(Michael Hirshon / For The Times)
The 52 best places to see plays and musicals in Southern California
- Share via
“Is L.A. a theater town?”
The question, typically posed with New York condescension, fails to recognize the obvious reality that L.A. is a city of actors. True, most of them are here to make their names on-screen, but the talent pool rivals those of more established theater capitals. Don’t bother, however, trying to convince those denizens of New York and London who cling to old stereotypes of L.A., perhaps to compensate for their own inferior weather.
Southern California, of course, boasts some of the most prestigious playhouses in the country. The Mark Taper Forum, Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe are all recipients of the Regional Theatre Tony Award. The Geffen Playhouse, once considered the entertainment industry’s local theater, has entered a new era of bold vision and integrity under the leadership of playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. It would surprise no one if the Geffen Playhouse is similarly honored in the next few years.
East West Players, the Latino Theater Company, Ebony Repertory Theatre and Native Voices at the Autry reflect the cultural, ethnic and racial diversity of a majority-minority city. The avant-garde is admittedly not L.A.’s strong suit, but REDCAT and CAP UCLA have filled the breach hosting interdisciplinary performance work from all over the world.
Pasadena Playhouse celebrated its 100th birthday Saturday night by announcing the company has regained ownership of its landmark Elmer Grey building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Getty Villa’s annual outdoor classical theater production treats the canonical treasures of ancient Greece and Rome not with kid gloves but with an exploratory 21st century spirit. And A Noise Within has cultivated in its loyal audience an understanding that the classical repertory exists in the present tense and can speak directly to us today.
The stage is still the basis for acting training, and there comes a time when even the most successful film and TV actors want to return to their roots. Those with civic consciences are happy to tread the boards close to home. When Tom Hanks chose to play Falstaff in Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles’ production “Henry IV,” he did so at an outdoor venue, the Japanese Garden on the West Los Angeles VA campus, that was only a short commute from his own backyard. Annette Bening, a stalwart champion of L.A. theater, has notably performed at the Mark Taper Forum, the Geffen Playhouse and UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.
Beyond the A-listers, there’s a vast population of working actors hungry for opportunities to hone their craft. It’s to satisfy this need that L.A. has built up an extensive array of small, shoestring companies. This scene is decentralized, dispersed within an uncoordinated sprawl of regional fiefdoms, but the independent spirit has endowed many of these companies with astonishing capacities for survival.
After 16 seasons, Rogue Machine Theatre co-founding producing artistic director John Perrin Flynn has announced his retirement at the conclusion of current season.
Indeed, it’s this network of 99-seat theaters — those houses with 99 seats or fewer — that are the lifeblood of the local theater scene. The cultural landscape would be unimaginable without Rogue Machine Theatre, the Fountain Theatre, Echo Theater Company and Boston Court Pasadena. The resilience, imagination and integrity of these small companies have demonstrated that heart matters more than size.
L.A. is indisputably a theater town, but a theater town that operates by its own rules and urban logic, neither of which is easy for an outsider to crack. What follows is a curated list of some of the most essential venues in the city and surrounding region. Not meant to be comprehensive, this compilation tilts toward companies that have been active in recent seasons and have a dedicated home. Nomadic ensembles and those that have been dormant or less prominent in the post-pandemic recovery phase have been excluded from this selection. But the ecology of L.A. theater is ever-changing and ever-adapting, calling for updates and new classifications. Stay tuned for future lists and supplemental guides.
— Charles McNulty
Showing Places
Center Theatre Group
Downtown L.A. Performing Arts Theater
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The doyenne of Los Angeles theater, Center Theatre Group comprises three distinct venues: the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The Taper, the historic flagship space founded by Gordon Davidson, launched the first full production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2” as well as the premieres of Michael Cristofer’s “The Shadow Box,” Luis Valdez’s’ “Zoot Suit,” Mark Medoff’s “Children of a Lesser God,” and Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.” The Davidson heyday, when the Taper was truly the center of Los Angeles’ theatrical universe, is over. But artistic director Snehal Desai and managing director-CEO Meghan Pressman are striving to rebuild an audience for serious theater at the Music Center, where the Ahmanson and the Taper reside. Harsh economic reality has put a crimp in artistic ambition. (The Taper had to suspend programming for more than a year in the rocky post-pandemic period.) Yet the Ahmanson has been riding the storm with a strong selection of Broadway tour productions, and it’s only a matter of time before the risk-taking at the Taper starts to pay dividends. The fate of the Douglas in Culver City is less clear. But hope springs eternal for CTG’s most experimental space, located in one of L.A.‘s most vibrant neighborhoods for dining and people-watching.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Geffen Playhouse
Westwood Performing Arts Theater
(Hunter Kerhart)
