Over the past several years, Los Angeles has seen a renaissance in the performing arts. While long known as the home of the American movie industry, other arts, especially theatre, were often eschewed. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Today, LA’s arts scene is blossoming and finally getting the credit it deserves.
Given that many might not be familiar with how thriving the city’s performing arts landscape has become, we wanted to focus on 4 fields currently having a moment in the City of Angels: theatre, opera, dance and music.
Out-of-towners can get the most out of LA’s performing arts scene with a new special offer now underway. If you book a minimum of two nights in an LA hotel, you’ll be able to purchase two tickets for the price of one to more than 30 of L.A.’s leading dance, music, opera, theater and spoken-word performances from Feb 1- Mar 13.
In the first part of this two part post we highlight the best LA has to offer in theatre and opera. Check it out below.
The Centre Theatre Group is one of LA’s most prestigious performing arts institutions. The play currently wowing audiences at the famous Mark Taper Forum is The Mystery of Love and Sex (Feb 10 – Mar 20, 2016).
Running Mar 6 through Apr 3 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre is Women Laughing Alone with Salad. Billed as “A Feminist Fantasia with Balls,” the play centers on three women and their relationship with a man, fittingly named only “Guy”. It was inspired by the trend in advertising of using imagery of attractive women sitting alone eating salad and laughing like they’re having the time of their lives. LA plays the perfect host to this play that highlights and ultimately savages our preconceptions about body image and gender.
Over on the other side of “the hill”, the recently opened Valley Performing Arts Center will debut its first musical, Dreamgirls, this spring. If you’re a fan of Motown and musical spectacle, you’ll want to check out what VPAC does with this hit.
RECAT’s latest work is director Christine Jatahy’s re-imagination of August Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie titled, Julia. Jatahy blends cinema and theatre in her contemporary tale set in Brazil that follows a young woman who falls in love with a manservant outside her social class. (Feb 18 – Feb 21).
Coming to REDCAT Mar 31 to Apr 3 is TeatroCinema: Historia de Amor. Based on the French novel by Régis Jauffret, Historia de Amor tells of an English teacher who abducts a young woman and turns her into his victim, concubine and mother. The ensemble cast uses animation along with 2D and 3D projection to create the world of a dark and gritty graphic novel that suits the show’s themes.