Showing results by publisher "L.A. Theatre Works" in All Categories

Abby Mann's classic story about the Nuremberg trials, under which German leaders were found guilty of crimes against humanity in 1945 and 1946. Even today, the play remains a shattering indictment of the consequences of unchecked authority and the seductive power of group thought.

Veteran journalist Joseph Alsop thrived in his role as the right-hand man for Washington’s political elite, influencing both policy and public opinion with his inflammatory columns. But as the political certainties of the post-war era began to chip away in the late 1960s, so did Alsop’s authority, both on the page and in his own life. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production.

This epic of the booming 20s captures the relentless culture of American business. A classic novel about conformity in small town America - celebrated for its comic tone, statire, and vivid dialogue. L.A. Theatre Works, then a fledgling radio theatre company, completed Babbitt in 1989. This production was so well received that L.A. Theatre Works has since become the world's premiere radio theatre company.

Billy has been deaf since birth, but his family has never learned sign language. In fact, until he meets Sylvia, who is fluent in ASL, Billy has never in his life been understood by anyone. This critically acclaimed sensation from Nina Raine will awaken all of your senses as it boldly asks some of life’s hardest questions: what is communication and understanding, and can we truly have it - with anyone?

President Harding wants to be with his mistress. Industrialist Henry Ford wants to be President. And inventor Thomas Edison wonders how the three of them got stuck in the woods together. Inspired by an actual camping trip taken by the three men in 1921, this off-Broadway hit is a hilarious adventure with surprising relevance to today's politics.

Joyce Carol Oates' hilarious take-off on a classic Southern play begins when liberated Hedda arrives home to visit the family estate, ruled by the family’s tyrannical patriarch, “Tiny” Culligan. Tiny doesn’t know what to make of Hedda’s intellectual boyfriend, Saul. But then, Saul doesn’t know what to make of Hedda’s sister, the slinky Maggie, who finds Jewish professors very sexy indeed. A full cast L.A. Theatre Works performance featuring: Charles Durning, Arthur Hanket, Gary Kroeger, Marsha Mason, Priscilla Pointer, William Schallert and JoBeth Williams.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government sent thousands of Japanese American citizens to detention camps. In 1945, three Japanese-American sisters return to their farm in Stockton, California, after years in an internment camp, but the once prosperous family finds it’s not easy to pick up the pieces of their former lives. As the details of their deceased father’s final arrangements emerge, the sisters must work together to keep their dreams alive.

The intense relationships between Robert Schumann, his wife Clara, and Johannes Brahms are brought to vivid life through music and excerpts from their passionate writings. With the arrival of the young, dynamic Brahms into their household, the Schumanns’ fragile marriage is threatened by the deepening bond between Clara and their gifted guest.

Italian shoes, a house in the hills, a gift for stretching the truth, and a petulant assistant to pick the scallions out of his Szechuan noodles - Hollywood producer Davis Mizlansky has it all. But he's about to lose it to the IRS unless he can pull off one more deal. A stellar cast performs this hilarious send-up of modern-day Hollywood.

Moving Bodies is a chronicle of the brilliant life of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Richard Feynman. From his role in the development of the atomic bomb to his controversial testimony at the investigation of the Challenger disaster, Feynman casts a long shadow across the worlds of physics and mathematics. Through playwright Arthur Giron's eyes, we see how Feynman became one of the most important scientists of our time.

A series of short comedic works from playwright David Ives, with subjects ranging from the Lindbergh baby to chimps typing literary classics. The title work is a more serious, nostalgic look at two generations of apartment dwellers who meet in a time warp. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Samantha Bennett, Jane Brucker, Ian Gomez, Arye Gross, Richard Kind, Dinah Manoff, Nia Vardalos and Tom Virtue. Directed by Ron West. Recorded before a live audience in June, 1995.

It’s Christmas Eve, 1938, and 15-year-old Cassidy Smith is very pregnant with the child of 40ish Reed Hooker. Cassidy is desperate to marry Reed, Reed is desperate to open Louisiana’s hottest new taxi-dancing emporium and neither are prepared for the arrival of Reed’s wife, Sue Jack Hooker, a dangerous beauty who has just been let out of the penitentiary.

It's Christmas 1980, and inside a sprawling Upper West Side apartment, Faye Bascov is about to throw an opulent Christmas dinner - a tradition for this secular, well-educated Jewish family. But any family gathering is an invitation for old resentments to boil over, as Faye's sister-in-law Julie and the extended family have plenty to hash out. Flash-forward to 2000, and the apartment, now much shabbier, reflects how the family's fortunes have changed, and the Bascovs now have to reckon with the legacy of their family discord.

The acclaimed Scottish playwright Rona Munro has created a remarkable story about a man who wakes up from a car crash with brain damage. Now, he sees the world as the person he was three years ago, when his life and loves were in a very different place. This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays.

The Tony Award-winning playwright and creator of TV's MASH has fashioned a wickedly funny satire about the Iran-Contra Senate hearings and their participants. A top-notch Hollywood cast, headed by Walter Matthau, brings this scathing comedy to life.

Harry Shearer’s fantasy about a World’s Fair held in Kansas City. Told in quick blackouts, it resembles a profane Simpsons episode. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Fran Adams, David Arnott, Lewis Arquette, James Avery, Hank Azaria, Dan Castellaneta, Timothy Fall, David L. Lander, Tom Leopold, Edie McClurg, Julie Payne, Mary Kay Place, John Randolph, Erika Schickel, Harry Shearer, and Fred Willard. Directed by Harry Shearer. Recorded before a live audience in February, 1995.

Two Presidential candidates - one a rising Illinois legislator, the other a bombastic US Senator. Obama and McCain? Think again. In this transcendent Broadway play, the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates tackle the day's most passionate issue - slavery. Their battle comes to life through the eyes of Adele Douglas, wife of candidate Stephen Douglas. Challenged by the charming man from Illinois, she reexamines her basic beliefs about the American concept of freedom.

After his wife’s death, retired cop Walter "Pops" Washington has made a home for his ex-felon son in his sprawling, rent-controlled, Riverside Drive apartment. Will a long-simmering feud with the NYPD cause him to lose his home and the family he’s built there?

What do fast-talking New York octogenarians Abe and Mabel do when their lifelong grocery store, Pepperstein Produce, is driven out of business by Wonder Food? They embark on the ultimate road trip with a 19-year-old stoner, Wisdom, to Los Angeles to become actors.

As Jews tried to escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s, they faced unthinkable roadblocks in obtaining exit visas. And while they were denied entry in one country after another, a bureaucratic oddity enabled some of them to flee to an unlikely destination: Shanghai, China. In this LATW original commission, playwright Kate McAll used the survivors’ own words to create a narrative of people starting their lives over in a completely new land.