Located next to UCLA’s Westwood campus, the Geffen Playhouse was once considered L.A.‘s most Hollywood-friendly theater. Founder Gil Cates, who for years was the producer of the Academy Awards telecast, wanted L.A.’s entertainment industry to call the Geffen Playhouse home. Annette Bening, Bryan Cranston, Neil Patrick Harris and Ed Harris are among the luminaries who have appeared at the theater. Occasionally, the star casting has gone astray, and plays without much heft or higher purpose have been given the green light; at other times, a classic has been resurrected seemingly at the bidding of an underemployed celebrity. For one of the city’s preeminent playhouses, the Geffen Playhouse hasn’t always been a bastion of integrity. But there’s new life under the artistic leadership of Tarell Alvin McCraney, author of the “Brother/Sister Plays” and an Oscar-winner for “Moonlight,” which he co-wrote with filmmaker Barry Jenkins. McCraney has Hollywood cred as well as uncompromising playwriting chops, and he’s bringing to the Geffen Playhouse’s two stages — the Gil Cates Theater mainstage and the more intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater— diverse voices, underrepresented stories and stage poetry. The theater’s stock is rising. McCraney, who teaches playwriting at Yale, has a sharp eye for emerging talent, and he pays theatergoers the greatest respect by refusing to underestimate them.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Performing Arts Theater
(Jeff Lorch )
Producing artistic director Danny Feldman has not only stabilized but artistically elevated this historic playhouse, which, despite having been designated the official State Theater of California in 1937, had been on a roller-coaster ride for decades. Sheldon Epps, Feldman’s predecessor, did a remarkable job of diversifying the programming of a once-stodgy institution. But economic challenges, which led to the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, cast a pall on the theater’s future. When Feldman took the reins in 2016, Pasadena Playhouse was yet again in a state of financial crisis. His response wasn’t to constrict artistic vision but to take bigger swings. This steady, strategic ambition culminated in a six-month-long Stephen Sondheim festival in 2023 that surely played a role in the theater winning the Regional Theater Tony Award that year. Potent revivals of American musicals (“Ragtime,” “Little Shop of Horrors”) have become a house specialty. But contemporary plays and reawakened classics continue to have a prominent place on the artistic menu. The landmark building, designed by renowned architect Elmer Grey in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, returned to Playhouse ownership earlier this year. It’s the perfect capstone in the story of a theater resiliently marking its centennial year.
Show more Show less
Route Details
South Coast Repertory
Costa Mesa Performing Arts Theater
(Lance Gordon/McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners, Inc./South Coast Repertory)
Orange County’s shiny theatrical beacon has built a powerhouse reputation as an incubator of new American plays. Classics, landmarks of modern drama and musicals, are also part of the mix of this three-theater complex in Costa Mesa. SCR’s programs encompass a broad array of educational offerings and outreach initiatives, but fostering the development of new writing has long been the main order of business. The Pacific Playwrights Festival, its annual celebration of new work, still commands the attention of theater professionals across the nation. The list of commissioned and produced playwrights (Richard Greenberg, Lynn Nottage, Amy Freed, Donald Margulies, Lucas Hnath, among them) reads like a who’s who of the American theater. SCR may have lost some of its mojo in recent years, but its unwavering commitment to building up the ranks of American dramatists still sets this indispensable playhouse apart.
Show more Show less
Route Details
La Jolla Playhouse
San Diego Performing Arts Theater
(La Jolla Playhouse)
This regional theater jewel, a complex of four stages, each under 500 seats, is located on the campus of UC San Diego amid the majestic natural beauty of La Jolla. Supported by a sophisticated and artistically open-minded audience that former Artistic Director Des McAnuff deserves credit for cultivating, the Playhouse has long been a launchpad for Broadway-bound musicals, including such Tony winners as “Memphis” and “The Outsiders.” Not all the Broadway traffic has been to the theater’s credit. (The less said about “Diana, the Musical” the better.) But Christopher Ashley, a Tony-winning director (“Come From Away”) who’ll be stepping down in 2026 after nearly two decades as the Playhouse’s artistic director, has made new work his calling card. In spearheading the Without Walls (WOW) festival, a program that creates theater in unusual places, he has expanded the Playhouse’s long tradition of being a major creative laboratory for the American theater. Gregory Peck, one of the theater’s original founders, would no doubt be delighted at how this dream of a West Coast summer stock oasis has only solidified its 21st century standing as one of the preeminent regional theaters in the nation.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Old Globe
San Diego Performing Arts Theater
(Jeffrey Weiser)
Shakespeare obviously looms large at this West Coast powerhouse, modeled after the Bard’s Old Globe in London and led by Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, one of the foremost Shakespeare directors in the country. But this San Diego theater complex, offering a taste of “merrie olde England” amid the recreational splendor of Balboa Park, isn’t defined solely by its fine outdoor productions at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Two indoor theaters — the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre and the in-the-round Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre — provide prime showcases for contemporary and classic plays along with musicals that have Broadway in their sights. Where else could “The Brothers Size,” “Water by the Spoonful,” and “English” along with a modernized version of Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” and a musical adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s film “Almost Famous” all seem right at home? The inclusive mix guarantees something for everyone at San Diego’s flagship cultural institution.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Actors' Gang
Palms Performing Arts Theater
