THE TRAIL TO OREGON
Saturday, September 12th, 2026
Western Expansion has rarely been as fraught with fun, frolic, and fantasy (not to mention music, dance, and audience participation) as it is in The Trail To Oregon!, the irresistibly entertaining guest production now rib-tickling audiences at the Wisteria Theatre.
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WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
Thursday, September 10th, 2026
Death-defying aerial performances and breathtaking acrobatic feats, stunning animal puppetry, and forbidden love at its most forbidden, Water For Elephants, now dazzling Pantages Theatre audiences, has them all.
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THE PEOPLE OF POMPEII
Monday, September 7th, 2026
All bets are off when a sextet of native and transplanted Topangans get together for a couples’ dinner in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in Bernardo Cubría’s The People Of Pompeii, as laugh-out-loud funny as it is deeply perceptive of the political, economic, and social divides that polarize us and the humanity that binds us together.
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THE ARSONISTS
Saturday, September 5th, 2026
Max Frisch’s 1950s absurdist gem The Arsonists gets a strikingly staged and marvelously performed 21st-century update at the Skylight Theatre that welcomes to the L.A. theater scene an exciting new collective appropriately called The Firebugs.
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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Friday, September 4th, 2026
Even last-minute improvised emergency lighting couldn’t dim the opening night excitement at Altadena Music Theatre’s all-around fabulous open-air revival of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Little Shop Of Horrors.
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AUGUST WILSON’S MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Tuesday, September 1st, 2026
My mind may have wandered during the second half of Act One of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but when all is said and done, it’s a pretty darn spectacular season opener for A Noise Within.
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PERICLES
Sunday, August 30th, 2026
Ten strangers seeking refuge from a storm in a disaster relief center find much in common with their displaced Shakespearean counterparts in Boston Court Pasadena’s thrillingly inventive staging of Ellen McLaughlin’s modern verse translation of Pericles.
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CONSCIENCE
Saturday, August 29th, 2026
Decades before lies, chaos, fear, personal attacks, intimidation, and bullying reigned supreme in Washington DC, a senator named Joseph McCarthy set it all in motion by waging war against suspected communists and Senator Margaret Chase Smith in Conscience, Joe DiPietro’s fascinating look back at how much times haven’t changed since 1950.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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