James Sims - Page 17

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today nominated Olga Garay to serve as the City's next General Manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs...

Never has a political mockery been more in need than in these turbulent, and let's face it, horrendously tragic times. And when the Commander-in-Chief is a 'smirking chimp' with a weaker grasp of the English language than a fifth grader, there is no better way to stick it to the man than with a sharp-witted musical. Strike up the spin...

There is something magical afoot at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as a wondrously imaginative collaboration between Deaf West Theatre and the Center Theatre Group is making a World Premiere in the form of Sleeping Beauty Wakes, a New Musical Fable...

David Mamet deserves a slap on his creative wrist for penning such a nonsensical work as his 1974 play Squirrels, which is currently making its Southern California premiere at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica...

Musical Theatre West is set to produce the first regional premiere of the Off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz, with two former New York cast members revisiting the show for the Long Beach run...

Los Angeles is about to get a taste of Broadway as the original cast of 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' reunites for the upcoming month-long production at the Wadsworth Theatre...

Twelve Angry Men, Roundabout Theatre's national touring production, opened Thursday night at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, with a handful of character actors turning out to support the cast which stars former television alums Richard Thomas and George Wendt...

The lifeline of Smokey Joe's Café, that long-running Broadway revue, resides in its high-energy delivery. With a purely song driven format, the Cabrillo Music Theatre staged the crowd pleaser at the Countrywide Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks in a limited engagement which ends April 1...

The verdict is in, Twelve Angry Men is a hit. The Roundabout Theatre Company's touring production of the Reginald Rose courtroom drama is currently in session at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and is injecting newfound passion into this classic story...

Distracted, a world premiere play by Lisa Loomer, opened Sunday afternoon at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles. With Rita Wilson, wife of Tom Hanks, starring in the show, many Hollywood friends and turned out on the sunny afternoon for the play and after party, at the adjacent Dorothy Chandler Pavilion...

Upon first entering the Mark Taper Forum, distraction ensues with three large television screens barraging the theatre with television clips ranging from CNN to the 'Price is Right,' all hoping to establish the overwhelming drowning feeling created in a world full of immediate and all too accessible information coming from anywhere and everywhere...

Leave it to a former 'Daily Show With Jon Stewart' correspondent to twist a situation, which on face value could be predisposed to sheer melancholy, into a wry satirical commentary on the poorly operated Los Angeles penal system...

That's a wrap, and it seems as though 'nerd' is the word. NBC's reality casting series, 'Grease: You're the One That I Want' finished with a bang Sunday night crowning Max Crumm and Laura Osnes the leads, Danny and Sandy, in the upcoming Broadway revival of Grease...

The story is perhaps better known among the modern generation of playgoers than any other biographical production in theatrical repertory. It could thus be imagined that any such show is doomed to come off as stale or tired, yet it is the very fact that the multi-generational awareness of The Diary of Anne Frank is so abundant that the latest incarnation at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura works so well....

UPRIGHT Cabaret, on March 9, was up to their unique musical celebration of up and coming performers along with the Broadway and Hollywood stars who frequent the monthly event at La Boheme restaurant in West Hollywood...

Finally, after what has to have been one of the longest audition processes for a Broadway show, NBC's 'Grease: You're the One That I Want' narrowed down the nation-wide search for Danny and Sandy to the final four, whittling away the lesser talents along the way...

Space Therapy, a screwball comedy full of outrageous humor and shock-tainment, is Tanner's latest work, which he also directs, making its world premiere at the Zephyr Theatre in West Hollywood. This cult playwright, having co-written the long running Zombie Attack!, and more recently Oklahomo!, is up to his usual risqué fun once again...

In the constant battle of old and new, jazz pitted against R&B, conservative hair versus hip-hop fashion, the neighborhood barbershop allows each struggle to take center stage while three generations of barbers reminisce and look ahead at the changing times...

Stars of theatre, film and television gathered last weekend (March 10 and 11) for the 23rd Annual Southland Theatre Artists Goodwill Event (S.T.A.G.E.), the longest continuously running AIDS benefit in the world, raising more than $300,000 for AIDS Project Los Angeles...

In hopes of finding two virtually unknown talents to lead this summer's upcoming revival of Grease on Broadway, NBC's reality casting special, 'Grease: You're the One That I Want' reached the semi-finals round, narrowing down the Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko wannabes to six overall...