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Founding Artistic Director Tim Robbins has valiantly guided this company, located at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, while navigating his career as an Oscar-winning actor. His vision, at once socially committed and artistically rambunctious, blends commedia dell’arte-style clowning with zealous political drama. Established in 1981, the Actors’ Gang has taken its unique aesthetic on tour all over the world. Shakespeare, Dario Fo and George Orwell, along with the company’s own devised work, map out the capacious range of this Los Angeles theater, whose mission includes extensive educational and outreach initiatives, among them the renowned Prison Project, a rehabilitation program that brings theater arts workshops into correctional and reentry facilities.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Antaeus Theatre Company
Glendale Performing Arts Theater
- Route
-
- Share via
-
(Antaeus Theatre Company)
Antaeus Theatre Company, an actor-driven troupe dedicated to the classics, has answered two urgent calls: A community of actors who want to exercise their craft at the highest level and a city of theater aficionados hungering for substantive dramatic work. The Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, Antaeus’ impressive permanent home in downtown Glendale, is itself a sign of just how far this dream has come of establishing a classical theater ensemble in an entertainment capital dominated by film and television. Founding co-artistic directors Dakin Matthews and Lillian Groag’s vision, launched as a project at Center Theatre Group in 1991, has stood the test of time, despite formidable cultural and economic headwinds. Through its devotion to the most enduring plays in the theatrical canon, Antaeus (currently led by Artistic Director Nike Doukas and producing executive director Ana Rose O’Halloran) has grown in skill, stature and sensibility, educating its company members while entertaining and enlightening its audience.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Bank of America Performing Arts Center Thousand Oaks
Thousand Oaks Multi-venue performing arts center
(Bank of America Performing Arts Center)
5-Star Theatricals, an Ovation Award-winning resident musical theater production company, brings popular musicals with full, live orchestras and talented casts to the Conejo Valley. The venue also plays host to national tours of Broadway shows from the American Theatre Guild.
Route Details
Boston Court Pasadena
Pasadena Performing Arts Theater
(Boston Court)
This intimate theater in Pasadena with infrastructure to make the other 99-seat venues green with envy has scaled back its theater programming in the straitened post-pandemic environment. But guided by discerning intelligence, aesthetic courage and social conscience, it is still one of the best places in town to experience challenging and emboldened theater. A strong commitment to boundary-breaking new work continues to define the mission under Artistic Director Jessica Kubzansky. But the theater has perhaps an even more impressive track record in making the classics speak directly to our times. Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams are truly our contemporaries here. Some theaters encourage their audiences to sit back and relax. Boston Court Pasadena, understanding entertainment as a form of engagement, invites theatergoers to come to the edge of their seats.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Broad Stage Santa Monica
Santa Monica Live Theater Group
(Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)
Not just for theater, this presenter of performing arts, located at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, contains three venues including the 535-seat Eli and Edythe Broad Stage; a small black box called the Edye; and an indoor-outdoor space called the Plaza, which is usually used for live music and dancing. Most theater shows happen on the Broad stage, but programming skews mostly toward live music. Check the calendar in advance.
Show more Show less
Route Details
CAP UCLA
Westwood Performing Arts Theater
(Paul G. Ryan)
A hub of interdisciplinary performance located in and around UCLA’s beautiful Westwood campus and led by Edgar Miramontes, Center for the Art of Performance UCLA brings trailblazing artists from all over the world to perform at the recently renovated UCLA Nimoy Theater (formerly the Crest), UCLA’s Royce Hall, Freud Playhouse and UCLA Little Theater. CAP UCLA’s programming has made less room for theater in recent years, though the chance to see Elevator Repair Service’s version of “Ulysses” last season was a Joycean delight true to the center’s mission of stretching the vocabulary and grammar of modern performance.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Casa 0101 Theater
Boyle Heights Performing Arts Theater
(Casa 0101 Theater)
Founded in 2000 by “Real Women Have Curves” playwright Josefina Lopez, Casa 0101 operated for more than a decade out of a converted storefront and former bridal shop in Boyle Heights. It was a vibrant community center from the start, and as it expanded its mission to bring live theater to the Eastside, the company was able to move to a 99-seat venue a block away from its original location. The building also houses a full-time classroom for student lessons as well as playwriting , and operates an art gallery.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts
Cerritos Live Theater Group
(Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts)
This multidisciplinary performing arts venue opened in 1993 and has since hosted a wide variety of music, dance and theater productions. These days concerts are heavy on the calendar, so be sure to check the website listings for upcoming theater shows.
Route Details
Chance Theater
Anaheim Live Theater Group
(Chance Theater)
This ensemble-driven company was designated the official resident company of Anaheim by the Anaheim City Council in 2014. It is also the recipient of a National Theatre Company grant from American Theatre Wing for “nurturing a community of artists in ways that strengthen and demonstrate the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theatre.” The company puts on Broadway shows, including most recently “What the Constitution Means to Me.” It also stages new play readings and hosts both family and holiday series.
