25 Years and Counting 09.01.2021 Left: Founder Gilbert Cates with Trustee Kristen Combs at the soon-to-be Geffen Playhouse (formerly Westwood Playhouse). Right: Geffen Playhouse is excited to celebrate 25 years by welcoming audiences back in 2021. “Onward and upward with the arts.” That was the mantra of Geffen Playhouse Founder and Producing Director Gilbert (Gil) Cates, a visionary and a showman who brought this theater to life a quarter of a century ago. And it remains our mantra today. With the launch of our 2021/2022 season, we celebrate 25 years of storytelling, opening nights, world premieres, standing ovations, and all the artists and audiences who have passed through our doors since we first raised our curtain with Four Dogs and a Bone in 1995. OCT 10, 1995 — John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone, directed by Lawrence Kasdan, featuring Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Perkins, Parker Posey, and Martin Short opened the Geffen Playhouse. Founder Gilbert Cates with philanthropist David Geffen and UCLA Chancellor Emeritus Charles E. Young We did not just begin life as Geffen Playhouse—there’s more to our story. It was the early 1990s and, as a lover of the arts, then-Dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Gil Cates had a dream and a vision. The goal was to create a new non-profit professional theater company that would enrich the cultural life of Greater Los Angeles and the UCLA community through plays and educational programs that inform, entertain and inspire. UCLA had a long history of working closely with professional theaters as an extension of its academic mission and, for many years, owned and operated the Doolittle Theater in Hollywood to fulfill this mission. Cates recognized the Doolittle’s geographic distance from campus created a barrier to any meaningful relationship with UCLA and argued a better partner would be the Westwood Playhouse, located right across from campus. Compelled by the proximity and potential of the historic theater, Chancellor Charles Young agreed to sell the Doolittle and pledged the proceeds of the sale to assist Cates with the purchase and refurbishment of the Westwood Playhouse. UCLA leased the theater to the newly named Geffen Playhouse (in recognition of an endowment gift from philanthropist David Geffen) to begin the creation of a permanent professional non-profit theater in Westwood. The university created an independent board, helmed by Cates, which would assume all costs and risks of operating the theater. And the rest is history. Since opening, Geffen Playhouse has staged nearly 200 productions, held more than 9,000 performances, and entertained countless audiences from around the world and every walk of life. Each year has brought with it new stories, new artists, new laughter, new tears and new challenges—and we grow as a theater, and as a family, with every one of them. It has been an honor to be a home for the arts in this remarkable city of Los Angeles, and we are excited for what the next 25 years will bring. We hope you will continue to join us on this journey, as we go onward and upward with the arts. Filter by: Show All 2024-2025 Season 2023-2024 Season 2022-2023 Season 2021-2022 Season Geffen Stayhouse Season 2019-2020 Season 2018-2019 Season 2017-2018 Season 2016-2017 Season 2015-2016 Season 2014-2015 Season 2013-2014 Season 2012-2013 Season 2011-2012 Season 2010-2011 Season 2009-2010 Season 2008-2009 Season 2007-2008 Season 2006-2007 Season 2005-2006 Season 2004-2005 Season 2003-2004 Season 2002-2003 Season 2001-2002 Season 2000-2001 Season 1999-2000 Season 1998-1999 Season 1997-1998 Season 1996-1997 Season 1995-1996 Season The Brothers Size 08.14 – 09.08.2024 tiny father 06.12 – 07.14.2024 La teoría de la esperanza 05.08 – 06.07.2024 The Hope Theory 04.25 – 07.14.2024 Fat Ham 03.27 – 05.11.2024 Black Cypress Bayou 02.10 – 03.17.2024 POTUS 01.17 – 02.25.2024 The Engagement Party 10.04 – 11.05.2023 Every Brilliant Thing 09.06 – 10.29.2023 The Ants 06.20 – 07.30.2023 The Mountaintop 06.06 – 07.09.2023 Ava: The Secret Conversations 04.04 – 05.14.2023 The Lonely Few 03.02 – 04.30.2023 The First Deep Breath 02.01 – 03.05.2023 Mindplay 11.08.2022 – 01.22.2023 The Inheritance 09.13 – 11.27.2022 King Liz 07.12 – 08.14.2022 A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill 06.23 – 07.24.2022 Man of God 05.10 – 06.19.2022 Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 04.19 – 05.29.2022 TRAYF 03.01 – 04.10.2022 Power of Sail 02.08 – 03.27.2022 Paradise Blue 11.09 – 11.22.2021 The Enigmatist 09.14 – 12.12.2021 The Door You Never Saw Before 05.14 – 06.27.2021 Someone Else's House 04.23 – 07.03.2021 Bollywood Kitchen 01.15 – 03.06.2021 The Future 12.04.2020 – 04.04.2021 Citizen Detective 11.12.2020 – 02.07.2021 Inside the Box 09.29.2020 – 03.07.2021 The Present 05.07 – 10.17.2020 Man of God 03.03 – 03.10.2020 Revenge Song 02.04 – 03.08.2020 Andy Garcia and The CineSon All Stars 01.12 – 01.13.2020 Key Largo 11.06 – 12.15.2019 The Thanksgiving Play 10.26 – 12.06.2019 Skintight 09.03 – 10.12.2019 Witch 08.20 – 09.29.2019 Mysterious Circumstances 06.11 – 07.21.2019 Invisible Tango 05.07 – 07.21.2019 The Niceties 04.09 – 05.12.2019 Black Super Hero Magic Mama 03.05 – 04.14.2019 Julia Sweeney: Older & Wider 02.05 – 02.17.2019 Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole 02.05 – 03.24.2019 Rita Wilson's Liner Notes 01.10 – 01.13.2019 Hughie & Krapp's Last Tape 11.05 – 12.16.2018 Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol 11.02 – 12.16.2018 The Cake 09.10 – 10.21.2018 The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona 09.04 – 10.07.2018 Our Very Own Carlin McCullough 06.19 – 07.29.2018 Skeleton Crew 06.05 – 07.08.2018 Significant Other 04.03 – 05.06.2018 Sell/Buy/Date 02.27 – 4.15.2018 Ironbound 01.30 – 03.04.2018 Chasing Mem'ries 11.07 – 12.17.2017 Underneath the Lintel 10.10 – 11.19.2017 Liner Notes 09.07 – 09.17.2017 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City 09.05 – 10.08.2017 Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy 06.23 – 07.30.2017 Constellations 06.06 – 07.23.2017 Actually 05.02 – 06.11.2017 The Legend of Georgia McBride 04.04 – 05.14.2017 Long Day's Journey Into Night 01.31 – 03.18.2017 The Lion 01.04 – 02.19.2017 Icebergs 11.08 – 12.18.2016 The Model Apartment 10.11 – 11.20.2016 Liner Notes 09.15 – 09.24.2016 Barbecue 09.06 – 10.16.2016 Big Sky 06.07 – 07.17.2016 In & Of Itself 05.03 – 08.28.2016 Stage Kiss 04.05 – 05.15.2016 Sex With Strangers 03.01 – 04.10.2016 Barcelona 02.02 – 03.13.2016 Thom Pain 01.08 – 02.14.2016 Louis & Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara 12.30.2015 – 01.17.2016 Liner Notes 12.10 – 12.19.2015 Outside Mullingar 11.10 – 12.20.2015 Guards at the Taj 10.06 – 11.15.2015 These Paper Bullets! 09.08 – 10.18.2015 Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin 08.04 – 08.16.2015 Bad Jews 06.09 – 07.26.2015 Murder for Two 05.26 – 08.02.2015 The Power of Duff 04.07 – 05.17.2015 Switzerland 03.06 – 04.26.2015 The Night Alive 02.03 – 03.15.2015 Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin 11.11.2014 – 01.04.2015 The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord 10.07 – 12.21.2014 Choir Boy 09.16 – 10.26.2014 Reasons to Be Pretty 07.29 – 08.31.2014 Dixie's Tupperware Party 07.08 – 08.31.2014 The Country House 06.03 – 07.13.2014 Death of the Author 05.20 – 06.29.2014 Ruth Draper's Monologues 04.08 – 05.18.2014 Slowgirl 03.04 – 04.27.2014 Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane 02.28 – 03.19.2014 Hershey Felder in Abe Lincoln's Piano 01.03 – 01.13.2014 I'll Eat You Last 12.03 – 12.22.2013 Play Dead 11.05.2013 – 01.12.2014 Wait Until Dark 10.08 – 11.17.2013 Rapture, Blister, Burn 08.13 – 09.22.2013 The Judy Show 06.18 – 08.11.2013 Yes, Prime Minister 06.04 – 07.14.2013 Miss Julie 04.23 – 06.02.2013 American Buffalo 04.02 – 05.12.2013 The Gift 01.29 – 03.10.2013 Nothing to Hide 11.27.2012 – 03.31.2013 Coney Island Christmas 11.20 – 12.30.2012 Build 10.09 – 11.18.2012 By the Way, Meet Vera Stark 09.18 – 10.28.2012 The Exorcist 07.03 – 08.12.2012 Mona Golabek in The Pianist of Willesden Lane 04.17 – 09.15.2012 Good People 04.03 – 05.13.2012 