Goldstar

A recovering empty-nester and her younger, but more worldly, sister have had very different life experiences. Now at mid-life, they have enthusiastically joined forces to become the "Tony Robbins(es)" of mature sexuality. Moist is a lyrical, comical, musical, sometimes philosophical -- and at one point, even hysterical -- telling of a woman's cravings, wants and needs. Learn more...

Schoolmaster Crocker-Harris is stuck in a loveless marriage with a wife who openly cheats on him. The enthusiasm he once showed for his career and his pupils has long since vanished and he has become a figure of disdain among the students whose life he has made a misery. With ill-health forcing him to resign his long-standing post, a simple act of kindness from one of his students has a profound impact on the seemingly heartless headmaster. Learn more...

ELATE Theater Ensemble performs Neil Simon's 1971 dark comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue. The timely plot centers on executive Mel Edison, who loses his job after 20 years and must suddenly adjust to life at home. Compounding matters are a heat wave, a garbage strike, a burglary and noisy neighbors -- until a nervous breakdown offers Mel a fresh start. Learn more...

Jack Hawley is in love. He also has synesthesia; he tastes his feelings, smells what he touches and sees letters in color. When Jack decides to revisit his past, dealing with memories of death, a surprise about his mother, and his feelings for a girl he never stopped loving, Jack must take life head-on, no matter what color it is or how disturbing it tastes or smells. Learn more...

It's Christmas Eve, 1947, and the Lutz Radio Hour is about to make its final broadcast, one day before the radio station converts to television. Complete with sound effects, radio commercials and holiday songs, this lively, comedic play at the Long Beach Playhouse evokes both the spirit of the season and nostalgia for a bygone era. Learn more...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's towering masterpiece comes to the stage in a new adaptation that packs all of the action into 90 breathless minutes, performed by just three actors. In a desperate quest to be redeemed for the perpetration of an unspeakable crime, brilliant Raskolnikov embodies humankind's eternal struggle between enlightened genius and the temptation of evil. Learn more...

Vagabond Players presents Marital Bliss-ters, an evening of three one-act comedies about marriage in all its stages. In Bridal Terrorism, an innocent man becomes a surprise groom at gunpoint. The bride and groom have second -- and third -- thoughts in Banter & Vows, while A Chance Meeting illustrates the perils of trying to spice up a long marriage. Learn more...

La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin is a simple story of an Indian peasant's vision of the Virgin Mary that has become a theatrical cornerstone at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral for years. This profoundly moving show taps into out universal foundation of faith, love and perseverance. Join the tens of thousands who have become transfixed by the story of Juan Diego, a simple peasant from Tepeyac. Learn more...

Attic Theatre Ensemble presents a radio-style performance of Frank Capra's holiday movie masterpiece live on stage. Complete with live sound effects, microphones and a dozen actors playing 78 different roles, It's A Wonderful Life recreates a radio broadcast of this heartwarming tale of troubled George Bailey's Christmas Eve journey through his life history. Learn more...

Above the Curve Theatre presents its fourth annual festival of one-act plays. This year's festival will showcase six plays (selected from hundreds of submissions), including both comedies and dramas. The comedies feature princesses, an accident-prone woman, and an unlikely audition, while the dramas deal with relationships in all stages. Learn more...

About Productions presents Bleeding Through, a stage adaptation of Norman Klein's acclaimed novella. L.A.'s Angelino Heights and Downtown areas have been the site of more cinematic "murders" than any other location. This noir-influenced show, which incorporates live music and videos, evokes the city's narrative ghosts and explores the shaping of Los Angeles' culture by stories told on film. Learn more...

College buddies Max and Finn have always spent their vacations in the fast lane, religiously drinking, drugging and chasing women...but this time something is different. In a hotel room in Atlantic City, the two friends face-off with their indulgent past and take a sober look at their all-too-present future. Learn more...

Long Beach Playhouse presents David Lindsay-Albaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the aftermath of a life-shattering tragedy. A thoughtful, honest and compassionate study of heartbreak and forgiveness, Rabbit Hole explores the strained relationship between a husband and wife after their young son is killed in an accident. Learn more...

All of the elements of the original classic Dickens tale are here -- illuminated by mask, music and puppetry. This production is the ultimate 3-D experience with ghosts, carolers and old Ebenezer Scrooge coming to life right before your very eyes. A Christmas Carol is a magical musical ghost story to make you believe again. Learn more...

In the aftermath of the United States' second civil war in year 2060, two brothers lay dead. The conservative theocracy of Creon decrees that one will be buried with honors, and one will be unburied, dishonored and abandoned. Their sister, Antigone, is torn between the laws of her uncle's government and her love of family and own moral imperative. Her actions will set off a chain of devastating events leading to death and an ultimate rebirth. Learn more...

Kids decide the story line in Fairy Tales - Some Assembly Required, a new interactive musical filled with memorable songs and colorful costumes. In this adventure, Alex (a boy or a girl) goes in search of a lost sister in the Enchanted Forest. A professional cast of children and adults present a different and delightful musical each week depending upon the childrens' choices. Learn more...

