“I feel good about the direction we’re heading,” said Snehal Desai, the Theatre Group’s artistic director, who took the helm of the company in August. “This is just the beginning and it’s a long game and I feel like this season is a roadmap of what we’re doing, how we want to invite everyone into our spaces, how we want to offer something for every generation,” he added.

The well-known Center Theatre Group usually programs separate seasons at its three venues; the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre (both at LA’s Music Center) and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. For its 2024/25 season however the respected organization is unifying programming at all three venues under a single season dubbed One CTG. One LA.

“It’s one season we have curated together and what we’re looking at is a journey through all of our venues over one year,” said Desai, who came to CTG from , where he was artistic director for seven years.

“When we did separate seasons at each venue we wanted to make sure we had a drama, and a comedy and different types of shows, and now we’re putting it together as one collective thing,” he said.

It was also a business decision made in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“We’re not operating three independent venues now, we’re operating one company amongst three spaces,” Desai said.

Subscription package tickets went on sale May 8 for the multi-show season which opens Oct. 2 with Desai making his CTG directorial debut at the Taper with a new take on “American Idiot” musical. It’s going to be a milestone event not just because it’s Desai’s debut as the head of a production but because it will also mark the re-opening of the 1967 venue, which last year because of a budget shortfall. The production will include a partnership with Deaf West Theatre to tell the punk rock musical tale in both English and American Sign Language. It runs through Nov. 10.

Other productions at the Taper this season include the world premiere of “Fake It Until You Make It” by Los Angeles based writer Larissa FastHorse. This show, which will run Jan. 29-March 9, will mark yet another significant event at the Taper because FastHorse will be the first Native American writer to have a mainstage production on the Mark Taper Forum stage.

Other season highlights include “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends” with Broadway royalty making her CTG debut. It runs Feb. 8- March 9, and the Tony and Olivier Award-winning hit “Life of Pi,” which runs from May 7-June 1, 2025. Both shows are taking place at the Ahmanson.

The Kirk Douglas Theatre meanwhile will feature programming that will appeal to families and young audiences including “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical,” a comedy adapted from the “Cat Kid Comic Club” series of books (Nov. 22-Jan. 5) and “El Otro Oz,” a bilingual adaptation of “The Wizard of OZ.” Dates for this production have yet to be announced.

For Desai, combining the seasons was not only a way to come up with a sustainable model after the pandemic, since it gives the company more flexibility when it comes to programming, but he also hopes it will make theater more accessible to people who may not be die-hard theater fans.

“I want us to be the premier home for theater in Southern California,” he said. “I wanted there to be something for everyone every season at CTG. As the largest theater company outside of New York, as the largest on the West Coast, I want us to make sure we’re a home for theater and we’re inviting as many folks in Los Angeles and Southern California to our venues,” Desai said.

Subscription packages start at $299. For tickets go to

“Ramona” is “America’s longest continuously running drama,” according to the Ramona Bowl’s .

The play is is based on Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel of the same name, and of fictional lovers Ramona, a Scottish-Native American girl, and Alessandro, a Native American. The story weaves in references to between Native Americans and settlers in late-1800s Southern California.

The Thursday, April 18, performance took place before an audience of thousands of local fourth graders, a field trip that has become an annual tradition of its own.

After missing two years due to , the event in 2022, and then its 100th season last year.

To mark its centennial, the production arranged , including Native American hoop dancers, a Spanish fiesta and additional scenes.

IF YOU GO

What: The 101st season of the outdoor play “Ramona”

When: Saturdays and Sundays, including April 20, 21, 27, 28 and May 4 and 5. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. and showtime is 3:30 p.m.

�³�����:��Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre, 27400 Ramona Bowl Road

Details: Tickets range from $33 to $47 for adults, $31 to $47 for older residents and $21 to $47 for children, depending on the section.

Ticket information: 951-658-3111 or . To buy tickets, click .

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error. The 2023 season of “Ramona” ran for the typical three weekends.

The Broadway at the Fox in Riverside series, run by The American Theatre Guild, will also include a musical featuring songs from The Temptations as well as a magic show.

“Starting with the premiere engagements of two Tony Award-winning productions, ‘The Book of Mormon’ and ‘Ain’t Too Proud,’ the Tony-award winner for Best Revival of a Musical, ‘Chicago’ and Tina Fey’s hit musical, ‘Mean Girls,’ this season will offer something for both current and new fans of Broadway,” Amy Hamm, president and executive director of The American Theatre Guild said in a news release.

