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DAME EDNA OPENS JUNE 10 AT AHMANSON THEATRE  

“Dame Edna: My First Last Tour” opens Wednesday, June 10 at 8 p.m. at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles at the Music Center, and will play for two weeks only through June 21.  

Dame Edna, the widely loved international homemaker, talk show host, gigastar, fashion icon, guru, swami and most-sought-after friend of the rich, famous and royal, is making a welcome return to the Ahmanson where she played in “Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance!” for two raucous weeks in the spring of 2006. 

For more than four decades Dame Edna has dazzled audiences the world over with her one-of-a-kind banter, infinite wisdom and fabulous beauty tips.She won a 2000 Special Tony Award for a Live Theatrical Event for her Broadway debut in “Dame Edna: The Royal Tour,” which also won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award.  Said Ben Brantley in The New York Times, “Genius.  Hasten to the theatre and sit at the feet of a star.  What bliss.”              

Created by Australian actor, author, painter, composer and racing car driver Barry Humphries, Dame Edna is a national icon in her native Australia.

Tickets for “Dame Edna: My First Last Tour” are available by calling (213) 628-2772
or online at http://www.centertheatregroup.org. Tickets can also be obtained in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Music Center.  For groups, call (213) 972-7231.  For the deaf community, information and charge, call TDD (213) 680-4017.

Hot Tix at $20 each can be purchased in advance or, subject to availability, on the day of performance at the box office (cash only). For further information, please call (213) 628-2772.
 
 

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO OPENS MAY 17 AT KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE 

The world premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, presented by Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, opens May 17, 2009, and continues through June 7.  Previews begin May 10.

Directed by Moisés Kaufman, the cast features (in alphabetical order) Glenn Davis, Brad Fleischer, Arian Moayed, Kevin Tighe, Hrach Titizian, Sheila Vand and Necar Zadegan.  

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is a lyrical, haunting new play set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq, in which the lives and, in some cases, the afterlives of two American soldiers, an Iraqi translator, the ghost of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, and a Bengal tiger all intersect in a surreal, darkly humorous and gently balanced view of war and its aftermath.

Earlier this year it was announced that Bengal Tiger was selected as an NEA Outstanding New American Play as part of the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program hosted by Arena Stage, and Rajiv Joseph also received the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship for his work on the play.  His play Animals Out of Paper in New York recently received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Play.  Joseph’s other plays include All This Intimacy, The Leopard and the Fox, and Huck & Holden, which was produced in Los Angeles by the Black Dahlia Theatre in 2006.

Tickets for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo are available by calling (213) 628-2772, online at http://www.centertheatregroup.org, in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Ahmanson Theatre or two hours prior to performances at the Kirk Douglas Theatre box office. The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA90232. 

 
 

The cast has been announced for the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre engagement of Monty Python’s Spamalot which will open Center Theatre Group’s 2009-2010 season at the Ahmanson Theatre of the Los Angeles Music Center, July 7-September 6, 2009.

Joining the previously announced John O’Hurley (King Arthur) are Merle Dandridge(The Lady of the Lake), James Beaman (Sir Robin), Ben Davis (Sir Dennis Galahad), Jeff Dumas (Patsy), Rick Holmes (Sir Lancelot until August 2), Matthew Greer (Sir Lancelot after August 2), Christopher Gurr (Sir Bedevere), Christopher Sutton (Not Dead Fred,  Prince Herbert), Matt Allen, Graham Bowen, Nigel Columbus, Timothy Connell, Cara Cooper, Lenny Daniel, Alexa Glover, David Havasi, Erik Hayden, Sarah Lin Johnson, Carissa Lopez, Jennifer Mathie, Lyn Philistine, Tera-Lee Pollin, Darryl Semira, Vanessa Sonon and Paula Wise.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Spamalot features book and lyrics by Eric Idle, and is based on the screenplay of Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Monty Python creators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.  The music for Spamalot is music by the Grammy Award-winning team of John Du Prez and Idle.  Casey Nicholaw is the choreographer.

Spamalot is the winner of three 2005 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical.  The original cast recording of Spamalot won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.

Spamalot recounts the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail, featuring a chorus line of dancing divas and knights, flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits, and an armless and legless knight.    

Monty Python is a group of British actors and writers (there is one American) who performed the famous comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus on the BBC from 1969 to 1974, with subsequent international fame and success.
 
Tickets for Monty Python’s Spamalot start at $30 and are available by calling (213) 972-4400 or online at http://www.centertheatregroup.org. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Center Theatre Group box office at the Music Center. For the deaf community, call TDD (213) 680-4017 for tickets and information.