A Noise Within presents Shakespeare's tragic masterpiece about a ruthlessly ambitious man who seeks the crown at any cost. One of literature's most memorable villains, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, uses charm, cunning and wit to move up the political ladder -- without hesitating to murder those who stand in his way. Learn more...

Performed in English with a Latin beat, this enchanting musical play blends the traditions of Mexican street theatre and Latin jazz featuring world class musician Marcos Loya and a funny, dark and touching script by renowned playwright Octavio Solis about the Christmas spirit lost, then found. Gracie is a young girl who joins her neighborhood posada on Christmas Eve. Along the way, she and her companions encounter colorful characters, including chocolate-gobbling sisters, graveyard spooks and a heartthrob rock singer. Learn more...

Sacred Fools Theatre is proud to quietly present the world premiere of Jonas Oppenheim's Hamlet Shut Up. What this dialogue-free adaptation lacks in words, it makes up for in slapstick, music, clowning, vaudeville and sharks. Working off Oppenheim's outline, the physically gifted ensemble developed the piece beat by beat, scene by scene, concocting the funniest, most poignant way to present Shakespeare's masterpiece without the use of dialogue. Learn more...

Mary Lynn Rajskub performs her latest one-woman show at the Steve Allen Theater. She gained fame as a cast member on HBO's classic sketch series Mr. Show, and now stars as Chloe on Fox's 24. Other acting credits include Punch Drunk Love and The Larry Sanders Show. Learn more...

Inspired by classic screwball comedies, Grace Kim & The Spiders from Mars tells the story of Grace, a young Korean American woman, who has withdrawn from the world after the death of her mother ten years ago. But Grace's life is thrown upside down when she meets her sister's fiancé and falls in love with him. Learn more...

Loosely based on Leonid Andreyev's 1915 classic He Who Gets Slapped, Circus Welt makes its world premiere at the Whitefire Theatre. Set in 1933, the drama revolves around a German traveling circus made of up of Jews, blacks, gays and a communist, who hope that the growing Nazi storm will blow over. Then, a mysterious stranger arrives, asking to be a clown. Learn more...

Macha Theatre/Films and Odalys Nanin present Naked in the Tropics, a comedy with music. Andy a teenager falls for a gay porn star. His girlfriend is pregnant, his mother is a lesbian, immigration wants him deported and the one person that can save him is nowhere to be found. Written, Directed and Produced by Macha Producing Artistic Director and President Odalys Nanin. Learn more...

Theatre Banshee presents Tent Meeting, written by Banshee's own Rebecca Wackler. Convinced that the poor misshapen creature to which his daughter has given birth is the Messiah, the Reverend Ed Tarbox, with his browbeaten daughter and son in tow, heads off in their mobile home toward the Promised Land--Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Their journey culminates in a blasphemous yet outrageously funny epiphany. Learn more...

Imagine a world where a children's show has a cast of characters that have more psychological disorders than you do. Add the mind-numbing debauchery of the worst, most poorly animated cartoons from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Then throw in the wry commentary you came to love from "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and what have you got? Cartoon Dump! Learn more...

Comedy group Two-Headed Dog presents Clowntown City Limits. This show combines dark comedy and slapstick to tell the eerie story of three down-and-out clowns. Cast members include David "Gruber" Allen (Freaks and Geeks, The Naked Trucker) and Craig Anton (The Office, MADtv). Learn more...

Andreas, born and raised in the Bavarian Alps was obsessed with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. In what better place could he find all that but America? Beer after beer, girl after girl, gang after gang, and prison after prison, he begins to realize what he needs -- the same thing we all need -- love. Learn more...

Mrs. Cage features robbery, mayhem and murder in a supermarket parking lot. On this fateful day, the nice lady next door, Mrs. Cage, is driven over the edge as she finds her secret life exposed and destroyed. Learn more...

After the funeral of one of their closest friends, four Chicanos, all ex-Brown Berets, gather in the garage hoping to salvage whatever remains of the bond that once existed between them nearly 25 years ago. These four men spend the better part of an hour courageously confronting their past demons in the most profound way. Learn more...

In this sad and funny solo dramedy by Judith E. and directed by Kaz Matamura, witness the trials and tribulations of one woman's trip through the minefield of changes caused by the onset of menopause. Along the way, get to know about her life, loves, and hopes for the future. Presented as part of J.E.T. Production West's Women Over the Edge program. Learn more...

The Steve Allen Theater hosts a production of David Mamet's American Buffalo. One of Mamet's first hits, it's the tense story of a team of men conspiring to steal a valuable coin collection. Learn more...

Eight: Love is a Gamble begins with a series of one-acts by award-winning New York playwright Adam Kraar, whose plays include Storm in the Iron Box, The Lost Cities of Asher and Freedom High. His one-acts depict people whose outsized passions don't fit into their odd environments. Second on the bill are one-acts written by Michael Bassett, a Chicago-based playwright whose plays are dark comedies where the characters' lives are perched on a razor's edge. Learn more...