Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Cast Announced and Rehearsals Begin for "Spamilton"

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:40:00 -0700

CAST ANNOUNCED AND REHEARSALS BEGIN FOR “SPAMILTON” AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP’S KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE

The West Coast Premiere Will Run November 5 Through December 31, 2017

Center Theatre Group has announced the casting for the West Coast premiere of the hit musical parody “Spamilton,” created, written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini. Currently in rehearsals, “Spamilton” begins previews November 5, opens November 12 and continues through December 31, 2017, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Produced by special arrangement with John Freedson, David Zippel, Christine Pedi and Gerard Alessandrini, “Spamilton” celebrates and satirizes the Broadway blockbuster with a versatile cast. The cast includes, in alphabetical order, Glenn Bassett, Susanne Blakeslee, Dedrick A. Bonner, Becca Brown, John Devereaux, Wilkie Ferguson III, William Cooper Howell, Elijah Reyes and Zakiya Young.

The creative team includes choreography by Gerry McIntyre, music supervision and arrangements by Fred Barton, set and prop consultant Glenn Bassett, costume design by Dustin Cross, lighting design by Karyn D. Lawrence, sound design by Adam Phalen and music direction by James Lent.

Marilyn Stasio of Variety mused, “Hip-hop, Broadway showtunes, Viennese waltzes – is there anything this guy can’t write? No, not ‘Hamilton’ creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, but Gerard Alessandrini, whose ingenious parody ‘Spamilton’ simultaneously salutes and sends up Miranda and his signature musical.” And Ben Brantley of The New York Times said, “This smart, silly and often convulsively funny thesis, performed by a motor-mouthed cast that is fluent in many tongues, is the work of that eminent specialist in Broadway anatomy, pathology and gossip, Gerard Alessandrini.”

“We’re very excited about expanding the show a bit,” Alessandrini said. “We will also be adding up-to-date references to ‘Hamilton,’ Lin-Manuel Miranda and their impact on the current Broadway season.” Gerard Alessandrini is best known for creating and writing all 25 editions of “Forbidden Broadway” in Los Angeles, New York, London and around the world. Alessandrini was featured in the 1982 cast of “Forbidden Broadway” and can be heard on four of the 12 “Forbidden Broadway” cast albums.

Television writing credits include comedy specials for Bob Hope, Angela Lansbury and Carol Burnett. Directing credits include Maury Yeston’s “In the Beginning.” As a director, he is currently working on an upcoming revue focusing on the songs of Maury Yeston, entitled “Anything Can Happen (In the Theatre).” Alessandrini is the recipient of an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Drama League and seven Drama Desk Awards (including two for Best Lyrics for “Forbidden Broadway” and two special lifetime awards). Alessandrini was also awarded an Honorary Tony Award for “excellence in the theatre.”

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading nonprofit theatre company, which, under Artistic Director Michael Ritchie, programs seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.

Tickets for “Spamilton” are available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, at the Center Theatre Group Box Office at the Ahmanson Theatre or at the Kirk Douglas Theatre Box Office two hours prior to performance. Tickets range from $30 – $80 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City, CA 90232. Ample free parking and restaurants are adjacent.

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REVISED – October 25, 2017

'Bright Star' Opens at the Ahmanson

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 16:29:00 -0700

STEVE MARTIN AND EDIE BRICKELL’S MUSICAL “BRIGHT STAR” OPENS AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP/AHMANSON THEATRE ON OCTOBER 20

The Tony-Nominated Musical Directed by Walter Bobbie Continues Through November 19

Presented by Center Theatre Group, “Bright Star” will open at the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday, October 20. The Tony Award-nominated Best Musical, with music, lyrics and story by Grammy, Emmy and Oscar winner Steve Martin and Grammy winner Edie Brickell, is currently in previews and is directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Josh Rhodes. Performances will continue through November 19, 2017.

The cast includes “Bright Star” Tony Award nominee Carmen Cusack, Stephen Lee Anderson, David Atkinson, Jeff Austin, Maddie Shea Baldwin, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Allison Briner-Dardenne, Patrick Cummings, Kaitlyn Davidson, A.J. Shively, Devin Archer, Kelly Baker, Audrey Cardwell, Max Chernin, Robin De Lano, Richard Gatta, David Kirk Grant, Donna Louden, Kevin McMahon, Alessa Neeck, Robert Pieranunzi and Michael Starr.

The production is designed by Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, with costumes by Tony Award winner Jane Greenwood, lighting by Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Japhy Weideman and sound by Drama Desk Award winner and Tony Award nominee Nevin Steinberg.

Inspired by a real event, this original musical tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and ‘40s. Propelled by an ensemble of onstage musicians and dancers, the story unfolds as a rich tapestry of deep emotion, beautiful melodies and enthralling performances. Marc Snetiker of Entertainment Weekly called “Bright Star,” “A genuinely delightful show bolstered by an incredible debut from Carmen Cusack.”

“Bright Star” won the 2016 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. It also received five 2016 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Lead Actress in a Musical and Best Orchestrations.

