`DID YOU SEE WHAT WALTER PAISLEY DID TODAY?'
When: Thursday through April 2. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. No 2p.m. performance March 18.
Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada
Tickets: $28-$40
Information: 562-944-9801, lamiradatheatre.com
“We kept doing that until we really felt we had it in a place where it was worth hearing a bunch of actors perform it for us,” McNicholl says.
Finally, in October 2021, came the first big roll of the dice.
Season subscribers to La Mirada Theatre's musical series were invited to two concert readings, drawing more than 500 people.
“After, we handed out cards asking two questions,” McNicholl says.
“One, rate the show on a scale, bad to good, 1 to 5. Two, would you want to see it in a full production, sets, lights and costumes?
“The response came back 4.6 out of 5 stars and, 92% said, `Yes, I want to see it fully done.' ”
At almost any other regional theater in America, the next steps would be to get funded, then get to work.
But in La Mirada, there was a next, unusual stop.
“We went to City Hall,” says McNicholl. “And we took the cards.”
Founded in the 1960s, the La Mirada Theatre is perhaps unique as a midsize venue owned by a city.
La Mirada helps underwrite a portion of general costs, and while there is artistic independence in programming, McNicholl presented his audience response cards as proof that this show was something their patrons were eager for.
That bar was easily, and happily, cleared.
The focus next turned to gathering talent for the full production. Broadway veterans Steven Booth and Kingsley Leggs are among the leads in the 10-member cast, and a deep bench of creatives is on board.
These include Tony winner (for “The Book of Mormon”) orchestrator Larry Hochman, choreographer Connor Gallagher (most recently, “Beetlejuice”) and music supervisor Kimberly Grigsby (also at work on Aaron Sorkin's “Camelot” heading to Broadway in April).
Puppetry is also a key component to the show, and McNicholl and Rogel are enthusiastic about the design work of Orange County-based Aran de la Peña.
In this fully produced run, “Walter” gets audiences up close in an intimate staging.
La Mirada's 1,241-seat theater is being reconfigured to the front-est/ center-est 399 seats.
Only 27 feet of the usual 41-foot stage front is in use. A temporary proscenium scaled at just 16 feet high frames the jewel box presentation. Projections that help tell the story will be easily visible above the stage.
This smaller approach also speaks to the show's — hopeful — further incarnation.
“After we close, the next step is to take it to New York,” says McNicholl. “We will do a presentation for producers and investors there.”
The goal there is the small-isbeautiful staging used so successfully by “The Little Shop of Horrors,” which was a long-running hit off-Broadway and in revival now.
But first, did you see what they are doing in La Mirada in a few days?