Here’s a look at the season’s highlights.

• “Mean Girls” — Dec. 30 and 31. Fey’s musical is a satire about teenage girls in high school. It was also a movie in 2004 and 2024.
• “The Book of Mormon” — Jan. 28 and 29, 2025. The musical was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creative duo behind the animated “South Park,” as well as Robert Lopez. It follows two young missionaries sent to Uganda to convert people to the Mormon religion.
• “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” — March 4 and 5, 2025. The musical follows the singing group’s rise from Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The show includes hit tunes such as “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination” and “Get Ready.”
• “Chicago” — March 18 and 19, 2025. The musical, set in the city’s jazz age, tells a tale about fame and fortune and features plenty of dancing and singing.
• “Champions of Magic” — April 29 and 30, 2025. The touring magic show will feature new illusions along with humor.

For ticket and other information, visit , or the Fox Performing Arts Center’s box office.

For information on season memberships, click .

Now the Costa Mesa theater births for the first time a fresh novelty: “Prelude to a Kiss, The Musical,” a newly commissioned work, based on a non-musical play SCR premiered more than 35 years ago.

Under the guidance of company artistic director David Ivers, a 12-person cast of Broadway pedigree talent begins preview performances April 9.

Finishing touches on playwright Craig Lucas’s new work have been under way since February, marking the culmination of a journey that began in 2016.

“Musicals take a long time — between six to 10 years, in my experience,” says Lucas, who has written more than a few, including “The Light in the Piazza,” which won six Tony awards in 2005.

Addressing what’s different about musicals, Lucas says “there’s a different energy of what’s carrying the story.

“A wonderful thing about doing a musical versus writing a play is there are simply more brilliant people in the room to ask questions that wouldn’t occur to you when you’re arguing with yourself.”

For Ivers, “This has been a long and really exciting process.

“Based on (Craig’s) fantastic source material, and with this creative team, including him, we’ve been sorting out how to use song and choreography and create a story for now.”

Lucas is animated talking about how this musical has come together.

“Emotion is released in different storytelling ways that require you (in a musical) to kind of shake the Etch a Sketch.

“I think it gets to a depth of about what it means to fall in love with someone and means to fight for that love that only music can do.”

Ivers describes the new version as a modernistic fable.

“It’s set in 2024, in the Northeast. It’s a population of young and old, dealing with vulnerabilities, triumphs and challenges for people.”

The original play, which debuted at SCR in 1988, was about a woman who fears for the world against the backdrop of the plague of AIDS.

Yet she decides to wed and after the wedding is kissed by an older man, a stranger. A fantastical event subsequently causes her husband to grapple with the future of their marriage.

“Prelude to a Kiss” is one of six of Lucas works seen over four decades in Costa Mesa. It made its way to Broadway in 1990 starring Alec Baldwin and Mary-Louise Parker, then became a 1992 movie with Baldwin and Meg Ryan.

Lucas had long since moved on.

“I don’t tend to look back. I’m not somebody who likes to go see new productions of my old work.”

But, in 2016, a friend introduced him to lyricist Sean Hartley, who felt the story could fund a modern musical. Intrigued, Lucas introduced Hartley to musician Daniel Messé.

With all three juggling other projects, a few pages of script and a couple of songs emerged.

Reacting to the initial efforts, SCR paid for a commission draft.

But, Ivers explains, commissions come with no guarantees of a final work: “They only become a guarantee of a fee (to the creative artists, in this case Lucas, Hartley and Messé).

“And then, if we want to extend an option, a theater pays more. And then, if a theater wants to go into development, we pay more. … The chips kind of start to become all-in.”

By 2018, Ivers was arriving at SCR to become its artistic director. He saw a videotape of an early workshop of the work.

Important to Ivers are “dramatically active songs that propel the narrative.

“I heard an early song called ‘I Haven’t Slept in Years’. I called Paula (Tomei, SCR’s longtime managing director),” says Ivers. “I said, ‘I want to greenlight (a full production).’”

A kick-the-tires public reading at the theater’s 2019 Pacific Playwrights Festival gave both SCR brass and the creative team a chance to see how audiences were responding to a draft.

Everyone’s response: Let’s keep working,

And then COVID-19 stalled life everywhere.

In the pandemic’s aftermath Lucas and Ivers noticed societal attitude changes that could shed new light on how the show might land for audiences.

