A great story, made even better! Alex Lyras stars in the Los Angeles premiere of Mike Daisy’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs in an update revised by the author that is “ethically made” and packs an even more powerful punch. Daisey’s powerful monologue examines the controversy of globalization through the rise and fall and resurrection of Apple, illuminating how Apple’s former CEO and his obsessions shape our lives. It follows the trail all the way to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPads, and shines a light on the human price we pay for our high-tech toys. “Anyone with a cell phone and a moral center should see this show.” – The New York Times
Adapted by Brendan Shea
Lewis Carroll meets Lady Gaga in this psychedelic update of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Angst-ridden adolescent Alice unwittingly trades places with Mary Ann, the Wonderland version of herself. Now Alice must travel through a fantastical teenage dreamscape, challenged by Carroll's canonical characters every step of the way. Transforming every time she eats or drinks, Alice is played by six different actresses, each evoking a different aspect of adolescence. Together, they paint an entrancingly surreal portrait of a teenage identity crisis.
On a cold, clear, moonless night in the middle of winter, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, Almost's residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend almost in this delightful midwinter night's dream.
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman star in ANNAPURNA, written by Sharr White and directed by Bart DeLorenzo. After twenty years apart, Emma tracks Ulysses to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere for a final reckoning. What unfolds is a visceral, profound and sometimes funny meditation on love and loss with the simplest of theatrical elements: two people in one room.
At The Flash is a fierce and funny show that condenses LGBT history into the story of five characters – a closeted man in the 1960s, a black drag queen in the 1970s, a club kid in the 1980s, a budding lesbian activist in the 1990s, and a family man/entrepreneur in the 2000s.
A Noise Within stages the West Coast premiere production of The Beaux' Stratagem, one of the last raucous Restoration Era comedies, adapted by two of the 20th century's most gifted American playwrights -- Thornton Wilder (Our Town) and Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor). George Farquhar's 1707 romp follows a pair of stylish young gentlemen who flee to the countryside from their London creditors, seeking wealthy and preferably attractive maidens to marry. But the road to romance and riches is filled with plenty of comic potholes. Described by Ludwig as "classic, formal, robust and hilarious," this latest version of The Beaux' Stratagem was actually first attempted by Thornton Wilder in 1939, who put it aside to work on the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Skin of Our Teeth. In 2004, Wilder's estate found Ken Ludwig, the popular playwright of Moon Over Buffalo and other comedies, to pick up the work, and almost 70 years later, the collaboration finally hits the stage in L.A., directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott.
Based on the writings of Bertolt Brecht. Conceived by George Tabori from various translations. Arranged and directed by Alistair Hunter. Musical director Gayle Bluemel. Presented by The Other Theatre Company. Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
The Kentwood Players perform Neil Simon's California Suite, a comedy told in four separate playlets. Four different parties from various cities travel to California during different time periods and stay in the same Beverly Hills Hotel suite, bringing their problems, anxieties and comic marital dilemmas with them. In "The Visitor From New York," Hannah loves living in New York, while her ex-husband, Billy, loves L.A. Can two happily divorced parents raise their only daughter while living 3000 miles apart? In "The Visitor From Philadelphia," Marvin awakens with a horrible hangover and a young woman he doesn't know beside him in bed. Moments later, Marvin's wife arrives. Can this fifteen-year marriage survive whatever it was Marvin did? In "The Visitors From London," Diana loses the Oscar to another woman and her husband to another man in the same night. This causes some inconvenient truths intrude on their marriage of convenience. And in "The Visitors From Chicago," four best friends are enjoying a dream vacation together -- until an ultra-competitive tennis match turns them into enemies.
CHESS is a musical with international themes of breaking down barriers between nations, and having a multicultural ensemble enhances its message for the 21st Century...EWP dares to tackle this large scale musical much like it tackled Sweeney Todd in its 1994 and 2006 productions: with creativity and ingenuity in its story-telling.
Cinderella and her two evil stepsisters are played by the lovely Ashleigh, Beau and Brooke Dawson. Beau -- a stage, television and film actress who recently graced The Little Theater in The Emperor's New Clothes -- is thrilled to be joined by her two sisters in this production.
Storybook Theatre presents its award-winning big top musical. It's the ultimate interactive play as the kids in the audience join the ringmaster, animal trainer and clown as they become the acts in the circus. Lots of songs as the kids learn that they have talents of their own when they put on their own show.
