Center Theatre Group News & Blogs

Performances Begin for 'Heisenberg' at the Taper

Center Theatre Group — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0700

PERFORMANCES BEGIN JUNE 28 FOR “HEISENBERG” PLAYING AT THE MARK TAPER FORUM THROUGH AUGUST 6, 2017

Denis Arndt and Mary-Louise Parker Reprise the Roles They Played on Broadway

Preview performances begin June 28 for “Heisenberg” at the Mark Taper Forum. Written by Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens, “Heisenberg” opens July 6 and will continue through August 6, 2017.

Directed by Drama Desk Award winner Mark Brokaw and featuring Tony nominee Denis Arndt and Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker, the creative team for “Heisenberg” includes Mark Wendland (scenic design), Michael Krass (costume design), Austin R. Smith (lighting design) and David Van Tieghem (sound design).

Amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, Georgie (Parker) spots Alex (Arndt), a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This electric encounter thrusts these two strangers into a fascinating and life-changing game as “Heisenberg” brings to blazing, theatrical life the uncertain and often comical sparring match that is human connection.

When “Heisenberg” received its world premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2015, Ben Brantley of The New York Times called the play “a probing work that considers the multiplicity of alternatives that could shape our lives at every moment.” On returning to see the Broadway run in 2016, Brantley said “Heisenberg” “seems more shimmeringly and satisfyingly elusive each time I see it.” Adding that Parker and Arndt are “the sexiest couple on a New York stage just now.”

Mark Kennedy of Associated Press said playwright Simon Stephens “does nothing less than alchemy here. He captures new love and old love at the same time, hope and fear, the new world and the old. He's turned the simplest of tales — boy meets girl — into an unexpectedly rich thing with just two chairs, two tables and two actors.” Jesse Green of New York Magazine added, “Under Mark Brokaw’s exquisite direction, the two actors could not be better.” “Heisenberg” was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club and received its world premiere in the summer of 2015 as part of The Studio at Stage II – Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series, MTC's initiative to bring bold new work to audiences. “Heisenberg” was then transferred to the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2016.

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, has become one of the country’s most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over the past four and a half decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including six Pulitzer Prizes and 20 Tony Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street).

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ leading nonprofit theatre company, programming seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation’s leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles.

Tickets for “Heisenberg” are available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or at the Center Theatre Group Box Office. Tickets range from $25 – $95 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Mark Taper Forum is located at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012.

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June 23, 2017

Cast Announced For 'King of the Yees' at the Douglas

Center Theatre Group — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0700

“KING OF THE YEES” CAST ANNOUNCED FOR WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP’S KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE

Lauren Yee’s New Play Will Run July 9 Through August 6, 2017

Center Theatre Group has announced the casting for the world premiere production of “King of the Yees” by Lauren Yee. Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody and produced in association with Goodman Theatre, “King of the Yees” begins previews July 9, opens July 16 and continues through August 6, 2017, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

The cast includes, in alphabetical order, Rammel Chan, Francis Jue, Angela Lin, Stephenie Soohyun Park and Daniel Smith.

The creative team includes set design by William Boles, costume design by Izumi Inaba, lighting design by Heather Gilbert, sound design by Mikhail Fiksel, projections by Mike Tutaj, casting by Adam Belcuore, CSA and Erica Sartini-Combs, and dramaturgy by Tanya Palmer. David S. Franklin is the production stage manager.

For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush. But when her father goes missing, Lauren plunges into the rabbit hole of San Francisco’s Chinatown to confront a world both foreign and familiar. “King of the Yees” is a joyride across cultural, national and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.

Lauren Yee’s plays include “Cambodian Rock Band” (South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival), “Ching Chong China Man” (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and Mu Performing Arts), “The Great Leap” (Denver Center for the Performing Art’s New Play Summit), “The Hatmaker’s Wife” (Playwrights Realm and Moxie), “Hookman” (Encore Theatre, Company One and Steep Theatre), “in a word” (San Francisco Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, Strawdog Theatre Company and Lesser America), “Samsara” (Victory Gardens Theater, Single Carrot Theatre and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwright Conference) and “The Tiger Among Us” (MAP Fund and Mu Performing Arts). Yee is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and has received commissions from the Denver Center of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3, Mixed Blood Theatre, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Repertory and Trinity Repertory Company. She received her B.A. from Yale University and MFA from UCSD.

Tickets for “King of the Yees” are available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, at the Center Theatre Group Box Office at the Ahmanson Theatre or at the Kirk Douglas Theatre Box Office two hours prior to performance. Tickets range from $25 – $70 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City, CA 90232. Ample free parking and restaurants are adjacent.

