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This month, East West Players (EWP) brings to Los Angeles the highly anticipated world premiere of Tony-winner David Henry Hwang’s newly updated 2026 book of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. Directed by Lily Tung Crystal, EWP’s Artistic Director, and with an all-star cast of EWP veterans including Grace Yoo, Emily Kuroda, Marc Oka, Gedde Watanabe, Krista Marie Yu, Kenton Chen and Cooper Bennett, this production will be presented at the iconic Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center from April 16 to May 31, 2026. 

As featured in an earlier version produced at the Mark Taper Forum in 2001 which then made its debut on Broadway, this production’s topics are very timely especially now when questions of identity, immigration, and cultural preservation are so prevalent. In the reimagined book, Hwang keeps the original themes of assimilation and tradition in the 1960s San Francisco Chinatown center stage. The story follows Mei-Li, a young Chinese opera artist fleeing communism as she arrives in America and is swept into the dazzling world of infamous Grant Avenue nightclubs. This new production will give Asian Americans a chance to reclaim this classic, offering a new perspective and depth while honoring the community’s continuous evolution.

For tickets, click here.

Anna Mae Bullock was born in Nutbush, Tennessee, a land of cotton fields about 50 miles outside of Memphis. She would grow up to become Tina Turner, one of the world’s most electrifying performers. TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, tells her story with ferociousness and an unexpected tenderness, tracing a life shaped by poverty, abandonment, and abuse.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall (The Hot Wings King), the musical follows Tina’s despair, fear, and ultimate triumph as she flees her abusive life with Ike Turner, with only 36 cents and a Mobil Oil card, becoming the worldwide phenomenon who popularized fringe, high heels, and dancing for everyone.

At its heart, TINA captures the complexity of her reinvention. She was 44 years old when “What’s Love Got to Do with It” made her a global superstar. In one night, she won four Grammys and sold twenty million copies of Private Dancer. In an industry that discards women, especially women of a certain age, she didn’t just return; she redefined the terms entirely.

This isn’t a greatest hits revue, although you’ll hear all the songs; it’s a powerful, celebratory story of grit and energy. Tina Turner comes alive through star Darilyn Burtley, a performer with roots in opera, Broadway, TV, and film, who doesn’t impersonate the icon but embodies her.

For tickets, click here.

Discover your connection to the land and stories of Oz through MUSI/QUE’s presentation of Back to Oz – From the Wonderful Wizard, To the Wiz, to Wicked – An American Fairytale, led by Artistic Director Rachael Worby with Carmen Cusack, LaVance Colley, Nathan Granner, and the DC6 Singers Collective. There are seven performances presented in partnership with Center Theatre Group between April 18 and 26, 2026 at the Mark Taper Forum. This journey to Oz is an American classic that has been reimagined time and time again, representing the underdog, radical hope in the face of fear. 

MUSI/QUE produces innovative, immersive live music programs designed to expand your imagination and build empathy, helping to create new connections to music and art. Supported by its members, this nonprofit performing arts organization making radically engaging live music experiences accessible for all. Creates transformative musical adventures that illuminates the music that shapes our lives, it’s reimagining the traditional format of the live classical orchestral experience by seamlessly blending musical performances with researched curation. MUSI/QUE’s mission is to build empathy and expand imaginations through transformative live events and strong partnerships with fellow nonprofit organizations in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.

Through the classic songs — “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “Home,” and “For Good” — this unforgettable exploration of the self and shared humanity still helps to provide hope in us all.

For more, click here.

It’s not all that common for a small theatrical production to make its way from the US to Scotland and then back to America, but this month that’s exactly what’s happening! Following critically acclaimed, sold out runs at Soho Playhouse in New York City and in the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the raw and unflinching dark comedy HardLove by Anıl Can Beydilli arrives at the Broadwater Blackbox in Hollywood on April 8 for a limited run of only six performances. Adapted by Esin İleri and Miray Beşli from the original Turkish play, translated by İleri, and directed by Jee Duman, the show will feature Miray Beşli and Chandler Stephenson. This gripping two-character play plunges audiences into a volatile late-night encounter where magnetic attraction forces two strangers to confront their fears, desires, and the fragile lines between connection and destruction.

HardLove introduces ChiChi, a raw, free spirit with a wild, fierce heart and Theodore, the epitome of a well-mannered, intellectual gentleman who values order and structure. After stumbling into Teddy’s apartment blackout drunk, their initial fumbling attempts at a hookup quickly dissolve, exposing vastly different expectations of intimacy and connection. What follows is a raw and revealing exploration of vulnerability, power dynamics, and personal boundaries. Said Tony Marinelli at TheaterScene.net, “The play is bold, darkly funny, poignant, and unexpectedly tender.” I promise you will be talking about this one in the car on the ride home! 

For tickets, click here.