Carmen Cusack made her Broadway debut last year in “Bright Star,” for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She was featured last fall in New York City Center’s gala concert of “Sunday in the Park with George” and in Los Angeles in “For The Record – Scorsese: American Crime Requiem.” Other credits include “The First Wives Club: The Musical” (Chicago’s Oriental Theatre), “Sunday in the Park with George” (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), “Carrie” (MCC), “South Pacific” (Lincoln Center Theater and national tour at the Ahmanson) and “Wicked” (first U.S. tour and Melbourne, AU). West End credits include “Over the Rainbow” (the Eva Cassidy story), “Les Misérables” (Fantine), “The Secret Garden” (Rose), “Personals” (Kim) and “Phantom of the Opera” (Christine). This year, Carmen starred in the world premiere of Karen Siff Exhorn’s “Do This,” a one-woman play at Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, FL. She recently released the Live at 54 Below album, “If You Knew My Story,” and she sold out eight shows at Feinstein’s/54 Below in NYC. This summer, she starred in “Sondheim on Sondheim” with the Boston Pops in Tanglewood, Boston and at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Steve Martin is one of the most well-known and pervasive talents in entertainment and one of the most diversified performers in the industry today, a successful author, playwright, producer, actor, screenwriter and comedian for more than three decades. His work has earned him an Academy Award, five Grammy Awards (two for comedy, three for music), the Mark Twain Award and the Kennedy Center Honor. Martin’s films are widely popular successes, such as “The Jerk” (1979, also screenplay); “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles” (1987); “Roxanne” (1987, also screenplay); “Parenthood” (1989); “L.A. Story” (1991, also screenplay); “Father of the Bride” (1991); and “Bowfinger” (1999, also screenplay). As an author, Martin’s work includes the plays “Picasso at the Lupin Agile” and “The Underpants;” the best-selling novella, “Shopgirl;” and his memoir, “Born Standing Up.” Steve Martin is also an accomplished Grammy Award-winning, boundary-pushing bluegrass banjoist and composer. In 2013, Martin released his third full-length album called “Love Has Come For You,” a unique collaboration with songwriter Edie Brickell. “Love Has Come For You,” won a Grammy for “Best American Roots Song” for the title track and inspired their musical “Bright Star,” which opened on Broadway in March 2016 and received five Tony Award nominations and seven Drama Desk Award nominations, winning for Outstanding Music. “Bright Star” also won Outstanding New Broadway Musical and Outstanding New Score at the Outer Critics Circle Awards. Martin and Brickell’s second album together, “So Familiar,” was released on Rounder Records and featured 12 remarkable songs that bought the acclaimed duo’s musical collaboration into fresh creative territory. Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers released their newest collaboration “The Long-Awaited Album” on Rounder Records on September 22, 2017.

Edie Brickell released the debut multi-platinum album “Shooting Rubber Bands At The Stars” with New Bohemians in 1988. Her more recent works include a 13-track collaboration with Steve Martin titled “Love Has Come For You,” which earned a Grammy for “Best American Roots Song.” In 2015, the duo released a second album titled “So Familiar,” which featured 12 new bluegrass songs that bring the duo’s musical collaboration into fresh creative territory.

Walter Bobbie directed the New York productions of “Bright Star,” “Venus in Fur,” “The Landing,” “Golden Age,” “School for Lies,” “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “Chicago,” “The Submission, Cabin Pressure,” “The Savannah Disputation,” “New Jerusalem,” “High Fidelity,” “The Other Woman,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” “Sweet Charity,” “Twentieth Century,” “Footloose,” “Durang Durang,” “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” and “A Grand Night for Singing.” He was Artistic Director of City Center Encores! where he also directed “Fiorello!,” “Chicago,” “Tenderloin,” “Golden Boy,” “No, No, Nanette” and “Zorba,” as well as the Carnegie Hall concerts of “South Pacific” and “Carousel.” Mr. Bobbie recently premiered Paul Rudnick’s “Big Night” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. He serves on the Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He is a recipient of the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Tony Awards.

The Grammy-nominated original cast recording of “Bright Star” charted on five different Billboard lists in its first week of wide release. The cast album from Ghostlight Records placed at No. 1 on the Top Current Blue Grass Albums chart, No. 2 on the Top Broadway chart, No. 5 on the Americana/Folk Albums chart, as well as hitting the Top 100 on the Billboard Top Albums chart and Top 200 on the Overall Digital Albums chart.

The “Bright Star” creative team includes Tony and Emmy Award winner Eugene Lee (scenic design), Tony Award winner Jane Greenwood (costume design), Tony Award nominee Japhy Weideman (lighting design), Tony Award nominee Nevin Steinberg (sound design), Tom Watson (hair and wig design), Grammy Award winner Peter Asher (music supervision), Rob Berman (supervising music director and vocal arrangements) and Tony Award nominee August Eriksmoen (orchestrations).

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading nonprofit theatre company, programming seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.

The “Bright Star” tour is produced by Center Theatre Group by special arrangement with Joey Parnes, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, AT&T PAC/ SHN (Dallas), Blumenthal Performing Arts (Charlotte), Broadway Series South (Raleigh), The Curran (San Francisco) and Theatre Under The Stars (Houston), in association with The Old Globe (San Diego).

