{"id":11094,"date":"2016-01-26T12:01:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T20:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11094"},"modified":"2016-01-31T12:26:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T20:26:49","slug":"thoughts-on-a-theatre-season-2016-2017-cabrillo-music-theatre-%f0%9f%8e%ad-pantages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11094","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on a Theatre Season 2016-2017: Cabrillo Music Theatre &#x1f3ad; Pantages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5006 alignright\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpicmusicals.jpg\" alt=\"userpic=theatre_musicals\" width=\"100\" height=\"82\" \/>Yesterday, I received in the mail my season renewal for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cabrillomusictheatre.com\/\">Cabrillo Music Theatre<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CabrilloMusicTheatre\">FB<\/a>); today&#8217;s news brought an update on the upcoming season at the <a href=\"http:\/\/hollywoodpantages.com\/\">Pantages<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PantagesTheatre\/?fref=ts\">FB<\/a>). So I thought I would share with you (over lunch) my thoughts on these announcements, together with my thoughts on an announcement we haven&#8217;t received from one of our regular theatres.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;*<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Cabrillo Music Theatre<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cabrillomusictheatre.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4943\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpiccabrillo.jpg\" alt=\"Cabrillo Userpic\" width=\"93\" height=\"100\" \/>Cabrillo Music Theatre<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CabrilloMusicTheatre\">FB<\/a>) has sent season subscribers their renewal information for the 2016-2017 season &#8212; these is even before the 2nd show of the 2015-2016 season (<em>A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum<\/em>, opening Friday 1\/29) is on the boards. If you recall, we skipped the 2014-2015 season because we had seen all of the shows; we rejoined back in 2015 because the shows sounded interesting again. Here is the set of shows for 2016-2017, with my thoughts on them. Note that the show in the Kavli has moved from being optional to part of the season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/><em><strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/broadwaymusicalhome.com\/shows\/evita.htm\">Evita<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em> (October 14-23, 2016) We last saw <em>Evita<\/em> in a community theatre production <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=10645\">while we were in Maui<\/a>. While it was pretty good, it wasn&#8217;t at the professional level. The <em>Evita <\/em>before that was <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=4385\">at Van Nuys HS<\/a>. I saw the original tour when it was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City ages and ages ago. I actually enjoy the show if it is done right, so it will be interesting to see Cabrillo&#8217;s take on it.<\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/broadwaymusicalhome.com\/shows\/tarzan.htm\">Disney&#8217;s Tarzan<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong> (January 27 &#8211; February 12, 2017, Kavli Theatre) This was on Broadway briefly, but it otherwise hasn&#8217;t been in the LA area. I&#8217;m not even sure I&#8217;ve heard the music or seen a cast album of the stage version of it. It should be interesting to see how this works for Cabrillo.<\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/broadwaymusicalhome.com\/shows\/sister-act.htm\">Sister Act<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em> (April 21-30, 2017) We last saw <em>Sister Act <\/em>when it was at the <a href=\"http:\/\/pasadenaplayhouse.org\/\">Pasadena Playhouse<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pasadenaplayhouse\">FB<\/a>) in <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=1887\">its pre-Broadway run in 2006<\/a>. We liked it then; it will be interesting to see how it has changed. So, why didn&#8217;t we see it when the tour came to the Pantages? Simple: It&#8217;s good, but it wasn&#8217;t worth Pantages prices that close to the Playhouse run. Time &#8212; and lower prices &#8212; bring it back into the &#8220;going&#8221; camp.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/broadwaymusicalhome.com\/shows\/peterpan.htm\">Peter Pan<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em> (July 14-23, 2017) According to the Cabrillo mailer, the theatrical rights have been tied up for a long time. I certainly haven&#8217;t seen it on stage in ages (if ever); Cathy Rigby used to do it regularly\u00a0 at La Mirada, but it&#8217;s got to be at least a decade or two since it has been there. I&#8217;ve seen <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=7858\">dramatic variations<\/a>; I&#8217;ve seen <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=8869\">prequels<\/a>; and of course I&#8217;ve seen <a href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=9765\">live stage productions on TV<\/a>.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see it on the Cabrillo stage, and I&#8217;m curious whether they are going to take the changes made for the TV production &#8212; additional songs, reworking of the Native American involvement &#8212; and move them back into the stage book.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So am I going to renew? I think so. The shows look interesting. The price is right (about $150 for Saturday evening Mezzanine, per person, for four shows)&#8230; plus they now allow you to split it over two payments!