Show more Show less
Route Details
City Garage Theatre
Santa Monica Live Theater Group
(City Garage)
Currently the resident theater company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station arts hub, City Garage was founded in 1987 by Artistic Director Frédérique Michel and Executive Director Charles A. Duncombe. It is known for producing timely new work with a focus on politics and current events, as well as modernized revivals of classic shows.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Colony Theatre
Burbank Live Theater Group
(Tim Berger / Burbank Leader)
This well-respected theater company’s first 20 years were spent in a 99-seat venue in Silver Lake. Originally founded in 1975 by a group of television actors with a love of the stage (some things never change), the Colony moved to its current Burbank location in 2000. The Equity theater, now under the leadership of producing artistic director Heather Provost, is known for its thoughtful, cutting-edge productions of new work and cleverly reimagined classics.
Show more Show less
Route Details
East West Players
Downtown L.A. Performing Arts Theater
(Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times)
The nation’s longest-running Asian American theater, East West Players (founded in 1965) has created a home to honor and extend the rich tradition of Asian American theatrical excellence. The roster of dramatists, a testament to the theater’s fearless artistic range, includes Julia Cho, Qui Nguyen, Philip Kan Gotanda, Lloyd Suh and, of course, David Henry Hwang, whose name adorns East West Players’ mainstage. Musicals have long been a strong suit. East West Players has a particularly stellar track record with Stephen Sondheim. The company’s glorious talents were synergized to perfection in former Artistic Director Tim Dang’s 2024 pitch-perfect revival of “Pacific Overtures,” one of the Broadway maestro’s trickiest offerings to pull off. It is doubtful that even Broadway could have equaled what EWP achieved.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Ebony Repertory Theatre
Mid-City Live Theater Group
(Malcolm Ali)
The only African American professional equity theater company in L.A. is housed in the 400-seat Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Mid-City. It was founded in 2007 by actor Wren T. Brown. “I wanted to ensure that the so-called minority community had a place to go see theater where the standards are high and not compromised,” Brown told The Times when the theater first opened. “The minority community deserves something like this, where they can get the same kind of fare offered by the Mark Taper Forum, the Pantages or what the Shubert Theatre used to put on.” Since then, ERC has gone on to win multiple NAACP theater awards, as well as Ovation and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards, and has featured Tony award winning talent on its stages including Roger Robinson, Leslie Odom Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Billy Porter and Garth Fagan.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Echo Theater Company
Atwater Village Performing Arts Theater
(Atwater Village Theatre)
If your sensibility bends in the direction of adventurous plays of unorthodox structure, intimate scale and quirky humor, Echo Theater Company is the Los Angeles theater for you. Hard-to-categorize works by Adam Bock, Jessica Goldberg, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Lucas Hnath — the kind of boldly unconventional offerings the larger playhouses haven’t the imagination to produce — are the foundation of Artistic Director Chris Fields’ programming vision. The high-quality productions are a credit to the vital artistic community Fields has cultivated. Inventive directors who can work on a shoestring budget (such as Abigail Deser and Alana Dietze) and some of the city’s most brilliant oddball performers are as integral to Echo’s success as its deep bench of maverick dramatists.
Show more Show less
Route Details
El Portal Theatre
North Hollywood Live Theater Group
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
This North Hollywood jewel was originally built as a 1,400-seat vaudeville theater in 1926. It weathered decades of change as a movie palace before being rebuilt and reopening as a live theater venue in early 2000 after suffering damage in the Northridge earthquake. Its main auditorium is now separated into three distinct performance areas: A 42-seat Studio Theatre that houses Stuart Rogers’ Theatre Tribe; the 99-seat Monroe Forum Theatre; and the 360-seat Debbie Reynolds Mainstage. El Portal regularly hosts new play workshops and readings and is best known for staging vibrant musicals, including “Zorro,” which began as a workshop in the Forum Theatre and ended up being an Olivier Award-winning musical on London’s West End.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Fountain Theatre
East Hollywood Performing Arts Theater
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Under former Artistic Director Stephen Sachs, the Fountain became L.A.’s most public-minded 99-seat theater. Committed to speaking truth to power, this intimate playhouse has acted far more courageously than its larger, better funded brethren in town. South African playwright Athol Fugard, who had a long-standing relationship with the Fountain, helped shape the theater’s conscience as a place for both poetry and politics. Docudrama, contemporary classics and new plays that L.A. audiences might not otherwise have had the opportunity to see were chosen to remind theatergoers that they were part of a greater collective. Raymond O. Caldwell, the new artistic director who spent 16 years as a theater artist and producer in Washington, D.C., is still just putting his stamp on the place. But like Sachs, he’s a writer as well as a director with a passionate conviction in the communal imperative of this most public-minded of art forms. Make time to visit the upstairs cafe to get the full welcoming effect of a neighborhood theater serving all of Los Angeles.