The Jacksonian 02.07 – 03.25.2012 Red Hot Patriot 01.03 – 02.19.2012 Radiance 11.01 – 12.18.2011 Next Fall 10.25 – 12.04.2011 The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity 08.30 – 10.09.2011 Superior Donuts 05.31 – 07.10.2011 Extraordinary Chambers 05.24 – 07.03.2011 The Escort 03.29 – 05.08.2011 In Mother Words 02.15 – 03.27.2011 The Break of Noon 01.25 – 03.06.2011 Broadway Holiday 12.17.2010 – 01.02.2011 Hershey Felder in Maestro 11.02 – 12.12.2010 Ruined 09.07 – 10.17.2010 Love, Loss, and What I Wore 05.11 – 11.19.2010 Thurgood 06.27 – 08.08.2010 Nightmare Alley 04.13 – 05.23.2010 Through the Night 03.16 – 04.04.2010 Wrecks 02.04 – 03.07.2010 The Female of the Species 02.02 – 03.14.2010 Ricky Jay: A Rogue's Gallery 12.29.2009 – 01.10.2010 Equivocation 11.10 – 12.20.2009 Alan Cumming: I Bought a Blue Car Today 09.29 – 10.04.2009 & 12.13 – 12.18.2009 Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas 09.08 – 10.18.2009 Farragut North 06.16 – 07.26.2009 The Seafarer 04.14 – 05.24.2009 Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara 03.15 – 11.08.2009 Time Stands Still 02.03 – 03.15.2009 By the Waters of Babylon 10.28 – 12.07.2008 Hershey Felder's Beethoven As I Knew Him 08.19 – 10.05.2008 Shipwrecked! An Entertainment 06.17 – 07.27.2008 Emergency 04.15 – 06.01.2008 Joan Rivers 02.05 – 04.06.2008 Some Girl(s) 02.05 – 03.16.2008 Atlanta 11.20.2007 – 01.06.2008 The Quality of Life 10.02 – 11.18.2007 Third 09.11 – 10.28.2007 Hershey Felder as Monsieur Chopin 08.09 – 08.26.2007 Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone 06.05 – 08.01.2007 Fat Pig 05.15 – 07.15.2007 Heroes 04.10 – 05.27.2007 A Picasso 02.04 – 03.25.2007 Speed-the-Plow 01.30 – 03.25.2007 Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants 11.21.2006 – 01.27.2007 Wishful Drinking 11.07.2006 – 01.14.2007 Rabbit Hole 09.05 – 10.22.2006 The God of Hell 06.20 – 07.30.2006 All My Sons 04.11 – 05.21.2006 Boston Marriage 01.31 – 03.19.2006 My Buddy Bill 11.12 – 12.18.2005 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 11.08 – 12.18.2005 Nine Parts of Desire 09.06 – 10.16.2005 I Am My Own Wife 06.14 – 07.10.2005 You Can't Take It With You 04.12 – 05.22.2005 Golda's Balcony 02.01 – 02.20.2005 Paint Your Wagon 11.23.2004 – 01.09.2005 Take Me Out 09.14.2004 – 10.31.2004 Cookin' at the Cookery 09.02.2003 – 06.02.2004 The Underpants 09.02.2003 – 06.02.2004 War Music 09.02.2003 – 06.02.2004 Sugar Plum Fairy 09.02.2003 – 06.02.2004 I Just Stopped by to See the Man 09.02.2003 – 06.02.2004 Ennio Returns 07.29.2003 – 08.03.2003 Pearl 09.02.2002 – 06.02.2003 Rose and Walsh 09.02.2002 – 06.02.2003 Boy Gets Girl 09.02.2002 – 06.02.2003 Franny's Way 09.02.2002 – 06.02.2003 Under The Blue Sky 09.02.2002 – 06.02.2003 Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple 06.11.2002 – 07.21.2002 He Hunts 04.09 – 05.19.2002 God's Man In Texas 09.02.2001 – 06.02.2002 Do Jump! 11.06.2001 – 12.06.2001 The Unexpected Man 09.02.2001 – 06.02.2002 Marcel Marceau 07.23.2002 – 08.25.2002 Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks 05.31.2001 – 08.19.2001 Looking For Normal 04.03.2001 – 05.13.2001 The Weir 01.30.2001 – 03.11.2001 Ennio 11.20.2000 – 12.31.2000 Dinner With Friends 09.26 – 10.29.2000 Defiled 05.23 – 07.02.2000 Mizlansky/Zilinsky 03.21 – 04.23.2000 Wit 01.18 – 03.05.2000 It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues 11.13.1999 – 01.02.2000 Uncle Vanya 09.28 – 10.31.1999 Merton of the Movies 06.29 – 08.01.1999 Collected Stories 05.11 – 06.13.1999 Hedda Gabler 03.14 – 04.18.1999 The Cryptogram & The Old Neighborhood 01.12 – 02.14.1999 The Cripple of Inishmaan 10.20 – 11.22.1998 All in the Timing 05.26 – 06.28.1998 The Father 03.31 – 05.03.1998 Harriet's Return 01.27 – 03.14.1998 Peter and Wendy 12.02 – 12.28.1997 Old Wicked Songs 09.30 – 11.02.1997 Schlemiel the First 05.06 – 06.08.1997 By Jeeves 03.04 – 04.06.1997 Love! Valour! Compassion! 12.03.1996 – 01.26.1997 Quills 10.01 – 11.03.1996 Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore 03.05 – 04.07.1996 Four Dogs and a Bone 10.10 – 11.26.1995 ← Previous Post Next Post →