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;*<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Pantages Theatre<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4942\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpicbroadwayla.jpg\" alt=\"userpic=broadwayla\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/>What truly prompted this lunchtime post, however, was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/arts\/culture\/la-et-cm-hamilton-musical-national-tour-pantages-20160125-story.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CultureMonster+%28Culture+Monster%29\">the announcement that, as part of the Pantages (FB) 2016-2017 season, <em>Hamilton<\/em> was coming to Los Angeles<\/a>. When the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hamiltonbroadway.com\/\"><em>Hamilton<\/em><\/a> tour was first announced, I wondered where it would sit down. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.centertheatregroup.org\/\">The Ahmanson Theatre<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AhmansonTheatre\">FB<\/a>), although having great seats, won&#8217;t host a show for that long of a period. As for the <a href=\"http:\/\/hollywoodpantages.com\/\">Pantages<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PantagesTheatre\/?fref=ts\">FB<\/a>), I didn&#8217;t think they would want to tie up the theatre for the long engagement <em>Hamilton <\/em>would need. I truly expected it would inaugurate one of the old movie palaces on Broadway. I was wrong.\u00a0 It is doing a five month engagement at the Pantages. Here are my thoughts on <em>Hamilton<\/em>, plus the rest of the announced schedule:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/hedwigbroadway.com\/\">Hedwig and the Angry Inch<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (November 1-27, 2016). I&#8217;ve heard the music to <em>Hedwig<\/em>, and I&#8217;ve grown to really like it. I wonder who they will get for the lead, and whether it will be a tour lead, or they will do a special lead for the Los Angeles engagement.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10128\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/thumbs-side.jpg\" alt=\"thumbs-side\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/the-king-and-i-gets-broadway-extension-and-national-tour-348423\">The King and I<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (December 13, 2016 &#8211; January 21, 2017). I&#8217;ve heard the music to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lct.org\/shows\/king-and-i\/whos-who\/\">the recent revival of <em>The King and I<\/em><\/a>, and I like it more than other revivals. However, this is still my least favorite R&amp;H show. I tend to find it slow and overdone. I&#8217;ll need to think about this one.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/findingneverlandthemusical.com\/\">Finding Neverland<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (February 21 &#8211; March 12, 2017). Ah, Peter, my friend. Back so soon. I&#8217;ve heard the music to this and like it quite a bit. It will be really interesting to see it in the same season that Cabrillo is doing their <em>Peter Pan<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anamericaninparisbroadway.com\/\">An American in Paris<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (March 22 &#8211; April 9, 2017). Again, I&#8217;ve heard the music, and the wonderful Gershwin melodies. The story, at least as was in the movies, is weak. But I recall reading that the adaption made some interesting choices in the setting to make this work again. Plus, of course, there is the fabulous dancing.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9931\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tdown.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Down\" width=\"20\" height=\"19\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebodyguardmusical.com\/\">The Bodyguard<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (May 2-21, 2017). An adaptation of a Whitney Houston movie, starring Deborah Cox. It hasn&#8217;t been on Broadway to my knowledge; this is a tour from London&#8217;s West End. Book is by Alexander Dinelaris based on the screenplay by Lawrence Kasden. There are no credits for music or lyrics, so this is a jukeboxer. I was more interested in <em>Ghost<\/em> than I would be in this.<\/li>\n<li><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9931\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tdown.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Down\" width=\"20\" height=\"19\" \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/bookofmormonbroadway.com\/\">The Book of Mormon<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (May 30 &#8211; July 9, 2017). Not interested. I saw this at the Pantages during the first National tour.<\/li>\n<li><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9932\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tup.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbs Up\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" \/> <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hamiltonbroadway.com\/\"><strong><em>Hamilton<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. (August 11 &#8211; December 30, 2017). Yes, oh yes. I&#8217;ve grown to really like the music and the story of this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All in all, a reasonable season. I&#8217;ve been buying individual tickets when they first go on sale at the Pantages, at the cheapest price. I&#8217;m buying them online now, so I do get the service fee. Given that, I think I&#8217;ll see if I can get a 4-show mini-subscription this year, as it may mean better and more consistent seats for the price. <del>I would love it if the Pantages did a &#8220;split into 2 payments&#8221; option, but I doubt they will. Too bad. They would probably get more subscribers.