Show more Show less
Route Details
For the Record Live
Inglewood Theater
- Route
-
- Share via
-
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
This live film-to-musical theater experience began running shows out of the now-shuttered Rockwell Table and Stage in Los Feliz more than a decade ago. The premise — using actors to re-create the soundtracks of popular films, including Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” — proved exciting and durable to the company’s devoted fans. So much so that earlier this year, For the Record fulfilled its dream of obtaining its own home by opening an elaborate 15,000-square-foot double-decker venue, billed as the world’s largest Belgian spiegeltent, just across Rivers Lake from SoFi Stadium.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Getty Villa Outdoor Classical Theater
Pacific Palisades Performing Arts Theater
(Craig Schwartz)
If you’re in Los Angeles in September and have a penchant for Greek and Roman classics, the Getty Villa’s annual outdoor theater production is an experience you shouldn’t miss. The museum’s exquisite grounds are part of the experience. Are you above the Pacific Coast Highway or in the hills of some antique Mediterranean village? The sea air, wafting the fragrance of the Villa’s Roman garden, adds to the bliss of watching these ancient tragedies and comedies reborn in the 21st century. Contemporary theatergoers may be less attentive than their Athenian forebears, but they are just as eager to delve into the ethical and metaphysical conundrums that still define the human condition, no matter the technological breakthroughs.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Groundlings Theatre and School
Fairfax Live Theater Group
(360 Photo Shoots)
One of L.A.’s most legendary comedy troupes and theater companies was founded in 1972 and is known for its uproarious main stage improv and sketch shows. Over the years, the company has churned out some of the comedy world’s most notable alumni including Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Jennifer Coolidge and Jordan Black. In the late 1990s the company had its own TV show on FX, “Instant Comedy With the Groundlings,” which helped the group gain a national following. The school takes on more than 8,000 improv and sketch comedy students annually, and those who work their way up through the rigorous program can be voted into the main company — earning the title of Groundlings.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Hills Performing Arts Theater
(Farah Sosa)
The Hollywood Bowl is not just a venue but a cultural symbol of Los Angeles. Known primarily as Southern California’s premier outdoor forum for live music, it would qualify as an important L.A. theater based solely on the long list of concerts by some of the most talented musical theater performers on the planet, including Liza Minnelli, Hugh Jackman, Josh Groban and Harry Connick Jr. But the Bowl, which staged a historic production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Max Reinhardt in 1934, has an even more substantial theatrical pedigree. The annual musical revival returned this summer with a sensational “Jesus Christ Superstar” starring Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert that had not just the city but the internet in a frenzy. These productions, while powered by a top-notch orchestra, have sometimes seemed star-driven and under-rehearsed. But when everything comes together, as it did this year and in the 2019 production of “Into the Woods,” the Bowl becomes the most enchanting spot in all the world to rediscover the joy of musicals.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Hollywood Pantages Theatre
Hollywood Performing Arts Theater
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Once a movie palace, this historic venue in the heart of Hollywood welcomes some of the most popular and exciting Broadway touring productions, such as “Wicked,” “Hamilton” and “The Lion King.” Inside, the Art Deco splendor recalls a bygone age of Hollywood glamour. Outside, right on cue, is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The sense of L.A.’s past is ever palpable even as new memories (and fan favorites) are made with vibrant blockbuster musicals and award-winning offbeat gems. Not all the touring productions will stand the test of time, but the experience of Broadway in Hollywood offers a double shot of star-studded enchantment.
Show more Show less
Route Details
IAMA Theatre Company
Atwater Village Live Theater Group
(Atwater Village Theatre)
An artists’ collective in the truest sense, this adventurous outfit was established in 2007 by a group of young theatermakers with a deep devotion to the stage. Founding member Katie Lowes went on to star on the Shonda Rhimes political drama “Scandal.” The company came to the attention of Rhimes and she donated money to support new play development featuring diverse voices. IAMA soon named Rhimes its inaugural patron of the arts. The company was included in Playbill’s 2018 list of “20 regional houses every theater-lover must know,” and has produced more than 40 world, West Coast and L.A. premieres.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Independent Shakespeare Co.
Atwater Village Live Theater Group
A seasonal favorite of Angelenos, Independent Shakespeare Co. is beloved for its free annual summer Shakespeare festival in Griffith Park, which attracts thousands of picnic-packing theater lovers to its outdoor amphitheater at the Old Zoo each year with fresh, inventive takes on revered classics. Married co-founders David Melville and Melissa Chalsma take turns directing and starring and are known for goosing their interpretations with modern twists and unexpected turns. The company is devoted to all things Elizabethan and often includes Shakespeare’s contemporaries in its offerings. This past season included “Love’s Labour Lost,” as well as Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus.” Colloquially known as Indie Shakes, the company also produces work at the Studio, a 75-seat space located at Atwater Crossing.
Show more Show less
Route Details
International City Theatre
Long Beach Entertainment Venue
(The International City Theatre)
International City Theatre, the most prominent theater in Long Beach, takes its mission of creating dialogue through live theater seriously. Showcasing a mix of provocative modern voices, including Heidi Schreck (“What the Constitution Means to Me”) and Lucas Hnath (“A Doll’s House, Part 2”) along with canonical titans (such as August Wilson and Arthur Miller), musical maestros and commercial fare, ICT has built a community of theatrical care and engagement under the leadership of Artistic Director-producer caryn desai, who has sustained the vision of her husband, Shashin Desai, the founding artistic director and producer who built ICT from a black box at Long Beach City College into the official resident theater of the city of Long Beach.