In COOPERSTOWN, it is the summer of 1962, and Jackie Robinson is about to be the first black player inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. That has a surprising impact on Junior Murphy, a black diner employee who can't get a promotion, and whose little sister has her own history-making plans for the weekend. When a Midwest minor-leaguer comes to town chasing his idol, a collision of race, family, love, and baseball turns a sleepy New York town upside down.
COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS is a classic morality play, as much about what’s right and wrong, as it is a thrilling moment-to-moment suspense-fueled ride. It introduces us to five men: Paul, Dom, Emmett, Sal, and Roosevelt. Men of different ages and life experiences. On this night Paul walks into the bar with a secret. Dom, the bartender, just wants to get through his shift. Roosevelt’s had just about enough of his partner Sal’s bullying sense of humor. So begins this world premiere play occurring roughly in real-time about regret, loss, explicit and implicit racism, and wrestling with masculine identity in constantly-changing contemporary America.
Definitely not keepin it real. Without the fakers of the world, we would never appreciate the beauty of authenticity! Fakers. is comprised of some of the best sketches from The Second City resident stages and performed in Hollywood. Second City is the world's premiere comedy theatre and largest school of improvisation and sketch comedy.
A carnival midway of magic, mischief and theatrical thrills! Amanda Dehnert, celebrated throughout the American theatre for re-imagining classics, has added a multitude of visual delights and fantastical illusions to the original charm and beautiful ballads (like the haunting "Try to Remember") of The Fantasticks. When two scheming fathers conspire with the mysterious El Gallo to keep their daughter and son apart (to be sure they'll fall in love!) the dewy-eyed lovers venture into the real world. But as fantasy turns to reality, El Gallo is there to remind them that "without the hurt, the heart is hollow" in one of the most popular musicals of all time, which the Washington Post calls, "Fresh and alive again."
In “Fool For Love” (1983), Eddie, a rodeo stuntman, has hunted down May,- his “forever connection,” and found her in a motel in the Mojave Desert. She’s as drawn to him as he is to her , but if it were that simple, this wouldn’t be a Sam Shepard play. They’re together, then they’re apart, they’re together, and the fire and obsession and possession never abates. Eddie can’t leave other women alone and he can’t leave May alone and now there’s a Countess, elusive, dangerous and obsessed with Eddie (but Shepard leaves her outside in her Mercedes Benz during the play).
Eddie and May have an unhinged yearning and raw sexuality that goes beyond usual aspects of attraction, and there’s a secret that is revealed. It is “Rashomon,” with each one having a different view of their shared history. There is also an Old Man who is ever present in the play, and he has another version of the story. The Old Man supplies mysteries and answers. And the “gentleman caller” Martin arrives to give May a way to be released from Eddie---maybe. Fool For Love is about romantic obsession, although that may be redundant: Romance IS obsessive. It is feisty, muscular and sexually charged.
An original dream play that links the world of women in Toulouse Lautrec's paintings to the men who loved them. Through words, movement and love the divine feminine of the past gains strength as a surreal absinthe night of drinking opens up a world that will enchant, challenge, frighten and inspire. Join an in-house group of Bootleg artists as we explore the art, performance, love, life and the women who played roles throughout it all.
Have you ever wondered what actually happened with Hansel and Gretel in that candy house? What really took place between the Little Mermaid and the Handsome Prince under the sea? What does "Kamikakushi (gasp!)" really mean? Wonder no more as Actors' Repertory Theatre unveils the real experiences of Hansel & Gretel, The Little Mermaid and the Japanese legend of Kamikakushi - all rolled into one joyous world premiere musical comedy that takes audiences on a truly theatrical journey, rooted in traditional story-telling and exploding into a multi-media event of epic proportions as the troupe of seven actors portray dozens of separate characters, spaces and places. The audience becomes part of the adventure, along the way offering a thumbs down to selfishness, gluttony, pollution and waste, and assuring that the stories reach their deserved happily-ever-afters.
In this hilarious and moving new comedy/drama, Rochelle, a middle-aged Jewish woman struggling with a crisis of faith, is convinced to join a flamenco class for out of shape women – and her life is changed forever.
HOT CAT is an original play created with the unique talents of Theatre Movement Bazaar, featuring performers from Theatre of NOTE’s ensemble, using a synthesis of dance and theatre, a mixture of comedy and philosophy to create an original and proactive theatrical experience.