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June 8, 2017

'Crazy for You' Announced at the Ahmanson

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 16:06:00 -0700

PRE-BROADWAY PRODUCTION OF “CRAZY FOR YOU” ANNOUNCED AS PART OF CENTER THEATRE GROUP’S 51ST SEASON AT THE AHMANSON THEATRE

FIVE-TIME TONY-WINNING DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER SUSAN STROMAN RETURNS TO THE SHOW THAT LAUNCHED HER CAREER

With Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and Book by Two-Time Tony Nominee Ken Ludwig, “Crazy for You” Will Play Los Angeles February 7 through March 18, 2018

Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie and Broadway producer Joey Parnes announced today that the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, “Crazy for You,” with music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and a book by two-time Tony Award nominee Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor”), will be produced by Center Theatre Group in an exclusive pre-Broadway engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre. Susan Stroman (“The Producers,” “Show Boat,” “Contact”), who won the first of her five Tony Awards for choreographing the original 1992 Broadway production of the musical, will direct and choreograph this limited Los Angeles engagement which will begin performances February 7, 2018, and run through March 18, 2018.

“‘Crazy for You’ is – at its heart – a raucous musical tale about the power art has to bring life to a community and purpose to its people,” Ms. Stroman said. “It’s as resonant today as ever, and I am thrilled at the chance to re-discover this show and introduce a whole new generation to its great comedy, unabashed romance and the most choreographically-inspiring Gershwin music the world has ever known.”

“I’m thrilled that a whole new generation of theatregoers will get to see ‘Crazy for You’ at the great and glorious Ahmanson Theatre,” said Ken Ludwig. “It will be a treat for me to roll up my sleeves, revisit the show and spend time once again in Deadrock, Nevada with Bobby, Polly and Bela Zangler.”

Featuring a score of showstoppers by George and Ira Gershwin including “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Slap That Bass” and “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Crazy for You” is an irresistibly funny valentine to the American musicals of the 1930s. The book by Ken Ludwig brings audiences into a world of cowboys and showgirls, where a Wall Street guy and a Main Street gal can fall madly in love, put on a show and dance their way to happiness.

When “Crazy for You” first premiered on Broadway in 1992, Frank Rich raved in The New York Times, “When future historians try to find the exact moment at which Broadway finally rose up to grab the musical back from the British, they just may conclude that the revolution began last night. The shot was fired at the Shubert Theater, where a riotously entertaining show called ‘Crazy for You’ uncorked the American musical’s classic blend of music, laughter, dancing, sentiment and showmanship with a freshness and confidence rarely seen… ‘Crazy for You’ scrapes away decades of cabaret and jazz and variety-show interpretations to reclaim the Gershwins’ standards, in all their glorious youth, for the dynamism of the stage.” It went on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design of a Musical, playing 1,622 performances.

“Crazy for You” completes Center Theatre Group’s 2017 – 2018 Season at the Ahmanson Theatre, which includes the previously announce productions of “The Red Shoes,” “Bright Star,” “Something Rotten!,” “Soft Power” and “The Humans.” Tickets for “Crazy for You” are currently available by season ticket membership only. For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call the Exclusive Season Ticket Hotline at (213) 972-4444. To purchase season memberships online, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/Ahmanson.

Center Theatre Group offers a number of services to accommodate persons requiring mobility, vision and hearing access. For more information, please visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/ACCESS.

Bank of America and Delta Airlines are season sponsors for Center Theatre Group’s 2017-2018 season at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Bios: Susan Stroman (Direction/Choreography) A five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer, she received her first Tony Award for her choreography in the original Broadway production of “Crazy for You.” Her work has been honored with Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and a record five Astaire Awards. Most recently she directed the new Off-Broadway play “Dot” for the Vineyard Theatre. She directed and choreographed “The Producers,” winner of a record-making 12 Tony Awards including Best Direction and Best Choreography. She co-created, directed and choreographed the Tony Award-winning musical “Contact” for Lincoln Center Theater, which was honored with a 2003 Emmy Award for Live at Lincoln Center. Her Tony Award-nominated direction and choreography for the critically acclaimed musical “The Scottsboro Boys” continues to garner praise with her recent productions at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, the Ahmanson Theatre and for the Young Vic in London’s West End, where it was honored with the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical. Other Broadway credits include “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Big Fish,” “Show Boat,” “Oklahoma!,” “The Frogs,” “The Music Man,” “Thou Shalt Not,” “Steel Pier,” “Big” and “Picnic.” Off-Broadway credits include “Flora the Red Menace,” “And the World Goes Round,” “Happiness” and “The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville” starring Mandy Patinkin and Taylor Mac. For 10 years she choreographed Madison Square Garden’s annual spectacular “A Christmas Carol.” She made her Metropolitan Opera debut directing and choreographing “The Merry Widow,” starring Renée Fleming. For the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., she directed and choreographed the new musical “Little Dancer.” For New York City Ballet, she created “Double Feature,” a full-length ballet featuring the music of Irving Berlin and Walter Donaldson, and “For the Love of Duke,” featuring the music of Duke Ellington. Other ballet credits include “But Not For Me” for the Martha Graham Company and “Take Five…More or Less” for Pacific Northwest Ballet. Her choreography received an Emmy Award nomination for the HBO presentation “Liza – Live from Radio City Music Hall,” starring Liza Minnelli. She received the American Choreography Award for her work in Columbia Pictures feature film “Center Stage.” She directed and choreographed “The Producers: The Movie Musical,” nominated for four Golden Globes. She is the recipient of the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater and a member of the Theater Hall of Fame in New York City.

