California's La Jolla Playhouse has announced its 2024-2025 season, featuring a collection of world-premiere plays and musicals.
The season will kick off in May 2024, with the new musical The Ballad of Johnny and June, directed by Des McAnuff. The work features music and lyrics by Johnny Cash, June Carter, and others. Through Cash and Carter's music and a book by McAnuff and Robert Cary, the musical follows the couple's journey as told through the eyes of their son John Carter Cash.
In July, the company will present Noelle Viñas' Derecho, a new play exploring the experience of women of color in politics, as well as societal conflict between traditional Latino values and the ever-changing American definition of success. Delicia Turner Sonnenberg directs the world premiere.
RuPaul's Drag Race winner Sasha Velour will bring her combination memoir, manifesto, and coming-of-age tale to the stage in August. Sasha Velour: A Drag Spectacular is co-written by Velour and Moisés Kaufman, with direction by Kaufman. Inspired by Velour's own story and the history of drag, the world premiere is a co-production with Tectonic Theater Project.
In September, Eboni Booth's Primary Trust will receive its West Coast premiere. The play, which had an Off-Broadway run via Roundabout Theatre Company from earlier this year, follows a recently laid-off bookstore employee who is encouraged by a tiki bar waiter to try something new. Knud Adams, who also directed the Off-Broadway production, will be at the helm.
Beginning in November 2024, La Jolla will present Anna Ouyang Moench's Your Local Theater Presents: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Again. The play follows Eddie, a young Juilliard graduate who finds himself aging through roles in a seemingly never-ending loop of regional productions of A Christmas Carol. Les Waters directs.
The season's final production will be the Feburary 2025 world premiere of 3 Summers of Lincoln, a new musical with a book by Joe DiPietro, lyrics by DiPietro and Daniel J. Watts, and music by Crystal Monee Hall. The work takes a look at the Civil War-era meetings between President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, with a gospel and R&B-infused score. Christopher Ashley will direct.
Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.