<\/del> [ETA: The good news is that according to their website, they have 2, 4, and 10 no-interest payment plans. The bad news is that currently they only have a 7 show subscription. Flex packages go on sale around July.]<del><br \/>\n<\/del><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Tour Musings: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aladdinthemusical.com\/\"><em>Aladdin: The Musical<\/em><\/a><\/strong> just <a href=\"http:\/\/playbill.com\/news\/article\/disneys-aladdin-announces-national-tour-382256\">announced their national tour<\/a>, starting in Chicago April-July 2017. Those dates mean it can&#8217;t go into the Pantages until at least 2018, and this is show that I&#8217;d expect to go into the Pantages. So it may show up at the Ahmanson in the Fall of 2017 (they haven&#8217;t announced their season yet), or (more likely) it will be in the Winter or Spring of 2018 at the Pantages. It also sounds like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time-will-be-uncovered-across-the-states-national-tour-announced-348505\">there is a tour<\/a> of <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/curiousonbroadway.com\/\">Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shnsf.com\/Online\/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=curiousincident&amp;BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=\">2016-2017 SHN San Francisco season<\/a>, so my guess is that it will be a fall show at the Ahmanson, because (a) it is unlikely they would delay it until 2018, and (b) they rarely, if ever, book plays into the Pantages. <a href=\"http:\/\/funhomebroadway.com\/\"><em><strong>Fun Home<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/rottenbroadway.com\/\"><em><strong>Something Rotten<\/strong><\/em><\/a> have also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/fun-home-and-something-rotten-announce-national-tours-349553\">announced tours<\/a>; <em>Fun Home\u00a0<\/em>starts in late 2016; <em>Rotten<\/em> in 2017. Given the Pantages schedule, I&#8217;m expecting both to show up at the Ahmanson. <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/schoolofrockthemusical.com\/\">School of Rock: The Musical<\/a><\/strong><\/em> has also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ew.com\/article\/2015\/12\/07\/school-rock-musical-sets-national-tour-london-premiere-day-after-opening\">announced a tour<\/a>; although that&#8217;s a show that would fit the Pantages audience better, the long sitdown at the Pantages means it will likely be an Ahmanson show. Gee. I&#8217;ve just figured out the Ahmanson season :-).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;&#x1f3ad;*<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Repertory East Playhouse<\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5025\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpicrepeast.jpg\" alt=\"userpic=repeast\" width=\"100\" height=\"99\" \/>Now we come to the non-announcement. As you might recall, in all my writeups of late, I&#8217;ve been indicating that I&#8217;ve been waiting for <a href=\"http:\/\/repeastplayhouse.org\/\">REP East<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RepertoryEastPlayhouse?fref=ts\">FB<\/a>) 2016 season. It normally would be well underway by now. But we have heard nothing from the theatre; <a href=\"http:\/\/repeastplayhouse.org\/\">their website has not been updated since December<\/a>. I&#8217;ve heard ominous rumblings, but that could just be a bit of grisly beef I had for lunch. However, I did drop a note to REP, and did get a little something back. Basically, what I know is that they are closed for unspecified restructuring and renovations, and that a new season will begin in August. There will be a more formal announcement once the jello has jellified.<\/p>\n<p>So the good news is: they are coming back. The bad news is: it won&#8217;t be until August. This is too short to switch a subscription to somewhere else, but I sense I&#8217;ll be getting a lot of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegrouprep.com\/\">The Group Rep<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheGroupRep?ref=ts\">FB<\/a>) tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goldstar.com\/venues\/north-hollywood-ca\/lonny-chapman-theatre\">on Goldstar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*&#x1f474;&#x1f474;&#x1f474;*<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4989\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpiclas-vegas.jpg\" alt=\"userpic=las-vegas\" width=\"98\" height=\"92\" \/>P.S.: This time it is true. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/la-me-abe-vigoda-20160126-story.html\">Abe Vigoda has passed away<\/a>. And in the universe, a thousand memes cried in sympathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, I received in the mail my season renewal for Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB); today&#8217;s news brought an update on the upcoming season at the Pantages (FB). So I thought I would share with you (over lunch) my thoughts on these announcements, together with my thoughts on an announcement we haven&#8217;t received from one of <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=11094\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,28],"tags":[178,454,479,462,334],"class_list":["post-11094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries","category-theatre","tag-abe-vigoda","tag-cabrillo-music-theatre","tag-pantages-hollywood","tag-rep-east","tag-theatre-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11094"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11114,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11094\/revisions\/11114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}