, at 8:30pm, it was announced today by Chris Isaacson Presents and Catalina. Led by his longtime musical director Todd Schroeder, Harris will perform Broadway, pop, and holiday fare.
Actors Co-op Theatre Company's well-received production of the Los Angeles premiere and now Ovation Recommended production of MIRACLE ON 34th STREET: A Live Musical Radio Play, running through December 15, has added two Saturday matinees December 7 at 2:30 pm and December 14 at 2:30 pm.
Need an escape from your own family this holiday season? Don that Christmas sweater and join the Ryans 'round the tree at Straight Faced Lies, where secrets are buried deep in overstuffed stockings and the egg nog is spiked with dysfunction.
The venerated Los Angeles-based Lula Washington Dance Theatre returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to celebrate its milestone 40th anniversary with a dynamic and powerful program exploring social and humanitarian issues. The company performs for three nights only, from Thursday, January 30 through Saturday February 1, 2020, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The program, which includes three world premieres and a West Coast premiere, celebrates the dance company's past with some repertory gems and is also decidedly forward-looking, with new works from new voices, some of whom are a generation younger than co-founders Lula and Erwin Washington.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the company for A Thousand Splendid Suns, adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma and based on the 2007 New York Times bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini (Kite Runner). Set in 1992 in war-torn Afghanistan, this gripping story centers around a friendship that develops between two Afghan women following a tragedy. While facing insurmountable odds of a brutal and oppressive way of life, the two form an unlikely bond in a heart-rending fight for survival. Directed by Carey Perloff, A Thousand Splendid Suns runs January 17 - March 1, 2020 in the Kreeger Theater.
The Yiddishkayt Initiative (YI) (Avi Hoffman, Producing Artistic Director) and Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) have announced the full lineup of events for the inaugural YI Love New York YiddishFest. This selection of performances, screenings, and discussions centered around Jewish culture and Yiddish entertainment will play several New York City venues from December 21-29. Reservations are required for all events and can be made at www.yiddishfest.org.
The iconic and beloved singer returns to Feinstein's/54 Below with a holiday show featuring some of her favorite Christmas tunes and her fans choices from Broadway.
The Blank Theatre in Hollywood has announced it will partner with LA City College Theatre Academy to produce the 28th Annual Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) in June, 2020, and beyond. The partnership is a major milestone for The Blank and YPF and a huge part of the Festival's growth and expansion. The 90-year-old Theatre Academy has educated generations of artists, many of whom have gone on to great things. The Blank's Young Playwrights Festival is a nationwide competition that produces the work of 12 young writers each year. Since 1993, the Festival has produced 332 plays by playwrights 19 and younger from 34 states.
UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents Lea DeLaria Live In Concert on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020 at 8 p.m. at The Theatre at Ace Hotel. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and The Theatre at Ace Hotel box office.
Florida Theatrical Association (FTA), the non-profit presenter of Broadway in Orlando, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale has awarded $128,500 in grants and scholarships for the 2019-2020 season. This is a record number for the organization's 30 year history, up an additional $26,000 from the 2018-2019 season.
The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan will welcome a talented cast to its stage on Thursday, December 18 at 7:30 p.m. for a reading of Anna Ziegler's a?oeThe Wanderers,a?? a funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama. Ziegler is an award-winning playwright whose widely produced play, a?oePhotograph 51,a?? won London's 2016 WhatsOnStage award for best new play. It was also selected as a?oeBest of the Yeara?? play by The Telegraph and The Washington Post. The special reading of a?oeThe Wanderersa?? is a benefit for the JCC's Lambert Center for Arts and Ideas. Tickets cost $20 for members and $25 for the public. Visit jccmanhattan.org or call 646.505.5708 to reserve your seat.
a?oeAndy Warhol's Tomatoa?? Written by Vince Melocchi / Directed by Dana Jackson Through December 15, 2019, 2019 8pm Saturdays, 3pm Sundays Pacific Resident Theatre - 703 Venice Blvd. in Venice, CA
Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest presents Bye Bye Birdie over two weekends at Bainbridge Performing Arts this January. America's top performer Conrad Birdie is being drafted into the Army; how will he say 'Bye Bye' to his most devoted fan? This classic musical set in 1958 will feature an all-ages cast singing and dancing their way through a marvelous score with a rockabilly beat.
Jon Lawrence Rivera, Artistic Director of Playwrights' Arena – the first and oldest theater dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and producing original works written exclusively by Los Angeles playwrights – is thrilled to announce the cast for RED INK by Steven Leigh Morris, which includes Michelle Bonebright-Carter, Tracey A. Leigh, Leo Marks, Christopher Salazar, Jocelyn Towne, and Peter Van Norden.
It's December! Voting is now underway for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Ottawa Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! Now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatres and performers are recognized. Check out the first set of stats below.
The Groundlings' latest Friday/Saturday show GROUNDLINGS SKIS HAUS (opening December 6, 2019) will be helmed by Groundlings alumnae Karen Maruyama, who joined The Groundlings sometime in the 20th century. The ageless Karen had performed in innumerable sketches before earning her alumnae status. Aside from directing countless Groundlings shows (and its spin-off THE BLACK VERSION), Karen teaches all levels of The Groundlings Theatre & School, and at workshops in various Los Angeles venues. Karen most graciously managed to squeeze in some time to answer some of my grounded questions.
Three-time Tony Award winning Director Jack O'Brien presented Actor André De Shields, who celebrated the 50th year of his acting career in 2019 by scoring his first Tony Award, for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Hermes in Hadestown, with the 2019 Father George Moore Artistic Impact Award at Encore Ovation – A Celebration of Aging Through Art at Sardi's on November 18. O'Brien directed De Shields in The Full Monty and Impression on Broadway.
Encore Community Services has been providing care and service to the elderly of the Clinton/Times Square/Midtown communities for 43 years. Encore was founded in 1977 by Father George Moore, the pastor of St. Malachy's Church. He, along with Sisters Elizabeth Hasslet and Lillian McNamara, and members of the Broadway community (including The Shubert Organization, Sardi's and the theatrical unions) turned the old Actor's Chapel in the basement of St. Malachy's into the Encore Senior Center, where it still thrives today.