News And Blogs

If we traveled back 70 years in American theatre, a booming parade of sweeping love ballads and uplifting melodic celebrations would welcome us. It’s not dissimilar to the music onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre May 3 – June 10, 2018 for Soft Power, the new show from David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori....

From Revivals to Reconstruction

Tony-Award®-winning composer Jeanine Tesori is known for translating America’s most iconic musical styles to the stage with shows like Caroline, or Change and Fun Home. But even if you appreciate the blend of eras and references that fill her music, don’t call her work “pastiche.”...

Jeanine Tesori’s Musical Patchwork (not to Be Confused with Pastiche)

What does American musical theatre look like if all I have is a bunch of Youtube videos? This was one question choreographer Sam Pinkleton used to guide his process in choreographing Soft Power, David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s World premiere musical fantasia playing at the Ahmanson May 3 – June 10, 2018. The play’s “reverse appropria...

An All-American Dance Off

Playwright David Henry Hwang knows a thing or two about artistic tropes and stereotypes about Asians, a topic that several of his plays have thoughtfully grappled with. Yet Hwang admitted—in a conversation with Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie—that The King and I still holds a special place in his heart. There’s this com...

When Theatre Royalty Take On Real-World Royalty

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