2015 | Center Theatre Group

Ahmanson Theatre audiences are getting a very special treat for the entire run of The Bridges of Madison County (through January 17, 2016): composer Jason Robert Brown, who won two Tony Awards® for the show (Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations), is conducting the orchestra. A former Angeleno, Brown is a big fan of the Ahmanson and is excit...

Composer Jason Robert Brown Switches Hats to Conduct at the Ahmanson

Why is a massive cross dominating the stage of the Mark Taper Forum, and why is a choir belting out hymns? These are two ways The Christians, which plays the Taper through January 10, 2016, is immersing audiences in an evangelical church where they play the congregation. At the pulpit, a pastor questions a core tenet of Christianity, organized reli...

In 'The Christians' L.A. is The Choir

Before theater veteran Bartlett Sher directed The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway in 2014, and before its 1995 run as a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, the love story was a slim book penned in two weeks by an unlikely first-time Iowa novelist, college business professor Robert James Waller....

'The Bridges of Madison County' Gets the Broadway Treatment

Center Theatre Group’s Costume Shop team has dressed a caged tiger and a future American president, a royal court and time-traveling ghosts. But they’ve never done anything quite like the costumes designed by Ingrid Ferrin for Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven. Popol Vuh was a months-long collaboration of CTG, El Teatro Campesino, and Boyle Heights co...

Puppets and Polyester and Masks - Oh My!

Musical heavyweights Courtney Love and Todd Almond lead the cast of Kansas City Choir Boy, which plays at the Kirk Douglas Theatre through November 8, 2015, but this contemporary music-theatre work is very much an ensemble piece. Director Kevin Newbury gave us a glimpse into the extremely collaborative process of bringing Todd Almond’s music and...

The Ensemble Behind 'Kansas City Choir Boy'

Nearly everyone knows The Sound of Music, and at any given night at the Ahmanson Theatre, where a new national tour is kicking off this fall, many audience members could probably sing along to every song. One might give them pause when it begins, however. Since this production is coming on the heels of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which ha...

Making 'Something Good' a Little Bit Better

Center Theatre Group donors got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at The Sound of Music at the Ahmanson Theatre when they were invited to take a backstage tour of the production. While catching a glimpse of the quick change stations the actors use to get in and out of character in a flash and seeing a few of the show’s beautiful costumes, don...

Donors Go Behind the Scenes of 'The Sound of Music'

When The Christians comes to the Mark Taper Forum from December 2, 2015 to January 10, 2016, it will mark Obie Award-winning Director Les Waters’ third Center Theatre Group play in 15 months. In September 2014, he directed the world premiere of Marjorie Prime at the Taper, and in July and August of this year, he directed Girlfriend at the Kirk Do...

L.A. Feels Like an Artistic Home to Director Les Waters

We all know the story of The Sound of Music. Maria and the von Trapps have become staples of Americana, despite the story’s Austrian origin. What many of us do not know is that before the Julie Andrews movie, before the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and before the West German movie that inspired the musical, there was a book. Published in...

Why Our Hills Stay Alive with 'The Sound of Music'

The Los Angeles Times Fall Arts Preview featured a behind-the-scenes look at the new national tour of The Sound of Music, which plays at the Ahmanson Theatre through October 31, 2015. Here’s what Director Jack O’Brien has to say about the task of updating this iconic production:...

The 'L.A. Times' Takes a Closer Look at the New 'Sound of Music'

Inner Circle members received a rare glimpse into the orchestra pit of the Ahmanson Theatre at the Inner Circle’s most recent Up Close Dialogue as producing director Doug Baker sat down with Jay Alger, the music director of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Up Close Dialogues are opportunities for members of the Inner Circle to hear Cent...

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