L.A. Stage Insider
Celebrating the Best in live Theater and Cabaret in the Greater Los Angeles Area
Written by Julio Martinez
September 10, 2025
NEWS
Pacific Resident Theatre is presenting ‘The First Light Festival,’ featuring new works from renowned playwrights, Sep 25-28. Six celebrated playwrights connected with PRT will present staged readings of their newest plays. Included is James Baldwin Cain't Write and Nina Simone Refuses to Sing! by Yule Caise. In 1971, when a battered Nina Simone arrives at James Baldwin's French refuge. Two icons—one who has lost his words, the other who refuses to sing—are forced to confront the silence between them, where art, rage, and survival collide For tickets, go to: https://pacificresidenttheatre.org/first-light/.
PREMIERES
Jake Broader
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills will be presenting the Premiere of ‘UnRavelled,’ an award-winning play offering a unique perspective on the extraordinary power of the human mind in the face of neurological disease, written by playwright Jake Broder. Cast Stars Lucy Davenport, Andrew Borba, Larry Poindexter, Leo Marks, and Tracey A. Leigh, directed by James Bonas. The production debuts Oct 17 & 18 (7:30pm), and Oct 19 (2pm), at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. Art, science, and love intersect in this stirring true story about the remarkable connection between the work of Canadian painter and eminent biologist Dr. Anne Adams (1940–2007) and French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), both of whom lived with the same brain disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), almost 100 years apart. For more information on UnRavelled, visit www.unravelledplay.com. For tickets, please call 310-746-4000 or visit www.thewallis.org. The Wallis is located at 9390 N Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
AROUND TOWN
Long Beach Playhouse is presenting that iconic tale of brutality, sexuality, cruelty and murder, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, drawn from 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Against the backdrop of Victorian London, the respectable Dr. Jekyll has begun to display alarmingly erratic behavior. At the same time, a brutal figure haunts the city's streets, committing assault and murder under the cloak of darkness and London’s dismal fog. Writer Jeffrey Hatcher reimagines the story with one actor portraying Jekyll and four others portraying Hyde, each revealing Hyde's many faces: brutality, sexuality and cruelty. Hatcher’s tale never quite reveals whether Henry Jekyll is wholly good, or if Edward Hyde is totally evil. The show’s cast includes David Vaillancourt, Aaron Izbicki, Sarah-Jane Finch, Trevor Hart, Carmen Tunis, Renee Schwarz, Katharine White, Alexandra Young and Terrance Sylvas, directed by David Scaglione. Opening Night Sep 20, running through Oct 19. Performances are 8 p.m. Fri & Sat (8pm), Sun (2pm). Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA, 90804, right across from the Long Beach Recreation golf course. Tickets are available at www.lbplayhouse.org, or by calling 562-494-1014, option 1.
Laguna Playhouse presents the first show of its 2025/2026 season, the critically acclaimed, Tony Award-winning musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, book by Robert L. Freedman, based on a novel by Roy Horniman, music & lyrics by Steven Lutvak, choreography by Luke Harvey Jacobs, musical direction by Anthony Zediker and direction by Noelle Marion. The production will begin previews on Sep 17 (with a press opening Sept 21, 5:30pm) and will run through Oct 5 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Dr. in Laguna Beach. Tickets can be purchased online at www.lagunaplayhouse.com or by calling (949) 497-2787. For more information on all shows and programming visit www.lagunaplayhouse.com.
Arts in Review, hosted by arts journalist Julio Martinez, celebrating the best in theater and cabaret in the Greater Los Angeles area, airs on KPFK90.7fm on Fridays (2-2:30pm), streamed live around the world in real time over KPFK.org. On Sep 12 (2-2:30pm), Julio spotlighting the Odyssey Theatre’s new Vietnam war drama, Parallel Process. Julio interviews co-star Darrell Larson and writer/director David Kohner Zuckerman. The production premieres Sep 19, running through Oct 26, in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of America’s involvement in Vietnam.