October

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'

In the new national tour of The Sound of Music, on stage at the Ahmanson Theatre through October 31, Maria teaches the von Trapp children to sing in perfect harmony in a matter of minutes—exactly the time it takes to sing the song “Do-Re-Mi” from start to finish. Not exactly realistic....

The Hands are Alive with 'The Sound of Music'

Every family has secrets. Every person has a skeleton or two in the closet. In Appropriate, which plays at the Mark Taper Forum through November 1, 2015, relics of the past—hidden away in boxes of junk, a photo album, a spare room—trigger a family crisis as the Lafayette children reconsider their relationships to one another, and to their dead...

Will Social Media End Family Secrets?

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'

Rock operas have delighted listeners since the late 1960s, when The Who gave us Tommy, The Pretty Things released S.F. Sorrow, and the British band Nirvana (not that Nirvana) invented the genre with The Story of Simon Simopath. In the intervening decades, rock operas have increasingly found their way to the stage as theatricalized adaptations, such...

Blending, Bending Genres in 'Kansas City Choir Boy'

The new national tour of The Sound of Music, which launches at the Ahmanson Theatre (and plays through October 31, 2015), breaks new ground on a number of levels—not least of which is in the costuming.

How Do You Dress a Woman Like Maria?

Sean Cawelti makes winning the 2015 Sherwood Award sound glamorous: After getting onstage and giving a thank you speech at LA Stage Alliance’s Ovation Awards, he got press coverage, recognition from his peers, and new professional connections. But a more interior transformation has come alongside the pomp and circumstance. Winning the Sherwood, s...

The Sherwood Award Allows Sean Cawelti to Follow His Passion

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'