Theater District

"Give my regards to ... Drama Avenue?" Shanghai, once the nightlife capital of Asia, hopes to revive some of its former glamour with a downtown theater district, newspapers reported Tuesday. Called Drama Avenue, city officials are touting it as Shanghai's answer to London's West End and New York's theater district, the subject of George M. Cohan's 1904 song "Give My Regards to Broadway." The street will link at least nine theaters.

LONDON - Dozens of people in Britain were injured, seven of them seriously, when the ceiling or part of the balcony collapsed at a theater in London's West End during the busy holiday season. The incident occurred about 8:15 p.m., less than an hour into the acclaimed production of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, near Piccadilly Circus. The London Ambulance Service said in a statement that it treated more than 75 people with minor injuries.

If you want to catch a weekend show in North Hollywood's thriving theater district, better be prepared to step out of the performance once or twice -- the city of Los Angeles wants you to move your car. With hundreds of vehicles flooding the square-mile area for events at the district's 22 theaters, not to mention up-and-coming restaurants and art houses, the parking situation is already dire. There are few public lots. Signs in a nearby Metro station warn "Parking for Transit Patrons Only."

Another long-neglected Los Angeles landmark - the massive, century-old former May Co. flagship department store in the old movie theater district on Broadway - has hit the market as investors continue to bet on the comeback of downtown's historic center. The gritty blocks around it sport a growing number of upscale apartments, restaurants and boutiques in once run-down buildings, but most of them are small fry compared with the 1.1-million-square-foot Moby Dick that is the former May Co. store.

Plans for a live theater district in the heart of downtown Glendale inched forward this week with the release of a planning study concluding that the city will benefit not only culturally, but economically if it gives the arts a chance. AMS Planning and Research of Petaluma interviewed local businesses and theater-goers and recommended that the district be established on Brand Boulevard, where the Alex Theatre, Glendale Centre Theatre and A Noise Within are already located.

Brightly colored masks now float above Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, part of a mural that pays tribute to the community's theater district. The mural, covering a rough brick wall about 150 feet wide, also salutes the area's ethnic diversity. It was designed by artist and art professor Barbara Thomason and completed by 17 high school students whom Thomason taught in the Ryman Program for Young Artists based downtown.

Brightly colored masks now float above Lankershim Boulevard, part of a mural that pays tribute to the community's theater district. The mural, covering a rough brick wall about 150 feet wide, also salutes the area's ethnic diversity. It was designed by artist and art professor Barbara Thomason and completed by 17 high school students who Thomason taught in the Ryman Program for Young Artists, based downtown.

Suddenly, the theater district at Hollywood and Vine is booming again. With three major theaters currently packing in crowds, plus a number of smaller theaters and nightclubs operating within a few blocks of the world-famous intersection, the evening hours are buzzing. Hollywood's streets are crowded with traffic, pedestrians gather in front of theaters on the star-lined sidewalks, restaurants report improved business and parking lots--charging prices that make you blink--are filled.

A coalition of business leaders, restaurant owners and arts executives is expected to announce today plans to dub the neighborhood adjacent to South Coast Plaza the Orange County Theater District. At a press conference to be held this morning at Jerry's Famous Deli, the group--headed by Henry Segerstrom, managing partner of C.J.

You can help save industry in the Valley. Go see a new play. Or a poetry reading at a coffee shop. Yup, I mean it. The burgeoning North Hollywood arts district, showcasing writers and artists of the future, is the setting of a big festival this weekend. According to my way of reckoning, this kind of activity is as important to the Valley's film and TV industry as the famous "Skunk Works" were to Lockheed and aerospace. With the Cold War over, we need another industrial base.

Alamo Drafthouse, the quirky Austin, Texas-based theater chain known for its special events, theme movie nights and in-seat food and drink service, is expected to plant its flag in downtown L.A. Saeed Farkhondehpour , developer of the Medallion mix-use project, said Alamo recently signed a letter of intent to open a 600-seat, eight-screen theater on a vacant lot near the corner of 4th and Main streets. The theater would include food and beverage service and would open in the next 18 to 20 months, he said.

Gehry to design theater An independent theater company that had once planned to move to ground zero will get a new home designed by famed architect Frank Gehry in New York City's theater district. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that the city would contribute $25 million toward the $60-million Signature Theatre. The theater is known for devoting an entire season to the work of a single playwright. It was one of four groups that were to have anchored a performance space at the World Trade Center site.

If you want to catch a weekend show in North Hollywood's thriving theater district, better be prepared to step out of the performance once or twice -- the city of Los Angeles wants you to move your car. With hundreds of vehicles flooding the square-mile area for events at the district's 22 theaters, not to mention up-and-coming restaurants and art houses, the parking situation is already dire. There are few public lots. Signs in a nearby Metro station warn "Parking for Transit Patrons Only."

Two musicals at the Music Center, largely imported from previous New York productions, lead the nominations for the 2004 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, announced today, with "Caroline, or Change" winning seven nods and "A Little Night Music" netting six.

The theater district in North Hollywood, home of the L.A. area's biggest cluster of small theaters, isn't proving to be an especially hospitable place for two of its most prominent companies. Interact Theatre vacated its rented Bakman Avenue quarters at the end of May.

"Give my regards to ... Drama Avenue?" Shanghai, once the nightlife capital of Asia, hopes to revive some of its former glamour with a downtown theater district, newspapers reported Tuesday. Called Drama Avenue, city officials are touting it as Shanghai's answer to London's West End and New York's theater district, the subject of George M. Cohan's 1904 song "Give My Regards to Broadway." The street will link at least nine theaters.

For decades, the L.A. theater scene has been divided mostly between the large and the small. A handful of big theaters--such as the Mark Taper Forum and the Pantages, ranging in size from 700 to nearly 3,000 seats--dominate the territory, staging well-endowed productions and maintaining high public profiles. At the same time, more than a hundred professional but tiny theaters, each with fewer than 100 seats, struggle for a chance to be noticed, often operating on a shoestring.

Does L.A. need a theater district? Does L.A. have one? A press release for "Starry, Starry Night'-a gala event in North Hollywood next Saturday-says that the festivities will open "the NoHo Arts District as the designated Theatre District of Los Angeles." Exactly who is doing the designating, beyond the promoters themselves, is unclear.

Neither the weighty gray of the skies nor the chilly drizzle could dampen Theo Kalomirakis' anticipation, so feverish was it. Once again, he would be seeing the interior of the Los Angeles Theatre, but he didn't yet know what a revelation it would be the second time around. We met up on a Saturday in the lobby of downtown's Million Dollar Theatre, where an L.A.

London THE West End in London -- home to such commercial entertainment as "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "The Mousetrap," now in its 50th year -- continues to attract audiences. But increasingly, London theatergoers are heading for venues known as Off West End or the Fringe. The attraction is understandable: The houses are more intimate, the productions innovative and the tickets very reasonable. At any given time many of the best shows in town are Off West End or on the Fringe.