I’m Not Rappaport (1985) is set in New York’s Central Park, where Midge, an African American man and Nat, a Jewish man, both elderly, meet and slowly develop a friendship. Midge has been a custodian in his building for many, many years and may face the prospect of soon losing his job. Nat, an old-school leftist who manipulates people by changing identities and affiliations as casually as most people change their clothes, decides to do something about it, despite Midge’s reservations. They’re not alone in the park. There’s a lovely young artist, Laurie, whom the men befriend. There’s Gilley, a kid with a knife running a protection racket. And there’s a far more dangerous character, The Cowboy, the drug connection to whom Laurie is deeply in debt and who plans to do Laurie great bodily harm if she can’t pay her bill. When Nat and Midge attempt to intercede on Laurie’s behalf, they are placing themselves in deadly danger. Can Nat and Midge, so very different, ever really become close friends? Who is Nat, really? (Who he says he is keeps changing.) Will Midge be evicted? Will Laurie, Nat and Midge get themselves killed?
Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad directs Joe Turner's Come and Gone from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. Part of Wilson's 10-play cycle chronicling the experience of African-Americans in the 20th century, Joe Turner's Come and Gone was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1988. Set in the dawning days of a century without slavery, this historical drama finds Herald Loomis -- haunted by seven years on a chain gang -- in Pittsburgh searching for his wife and a new life.
KILL ME examines the fuzzy lines between belief and reality. After a horrific car accident, a young woman emerges from a coma convinced that beings from another dimension have made her immortal. Her sister and lover think she is suffering from mental illness… until the same beings start affecting them as well. Have they opened the gates of Hell upon themselves, or is it all a product of the mind? And ultimately, is there a difference?
A bright and witty story about mid-life dating, with characteristic angst and comedic drama, this story is a hilarious romp through the world of the temporarily unattached. The story begins with two pairs of friends about to meet on a blind double date. Ever unsure about what to expect and how to impress, the four stumble around romance like hapless teenagers.
Helen's entire life has been dictated to her. She she does what society
expects of her, however resistant she may feel. She marries her boss,
whom she finds repulsive and has a baby with him. Followed by an affair
with a younger man who fuels her lust for life, she is driven to murder her
husband. She is found guilty and is executed in an electric chair. Inspired
by the real life case of executed murderess Ruth Snyder. Its 1928
Broadway premiere is considered one of the high-points of American
Expressionist theatre.
Tara Grammy is at the Whitefire Theatre for a limited run of her award-winning one-woman show, Mahmoud. A winner at both the New York and Toronto Fringe Festivals, this irreverent and capriciously clever performance sees Grammy slipping into the personas of an aging Iranian engineer-cum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard and a young Iranian-Canadian girl, all trying to get through the daily grind in the big city. Over the course of an hour, their stories come together, and themes of displacement, immigration, home, and culture are explored through the connections formed with the audience and between each character.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning Thornton Wilder, THE MATCHMAKER is a charming all-American farce about love and money. Businessman and penny-pincher Horace Vandergelder is searching for a wife and obtains the help of social hurricane and matchmaker extraordinaire, Mrs. Dolly Levi (the inspiration for the Broadway musical, HELLO DOLLY!). This big-hearted comedy is complete with mistaken identities, hijinks galore and a dose of Wilder’s sage wisdom.
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, THE MIRACLE WORKER is the true-life story of young Helen Keller, blind and deaf, and her struggle to overcome adversity with the help of an extraordinary teacher who taught her to communicate with the world. A miraculous story of determination, hope and love.
August Strindberg's classic about sex, greed and manipulation is adapted by the modern master of such tantalizing topics: Neil LaBute. The scandalous turn of the century drama, banned in Britain for nearly fifty years after its publication, chronicles the night-long flirtation and seduction between the wealthy lady of the house and one of her father's household employees. Set on Long Island just before the 1929 stock market crash and featuring one of theater's most commanding female characters, this world premiere adaptation couples provocateurs Strindberg and LaBute who capture the timeless consequences of passion and power.
When a ruthless splinter group seizes power in Washington, a bureaucrat for the State Department runs off with the new regime’s top-secret Enemies List. With Department of Homeland Security agents trailing him, he finds himself trapped in a police station in a small Missouri town. His last hope for survival is in the people around him: an unsympathetic police chief, an ambivalent administrative assistant, and a fellow prisoner a motor-mouthed local who’s turned herself in for drunk driving. The North Plan is a sharp, dark, dystopian comedy set in the here and now.
