Sometimes it takes a grande dame to play a grande dame. For months Marie-Christine Barrault has traveled France playing the noted writer and intellectual Marguerite Yourcenar, the author of …
An aerialist, a magician and a stand-up comedian walk into a warehouse. … There should be a joke attached to that opening, but it's just a regular night at "Scot Nery's Boobie Trap." The v…
Thespians, a superstitious lot, insist that "Macbeth" should never be directly referred to inside a theater. If an actor accidentally forgets to call Shakespeare's malevolent masterpiece "th…
Mary Zimmerman watches her "Guys and Dolls" actors rehearse a scene. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times) When theater director-adapter Mary Zimmerman was bestowed a MacArthur Foundation…
In the center of the rehearsal room stands a cluster of men of all ages and sizes. They're in street clothes, but from their loose postures and colorful New York patois, they are instantly r…
When it comes to writing music for the plays of William Shakespeare, few living composers can claim as much experience as Patrick Doyle, the two-time Academy Award nominee who has collaborat…
"Grey Gardens" will replace "Titanic the Musical" in the Ahmanson Theatre's current season, Center Theatre Group announced Tuesday. Broadway mainstays Rachel York and Betty Buckley will star…
Does Los Angeles need a true center, a downtown in the traditional sense? How about a reasonable facsimile of one, something just plausible enough to fool the visitors from out of town? Woul…
This fall season has provided Los Angeles theatergoers the opportunity to become better acquainted with the most exciting generation of playwrights to have burst onto the scene since I becam…
Playwright Young Jean Lee wants to brutalize you. She wants to get in your face and make you, the audience, squirm, so that you leave the theater questioning not just what you've seen but yo…
When the drizzle outside is as continuous as the chatter inside, you can be sure the play you're watching is set in Ireland. Such is the case in John Patrick Shanley's gentle dramatic comedy…
The producers of a recent Los Angeles production of "Carrie," a musical based on the popular Stephen King novel, are being sued by the advertising agency that created the show's local and…
The cast of Deaf West Theatre's revival of the musical "Spring Awakening" will give a special performance of the show today at the White House -- nude scene and all "- and it will be live-st…
Four of the six plays in La Jolla Playhouse's 2016-17 season will be world premieres, including veteran playwright Joe DiPietro diving into the seamy side of movie history with "Hollywood," …
Will Eno, a playwright who's been a critics' favorite for the past decade but has been largely missing from L.A. stages, will finally get a prominent production here, thanks to the star powe…
Singer, actress and filmmaker Barbra Streisand and Itzhak Perlman, one of this era's most honored classical musicians, are arts figures who will receive American's highest civilian honor, th…
Playwright John Patrick Shanley, who lives in Brooklyn overlooking the East River, spoke over the phone from this aerie, frequently breaking into a raspy, rust-encrusted laugh that sounded l…
Shakespeare's histories can prove baffling, particularly in the aggregate. England's monarchical succession is tough to grasp for all but the most dedicated scholars. However, those who thin…
L.A. Dance Project founding director Benjamin Millepied, who left Los Angeles to be director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet, will return next month to perform with former New York City B…
In "Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich," which Flemish choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker brought to Royce Hall on Tuesday night, one plus one equals two, allowing for an…
Knowledge has been a central subject of Western drama since Oedipus went on a manhunt and discovered that he himself was the culprit. Who are we? What are we doing here? And how shall we car…
I'm Kelly Scott, the arts and culture editor of the Los Angeles Times. A computer controlled artificial deluge, back-seat opera, simulated whale hunting - it's been an unconventional stretch…
The West Coast premiere of "The Art of Falling" brought to the Ahmanson Theatre on Friday night some uproarious sketch-comedy supplemented and occasionally eclipsed by first-rate contemporar…
"Hello, Dolly!" is still glowin' and goin' strong as one of the signature, regularly revived American musicals, but the 1964 show about turn-of-the-century matchmaker Dolly Levi, with songs …
Choreographer Rudy Perez may be 85 and legally blind, but when he strolls along the sidewalks near Hollywood and Vine on a recent afternoon, his vision is crystal clear. Gripping his cane, t…