Musical Theatre Guild Moves to Santa Monica's Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre; Announces New Season

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, has announced an exciting quartet of shows, all with film ties, to celebrate its eighteenth season of Broadway in Concert musicals and in addition, a move to Santa Monica's Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre.

The company of professional performers, who present concert-staged readings of seldom seen musicals, has been a resident company at the Alex Theatre in Glendale for many years. Due to an upcoming major renovation project at that venue, their Glendale season was first shortened, then when construction deadlines were extended, needed to be cancelled.

This new partnership with the beautiful, state-of-the-art Moss Theatre at New Roads School is an exciting step in reaching a Westside audience for this award-winning group. The Ann and Jerry Moss Theater is part of the Capshaw-Spielberg Center for Arts and Educational Justice, a project of New Roads School and New Visions Foundation. Completed in February, the theater seats 344 and has acoustics engineered by Yasuhisa Toyota, acoustician for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The Theater is located at New Roads School, The Herb Alpert Educational Village, 3131 Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica.

In addition to the venue change, the company will present their concerts on Sunday evenings rather than their normal Monday performance, allowing many patrons with tight work schedules to attend. The group will no longer be presenting Sunday matinee performances at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

The MTG 2013-2014 "Musical Theatre Guild Goes to the Movies" season includes: WONDERFUL TOWN, DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, RUTHLESS and CITY OF ANGELS.

Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green

Book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, based on their play My Sister Eileen,

which is itself based on the collection of short stories by Ruth McKenney of the same name.

Eileen is a beautiful innocent from Ohio seeking fame as an actress on Broadway. Ruth is Eileen's older sister, who wants to be a writer, but must protect Eileen from the unspeakable evils and dangers they're sure they'll find in New York City in 1935. Wonderful Town won five 1953 Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress. With a score that includes "A Little Bit in Love", "One Hundred Easy Ways (To Lose a Man)", "Wrong Note Rag" and "Ohio", why, oh why, oh why-oh? Why would you miss the first Leonard Bernstein show that MTG has ever presented?

Sunday, November 17, 2013 - 7:00 PM - Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre, Santa Monica

Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston, Book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan Based on the 1924 play "La Morte in Vacanza" by Alberto Casella; adapted for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris

Based on the 1929 play, with a lush score by Maury Yeston (Nine, Titanic), Death is sick to, well, death of being everyone's dreaded final visitor. He takes a weekend off and assumes a human guise to mingle with mortals and understand human emotion. During his "vacation", he falls in love with an engaged young woman and learns about love and sacrifice. Time Magazine ranked the show among the best of the year and commented of the show's brief 2011 run: "Death deserved to live on." Our sincerest condolences if you miss this West Coast Premiere.

Sunday, February 9, 2014 - 7:00 PM - Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre, Santa Monica

Music by Marvin Laird, Book & Lyrics by Joel Paley

Take equal parts The Bad Seed, Gypsy, All About Eve and Mame, add a dash of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and you've got the hilarious cocktail that isRuthless! The Musical. It is infused with child actors, agents, managers, the mother of all stage mothers and the mother of the mother of all stage mothers! A hysterical and tuneful send up of all things "show biz", Ruthless! The Musical is the winner of the New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics.

Sunday, April 6, 2014 - 7:00 PM - Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre, Santa Monica

Music by Cy Coleman, Lyrics by David Zippel

Book by Larry Gelbart

An homage to the film noir genre of motion pictures that rose to prominence in the 1940s, City of Angels weaves together the "real" world of the writer getting his movie made and the "reel" world of the detective solving his case and how the two worlds collide. With a typically jazzy, brassy Cy Coleman score and a typically hysterical Larry Gelbart book, it's no mystery why this show won both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Score, Book and Musical!

Sunday, June 8, 2014 - 7:00 PM - Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre, Santa Monica

Season tickets are on sale now directly through the Musical Theatre Guild website or by calling 818-848-6844.

The Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre is located at 3131 Olympic Blvd. in Santa Monica, CA on the campus of the New Roads School.

Single tickets will be available in August at www.musicaltheatreguild.com or by calling 818-848-6844. Visit www.musicaltheatreguild.com for detailed information.