One of the songs is called “Age of Anxiety.” “Is there a better title for 2024?,” asks Ivers, tongue only slightly in cheek.

“In 1988, the young woman is very fearful for everything, a worldwide plague occurring,” says Lucas. “People back then thought it was charming, even funny, that the character had such an exaggerated sense of the peril of the world.”

He paused with a rueful chuckle.

“But when you do that same story now … interesting! Everybody kind of goes, ‘Oh yeah, well, she’s right.’”

Beyond the text, the work had evolved during workshops. Out of town, one workshop was dedicated to “movement.”

“And (Ivers) brought in a brilliant choreographer (Julia Rhoads),” says Lucas. “It’s creating a vocabulary through movement as well as music and sound that I’m very excited about.

“This isn’t like your cheesy, overly familiar jazz hands, American musical-comedy way of dancing. More in the style of a Twyla Tharp or Merce Cunningham.”

In separate interviews, Lucas and Ivers seem to have something of a creative bromance going on, though perhaps neither is quite aware of it.

“This director is quite smart,” says Lucas. “What’s heartening about working with David is that he is not interested in replicating anyone else’s success. We feel to be working to come from an authentic place.”

For his part, Ivers values Lucas’ willingness to explore.

“He brings a tenacity and voraciousness for clarity of storytelling across all disciplines,” says Ivers.

“He is a very dedicated, hardworking playwright and about the hunt for truth to make sure that the story is being served in the way that we have to follow these characters.”

After the South Coast Repertory run, the creative team will assess the new show’s further needs.

A second staging, with the same creative talent pool, will take place at Milwaukee Repertory Theater from September through October.

And after that …

“Look, live theater remains sustaining,” says Lucas. “People actually do like to gather and face in the same direction in the dark and pay attention to an experience that they’re having collectively.

“Because as a species, we need to tell and be told each other’s stories.”

Ivers offers a slightly more prosaic timeline ahead.

“We’ll put it on (in Milwaukee), we’ll see what the changes we’ve made, how they work,” he says. “And from that point on, I don’t know…

… sky’s the limit.”

UPDATE: An earlier version of this story reported that previews would begin April 5 and the show would open April 12, but the production schedule has been changed because of technical issues, according to South Coast Repertory.

‘Prelude to a Kiss, The Musical’

Where: Segerstrom Stage, South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: April 9-May 4. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays. 8 p.m. Fridays; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. (On Sunday, April 7, there is a 7 p.m. performance, but no 2 p.m. performance).

Tickets: $34-$112

Information: 714-708-5555;

“Mary Poppins” returns as the festival’s musical theater offering and several artists are returning as well, including Brass Transit, a Chicago-tribute band, and the Air Force Band of the Golden West. “Mary Poppins” was last performed on the Bowl stage in 2015.

The season opens June 21 with Daniel Emmet, recently seen in a PBS special, “Simply the Best.” Emmet has multiple No. 1 singles on iTunes classical chart and has headlined shows in Las Vegas and worldwide. He has toured extensively with David Foster. The concert evening will be conducted under the baton of Nolan Livesay, Redlands Bowl Performing Arts announced in a news release.

“We are thrilled to begin the second chapter of the history of the Redlands Bowl with the stellar 101st season we have planned! From our opening night to our closing symphony, there is truly something for everyone to enjoy,” RBPA executive director Beverly Noerr said in the release.

Performances are Tuesdays and Fridays through Aug. 16, except for July 5, and as always, there’s no charge for admission though donations are welcome. Shows begin at 8 p.m. on performance evenings at the Bowl, 25 Grant St. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

“Mary Poppins” will be performed four times, July 25-28, with a public dress rehearsal on July 23.

Here’s a look at the full lineup:

Tuesday, June 25 — The Grand Finals of the Young Artist Concerto Competition, Roger Kalia, music director and conductor

Friday, June 28 – Brass Transit: The Musical Legacy of Chicago

Tuesday, July 2 – Air Force Band of the Golden West

Tuesday, July 9 – Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives

Friday, July 12 – Americana Women

Tuesday, July 16 – Tito Puente Jr. and His Latin Jazz Orchestra

Friday, July 19 – The Gentlemen’s Quartet

Tuesday, July 23 – Public Dress Rehearsal for Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins

Thursday to Sunday, July 25-28 – Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins

Tuesday, July 30 – Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band

Friday, Aug. 2 – Tango Del Cielo

Tuesday, Aug. 6 – Forever Motown

Friday, Aug. 9 – The Kalama Brothers and Puahi’s Polynesian Dancers

Tuesday, Aug. 13 – Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

Friday, Aug. 16 – Fireworks Finale! Show features the Redlands Symphony conducted by Ransom Wilson performing the works of Danny Elfman. Featured guest artist Chaeyoung Park will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correctly spell the name of Daniel Emmet, who will perform June 21 at the Redlands Bowl.