Ken Ludwig (Book) is a two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright whose work is performed throughout the world in more than 30 countries and over 20 languages. He has written 24 plays and musicals, with six Broadway productions and seven in London’s West End. His Tony-winning play “Lend Me A Tenor,” was called “one of the classic comedies of the 20th century” by the Washington Post. Other plays and musicals include “Crazy For You” (five years on Broadway, Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical), “Moon Over Buffalo” (Broadway and West End), “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (Broadway), “Treasure Island” (West End), “Twentieth Century” (Broadway), “Leading Ladies,” “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” “The Game’s Afoot,” “The Fox on the Fairway,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Beaux’ Stratagem,” “Baskerville” and “A Comedy of Tenors.” His critically acclaimed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” premiered this season to sold out houses at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. He has received commissions from the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Globe and the Bristol Old Vic, and he is a Sallie B. Goodman Fellow of the McCarter Theatre. His many awards and honors include the Charles MacArthur Award, two Helen Hayes Awards, the SETC Distinguished Career Award, the Edgar Award for Best Mystery and the Edwin Forrest Award for Contributions to the American Theater. His book “How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare” (Random House) won the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book and his essays are published by the Yale Review. Ken’s plays and musicals are produced somewhere in the United States and abroad every night of the year.

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June 7, 2017

Cast is Set for 'The Curious Incident...' at the Ahmanson Theatre

Center Theatre Group — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 14:23:00 -0700

CAST IS SET FOR “THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME” PLAYING AT CENTER THEATRE GROUP/AHMANSON THEATRE AUGUST 2 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

Tony and Olivier Award-Winning Best Play

A New Play by Simon Stephens

Adapted From the Novel by Mark Haddon

Directed by Marianne Elliott

Casting is set for the Los Angeles engagement of the National Theatre production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” presented at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. The Tony Award-winning new play by Simon Stephens is adapted from Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel and directed by Tony winner Marianne Elliott (“War Horse”). “Curious Incident…” previews August 2, opens August 3 and continues through September 10, 2017.

The cast will include Juilliard graduate Adam Langdon as Christopher, Gene Gillette (“War Horse”) as Ed, Felicity Jones Latta (“Metamorphoses”) as Judy, Maria Elena Ramirez (“Fish in the Dark”) as Siobhan and Amelia White (“The Heiress”) as Mrs. Alexander. The ensemble includes Brian Robert Burns (“War Horse”), Francesca Choy-Kee (“Disgraced”), Josephine Hall (“Les Liaisons Dangereuses”), John Hemphill (“School of Rock”), Robyn Kerr (“Dark Vanilla Jungle”), Kathy McCafferty (“Dada Woof Papa Hot”), Tim McKiernan (“War Horse”), J. Paul Nicholas (“Blood and Gifts”), Geoffrey Wade (“Translations”) and Tim Wright (“Curious Incident”/Broadway). Benjamin Wheelwright (“Curious Incident”/Broadway) will play Christopher at certain performances.

The production is designed by Tony Award winner Bunny Christie and Tony Award-winning video designer Finn Ross, with lighting by Tony Award winner Paule Constable, choreography by Scott Graham and Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly, music by Adrian Sutton, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph, and hair and wig design by David Brian Brown. Casting is by Daniel Swee, CSA and Cindy Tolan, CSA.

In “… this highly original, deeply engaging play” (Elysa Gardner, USA Today), 15-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain; he is exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and a journey that will change his life forever.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times said this play is “… one of the most fully immersive works ever to wallop Broadway. Be prepared to have all your emotional and sensory buttons pushed, including a few you may have not known existed.” Richard Zoglin of Time Magazine said that “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is “… a play that works on every level — crowd-pleasing, eye-opening, life-affirming and unmissable.”

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” transferred to London’s West End, following a sold-out run at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre in 2012. The production received seven 2013 Olivier Awards, including Best New Play and continues to play to sold-out houses at the Gielgud Theatre in London. A UK and Ireland Tour launched in 2014 and a second tour of the UK and Ireland launched in January of this year.

“Curious Incident…,” the longest running play on Broadway in the past 10 years, opened on October 5, 2014, at the Barrymore Theatre, winning five Tony Awards including Best Play, six Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, five Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding Production of a Broadway Play and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play.

The North American tour is produced by Stuart Thompson, Tim Levy for NT America, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures Inc., Lisa Burger for NT Productions, Bob Boyett, Roger and William Berlind, Scott M. Delman, Roy Furman, Glass Half Full Productions, Ruth Hendel, JFLT TLP Partnership, Jon B. Platt, Scott Rudin, Triple Play Broadway and The Shubert Organization.

Bank of America is the season sponsor for the Ahmanson Theatre and Delta Airlines is the official airline sponsor.

Tickets for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” are available by calling (213) 972-4400, online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or by visiting the Center Theatre Group Box Office located at the Ahmanson Theatre. Tickets range from $25 – $130 (ticket prices are subject to change). The Ahmanson Theatre is located at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, 90012.

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June 7, 2017