Tickets for “Bright Star” are available by calling (213) 972-4400, online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or at the Center Theatre Group Box Office located at the Ahmanson Theatre. Tickets range from $30 – $135 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Ahmanson Theatre is located at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, 90012.

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October 18, 2017

Finalists Announced for 2018 Sherwood Award

Center Theatre Group — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:49:00 -0700

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2018 RICHARD E. SHERWOOD AWARD

Center Theatre Group’s $10,000 Award for Emerging L.A. Theatre Artists

Three finalists have been selected for Center Theatre Group’s 2018 Richard E. Sherwood Award: Gina Young, Marsian De Lellis and Hana Kim. Center Theatre Group recognizes and celebrates this year’s finalists for their exceptional contributions to the Los Angeles theatre landscape and their work as innovative and adventurous artists.

Created in memory of Richard E. Sherwood, the $10,000 award aims to cultivate emerging theatre artists working in Los Angeles who push the formal and aesthetic boundaries and demonstrate dedication to improving their respective artistic fields. The winner of the $10,000 award will be announced at the 2018 Ovation Awards. The two additional finalists will receive a $2,000 honorarium.

Gina Young is a writer, director, songwriter and performer, who has toured nationally and internationally with original performance work. Recent plays include “sSISTERSs,” “Femmes: A Tragedy,” and “Tales of a Fourth Grade Lesbo.” She is also the creator of conceptual projects including “SORORITY,” a queer performance salon, and the exploratory Feminist Acting Class. Gina studied drama at NYU/Tisch and is a member of the Dramatist Guild. In Los Angeles, her work has been presented by REDCAT, Highways, USC’s Visions & Voices Series, The Hammer Museum and the Women’s Center for Creative Work. She is a winner of the Jane Chambers Award for Playwriting and a second-time semi-finalist for the Sherwood Award.

Marsian De Lellis is an interdisciplinary artist and writer who constructs installations and time-based visual narratives that memorialize obsessional lives. His practice combines dolls, artificial figures, performing objects and elaborate costumes to investigate contemporary forms of animism, death, sexuality and addiction. A graduate from CalArts, his work has been presented in REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival, the 2016 C.O.L.A. Fellowship Exhibition and at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center as an artist in residence. Currently, he is fine-tuning “Object of Her Affection,” a performance centered on a woman who develops intimate relationships with inanimate objects, which was a recipient of a Jim Henson Foundation Project Grant.

Hana Kim is a live performance set and projection designer with a background in film design. She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and recipient of Princess Grace Award in Theatre Design. Her designs have received Stage Raw Awards, StageSceneLA Awards and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, as well as nominations for the Ovation Awards and Theatre Bay Area Awards. Recently, Hana has designed scenic projections for “Next to Normal” directed by Nancy Keystone for East West Players, “Wonderful Town” directed by David Lee at the Los Angeles Opera, “Dogeaters” directed by Loretta Greco for the Magic Theatre and “Collective Rage” directed by Lindsay Allbaugh for Boston Court.

Originally created in 1996, the Sherwood Award has met a vital need in the theatre landscape to support emerging artists.

Richard E. Sherwood was a patron of the arts with a special appreciation for emerging artists who are in the vanguard of theatre. He was president and then chairman of the Center Theatre Group Board of Directors from 1980 until his passing in 1993. The award is established as an endowed fund at Center Theatre Group by his family, friends, colleagues and fellow board members, to honor Sherwood’s passionate commitment to theatre.

Past recipients of the Richard E. Sherwood Award include lighting designer Pablo Santiago, Miwa Matreyek of Cloud Eye Control, Sean Cawelti of Rogue Artists Ensemble, Miranda Wright of Los Angeles Performance Practice, Lars Jan of Early Morning Opera, lighting designer Christopher Kuhl and costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, among others.

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October 17, 2017

'Something Rotten!' Calendar Release

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 12:40:00 -0700

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

November – December 2017

EVENT:

“Something Rotten!”

Music and Lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick

Book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell

Directed and Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw

DESCRIPTION:

With 10 Tony nominations including Best Musical, this hilarious new musical comedy tells the story of brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, two playwrights stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rockstar Will Shakespeare. When a soothsayer foretells the next big thing in theatre involves singing, dancing and acting at the same time, the Bottom brothers set out to write the world’s very first musical.

DATES/TIMES:

Opens Tuesday, November 21 at 8 p.m. through December 31

Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. No Monday performances.

Exceptions: No 8 p.m. performance on Thursday, November 23 (Thanksgiving Day). Added 2 p.m. performance on Friday, November 24. No 6:30 p.m. performance on Sunday, December 24 (Christmas Eve). Added 2 p.m. performances on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28.

TICKET INFO:

Ticket Prices: $30 – $140 (Ticket prices are subject to change.) Tickets are available online at CenterTheatreGroup.org, by calling Audience Services at (213) 972-4400 or in person at the Center Theatre Group Box Office. Groups: (213) 972-7231.

Deaf community: Information and charge, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org/ACCESS.

LOCATION:

Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre

The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012

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October 5, 2017