“Dita Las Vegas: A Jubilant Revue” includes lively music, two dozen dancers, costumes and accessories adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals and thousands of pounds of vintage orange and pink feathers, custom Christian Louboutin shoes, a bejeweled mechanical bull, a glittering birdcage with a water feature and martini glasses large enough for a grown woman to sexily splash around in.

The Los Angeles resident’s first Las Vegas residency, which launched in late October 2023, has been a hit and recently expanded to four evenings a week (Wednesdays-Saturdays), with added dates currently stretching into mid-June.

“I’m excited because I’m up against these massive conglomerate shows here and I’m just a little show,” . “OK, it’s really a big show, but compared to everything else here. I’m proud of what we’ve created and word is getting out. It is difficult to compete sometimes with the Cirque du Soleils of the world. It’s also not easy to make a showgirl revue and burlesque revue in this day and age and have people understand what it is until they see it. Once they see it, it’s like ‘Oh, this is totally relevant.’ It’s not just a ‘girlie show.’”

Von Teese is quick to point out, too, that there’s an equal number of men and women included in the program. It features a variety of acts that tip the hat to classic Las Vegas-style stage shows with showgirl dancing and a circus performance, paired with the myriad of original StripScapes with props created by Von Teese and her longtime creative partner Catherine D’Lish over the past 23 years.

A longtime admirer and collector of all things vintage, Von Teese said she couldn’t pass up this opportunity, especially when she discovered she’d have access to all of the costumes and accessories created by famous Hollywood designers Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. The duo created the outfits for “Jubilee!,” the last true showgirl production, which ran from 1981 to 2016 at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and they’ve been stored at the venue since.

“These vintage costumes nobody can ever make again,” Von Teese said. “They’ve been carefully archived since ‘Jubilee!’ closed in 2016 and we have people who worked on ‘Jubilee!’ working on our wardrobe team, so everything is still perfectly cared for and they’ve rarely seen the light of day so there’s very little fade.”

“Every time I step into the wardrobe area, which is so massive, it’s so exciting and it feels like I’m getting high,” she continued. “I get like glamour eyes. For a vintage-lover like me, this has been a dream because I also discovered not only the ‘Jubilee!’ archives, but things from the show before, which was in the ’60s or ’70s. There’s a whole top floor with four huge rooms filled with vintage costumes.”

Von Teese and her crew took their time looking carefully through the wardrobe to select which costumes would be a part of the acts within the show.

“I’ve always been the person, whether it’s clothing or even a old house or building with history, I want to touch the walls and I want to think about the past,” she said. “Ever since I was little, I’ve always been really interested in things and what their past lives were.”

While it is inspired by “Jubilee!” Von Teese admits her new show is nothing like it. There’s subtle nods throughout since one of Von Teese’s favorite things to do in Las Vegas, aside from visiting The Liberace Museum, was to go see “Jubilee!” when she was in town.

“I loved it because it was high-camp and really it was the last revue of its kind,” she said. “It was the one with the Ziegfeld-style and this real showgirl stuff from the past. It was quintessential Las Vegas and there’s been nothing like it. I’m really excited that we have this show now on The Strip because people try to do a little vintage Las Vegas, but, I’m sorry, I don’t think unless you live vintage culture, you don’t get into the minutiae and details and understand why it was good. But I do.”

While using vintage costuming and the old-school “Jubilee!” props and practical staging, Von Teese is also bringing in some newer technology as she has incorporated her video projection mapping striptease act, which was originally created by Ali Mahdavi for her at The Crazy Horse Paris.

“It’s the most tedious part of the night for me,” she admits. “It’s just very precise in the body positions because we’re not quite at the point with nudity, where you can have the mapping follow you precisely, so I really have to hit those marks.”

Fans of music video will be delighted to know that Von Teese has included the very martini glasses that she and Swift swirled around in during the video into her Las Vegas show.