Show more Show less
Route Details
La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts
La Mirada Live Theater Group
(La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts)
Inhabiting the site of a razed cinema, La Mirada Theatre has been a shining example of professional theater for 48 years. In a 1995 review of Bernard Slade’s “Same Time, Next Year,” The Times’ Don Shirley called the theater, “One of the best Broadway-style houses in Southern California.” La Mirada’s 1,251-seat venue has staged more than 23,000 performances of its “Broadway Series,” and has welcomed more than 8 million patrons. It puts on splashy Broadway shows like “Come From Away” and “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” and also a wide range of concerts, special events and a children’s series.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Laguna Playhouse
Laguna Beach Live Theater Group
(Laguna Playhouse)
Founded in 1920, the Laguna Playhouse is one of the West Coast’s oldest continuously operating, not-for-profit theaters. A member of LORT (League of Resident Theatres) since 1999 and guided by Artistic Director David Ellenstein since 2022, the theater presents a year-round slate of comedies, dramas, musicals, stand-up comedy, holiday fare and shows for families. The Playhouse hosts many regional premieres, and produced and toured productions of Julie Harris’ “The Belle of Amherst” and Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen.”
Show more Show less
Route Details
Latino Theater Company
Downtown L.A. Live Theater Group
(Latino Theater Company)
Founded in 1985, this bold community-driven theater company is housed in the buzzing Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown’s historic core. LTC’s mission is to tell the stories of underrepresented Latino communities and to expand access to the theater by putting new voices and fresh faces on its stages. For the past decade LTC has hosted the lauded three-week Encuentro Festival, which brings together Latino theatermakers from across the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico, with up to a dozen productions per night.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Native Voices at the Autry
Griffith Park Theater
- Route
-
- Share via
-
(Los Angeles Times)
Native Voices, which operates out of the Autry Museum of the American West, is known as the only Actors’ Equity theater in the country dedicated to developing and producing new work by Native American, First Nations, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian playwrights. Founded 30 years ago by Randy Reinholz and Jean Bruce Scott, the company is now run by Artistic Director DeLanna Studi and managing director Elisa Blandford. Native Voices places a special emphasis on continued support of its artists that lasts long after a particular show is staged. Playwrights the company works with often remain devoted collaborators, helping to nurture the next generation. Annual events include a playwrights retreat and festival of new plays, as well as a short play festival that invites audiences to vote on their favorite performance. The winner gets an award for excellence in playwriting.
Show more Show less
Route Details
New Swan Shakespeare Festival
Irvine Performing Arts Theater
(New Swan Shakespeare Festival)
Set on the UC Irvine campus, this open-air, Elizabethan-style portable theater is one of the hidden gems of the SoCal Shakespeare scene. The productions in the festival’s summer repertory season, full of lunar magic, are distinguished as much for their poetic sensitivity as for their interpretive boldness. Founding Artistic Director Eli Simon leads a company composed of professional guest artists, UCI alums, current graduate and undergraduate drama students and faculty. The dramaturgical intelligence and deep humanity that characterize the approach to Shakespeare more than make up for any shortfalls of polish or experience.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Nocturne Theatre
Glendale Live Theater Group
(Nocturne Theatre)
This historic venue dates back to its opening as Glendale Centre Theatre in 1964. The handsome brick building features a unique 380-seat, in-the-round setup that is used for a more immersive live experience. In 2023 it was renamed the Nocturne Theatre by its new operators, Justin and Melissa Meyer, who run Meyer2Meyer Entertainment, the company that helped launch L.A.’s beloved Haunted Hayride in 2009. The theater stages a wide variety of Broadway shows and musicals, including lots of creepy offerings like “Dracula: The Musical,” and interactive parties and theatrical experiences such as “Haunted Soiree: Vampire.”
