Sister Act! (LAArtsOnline.com)

^{Musical Theatre West’s Sister Act starring Constance Jewell Lopez runs April 8-24th}

Sister Act!

By Ken Werther
Photo By Neil Reinhold

The Broadway musical Sister Act began its life in Southern California at The Pasadena Playhouse in 2006, breaking box office records to become the highest grossing show ever at the venue. After a production at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2007 and a newly refined and revised version produced in London in 2009, Sister Act finally arrived on Broadway in 2011. The much lauded, much loved musical will be presented this month by Musical Theatre West in Long Beach for 13 performances only.

The show is based on the 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg which was one of the most financially successful movie comedies of the early 1990s. It’s a wacky story about Deloris Van Cartier, a Reno lounge singer who is put under protective custody in a convent (and must therefore pretend to be a nun) when a mob boss puts her on his hit list.

In the upcoming MTW production in Long Beach, Deloris will be played by Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award-winner Constance Jewell Lopez (who has wowed local audiences in Celebration Theatre’s production of The Color Purple and DOMA Theatre’s Dreamgirls). The director is Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews … and here’s the thing — any show with Lopez and Matthews attached is guaranteed to be stupendous. That’s right, I said guaranteed!

To purchase tickets and more information on Musical Theatre West, click here.

NEWS RELEASE — “A GENTLE REMINDER: MISS COCO PERU’S GUIDE TO A SOMEWHAT HAPPY LIFE”

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Presents
A GENTLE REMINDER:
MISS COCO PERU’S GUIDE TO A SOMEWHAT HAPPY LIFE
Written and Performed by Clinton Leupp
Directed by Michael Schiralli

Fridays & Saturdays, May 13-14 and 20-21 at 8pm

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the return of the legendary Miss Coco Peru. The YouTube sensation brings her latest solo show, A Gentle Reminder: Miss Coco Peru’s Guide to a Somewhat Happy Life, to the Renberg Theatre for four nights only — Fridays and Saturdays, May 13 & 14 and May 20 & 21. Curtain time for all performances is 8pm.

Ever since becoming a phenomenon on YouTube, Miss Coco Peru has been inundated with emails from people of all ages asking her the same question: “Coco, what is the secret to a happy life?” Being the giver that she is, Coco has written a new show in which, through story and song, she shares a step-by-step guide that leaves you prepared to enter the world again ready to create your very own “somewhat” happy life. Why just a “somewhat” happy life? Well, let’s face it, you wouldn’t want to be happy all the time because “happy” people make such a racket!

Storyteller/monologist Miss Coco Peru, aka Clinton Leupp, got his/her start as a downtown favorite in the New York cabaret world after he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first show, Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret, 25 years ago. A veteran of numerous feature films (trick and the cult classic Girls Will Be Girls, among numerous others), and television shows (How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, Twins, and more). Leupp has received worldwide acclaim for his award-winning solo shows and his remarkable series of tributes to great performers, Conversations with Coco, in which she conducts live career-retrospective interviews with such luminaries as Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, and the late Bea Arthur.

Leupp has been honored by many organizations, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, for his long history of dedicated activism and unflagging support of the LGBT community. The Center is proud to present A Gentle Reminder, the sixth original stage show to be performed at the Renberg by one of our most beloved artists.

General admission tickets are $25 and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. Net proceeds from all ticket sales will support the full range of free and low-cost programs and services offered by the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038. Free onsite parking is available.

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04-01-16

Miss Coco Peru. Photo by Andrew Putschoegl.