Joanna Syiek News

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Santa Barbara Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

Following the success of its initial run in September and an October extension, LIZZIE will now move to the Bootleg Theater to help fire up Los Angeles voters ahead of the midterm elections. This one-night-only event will take place on Nov. 5 7:30PM with voting resources available at the show.

Due to the success of its initial run in September, LIZZIE has now been extended with an additional Halloween performance on October 31. Scroll down for photos from the recent run.

How much rage would a person need to feel to kill two people with 29 whacks of an axe? The short answer is, a lot. That's the number Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby actually sustained in 1892 - not the 81 immortalized in this haunting nursery rhyme.

126 years ago this week, the town of Fall River, MA, played unknowing host to one of the most infamous murders in history. The prime suspect was one Lizzie Borden. Her story has become an American legend, and now her story sings.

The punk rock musical American Idiot, now on stage at Center Stage, gives Green Day fans an opportunity to immerse themselves into the titular album through dance, imagery, and, of course, music. American Idiot does not tell a story so much as it performs the gesture of punk rock: a clench-fisted rebellion against the banality of American society and culture.

Punk's not dead! So says Out of the Box Theater Company, who brings Green Day's American Idiot to Center Stage Theater April 6-15.

Fresh off a successful run at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Merely Players extends into July, as part of the ENCORE! Producers' Award.  The show, a meta-exploration of the theatre scene, watches as a struggling (and mostly terrible) theatre troupe attempts to put on a musical that maybe really should never have been written in the first place. The piece was also named 'Best Full-Length World-Premiere Musical' by StageSceneLA, making the 'Top Ten of the Fringe' list. 

Coming to Los Angeles this June, Merely Players is a meta-exploration of the theatre scene that watches as a struggling (and mostly terrible) theatre troupe attempts to put on a musical that maybe really should never have been written in the first place.

There's something wild on the loose, and a whole new kind of monster is coming to Hollywood. Official selection at the 2014 Hollywood Fringe Festival in Combined Artform "Pick of the Fringe," Giraffenstein will play two additional performances on Saturday, July 12 at 11:30pm and Saturday, July 19 at 11:55PM as part of The Encore! Producers' Extension Series.

This original one-act pop musical aims high and often hits its mark although it may not be the musical you think it's going to be. While it contains a fair amount of wry humor, don't expect the kind of silliness you found in The Pokemusical, the team's entry into last year's Fringe Festival. This twist on the Frankenstein story has a more sophisticated harmonic structure and a richer musical texture that gives it an added edge.

From the award-winning team who brought you last year's hit The Pokemusical, comes a new musical GIRAFFENSTEIN based on the tale of Shelley's Frankenstein, as you've never seen it before. Song, dance, and danger. And they're all giraffes.

Due to the success of its special presentation of Things to Ruin in January, Color and Light Theatre Ensemble will be adding an additional performance on February 8. Scroll down for photos from the January performance!

After a six month run of recent show The Pokemusical, Color and Light Theatre Ensemble will bring a one-night presentation of Joe Iconis' 'Things to Ruin' to Southern California.

I know next to nothing about Pokemon and from the photos I'd seen I figured THE POKEMUSICAL would simply be a family-friendly musical that might be cute and probably fun, but I never imagined I would love it as much as I did.

Hollywood Fringe coverage continues with a look at a musical satire based on the world of pocket monsters and a popular musical about four friends writing a new musical. And in big news, the brand new Hollywood Fringe Festival App is now available for free download.