“I need to text her and have her come out because she’d love this,” Von Teese said, noting that working with Swift, who also directed the “Bejeweled” music video, was a wonderful experience.

“She’s so smart and savvy and lovely,” she said while adding that Swift took to the moves easily as the pair did a lesson together to get the performance down for the martini glass scene. “I was so impressed with her directing that video. Usually pop stars are like ‘Hey, can I borrow that glass’ or ‘Can I copy that?’ It was great to have someone say ‘Let’s do this side by side so people can know where it came from.’ You don’t get that everyday in Hollywood.”

‘Dita Las Vegas: A Jubilant Revue’

When: 9 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays through June 15

Where: Jubilee Theater at Horseshoe Las Vegas, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas

Tickets: $59-$378 at

That’s the good news, which should leave alike looking as if they’ve just been hit with the Stunning Spell.

The bad news? , are going to have to wait even longer: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” doesn’t arrived in Los Angeles until Feb. 13, 2025, and you can wave your wand as much as you like but it won’t get here any sooner.

Broadway in Hollywood’s new season includes six productions making their Los Angeles debuts, as well the returns of “Hamilton” and “Wicked.” The season schedule unfolds as follows:

“�Ჹ�������ٴDz�”:��Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton opens the season with a special run from Sept. 4 to Oct. 13. Note: Season ticket purchasers will get priority access to this one.

“KImberly Akimbo”: Winner of five Tony Awards in 2023, including best musical, best score, and best book, “Kimberly Akimbo” opens the season and runs Oct. 15 to Nov. 3.

“Back to the Future: The Musical”: Based on the beloved 1985 film, the musical won an Olivier Award for best new musical in its run in London’s West End, and won crowds in its run on Broadway. It runs from Nov. 5 to Dec. 1.

“Wicked”: The film version of “Wicked” is slated to open on Nov. 27. The Broadway musical from which its adapted returns to the Pantages on Dec. 4 and runs through Feb. 2. Note: Season ticket buyers also get priority access to this one.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”: The play, which picks up 19 years after the end of the last film in the Harry Potter series, won six Tonys and nine Oliviers, as well as the Guinness World Record as the most successful non-musical ever on Broadway. It runs Feb. 13, 2025 to June 22, 2025.

“A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical”: The story of singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, told in part through his music, with songs such as “Sweet Caroline,” “America,” and “Cracklin’ Rosie” among others in the score. It opens July 8, 2025 and runs through July 27, 2025.

“Some Like It Hot”: This musical adaptation of the 1959 film of the same name won four Tonys and also just just picked up the Grammy for best musical theater album. It arrives July 29, 2025 and plays the Pantages through Aug. 17, 2025.

“Shucked”: This is a musical about corn. No, seriously. It’s a comedy, possibly corny, with music and lyrics by country singer-songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, who in addition to their own releases have written hits for artists including Kacey Musgraves, Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, and Kelly Clarkson. It closes out the season with a run from Aug. 19, 2025 to Sept. 7, 2025.

ALSO SEE: 12 notable stage musicals coming to Southern California in early 2024

Season ticket holders can renew or buy new packages starting Friday, Feb. 23. Those who renew or purchase packages can also add “Wicked” tickets at the same time. Season ticket buyers can have first pick of “Hamilton” tickets starting March 18.

For more information and to purchase tickets see Broadwayinhollywood.com.

NEW YORK — Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died Tuesday. She was 91.

Rivera’s death was announced by her daughter, Lisa Mordente, who said she died in New York after a brief illness.

Rivera first gained wide notice in 1957 as Anita in the original production of “West Side Story” and was still dancing on Broadway with her trademark energy a half-century later in 2015’s “The Visit.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song,” she told The Associated Press then. “That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m really so lucky to be able to do what I love, even at this time in my life.”

In August 2009, Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. can give a civilian. Rivera put her hand over her heart and shook her head in wonderment as President Barack Obama presented the medal. In 2013, she was the marshal at the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.

“She was a true Broadway legend,” playwright Paul Rudnick said on X, formerly Twitter. “She always delivered and audiences adored her. The moment she stepped onstage, the world became more exciting and glorious.”

Rivera rose from chorus girl to star, collaborating along the way with many of Broadway’s greatest talents, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, Harold Prince, Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro and John Kander and Fred Ebb.

