Archived entries for Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center

NEWS RELEASE ✰ ‘THE MISMATCH GAME’ RETURNS TO LGBT CENTER ▪︎ Sat 7/28 and Sun 7/29

Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
and Dennis Hensley
Present
THE MISMATCH GAME
CREATED AND HOSTED BY DENNIS HENSLEY

NOW IN ITS 14TH HILARIOUS YEAR!

TWO NIGHTS ONLY
Saturday, July 28 & Sunday, July 29

It’s time once again to “get ready to match the stars” with a new edition of Dennis Hensley’s The MisMatch Game, the show the Los Angeles Times calls, “witty, ribald … an adventure in surrealist era bending.” The side-splitting parody of the ‘70s game show returns to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre for two hilarious nights on Saturday, July 28, at 8pm and Sunday, July 29, at 7pm.

Creator, producer, and host Dennis “Gene Rayburn” Hensley will be joined onstage by a panel of some LA’s most creative, hilarious, and demented minds. Hensley and company are once again generously donating the proceeds to benefit the Center’s array of free and low-cost services. Since its debut in 2004, The MisMatch Game has raised well over $100,000 for the Los Angeles LGBT Center. With kitschy prizes for volunteer contestants pulled from the audience, it’s time to dig out that leisure suit for another run of the perennial cult favorite.

Fractured celebrity impersonations include such luminaries (living and otherwise!) as Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur, Harvey Fierstein, Cher, Ricardo Montalbán, and Pee Wee Herman. Visit www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre for casting news. All appearances are subject to availability.

The MisMatch Game regularly fills the house at its irregularly scheduled gigs at the Renberg Theatre. Audiences keep coming back for the razor’s edge improv and the racy, anarchic, and decidedly un-PC wit and wildness. The Advocate honored The MisMatch Game with a “10 Best Theatre” citation that said, “This recurring Los Angeles happening re-imagines the ‘70s TV game show The Match Game with full-camp press and excellent sub-lebrity impersonations.”

General admission tickets are $15 and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. 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.

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06/29/18

NEWS RELEASE ✰ HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL HIT “DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE” SET FOR EXTENDED RUN ▪︎ JULY 12 – 29

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center and Blanket Fort Entertainment
Present
Hollywood Fringe Festival Breakout Hit
DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE
Written and Performed by Burt Grinstead and Anna Stromberg
Directed by Anna Stromberg
OPENS THURSDAY, JULY 12
FOR TEN PERFORMANCES ONLY

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center and Blanket Fort Entertainment have announced an extended run of the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival breakout hit Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Nominated for six HFF Awards including Best Comedy, winner of the 2CentsTheatre Award for Distinctive Voices, and winner of the SoHo Playhouse (NYC) Fringe Encore Series Award, this genre-bending thriller had its world premiere at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre and returns for 10 performances only, July 12 through July 29.

Written and performed by Burt Grinstead and Anna Stromberg, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a dizzying, fast-paced, horrifying and hilarious extravaganza that leaves the audience questioning its own morality. Based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the classic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, this new adaptation takes place on the dismal streets of London in the 1860s, where societal pressures silence a gentle doctor’s questions about the nature of morality. As the pressure intensifies,  Dr. Jekyll takes matters into his own hands.  Will his efforts save the world, or will they destroy all that he holds dear? After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Burt Grinstead has starred in films and television shows including Roger Corman’s Death Race 2050, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and many more. This is Grinstead’s fourth role at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, following dynamic performances in Deathtrap by Ira Levin, Hit the Wall by Ike Holter, and Fool for Love by Sam Shepard. He was nominated for an Ovation Award for his portrayal of twins Peter and Craig in Dying City by Christopher Shinn at Rogue Machine Theatre.

Anna Stromberg lived and worked in New York City for 10 years performing in various off-Broadway theatres. She was a longtime member of the edgy Amoralists Theatre Company, originating roles in collaborations with Daniel Aukin, Adam Rapp, and Lyle Kessler. She won critical acclaim for her portrayal of Vanda in Venus in Fur by David Ives at The Cape Fear Playhouse. She also stars in Well Wishes on Netflix and in the indie horror feature The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan. Last year, Stromberg directed a renowned production of David Harrower’s Blackbird at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

The opening of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is set for Thursday, July 12, at 8pm.  The running schedule is as follows — Friday, July 13 at 8pm; Saturday, July 14 at 8pm; Sunday, July 15 at 7pm; Friday, July 20 at 8pm; Saturday, July 21 at 2pm; Sunday, July 22 at 7pm; Friday, July 27 at 8pm; Saturday, July 28 at 8pm; and Sunday, July 29 at 2pm. General admission tickets are $20 and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/theatre or by phone at (323) 860-7300. The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038.

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06/28/18

 

NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ MISS COCO PERU RETURNS WITH “THE TAMING OF THE TENSION” ▪︎ FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY!

The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s
Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center
Presents
MISS COCO PERU:
THE TAMING OF THE TENSION
Written and Performed by Clinton Leupp
Directed by Michael Schiralli

FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY!
September 9–10 & September 16–17
at the Renberg Theatre

Coco Peru TensionThe Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced the return of the legendary Miss Coco Peru in her latest solo show, The Taming of the Tension. Directed by longtime collaborator Michael Schiralli, Coco will play four performances only at the Renberg Theatre on Saturdays, September 9 & 16 at 8pm and Sundays, September 10 & 17 at 7pm.

According to the latest “scientific” surveys, everyone’s been feeling more tension lately, and Miss Coco Peru knows what we all need. Through her hilarious and heartfelt stories and one-of-a-kind song stylings, Coco will share her hard-won secrets and tame your tensions, making us happier people and the world a little better, too.

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, Will & Grace, 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 The Taming of the Tension, the seventh original stage show to be performed at the Renberg by one of our most beloved artists.

General admission tickets are $30 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. Due to construction, parking is no longer available onsite. Limited free parking is available at the Center’s Highland facility, one block north of The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. Please allow extra time to find street parking or choose public transportation or a ride–sharing service.

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08-11-17