Paul Crewes News

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and National Sawdust Projects, the producing arm of Brooklyn's acclaimed National Sawdust, present (M)iyamoto is Black Enough, a collaborative musical and spoken word exploration of meaning and conversation based on the controversy surrounding Ariana Miyamoto, the biracial Miss Universe Japan 2015 winner who weathered backlash for her lack of "pure" parentage - that she was not "Japanese enough" - on Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15, 2019, 8:00 pm, in the Lovelace Studio Theater at The Wallis.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents Tony and triple Grammy Award-winning jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater in her Wallis debut with a tribute to the rich R&B tradition of Memphis - the city of her birth - on Saturday, March 23, 2019, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The NEA Jazz Master and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, joined by the Memphis Soulphony, returns to her roots to bring the sultry Memphis sound to Los Angeleswith Memphis…Yes I'm Ready, based on her acclaimed album of the same title recorded at Memphis' famed Royal Studios in 2016.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of The Wallis' production of WITNESS UGANDA, a groundbreaking documentary musical by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews starring twelve-time Grammy nominee Ledisi, Jamar Williams (Wild Goose Dreams), Amber Iman (Hamilton) and Emma Hunton (Wicked), directed by Matthews with music direction by Gould, from Tuesday, February 5 - Sunday, February 24, 2019, in The Wallis's Lovelace Studio Theater. After a successful Off-Broadway run, this new and revised production documents the story of a man battling to find his place in a world full of injustice and inhumanity.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of The Wallis' production of WITNESS UGANDA, a groundbreaking documentary musical by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews starring twelve-time Grammy nominee Ledisi, Jamar Williams (Wild Goose Dreams), Amber Iman (Hamilton) and Emma Hunton (Wicked), directed by Matthews with music direction by Gould, from Tuesday, February 5 - Sunday, February 24, 2019, in The Wallis's Lovelace Studio Theater. After a successful Off-Broadway run, this new and revised production documents the story of a man battling to find his place in a world full of injustice and inhumanity.

Kaleidoscope, Los Angeles's preeminent conductorless chamber orchestra, makes its Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts debut with a program featuring pianist Irene Kim on Prokovief's sublimely eclectic "Piano Concerto No. 3," Beethoven's iconic "Symphony No. 5" and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw's intriguing "Entr'acte" on Saturday, February 23, 2019, 7:30 pm, at The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater.

PigPen Theatre Co.'s THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON, a fantastical song-filled fable for all ages, directed by Stuart Carden and PigPen Theatre Co., opens at the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts on Saturday, March 2 and continues through Sunday, March 17, 2019, in The Wallis's Bram Goldsmith Theater.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Renee Taylor's MY LIFE ON A DIET, the award-winning, autobiographical comedy written by Taylor and Joseph Bologna, which opens its 12 performance, limited engagement on Friday, April 5 and continues through Sunday, April 14, 2019, in The Wallis's Bram Goldsmith Theater.

The 2019 ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Workshop, in partnership with Universal Theatrical Group (UTG) and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis), returns to The Wallis' Beverly Hills campus in May marking the fourth consecutive year for this creative collaboration. The acclaimed workshop series gives participating composers and lyricists the rare opportunity to present selections from original musical works-in-progress for professional critique.

Ate9, one of Los Angeles' most visceral and probing dance companies, makes its Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts debut with two gripping works by Artistic Director/Choreographer Danielle Agami, including the world premiere of a blind LAdy, featuring the live vocals of Spanish indie-pop singer/songwriter Lourdes Hernandez (a.k.a. Russian Red), on Friday, February 15 and Saturday, February 16, 2019, at 7:30 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of The Wallis' production of WITNESS UGANDA,  a groundbreaking documentary musical by Matt Gould and Griffin Matthews starring twelve-time Grammy nominee Ledisi, Jamar Williams (Wild Goose Dreams), Amber Iman (Hamilton) andEmma Hunton (Wicked), directed by Matthews with music direction by Gould, from Tuesday, February 5 - Sunday, February 24, 2019, in The Wallis's Lovelace Studio Theater. After a successful Off-Broadway run, this new and revised production documents the story of a man battling to find his place in a world full of injustice and inhumanity.   