Show more Show less
Route Details
A Noise Within
Performing Arts Theater
(A Noise Within)
Canonical treasures are revitalized at A Noise Within’s state-of-the-art home, a glorious artistic as well as educational and outreach hub in Pasadena. Shakespeare, August Wilson, George Bernard Shaw, along with contemporary playwrights and musical theater artists who are similarly playing the long game, have a venue worthy of their greatness in Los Angeles County. Credit for this Herculean achievement goes to the company’s artistic leaders, Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, who built a loyal audience while operating out of a Masonic Temple in Glendale. Their ingenuity and commitment have created one of the finest theater operations in town, a place for keeping the classics alive in our community and for expanding the repertoire to better reflect who we are today.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
Sawtelle Performing Arts Theater
(Odyssey Theatre)
For more than a half century, the Odyssey Theatre has been a storied leader in Los Angeles’ intimate theater movement, a venue where bold vision and innovation are points of honor. Founded by Ron Sossi in 1969, the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble has showcased the kind of innovative work the larger theaters in town don’t often have the temerity to produce. Rental productions, mostly in keeping with the theater’s adventurous tradition, keep the venue bustling. Long housed in a three-theater complex on Sepulveda Boulevard in West L.A., the Odyssey may look like a warehouse to anyone driving by. But L.A. theater connoisseurs know well that there’s potent theatrical magic inside.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Open Fist Theatre Company
Atwater Village Live Theater Group
(Atwater Village Theatre)
Founded in 1990, this daring ensemble takes its name from its mission to produce cutting-edge theater and “engage audiences with impactful work.” Currently in residence at the bustling Atwater Village Theatre, the company has visionary leadership under Artistic Director Martha Demson, a staunch ally and advocate for small theater in Southern California.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Pacific Resident Theatre
Venice Performing Arts Theater
(Pacific Resident Theatre)
This small yet intrepid company in Venice, now in its 40th year, has cultivated, under the leadership of Marilyn Fox, a community of artists who want a place to hone their crafts, take risks and connect with audiences who are drawn to the intimacy offered by a theater complex that has expanded to four stages: a mainstage, two black boxes and a music and special events space. Fine acting is a staple of PRT, which offers a wide array of classes for thespians of all ages and abilities. It’s a perfect environment to test out new work, but the theater has built a reputation for shedding fresh light on classics. Revivals of work by Arthur Schnitzler, Ferenc Molnár, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee and Tennessee Williams, presented in intense close-up, have given savvy L.A. theatergoers the opportunity to experience these plays anew.
Show more Show less
Route Details
REDCAT
Downtown L.A. Performing Arts Theater
(Rafael Hernandez)
Tucked away inside the architectural majesty of Walt Disney Concert Hall is a state-of-the-art wonderland of experimental performance, founded by the California Institute of the Arts. The programming — interdisciplinary, innovative and international in scope — provides a place in Los Angeles for the rigorous testing of the stage’s limits. The storied Wooster Group has made REDCAT its Los Angeles home. Lars Jan, Annie Dorsen, Christiane Jatahy and other trailblazers have shared their experimental visions with REDCAT’s forward-thinking audience. In the current slash-and-burn era of arts funding, there has been a noticeable drop-off in high-profile theater offerings at the venue. REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney Calarts Theatre) has lost some momentum, but not its capacity to surprise. It remains one of L.A.’s most important performance laboratories, a vital downtown center for research into new modes of theatrical expression.
Show more Show less
Route Details
The Road Theatre Company
North Hollywood Live Theater Group
(The Road Theatre Company)
Founder and Artistic Director Taylor Gilbert helms this ambitious small theater company alongside co-Artistic Director Sam Anderson (a familiar face from films and TV who currently plays Kathy Bates’ husband Edgar in “Matlock”). In 1991 Gilbert and her fellow actors convened at Jerry’s Deli in Studio City to commiserate about their poor treatment by a local theater. Before they left they had decided to start their own member-operated theater company — one committed to daring work by new playwrights, and unafraid to take chances on risky, offbeat material. Over the past 34 years the Road has grown into a robust operation with nearly 200 members, including new artists, actors, writers, designers, producers and technicians in its ensemble company.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix
Fairfax Performing Arts Theater
(Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre)
Since moving into the historic Matrix Theatre (founded by the doyen of L.A. intimate theater scene, Joseph Stern), Rogue Machine has only consolidated its reputation as the city’s leading 99-seat venue for inventive, hard-hitting drama. Works by Samuel D. Hunter, Kemp Powers, Christopher Shinn, David Harrower and John Pollono reflect the playhouse’s wide-ranging appreciation for idiosyncrasy with an edge. Whether the play at hand is a comedy or a serious drama, the goal of Artistic Director Guillermo Cienfuegos, following in the tradition of founding Artistic Director John Perrin Flynn, is to open contemporary audiences to new perspectives on our shared world. Don’t miss an opportunity to see a play close-up on the Henry Murray Stage, an attic-like space upstairs from the main stage that leaves little distance between actors and audience.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Ruskin Group Theatre Arts Center
Santa Monica Live Theater Group
(Ruskin Group Theatre Arts Center)
Located in the former Museum of Flying building at the Santa Monica Airport, Ruskin Group Theatre will soon inaugurate its new performing arts center, transforming the space into a state-of-the-art cultural hub. The expanded campus includes two new performance stages, the Kaplan Family Stage and the Audre Slater Foundation Stage, as well as newly completed rehearsal and self-tape studios already in use by actors citywide. Founded by Artistic Director John Ruskin and producing artistic director Michael Myers, the Ruskin has established a vital home for intimate, actor-driven theater, with past performers including Dylan McDermott, Marcia Cross, Ed Asner, Rob Morrow and Ray Abruzzo, alongside its long-running L.A. Café Plays series and the Ruskin School of Acting that has offered master classes from Anthony Hopkins, David Mamet and Ed O’Neill, among others.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Sacred Fools at the Broadwater
Hollywood Performing Arts Theater
(Padraic Duffy)
In addition to winning the prize for best name, Sacred Fools, the resident theater company of the Broadwater theater complex, has a special cachet in the 99-seat theater world. Having launched the premieres of “Stoneface,” “Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara” and other L.A. sleeper hits, this inventive company with a fringe theater sense of possibility is also where Anne Washburn’s “Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play” had its L.A. debut. Like many small theaters, Sacred Fools has receded a bit from view during the post-pandemic recovery period. But the company’s playful daring has helped make L.A.’s intimate theater scene what it is today: a bastion of creative freedom and can-do spirit.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Costa Mesa Multi-venue performing arts center
(RMA Photography Inc.)
