Parent Guide – Age Recommendations

Center Theatre Group provides this guide to help you make informed decisions when bringing young people to our theatres. Please know that these are recommendations not rules. You are the expert in deciding what your children should see and know best how to help them enjoy their theatergoing experience.

Center Theatre Group updates this guide when artistic choices substantively change the content. Theatre is a living medium, and the work evolves throughout the development and rehearsal process. The information provided below is the most current available.  Running times are approximate.

Upcoming Productions

All Ages

No shows at this time.

Parental Discretion Advised

Ages 13+ 

The Royale

A vivid depiction of a man fighting for his place in history. Set in the boxing world of the early 1900s, Jay “The Sport” Jackson has talent and confidence and wants what he feels is owed to him: a shot at the championship. Jay wants to be the first African American crowned undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and is pushing hard to have that dream realized, no matter the consequences. Ramirez’s potent story shows how the conviction of one athlete – his spirit of rebellion and his desire to be free to pursue his dreams, can have an impact on society far beyond the sport pages.
Mild Adult Language, Racial themes
Length: Approximately 80 minutes, no intermission

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Set in 1911 in a Pittsburgh boarding house, tenants come and go, forming a community that is altered time and time again. The daily routine of meals, conversation, gossip, arrivals and departures, and the changes that occur within this fluid grouping of people, is set against a great tide of Americans of African descent, only 50 years out of slavery, who are moving toward the industrial cities of the North in search of economic opportunity, lost family members and new beginnings.
Racial themes, violence
Length: TBD

Ages 16+

Neva
Chile’s Teatro en el Blanco’s Spanish language production of Neva takes place in 1905 in St. Petersburg where Anton Chekhov’s widow, the actress Olga Knipper, is huddled with fellow actors in a dimly lit rehearsal room, while in the streets outside striking workers are being gunned down by the tsarist regime.
Length: TBD

FELA!
A triumphant tale of courage, passion and love, featuring Fela Kuti’s captivating music and the vision direction and choreography of Tony-award winner Bill T. Jones. Fela tells the true story of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation. Inspired by his mother, a civil rights champion, he defied a corrupt and oppressive military government and devoted his life and music to the struggle for freedom and human dignity.
Adult Language, sexuality, drug use, war
Length: Approximately 2 hours 18 minutes

The Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys, which Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press called “...a staggeringly inventive piece of musical theatre...,” explores a shocking and pivotal chapter in American history with arresting originality, innovative staging and piercing new songs. The show is based on the infamous “Scottsboro” case in the 1930s, and tells the story of the nine unjustly accused African American men whose lives would eventually spark the Civil Rights Movement.
Mature content, racial themes
Length: Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes with no intermission

A Parallelogram
A darkly comic play, A Parallelogram introduces us to Bee, who believes she has the ability to know what happens in the future. With what appears like a little time-bending she sees how her life, and that of her boyfriend and the world at large, will play out. To the increasing concern of those around her, Bee tries to make sense of this new-found knowledge. Should she try to reinvent destiny? Or is the trajectory of life basically unalterable?
Dark comedy, bleak perspective
Length: TBD

What the Butler Saw
Considered one of the greatest sex farces ever written, Orton’s play ferociously skewers psychiatry, religion, marriage, morality, government and definitions of gender.
Sex Farce, sexual innuendo and complications
Length: TBD

The Steward of Christendom
Sebastian Barry’s poignant story of a man left behind by history, The Steward of Christendom is set in the early 1930s at an Irish county mental home, where 75-year-old Thomas Dunne has been committed by his daughter. Here, his mind wanders in and out of lucidity as he remembers his childhood, his wife and children, and his career as the head of Dublin’s Metropolitan Police, where he rose through the ranks to the highest position a Catholic could hope to achieve.
Mental health issues, issues of aging, religious persecution
Length: TBD

Not Recommended Under 18

No shows at this time.

Photo Credit

Flower Drum Song workshop. Photo by Alan Weissman Photography