ONE WHITE CROW is the story of a journalist given an unexpected assignment and asks the question: is there such a thing as after death communication? Tess O’Neill, topnotch journalist, recently lost her science-writer father to cancer. Her assignment is to profile famous television medium Judith Knight. An exclusive like this is impossible to turn down. But when Judith tells her this profile is all the idea of the spirit of Tess’s dead father, Tess enlists the help of her father’s protégé, renowned skeptic Alex Rimbaud, to help prove Judith to be a fraud. As the profile moves forward, however, Tess’s search for the truth proves to be a far more slippery and elusive process than she thought.
Opening Night is a laugh riot. Even though it pokes some fun, it nonetheless affirms that the theatre is a place of magic, where wonderful things happen, in particular for members of the audience.
This radically fresh retelling of the JM Barrie classic explores the original ideas and inspirations behind the iconic fantasy of Peter Pan. Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers is a dark new retelling of the story of the boy who wouldn’t grow up. This is ‘Peter Pan’ as you have never seen it before, but how it was always meant to be told. “This dark, disturbing, yet magical adaptation based on JM Barrie’s original ideas behind Peter Pan is one of the most thrilling scripts I have read in years,” said The Blank Artistic Director Henning. “Michael Lluberes’ adaptation and Michael Matthews’ visionary direction are a perfect match. I am excited for our audiences to experience Peter Pan as they have never experienced it before.”
With hardboiled private detectives, double-crossing femme fatales, unscrupulous villains and plenty of intrigue, Play Noir returns to the Actors Workout Studio. Take a trip back to Hollywood's Golden Age with four short plays that revel in all things noir -- and are all set right here in the City of Angels. This year's thrilling show features Speak No Evil by Michael W. Moon, Desperate Desires by David Galanter, Outside Job by Hope Thompson, and The Zone Ranger by Ben Goldstein and Mac Taylor.
“The Rainmaker” focuses largely on the fate of Lizzie, who
lives on a family farm with her brothers and father in the Dust Bowl during
the Depression. She capably takes care of the men in her house, but there’s
an emptiness in her life. She has no one of her own, and she dreams of a
husband and children. A visit to her cousins, actually a failing attempt to
find a prospective mate, has left her more frustrated than ever. The
recurrent reminders that she is considered “plain” by her family and
herself do not relieve her fears of winding up as the “maiden aunt.”
The Curry farm, like all those around them, is impacted by a
withering and persistent drought. Suddenly, a charismatic stranger named
Starbuck appears, claiming that he can make the clouds come and the rains
fall. “The Rainmaker” is about love, desire and magic, and expresses
these themes so resonantly that the play has been translated into forty
languages since it premiered on Broadway in 1954.
Fun (and appropriate) for all ages 2yrs-200, this show, directed by Frank Caeti, features improv games that rely on audience suggestions and participation. Great for the whole family! We are the Bugs Bunny of improv; come be a part of the show!
In The Size of Pike, to sit behind a desk is to “check your nuts at the door” according to hard-bitten-rod, who views his friends’ ability to adapt to the changing world around them as tantamount to treason. When, in the wake of his father’s death, Rod’s best friend Fetcher opts for a weekend at Lake Jamaica with the country club set instead of their annual fishing trip to Lake Fred, strong bonds forged in adolescence threaten to break. Caught in the middle, third-wheel John must choose sides: Rod’s, Fetcher’s or his own. The Size of Pike is a whisky-fueled, sharply comic, coming-of-middle-age story about friendship, identity and need among men.
Set in a cell in Lebanon in the 1980s, three men are taken hostage by a group of Islamic militants. Forced to cope with the daily challenges of fear and uncertainty, the men are thrust into a dangerous emotional climate that shifts between savage fighting, gentle understanding, uproarious laughter and deep grief; an emotional roller-coaster ride through the horrors of captivity, the balm of memory and the unbreakable strength of friendships forged by dire circumstance.
This heartwarming true story follows a group of friends who gather each week at a salon in Chinquapin Parish, Louisiana. Truvy dispenses shampoo and advice to Ouiser, the town curmudgeon (“I’m not crazy; I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years”), Miss Clairee, an eccentric millionaire with a sweet tooth, and M’Lynn, whose daughter Shelby is about to get married. Tough as steel and fragile as the blossoms of magnolia trees, these hilarious characters gossip, tease, laugh, fight, cajole, and comfort each other as they go through life’s big joys and challenges.