She rebounded from a car accident in 1988 that crushed her right leg and became an indefatigable star on the road. She was on Broadway in a raucous production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” in 2012 and the chilly “The Visit” in 2014, earning another best actress Tony nomination.

“She can’t rehearse except for full-out,” said playwright Terrence McNally in 2005. “She can’t perform except for full-out, no matter what the size of the house. She’s going to be there 101% for that audience.”

She won Tonys for “The Rink” in 1984 and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” in 1993. When accepting a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theater for anything, because theater is life.”

She was nominated for the award seven other times, for “Bye Bye Birdie,” which opened in 1960; “Chicago,” 1975; “Bring Back Birdie,” 1981; “Merlin,” 1983; “Jerry’s Girls,” 1985; “Nine,” 2003; and “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life,” 2005.

“I don’t think we have enough original musicals,” she told The Associated Press in 2012. “I know I’m being old fashioned, but the theater is the place where music, lyrics, words, scenery and stories come together. And I’ve been blessed enough to have done several shows when they really did. They take you places and they’re daring. That’s what we need.”

Her albums include 16 tracks pulled from her original cast recordings and put out as part of Sony’s Legends of Broadway series and two solo CDs — “And Now I Sing” for a tiny record label in the 1960s and “And Now I Swing” in 2009 for Yellow Sound Label.

“I looked up to you and always will admire you as a talent and mostly as a person!” wrote Kristin Chenoweth on X. “A kick butt woman you were. All the rest of us just wanna be you.”

In the 1993 musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” Rivera played the title role, a glamorous movie star at the center of the fantasy life of an inmate in a South American prison. The story, from a novel by Manuel Puig, had already been made into an Oscar-winning 1985 movie.

In his review, then-Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara wrote that Rivera “is more than a musical theater star. She’s a force of nature — which is exactly what is needed for the role of the Spider Woman. With her Louise Brooks haircut, brassy voice and lithe dancer’s body, Rivera dominates the stage whenever she appears.”

In 1975, she originated the role of Velma Kelly (to Gwen Verdon’s Roxie Hart) in the original Broadway production of “Chicago.” Rivera had a small role in the 2002 film version, while Catherine Zeta-Jones won the best supporting actress Oscar as Velma — just as Rita Moreno had picked up an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story.”

The songwriters for “Chicago,” Kander and Ebb, also wrote Rivera’s first Tony-winning performance, for “The Rink.” In winning the Tony for best actress in a musical, Rivera topped the show’s top star, Liza Minnelli, who also had been nominated. The two played a mother and daughter who struggle to rebuild their relationship after a long estrangement; the setting is an old-fashioned roller rink that has seen better days.

“Spider Woman” had been her first Broadway show since 1986, when she suffered a broken leg in the traffic accident while she was appearing in “Jerry’s Girls,” a Broadway tribute to the songs of Jerry Herman.

At the Tony awards a few weeks later, she flashed her cast and belted out “Put on a Happy Face” from the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie.”

It took months of physical therapy to bring back her dancing skills. She told The Associated Press: “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t dance again. Never. I can’t explain to you why. It’s hard work getting back but that’s what I’m doing.”

“My spirit is still there.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway songwriter and performer, featured Rivera in a scene in his 2021 film adaptation of “Tick, Tick… Boom,” and in a statement said having her included “remains one of the all-time joys of my life.”

Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero was born Jan. 23, 1933, in Washington, D.C. Her Puerto Rican father, Pedro del Rivero, was a musician who played in the United States Navy Band, who died when she was 7. Her mother was Scottish and Italian descent.

She took dance classes and then entered the prestigious School of American Ballet in New York. Her first theater gig, at age 17, was in the touring company of “Call Me Madam.” That led to chorus stints in such shows as “Guys and Dolls” and “Can-Can.”

In her 2023 memoir, “Chita: A Memoir,” another woman steals scene after scene: her self-proclaimed alter ego, Dolores. Unapologetic and fiery, Dolores was the unfiltered version of Chita and served as motivation in times of self-doubt. In one chapter, Rivera writes that she doesn’t read reviews “or Dolores just might invest in a dozen voodoo dolls.”

“I consist of — and I think we all do — I consist of two people: Dolores and Conchita,” Rivera sain in an interview with the AP that year. “Conchita, she’s the one that has been taking all the glory, you know. She’s been doing all the shows, but Dolores is the one that’s pushed her into it. And she’s been keeping me on track, so I listen to Dolores. I listen to her. She’s growing in my head now as we speak.”

