Forever Brooklyn

A one-man kosher comedy about a Jewish American comic growing up in Brooklyn, New York during the 1950s and 1960s. Telling his story through song, dialogue and comedy, a successful comic recounts the challenges of his rise to stardom and the challenges of assimilation in an ethnic neighborhood full of quirky and funny characters. It’s the heartwarming and hilarious story of a kid who dreams of becoming a star…

Ritual Music to Cure a Lover

It’s an exquisite play. Made all the more beautiful by the performance of Shahin Sayadi. The parallels between the father-son relationship and the aching for change among the younger generation of Iran is extraordinary. To tell this important story using ancient mythological figures and make it new and relevant and searingly real is such a clever way to illustrate what’s happening right now in the streets of Tehran and indeed everywhere in Iran.

Book of Will

Gunderson’s re-imagining of the desperate search to find, preserve and print Shakespeare’s words that might have disappeared forever. Three years after the Bard’s death, former friends and colleagues from Shakespeare’s acting troupe, the King’s Men, contend with egotistical actors, bootleg knockoffs and a ticking clock to ensure that the First Folio gets published, and that the works of William Shakespeare don’t end up on the trash heap of history.

My Buddy: The Other Side of Oz

A cabaret-style jazz show featuring singer, pianist and storyteller Kiki Ebsen, daughter of Buddy Ebsen of The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones fame. Before TV, he had a career on stage and a brush with death as the original Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz! Kiki shares stories of growing up in a Hollywood household. Backed by a jazz trio, the show will feature music from the Great American songbook.

Back Porch

Life imitates art when Hollywood descends upon a small Kansas town in 1955 to shoot scenes for the classic film, Picnic. Sparks fly in more ways than one in Anderson’s delightful homage to both moviemaking and the play that inspired the Columbia film. Barney Opat is the single father of two boys who yearns to escape small-town Kansas life for a more glamorous existence. The family’s life is upended when a handsome stranger working as William Holden’s stunt double blows into town alongside the all-star Picnic cast.

Minnesota Moon

After a summer of exciting nights out in the fields of a small Minnesota town, two long-time friends hope to find a way to keep their adventures alive as one prepares to leave for the big city, while the other feels he must stay working on cars at a local gas station. This classic 1970s play is considered John Olive’s “breakthrough masterpiece” about two guys who are more like brothers as they laugh, play, and share their dreams, hopes and fears. Practically everything one could imagine happening does, on this last night of summer...    

Broadway at The Saban

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a reimagining of the Biblical story of Joseph. Told entirely through song with the help of a main character Narrator, the musical follows preferred son Joseph. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, he ingratiates himself with Egyptian noble Potiphar but ends up in jail after refusing the amorous advances of Potiphar’s wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty but troubled, Elvis-inspired, Pharaoh. Joseph’s solution to Egypt’s famine elevates him to Pharaoh’s right-hand man and reunites him with his family.

SHANKAR PLAYS SHANKAR

Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the musical icon Ravi Shankar, played her father's Concerto No 3. for Sitar, accompanied by the LACO conducted by the wonderful Jamie Martin. What a perfect combination of musicians and artists. All reaching for the same goal, a symbiosis of sounds, a melding of east and west and in waves of glorious resonant, cinematic musical poetry. It makes the soul sing.  This performance of her father's work felt like a homecoming. There was a warmth and a sense of belonging to her playing that seemed to resonate from her and embrace the whole stage full of LACO’s truly remarkable musicians.