News And Blogs

To say that the creative team behind the World premiere of Soft Power—onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre May 3 – June 10, 2018—admires and respects one another is an understatement. It might be more suitable to say that Soft Power playwright and lyricist David Henry Hwang, composer Jeanine Tesori, director Leigh Silverman, and choreographer Sam...

Three's a Crowd, Four's a Collaboration

If you’re doing something new, there is always a sense of fear or foreboding, but you’re in new ground and you have to get out your machete and cut a new path, superstar composer Jeanine Tesori explained in an interview a few years ago....

Five Reasons Jeanine Tesori Inspires us to Go for our Dreams

As the self-described only even nominally Chinese person who’s ever written a Broadway show, Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang has gone on quite a few meetings with Chinese entertainment producers who want to create a Broadway show of their own. Why are they interested? Two words that also happen to be the title of Hwang and Jeanine T...

‘Soft Power’: The Show, The Theory, The Inspiration

Zakiya Young was a New York stage veteran when she moved to Los Angeles last year to focus on her television and film career. I got out here and saw it’s just about who you know and getting in the door, she recalled. Yet the opposite proved to be true in how she landed her part in Spamilton at the Kirk Douglas Theatre thanks to Equity Principal A...

From an Open Casting Call to the Douglas Stage

If you think the only show Spamilton spoofs is the famous You-Know-What, guess again! Creator Gerard Alesandrini, who is also the writer/director behind Forbidden Broadway, has created a gut-busting show that is bursting with an incredible range of musical references.

Songs to Get You Pumped for 'Spamilton'

Forget about show-stopping finales. In Jersey Boys, the smash-hit musical about the rise and fall of The Four Seasons, the pinnacle of excitement comes about 45 minutes into the first act. That’s when back-to-back presentations of three of the group’s biggest hits—Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, and Walk Like a Man—are greeted with enough th...

What Really Happened—Rick Elice Talks about the "Jersey Boys" Phenomenon

It’s pretty easy to identify a boy band. Are five guys between the ages of 13 and 30 standing near each other, wearing matching outfits, and harmonizing? Are they wearing a lot of hair gel? If the answer to all of these questions is a yes, chances are, you’ve spotted a boy band. In honor of the arrival of our favorite boy group—Frankie Valli...

Boy Bands to Swoon Over from the 1960s to Now

In a certain sense, quests for a full belly set much of the action of Into The Woods (onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre through May 14, 2017) into motion. The Baker and his wife have been cursed with childlessness ever since his father stole vegetables from the garden of their neighbor, the Witch. Little Red Ridinghood wishes for a loaf of bread to b...

At Stephen Sondheim's Table

Stephen Sondheim is about as close to a living legend as you can get. The composer/lyricist of nearly 20 musicals has explored everything from the demon barber of Fleet St. to the fairy tale characters of Into The Woods (which plays the Ahmanson Theatre through May 14, 2017). In our 50-year history, Center Theatre Group has produced many of Sondhei...

Sondheim on our Stages

Fifty years ago this month, on April 9, 1967, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre were dedicated at a star-studded event. Actor Gregory Peck proclaimed, “Tonight marks the realization of what seemed an impossible dream. Since we didn’t inherit great cultural monuments, we had to create our own.” Speaking before the opening production at...

Our 50th Anniversary, A Sondheim Classic, and a Celebration of L.A. Theatre

"Once upon a time in a far-off kingdom lived a family, a sad young lad, and a childless baker with his wife," starts the fairy tale-rich musical masterpiece Into The Woods, which plays the Ahmanson Theatre through May 14, 2017. Cast member Darick Pead describes the show as "a story about all the fairy tales that you know and love and what happens a...

Once Upon a Time…on Center Theatre Group’s Stages