“I can’t believe that I’ve been given the gift to look back and relive my life,” she told The Associated Press shortly before “The Dancer’s Life” opened on Broadway in late 2005. “It’s about how anybody can do it — if you really believe it, you have the good fortune, you do all the right things and you really work hard.”

Rivera, who had a relationship with the now-deceased Davis, married fellow “West Side Story” performer Tony Mordente in 1957. The marriage ended in divorce. Their daughter, Lisa Mordente, also became a performer who occasionally appeared on Broadway, garnering a Tony nomination in 1982 for “Marlowe.”

“Our hearts go out to everyone who loved her,” GLAAD said in a statement. “Rivera spent much of her long career advocating for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV and AIDS.”

NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.

Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”

Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song “Send in the Clowns” to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor.

“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the AP in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.”

Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of “Yellowjackets” in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood.

Back when it was being conceived, “A Little Night Music” had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas.

“Hal said ‘Why don’t you just say what you feel,”’ she recalled to the AP. “When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, ‘I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.”’

Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth.

Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy “Miranda.”

“I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise,” she told ɫ����̳day in 1998. In 1960’s “ɫ����̳downers,” with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in “Elmer Gantry.”)

Other highlights include playing the mother in “Mary Poppins,” the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune “Sister Suffragette.” She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of “The Circle,” W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.

“I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else,” she told the AP.

In a 1991 revival of “A Little Night Music” in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom “Glynis.”

Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.

Audiences can consume from a range of offerings. On one stage a Shakespearean ghost visits a Black backyard barbecue. Elsewhere, there are not one but two jukebox variations of Julia Roberts’ most famous movies. Plus, there’s a much-awaited musical kiss.

From the menus of the 13 most prominent live theaters across four Southern California counties, here are some of the tempting offerings.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Ahmanson Theater: ‘Funny Girl’

If you have finally finished Barbra Streisand’s 966-printed-page tome of self, or just skipped through the highlights, this could be an ideal time to revisit  “Funny Girl,” the show that made her the way she were — er, was. Off the recent Broadway revival, the show’s national touring version follows the (love) life and (comedic) times of famed vaudevillian comedienne Fanny Brice. In New York, the musical triumphantly starred Lea Michelle. This tour will reveal if young Katerina McCrimmon — a lead in her first national production — earns show-stopping status or at least a “Hello Gorgeous.”

When: April 2-28

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand, Los Angeles

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Geffen Playhouse: ‘Fat Ham’

“Fat Ham”… a mash-up of “Hamlet” at a Black backyard BBQ wedding reception? Well, here’s the rub: James Ijames, 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, leans more on tickling rib bones than mulling over Yorick’s skull. Its raucous tone is set when the main character’s dead father’s ghost makes an appearance demanding a side salad of vengeance. Boisterous doings result. This is a transfer of the Broadway production, which earned a critic’s pick from The New York Times.

When: March 27-April 28

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles

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La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts: ‘Mystic Pizza’

The West Coast premiere of the musicalized version of a rendering of Julia Roberts’ movie debut, “Mystic Pizza” serves up a two-topping combo pie: the storyline of the original film’s coming-of-age  jukeboxed with 20-some ’80s and ’90s pop hits including “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” The Power of Love” and “Manic Monday.” If it’s a tasty slice will be determined out of the oven, but La Mirada has a track record of delivering premium ingredients when it comes to staging and casting accessible, upbeat musicals.

When: Jan. 19-Feb. 11

Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada

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Musical Theatre West: ’42nd Street’

It’s still a bit surprising to realize that the meta-Broadway show “42nd Street” actually began its life long ago as a movie. But it is the perfect framework for a musical, right from the initial visual opening of the curtain rising a foot or so revealing a stage-wide dance line of tapping feet. The plot sounds cliché, tracking as it does the birth pangs of an imaginary musical and the rise of an unknown who becomes a young star. But “42nd Street” turns out to be the predominant origin myth about talent and ambition along the Great White Way.

When: Feb. 9-25

Where: Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St, Long Beach

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Pantages Theatre: ‘The Wiz’

In a Broadway-bound reimagined production, “The Wiz,” a seven-time Tony winner back in 1975 — best musical and best score were among its trophies — sees a modernized Black pride version of the famed Oz tale featuring a familiar R&B/funk score. This new mounting is already a road warrior, making several touring stops already, so Hollywood should host a well-polished run. Boogieing down the Yellow Brick Road, however, is limited to a three-week run here and with Wayne Brady in the role of The Wiz here, hurrying along that road to the box office might be more advisable than easing on down there.

