Center Theatre Group

Center Theatre Group, the West Coast's largest nonprofit stage company, has laid off 12 employees -- a tenth of its full-time staff of 120. Those who remain will absorb one or two weeks' unpaid furlough in the coming year. The cuts include an end to automatic 5.25% contributions to employees' 401(k) retirement accounts. Along with postponed shows and other reductions, they are expected to save the company $2.1 million during the fiscal year starting in July, officials said. Even so, CTG projects a $1.9-million deficit for the coming year.

Chaz Bono has starred in his own documentary ("Becoming Chaz"), appeared on reality TV (ABC's "Dancing With the Stars") and authored a book ("Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man"). He's now expanded his resume by appearing onstage in a short musical parody of the cult movie "Road House" at the Celebration Theatre near West Hollywood. "Road House: The Rock Opera" is a short -- about a half-hour long -- send-up of the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie.  Bono plays the role of Tinker, originally played by actor John Young. A spokesperson for the stage production said that Bono sings in the show.

The nominations for the 2011-2012 Ovation Awards were announced Tuesday evening. Leading the way were Center Theatre Group with 29 nominations, followed by the Celebration Theatre and Musical Theatre West, with 16 nominations each. Productions that received the most nominations included the Celebration's staging of the musical " The Color Purple " with 13 nominations; Danai Gurira's new play " The Convert ," at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, with 11; David Lindsay-Abaire's " Good People ," at the Geffen Playhouse, with eight; and the revival of Samuel Beckett's " Waiting for Godot ," at the Mark Taper Forum, also with eight.

"What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done to him?" - Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol. " At the box office there is no "Bah! Humbug!" The recompense that two big Southern California theaters reap from Christmas plays would quiet even Ebenezer Scrooge's scoffing. But the holiday-theater franchises that the Old Globe in San Diego and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa enjoy have eluded - or gone unsought by - L.A.'s four biggest nonprofit stage companies.

Acknowledging that "the days ahead are belt-tightening days for all of us," Center Theatre Group said Wednesday it would make 100,000 tickets available at $20 each for the 2008-09 season at its three venues. The $20 tickets are available now for "Spring Awakening" at the Ahmanson Theatre and for "The School of Night" at the Mark Taper Forum, both of which begin previews in downtown L.A. next week. They will go on sale Sunday for "The Little Dog Laughed" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Southern California's biggest theater company was the biggest winner at the 2012 Ovation Awards, which were handed out Monday evening at a ceremony at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown. Center Theatre Group scooped 13 trophies for its productions of "Waiting for Godot," "The Convert" and "War Horse. " The company also received the evening's biggest honor as having the best season. The Ovations, organized by the L.A. Stage Alliance, honor excellence in stage productions throughout the L.A. area.

The Center Theatre Group is the big winner of the 21st annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards being announced today. Center Theatre Group, which captured 12 of the 30 awards given for outstanding achievement in theater in 1989, staged a remarkable comeback from last year, when the Music Center's resident companies received only one award. It won five awards for the Mark Taper Forum's "Stand-Up Tragedy"--the most for any single production--including an outstanding production honor.

"I went to a marvelous party. I must say the fun was intense. We all had to do what the people we knew would be doing a hundred years hence. . . ." --Noel Coward * Wouldn't Noel Coward have loved what people are doing--celebrating the centennial of his birth? The renowned playwright-composer-lyricist-actor-novelist, who often called himself "that rather splendid old Chinese character actress," died in 1973. He would be 100 years old Thursday.

It may be moving day soon for the Society for the Preservation of Variety Arts. Although many a premature alarm has sounded in the checkered 11-year history of the society's downtown Los Angeles Variety Arts Center, the society's Milt Larsen doesn't believe there will be a last-minute reprieve this time. The building is being sold for $3.2 million to developer Kamram Shakib, who reportedly plans to use it for offices as well as for a restaurant-nightclub. Escrow is scheduled to close April 5.

Southern California's biggest theater company was the biggest winner at the 2012 Ovation Awards, which were handed out Monday evening at a ceremony at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown. Center Theatre Group scooped 13 trophies for its productions of "Waiting for Godot," "The Convert" and "War Horse. " The company also received the evening's biggest honor as having the best season. The Ovations, organized by the L.A. Stage Alliance, honor excellence in stage productions throughout the L.A. area.

The nominations for the 2011-2012 Ovation Awards were announced Tuesday evening. Leading the way were Center Theatre Group with 29 nominations, followed by the Celebration Theatre and Musical Theatre West, with 16 nominations each. Productions that received the most nominations included the Celebration's staging of the musical " The Color Purple " with 13 nominations; Danai Gurira's new play " The Convert ," at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, with 11; David Lindsay-Abaire's " Good People ," at the Geffen Playhouse, with eight; and the revival of Samuel Beckett's " Waiting for Godot ," at the Mark Taper Forum, also with eight.

Citing a "scheduling conflict," Center Theatre Group has announced that Joe Mantello will no longer direct its upcoming production of "Other Desert Cities," which was nominated for five Tony awards during its recent Broadway run under Mantello's direction. Written by Jon Robin Baitz, "Other Desert Cities" will now be directed by Robert Egan, who was producing director at the Taper for 20 seasons before his departure in 2003, and directed its New Work Festival. Egan is currently artistic director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

John Hurt performing Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" will be among the highlights of the Kirk Douglas Theatre's 2012-13 season, which will be announced Thursday by Center Theatre Group. The season will feature a total of five main productions, including the world premiere of the plays “The Royale” by Marco Ramirez and "The Nether" by Jennifer Haley.  Opening the season will be "Elephant Room" (Aug. 22 to Sept. 16), an ensemble piece that will make its West Coast premiere.

"Waiting for Godot" is perhaps the best example of a great work of art where absolutely nothing happens. Beckett's masterwork is exactly what it sounds like — two guys waiting for Godot. But over its tragicomic dialogue they unpack some of the deepest mysteries of life. Presented by the Center Theatre Group. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. Prices vary. Through April 22. Centertheatregroup.org.

The cheering Thursday night at the Mark Taper Forum began backstage, half an hour before the house lights went down for Act 1 of "Clybourne Park. " That's when Jordan Roth, head of the company that owns Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre, phoned the cast members to assure them that they'll still have jobs after Feb. 26, when the show will end its L.A. run. The withdrawal of a key producer earlier this week had threatened to abort the Taper production's transfer...

For the second time this season, Center Theatre Group's hopes of gaining some regard on Broadway — and with it, perhaps some cash — appear to have run aground because of decisions by commercial producers outside the L.A. nonprofit theater's control. "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning sequel to Lorraine Hansberry's classic 1959 drama, "A Raisin in the Sun," has been a critically acclaimed smash in its current run at the Mark Taper Forum, but a transfer to Broadway may be off because of a dispute between Norris and Scott Rudin, a key producer in the planned April staging at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

The Broadway revival of "Follies" will retain much of its principal cast when it moves to Los Angeles this season. Actors Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines and Elaine Paige will appear in the musical when it opens at the Ahmanson Theatre on May 9. Victoria Clark will take over the role currently played on Broadway by Bernadette Peters. Clark, whose Broadway credits include the current "Sister Act" and 2005's "The Light in the Piazza," will play the role of Sally Durant Plummer.