You’ve heard the big announcement! The 2016-17 Hollywood Pantages Season has officially been revealed. Now that you know our big secret let’s talk about these 7 amazing shows. You know the shows but did you know these interesting facts?

Hedwig And The Angry Inch 

• The Original premiered off off Broadway at Westbeth and then ran over two years at the Jane Street Theatre beginning in February 1998.
• Los Angeles audiences may remember that Hedwig played at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood (down the street from the Hollywood Pantages) back in 1999. The show starred Michael Cerveris as Hedwig.
• Major musical and artistic influences for both the character and the show include Culture Club, David Bowie, Boy George, Elton John, etc.
• The nature of the production will involve audience interaction for the lucky folks who are seated close to the stage.

The King And I

 

• The original The King and I ran on Broadway from March 29, 1951 through March 20, 1954.
• There have been 4 Broadway revivals of The King and I.
• The King and I was nominated for 9 Tony Awards in 2015.
• Choreography is based off of Jerome Robbins’ original Broadway choreography (“Small House of Uncle Thomas” is a perfect moment by moment recreation of the original staging)
• Yule Brenner Played the King at the Hollywood Pantages on 1984 tour.

Finding Neverland

• The Oscar-winning motion picture of the same name premiered in 2004, and starred Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet & Dustin Hoffman.
• The story of Peter Pan in general, has a rich history of being retold in different media. Movies and stage productions about the Pan legend continue to be released today
• Nominated for two Drama Desk Awards and the winner of Broadway.com’s Audience Choice Award for BEST MUSICAL!

An American In Paris

 

• The idea for An American in Paris,the film came to producer Arthur Freed when he attended a concert of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Freed liked the title and from that he built a musical with Gershwin tunes after months of negotiations with Ira Gershwin, estate trustees, and two different music publishers.
• As further developed by the artistic triumvirate of choreographer and star Gene Kelly, director Vincente Minelli and screenwriter Alan J. Lerner, An American in Parisbecame one of the most famous film musicals in the history of Hollywood and went on to win six Academy Awards in 1951.
• Gene Kelly’s widow Patricia has a personal relationship with our theatre. She often attends Hollywood Pantages premieres!

The Bodyguard

• Final scene of the motion picture was filmed at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre – Oscars Scene
• Grammy® Award-nominated and multi-platinum R&B/pop recording artist and film/TV actress Deborah Cox will star as Rachel Marron.
• The stage production takes all of the music from the motion picture (“I Will Always Love You” / “Queen of the Night”) as well as additional music from the Whitney Houston catalog.

The Book Of Mormon

• The Book of Mormon opened on February 24, 2011, has had over 2,000 performances and is still running on Broadway.
• The show took nearly 7 years to develop. Trey Parker & Matt Stone met Robert Lopez after seeing a performance of Robert’s other Tony-winning musical: Avenue Q.
• Nominated for 16 Tony Awards in 2011 and walked away with 9 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Female Featured (Nikki M. James) Best Direction, Best Orchestrations, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design, and Best Sound Design.
• Robert Lopez is an EGOT. (He has won Emmy, Oscar, Grammy and Tony) He is the youngest ever!

Hamilton

• Lottery participation in NYC has numbered into the thousands for each performance.
• The President of the United States has seen this production three times.
• Questlove (of the band “The Roots” – The Tonight Show) is a co-producer of the HAMILTON Cast Album
• Lin-Manuel Miranda was working on this show as far back as 2010, when he was appearing on stage in In The Heights at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. (A member of our staff remembers seeing a copy of the biography in his dressing room.)
• This production draws multiple parallels to Americans of today, with the Americans in the late 1700s.

For more about these great shows visit: www.hollywoodpantages.com