When: Feb. 13-March 3

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles

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Pasadena Playhouse: ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’

A rarely revived gem — the casting call alone could try director and choreographers’ souls — “Jelly’s Last Jam” is a tap-dance driven telling of the rough-and-tumble life of jazz pianist and songwriter Jelly Roll Morton. Navigating the back alley New Orleans to New York stardom bio of the self-proclaimed “inventor of jazz,” this is high risk/high reward musical theater. The late, fabled tap master Gregory Hines won a Tony in 1992 for portraying Morton; at this writing there is no announcement about who will be filling these big shoes in Pasadena.

When: May 29-June 23.

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Avenue, Pasadena

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ORANGE COUNTY

Chance Theater: ‘Tiny, Beautiful Things’

Chance’s first half of 2024 finds two musicals bookending two plays focusing on women’s voices. Perhaps most promising is the Orange County premiere of “Tiny, Beautiful Things.” Taken from writer Cheryl Strayed’s best seller, actress Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) adapted the experiences of an online, modern-day advice columnist into an 80-minute reflective play that finds the writer visited by people who have sought advice and leaving the central character internalizing the emotional challenges and reckonings she has wrestled with publicly.

When: April 5-April 28.

Where: Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

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The Laguna Playhouse: ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”

First staged in 1978 as a cabaret performance, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” is an irresistible sung-through show that is somehow more than a revue even though it’s without a narrative. Running on the energy of Fats Waller’s jitterbugging quick and engaging tunes, it puts the vocalized energies of its five animated performers front and center. In the 1930s Harlem scene, Waller was both a songwriter/pianist and an impresario who wrote songs intended to entertain. Beyond the titled number, some of the indelible titles in the 31-song score include “I’m Going To Sit Write Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Honeysuckle Rose” and “‘Taint Nobody’s Bizness if I Do.”

When: Jan. 24-Feb. 11.

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

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South Coast Repertory: ‘Prelude to a Kiss The Musical’

One of South Coast Repertory’s most storied commissioned plays, Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss,” will — finally — see the world premiere of the musicalized version of the same title with Lucas again writing the book. This new work was originally aimed at a 2020 mounting, receiving a very promising reading the year previously, and now the awaited kiss will be bestowed. This world premiere production is being directed by SCR’s artistic director, David Ivers.

When: April 21-May 11.

Where: South Coast Repertory Theater, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

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Segerstrom Center for the Arts: “‘MJ The Musical’

The Michael Jackson bio-drama “MJ The Musical” is on the road and if even half the riveting, adrenaline rush of this dance-driven Broadway show transfers, this will land incredibly well. Though organized around a plot that ends in the early 1990s — avoiding the scandals that marred the  King of Pop’s later years — this time-fluid story covers the singer’s earliest, and then most successful, years with maximum dazzle. Much of the success is owed to director/choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, whose background in the world of ballet brings a focus and discipline to both Jackson’s dancing and the dances formed around his music. And, if you had to ask, yes, even that famous white glove dotted with Swarovski crystal will likely get its own round of cheers.

When: March 19-31.

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

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RIVERSIDE COUNTY

Fox Performing Arts Center and McCallum Theatre: ‘Pretty Woman’

The most successful movie of the late director Garry Marshall’s prodigious career — and Julia Roberts’ biggest box office hit — this live musical version of “Pretty Woman” features songs from rocker Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. While far from a critical favorite, it had a reasonably successful run for a year on Broadway in 2018-2019. The plot resembles the movie with its modern spin on a Cinderella-esque notion: a business mogul hires a prostitute to be his formal companion at events and a relationship emerges.

When: Jan. 16-17 (Riverside); Jan. 19-21 (Palm Desert)

Where: Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside; McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert

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SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

The California Theatre for the Performing Arts: ‘In The Heights’

A locally sourced production of “In The Heights” presents Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “other” musical, the one not about anyone found on any denomination of U.S. currency. Of course, labeling this show as the earlier and lesser Miranda musical doesn’t do it justice since it won four Tonys, including best musical in 2008. It’s an agreeable, high-spirited entertainment with a substantive display of characters of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican descent.

When: May 19-21.

Where: The California Theatre for the Performing Arts. 562 W. 4th St., San Bernardino

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