The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of The Wallis' production of WITNESS UGANDA

The Wallis Studio Ensemble presents S.O.S.,  an original multi-media physical theatre work about love and resilience in times of crisis, directed by Madeleine Dahm, from Thursday, January 31 through Sunday, February 10, 2019 at the Circle X Theatre (Please note: S.O.S.is not  being performed at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, but at the Circle X Theatre in Atwater Village). The production uses little known love letters by great writers and activists such as Vita Sackville West, Frederick Douglas, Maya Angelou, Tchaikovsky, Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, Rainer Maria Rilke and others, along with original text, movement, film and photography.

Love Actually Live, a multimedia-concert celebration of the soundtrack to one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time from the team behind Los Angeles' award-winning For The Record series, is featured this holiday season at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, December 4, through Monday, December 31, 2018. Co-Produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, Shane Scheel and Siobhan O'Neill and inspired by the Universal Pictures/Working Title motion picture written by Richard Curtis, this world-premiere production, presented by special arrangement with Universal Theatrical Group, transforms The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater into a giant, immersive, cinema for the modern day. The production, a one-of-a-kind presentation is performed live by an all-star cast and 15-piece orchestra, includes songs from the hit film, including 'Christmas Is All Around,' 'The Trouble with Love Is,' and 'Both Sides Now.'

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts spotlights the extraordinary artistry of Jorge Federico Osorio, who makes his Los Angeles recital debut with a program of Bach, Schubert, Liszt, Debussy, Albeniz, Ricardo Castro and Manuel Ponce, one night only on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 7:30 pm. The solo recital, held in The Wallis' esteemed Bram Goldsmith Theater, includes two Chorale Preludes by Bach, Schubert's Sonata in A Major, Liszt's Valle d'Obermannand three Preludes by Debussy. Osorio, a native of Mexico, also performs works by three Hispanic composers - Isaac Albeniz's Mallorca (Barcarola),  Ricardo Castro's Barcarola, and Manuel Ponce's Rapsodia Cubana  andBalada Mexicana. 

Stephen Daldry ('The Crown,' Billy Elliot, The Inheritance) directs his National Theatre of Great Britain's landmark production of J.B. Priestley's classic thriller An Inspector Calls, hailed as the theatrical event of its generation and winner of an unprecedented number of awards, including three Olivier's, four Tony's and seven Drama Desk Awards, with an exclusive West Coast engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, January 22 to Sunday, February 10, 2019.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the highly anticipated West Coast premiere of excerpts from the first collaboration between the acclaimed Chicago-based company Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, considered a major force in contemporary dance, and Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion with three performances on Thursday, January 10 through Saturday, January 12, 2019, at 7:30 pm.

Love Actually Live, a multimedia-concert celebration of the soundtrack to one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time from the team behind Los Angeles' award-winning For The Record series, is featured this holiday season at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, December 4, through Monday, December 31, 2018. Co-Produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, Shane Scheel and Siobhan O'Neill and inspired by the Universal Pictures/Working Title motion picture written by Richard Curtis, this world-premiere production, presented by special arrangement with Universal Theatrical Group, transforms The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater into a giant, immersive, cinema for the modern day. The production, a one-of-a-kind presentation is performed live by an all-star cast and 15-piece orchestra, includes songs from the hit film, including "Christmas Is All Around," "The Trouble with Love Is," and "Both Sides Now.'

As previously announced, this holiday season, the team behind Los Angeles' award-winning "For The Record" series returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with a multimedia-concert celebration of the soundtrack to one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time, Love Actually. Inspired by the Universal Pictures/Working Title motion picture written by Richard Curtis, this world-premiere production of Love Actually Live, presented by special arrangement with Universal Theatrical Group, will transform The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater into a giant, immersive, cinema for the modern day. The production will include songs from the hit film, including "Christmas Is All Around," "The Trouble with Love Is," and "Both Sides Now."

THE BITTER GAME, a 'high-impact' immersive theater experience ripe with pain, poetry, and laughter that explores the experience of being black in America, debuts at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, November 14 through Saturday, November 17, 2018, outdoors on The Wallis' Promenade Terrace. Playwright-actor Keith A. Wallace's multi-character, solo performance in five acts, structured as the four quarters and overtime of a basketball game, tells the story of Jamel Smith, who witnesses a neighborhood act of violence as a child and later must learn to navigate his interactions with police. It speaks to both a personal and universal truth that is 'a sharp reminder of the persuasive powers of live theater,' according to The New York Times, which also described the play as closing the gap between artist and audience, giving the familiar subject an 'unignorable visceral immediacy.' Based on Wallace's youth in Philadelphia, THE BITTER GAME is created, written and performed by Wallace, co-created by Deborah Stein, and directed by Malika Oyetimein.