News And Blogs

You give a living thing a little chance to grow. That lyric, written by Marsha Norman for The Secret Garden, neatly captures the spirit of hope that has engaged fans of the 1911 children’s literature classic, its countless movie and TV adaptations and, of course, Norman and Lucy Simon’s 1991 Tony Award-winning musical....

Taking Time to Grow

“Sometimes since I’ve been in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy.”– Frances Hodgson Burnett, “The Secret Garden”

Inspired by The Secret Garden: Gardening Benefits that Shouldn’t Be a Secret

Ain’t Too Proud is back in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre, and the city is ready for more. Following their Pre-Broadway performance in 2018, the show went on to garner 12 Tony Award nominations and win the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography. Now, audiences and fans of The Temptations (sometimes referred to as “The Temps”) are flocking...

The Legacy of The Temptations Lives on at the Ahmanson Theatre

Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, opening the Kirk Douglas Theatre season this February, recounts Wong’s rise to “mutual-aid doomsday cult leader” and “sweatshop overlord” after creating a community of Aunties to sew masks for vulnerable communities at the start of the pandemic. This group then grew nationwide, and her performance about...

Getting to know Kristina Wong

This month’s 2:22 – A Ghost Story at the Ahmanson Theatre follows a couple and their friends as they attempt to discover what is haunting their home at 2:22 am each evening. But 2:22 – A Ghost Story isn’t the only spectral sensation to have appeared on our stages. Take a look back at some of the spooky stories that have graced our stages....

A Haunted History: Ghastly Ghosts of Center Theatre Group’s Past

Mike Birbiglia’s The Old Man and the Pool begins performances at the end of July at the Mark Taper Forum. This is his second production with Center Theatre Group, his first being The New One, which played at the Ahmanson Theatre in 2019. It is also his fifth solo production with both director Seth Barrish and scenic designer Beowulf Boritt. Thro...

Remembering How to Swim with Mike Birbiglia

Creating a new benchmark for Broadway, Hadestown demanded that theater make space for diverse voices. The show’s modern premise reflects the values of our changing culture through a transformative musical experience that reimagines Greek mythology. In 2019, it garnered 14 TONY nominations, winning eight of them, including Best New Musical. Critic...

Diversity and the Dynamic Women Behind 'Hadestown'

Could Hadestown writer and composer, Anaïs Mitchell have subconsciously predicted key elements of the world’s most devastating global crisis? The show’s world is one of suffering. Power and wealth reign supreme; the poor go hungry; seasons are unstable, and love is lost. In the real world, COVID-19 wreaks havoc, systematic racism forces persis...

'Hadestown’s' Hope and Healing Powers

From musicals to stage plays to miniseries and films, adaptations of A Christmas Carol continue to be produced, performed, and patronized. During Christmastime, homes are decorated, specialty dishes are made, carolers sing, photos are taken with Santa, gifts are purchased, and A Christmas Carol is enjoyed. Charles Dickens’ classic story of a co...

The Magic of 'A Christmas Carol' Lives On

Actor Gregg Daniel (HBO’s Insecure) currently appears in The Duat by playwright Roger Q. Mason and director Taibi Magar as part of our series Not a Moment, But a Movement, in collaboration with Watts Village Theater Company and The Fire This Time Festival. Filmed live at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and available on demand through August 12, 2021, T...

Meet Gregg Daniel of 'The Duat'

When Alex Alpharaoh was two months old, he and his 15-year-old mother were almost killed in a bomb blast in La Limonada, a shantytown in Guatemala City. To escape the violence, they began their journey to the United States, where they would start their lives anew in Los Angeles, albeit in the shadows, undocumented.

Out of the Shadows and onto the Stage