Orange County audiences thirsting for Broadway shows need look no further than Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa where they can see elite touring productions, often the very same ones that play the Ahmanson or the Pantages to the north. Segerstrom Center for the Arts also presents family and holiday theatrical programming among its multidisciplinary fare. The campus’ 300-seat Samueli Theater hosts more intimate performances.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
Echo Park Performing Arts Theater
(Douglas Rogers)
A center for innovative Shakespeare productions in Los Angeles, this company founded by Artistic Director Ben Donenberg does more than offer groundbreaking revivals like the 2023 immersive staging of “The Tempest,” a collaboration with After Hours Theatre Company. Shakespeare is treated as a resource for the community, with arts education programs tailored to underserved youth, veterans and formerly incarcerated people. The work, made all the more potent for not being elitist or academic, is returned to the people. Best of all is the way the poetry and performance vitality of the plays are unleashed by ensembles that reflect the vibrant diversity of the city this company honorably serves.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Skylight Theatre Company
East Hollywood Live Theater Group
(Skylight Theatre)
Producing artistic director Gary Grossman has helped shape this vibrant company in the heart of Los Feliz into a small but mighty powerhouse of new theater staging more than 100 world premiere plays and welcoming more than 2,500 artists in over 750 productions. A number of its premieres have gone on to be performed off-Broadway, including Jason Odell’s “Church & State,” and “The Wrong Man” by Ross Golan. Skylight has also attracted its fair share of Hollywood talent to its stages including Jenna Elfman, James Cromwell and George Clooney. It nurtures fresh talent through its SkyLab new play development program, as well as its INKubator Play Reading Series.
Show more Show less
Route Details
24th Street Theatre
University Park Live Theater Group
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Currently in its 28th season, this unique company is both a vibrant children’s theater as well as a bustling community hub. It’s known for putting on shows that engage young minds but are also compelling to adults. 24th Street hosts a popular after-school theater program for grades 2 through 8, sponsors a teen leadership academy and offers theater classes for kids. For more than a decade it has worked to bring more Spanish-speaking children and families into its theater through its Teatro Nuevo program.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Victory Theatre Center
Burbank Live Theater Group
The Victory Theatre in Burbank.
Founders and artistic producers Maria Gobetti and Tom Ormeny have guided this small but mighty Burbank-based company for more than 40 years. Victory Theatre is dedicated to inclusivity and anti-racism, and is known for its progressive storytelling and deep commitment to community. It places a premium on introducing and cultivating new voices and exploring untold stories. The focus is on staging world and West Coast premieres, but the organization also presents unexpected revivals by American playwrights. Nearly 80% of the work it stages is of previously unproduced plays.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Beverly Hills Performing Arts Theater
(Jason Kempin / Getty Images)
Theater still has an important place at the Wallis, the architecturally impressive performing arts center in the heart of Beverly Hills. Last season, “Here There Are Blueberries,” a work conceived and directed by Moisés Kaufman and co-written by Amanda Gronich, brought a new perspective to the Holocaust through a unique docudrama inspired by an album of photographs sent to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007. In spring 2026, the Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of “English,” Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama set in an English language class in Iran, will be presented. These are vital works, and one hopes that the Wallis will find more room for world-class theater amid its lustrous music, dance and educational programs.
Show more Show less
Route Details
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
Topanga Performing Arts Theater
(Ian Flanders)
The postcard setting of this open-air theater in rustic Topanga enhances the pleasures of whatever is on the bill. Founded by actor Will Geer from “The Waltons,” the theater is still run as a family enterprise — and everyone who enters the bucolic grounds is made to feel immediately at home. Shakespeare has pride of place, but Artistic Director Ellen Geer has a refreshingly capacious definition of the classics. Plays rarely seen anymore but worthy of renewed attention are revived along with updated versions of canonical gems such as Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” and Moliere’s “Tartuffe.” Large casts are no problem for a theater with such a robust communitarian spirit. The quality of the productions can vary, but the beauty of the landscape, the integrity of the mission and the utopian idealism that suffuses every aspect of the operation deservedly make this one of Los Angeles’ most beloved cultural treasures.
Show more Show less
Route Details
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
No matching entries.
Please reset filters to see all entries.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Most Read in Entertainment & Arts
Top