Ingmar Bergman’s chamber drama Through A Glass Darkly is a character study dealing with the universal themes of faith, family, and reality. Recently released from a mental hospital, Karin and her family go on their annual holiday to a small island off the coast of Sweden. They all have high hopes for regaining a sense of normalcy, but Karin’s inner and outer worlds begin to collide, forcing a shattering of her sense of reality and those of the men (her husband, father, and brother) who are trying to save her. Bergman’s movie won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Shakespeare's Timon of Athens Gets Modern Adaptation
Actors Forum Theatre (10655 Magnolia Blvd North Hollywood, CA 91601) Full Price:
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When Lord Timon, a generous pillar of society whose patronage has allowed others to benefit, is hit with financial disaster, his "friends" refuse to provide him with any aid in Timon of Athens. This contemporary telling of William Shakespeare's work still touches on the universal truths of corruption, the monetization of human relationships, debt and deceit, and the selfishness of mankind. Shakespeare's words still resonate some 400 years later in this searing drama, which is being staged for the first time in the Los Angeles area in 15 years.
Trainspotting – Disturbing. Gruesome. Funny. Mark Renton and his mates Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie embark on a horrific journey to the heart of a world peopled by psychos, junkies and drunk Scottish fathers. Entertaining and shocking in equal measure, Harry Gibson's stage adaptation of Irvine Welsh's cult novel charts the harrowing, but at times hilarious, disintegration of their friendship as they hurtle towards self-destruction.
Weird On Top, a favorite with local audiences, returns to The Eclectic Company Theatre by popular demand with more premium-grade improvisational comedy. The players include Danielle Cintron, Tiffany Cole, Mason Hallberg, Kerr Seth Lordygan, Sarah McCann and Alex Sanborn. Be prepared for the bizarre, the unexpected, and the very, very funny.
Wild, bawdy and ferociously playful, Joe Orton's outrageous farce, What the Butler Saw, is one of the seminal works of modern comedy. When a psychiatrist tries to seduce an aspiring secretary, his botched efforts lead to comic bedlam involving his insatiable wife, a randy bellhop, a befuddled police officer and Sir Winston Churchill. Psychiatry, religion, marriage, government, definitions of gender and even language are all targets of British playwright Orton's poison pen. His sly jokes and hilarious shenanigans will have you shaking with laughter from start to finish.
"Which Way Is Out?", is the story of Monica, a poor girl from a remote rural district in Jamaica West Indies, with whom, a "well to do" visiting American tourist falls in love. After much convincing, he marries her, and takes her to the U.S.A. The man's family vehemently rejects Monica, but, he protects her from their attacks, while he quickly gets her acclimatized to her new environment, and the ways of life expected of her new role as a middle class American wife. It is a tall order, and an uphill climb for Monica, but, she tries to learn as fast as she is able, encouraged and inspired by the love, affection, care, respect and attention shown to her by her husband. Tragedy strikes, her husband suddenly dies, and Monica, without support, and, the unbridled hostility of his family unleashed on her, is forced to fight life as a lone stranger in the U.S.A. "Which Way Is Out?" is an intriqueing and inspiring account of perseverance, love, triumph and forgiveness in the face of adversity.
Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 play was the first American comedy about women by a woman. Set within a world of Manhattan women who are wealthy, social and privileged, along with the pink-collar women who serve and maintain them, the action and themes of this play are as relevant now as they were 77 years ago. The more things change…. Ms. Luce takes a jaundiced view of her gender, as the female friends of the uptown circle are often not content to be faithful to their own men and engage in spiteful gossip to sabotage the marriages and relationships of their purported friends.
Sweet Mary Haines believes that she has the perfect marriage. When someone in her circle lets slip that her husband has a mistress. Mary is devastated, and her wise mother gives her sage advice to preserve her marriage. Mary then proceeds to ignore her mother’s counsel, making every mistake she could possibly make. She seems set on a path to divorce, severing the ties between herself and the man she loves (and who still loves her, despite everything). Additionally, her adorable little daughter is just crushed by the turn of events. Can the Haines’ marriage possibly be saved? Will the other women in Mary’s circle find love and fulfillment? Will the nasty gossipmongers get their comeuppance? “The Women” has sex, gossip, marriage and romance. In short, it has everything that preoccupies the airwaves today. It was all upon the stage first. Men are frequently mentioned but never seen in this narrative.
Two 40-something men, who have been friends for decades but only cursorily in touch via social media over the past four years, finally get together for coffee. But their long anticipated “face to face” meeting reaps surprising consequences now that truthful and dramatic changes in each of their lives are revealed. Can this long time relationship survive?
