The Brief

There’s a lot of fan service out there for theater buffs this December, whether it’s heading to the movies for a sing-a-long of Wicked (I mean, come on, if you’re a Broadway person you’ve already seen it once at least, or will have by the end of Thanksgiving weekend), booking your tickets to Once Upon A Mattress with the incredible Sutton Foster at the Ahmanson, or seeking out some of the hidden gems in the local theater scene — and I promise this holiday season, those are plentiful.

We’ve put together a short list of some of the best things to take your friends, family, or just yourself to in the coming weeks.

Some people say L.A. isn’t a theater town, but I beg to differ! A ticket to any of these shows would make a great holiday or December birthday gift and you’ll support the arts at the same time.

It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price 

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing one of those gems, It’s All Your Fault, Tyler Price, at the Hudson Backstage Theater in Hollywood. The musical is ambitious and punches well above its black box theater weight, telling the story of a family whose daughter Lucy has epilepsy. The family’s struggles are seen through the eyes of their middle school-aged son, Jackson, who stages a musical following a bullying incident at school.

Reminiscent of recent hits like Dear Evan Hansen and Next to Normal, Tyler Price has serious Broadway power behind it in the form of director and co-writer Kristin Hanggi (Rock of Ages). Catch it before it wraps on Dec. 15.

Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical

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Jeremy Daniel

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If you have a 7- to 10-year-old in your life, you’re probably only too familiar with the phenomenon that is Cat Kid Comic Club (and its erstwhile companion, Dog Man). After the success of last season’s Dog Man: The Musical at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, the TheaterWorksUSA crew is back with Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical, which teaches kids about imagination and creativity through Dav Pilkey’s popular characters. I took my favorite 10-year-old who is a fan of the books, and he gave it a glowing review but thought kids younger than him would like it even more. It’s on until Jan. 5.

Once Upon a Mattress

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Joan Marcus

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It’s not every day that we get the original Broadway cast members in L.A. for a touring production. This December, we get a double bill for the revival of Once Upon a Mattress, with Sutton Foster (Anything Goes, The Music Man) and Michael Urie (whom I last saw in Buyer and Cellar at the Taper back in 2014) on stage for the better part of a month in Once Upon a Mattress. The fun retelling of The Princess and the Pea was praised during its NYC run, particularly the “zany” energy between Foster and Urie, says the NY Times. It plays at the Ahmanson Dec. 10 through Jan. 5.

Back to the Future: The Musical

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Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman

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Great Scott! Perfect for kids and '80s-nostalgic adults alike, the Broadway tour of Back to the Future: The Musical is playing at the Pantages through Dec. 1 and then heads south to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5.

I saw the show in London last fall and while it sticks mostly to the film’s story (and avid fans will definitely sit there and point out all the overlaps and differences for you), it thrives on its breaks from the movie with some truly out-there numbers that had me dancing in my seat. And I won’t spoil it, but the special effects rival a ride at Universal Studios.

La Cage Aux Folles

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Jeff Lorch

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The hottest drag club in town is the Pasadena Playhouse — at least until the delightful production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s modern classic La Cage Aux Folles closes on Dec. 15. Starring Cheyenne Jackson (Call Me Kat, American Horror Story: Apocalypse) and Kevin Cahoon (Shucked!), this show is the serotonin hit we all need this fall.

New Works Festival

One of my favorite theater events of the year is the New Works Fest at IAMA Theatre Company in Atwater Village, running from Dec. 5-15. Showcasing new plays by local talent, this year’s crop features readings of several new plays including Hit Machine (or True Wes) by IAMA favorite Jonathan Caren and Chloe Hung’s Care Less.

Fiddler on the Roof

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Jason Niedle

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TETHOS

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And get in while you can — Jason Alexander (Seinfeld, The Producers) takes his last bow as Teyve in Fiddler on the Roof at La Mirada on Dec. 1. Taking on the role originated by Zero Mostel on Broadway, Alexander steps in as the village elder, seeing his Jewish family through hardship, change, and love in rural Anatevka. Fun fact: Fiddler was the first musical I ever saw (I was 7), so let’s say it’s good for all ages!

Waiting for Godot

Just the mention of Waiting for Godot can elicit a strong reaction. People either remember reading the tragicomic Beckett play in school fondly and appreciate its long-lasting cultural relevance or they groan at the memory of making it through, finding it tedious. While a challenging play for sure, this production at the Geffen in Westwood has been getting great reviews and stars Aasaf Mandvi (Ghosts) and Rainn Wilson (The Office) as Estragon and Vladimir through Dec. 21.

Wicked

If you haven’t gotten your fill of Wicked at the movies, the Broadway version is coming to the Pantages starting Dec. 4. Go see it and be that person comparing every scene and difference from the stage to film.

The Lythgoe Family's Panto franchise

One of my favorite things about holiday time in England is the ubiquitous tradition of going to see a pantomime. Every neighborhood puts on their own version of a twisted fairy tale, with tropes that have withstood the test of time. Here in L.A., we have one of our very own each year — and this year, two! — produced by Lythgoe Family Panto. Peter Pan & Tinkerbell is on at the Scherr Forum Theater in Thousand Oaks from Dec. 13 to Dec. 29, and Rapunzel’s Holiday Wish stars Sally Struthers at Laguna Playhouse Dec. 7 through 29.

Pacific Overtures

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Teolindo

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East West Players just extended the run of their latest, Pacific Overtures, through Dec. 8, so you have a few more chances to catch the Sondheim musical at the Asian-American theater company’s home stage in Little Tokyo. The vintage 1976 show may not be Sondheim’s most well-known, but the musical, about Japan's westernization following a period of isolationism, was the first to play at East West Players back in 1979. This iteration features well-reviewed performances from West End vet Jon Jon Briones (The Reciter) and Gedde Watanabe.

Kooza

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Cirque Du Soleil

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Cirque du Soleil is always a crowd-pleaser. The Canadian acrobats’ latest, Kooza, is on here under the big top at the Santa Monica Pier through Jan. 5.

BATSU

The Bourbon Room is curated exquisitely. If there’s a quirky show promoted there, I will always try to see it, and this December is no exception. BATSU is a Japanese game show- slash-theater-slash-improv event that will make its L.A. debut with five performances at the Hollywood venue next month. Playbill videographer Ethan Treiman called the experience, which premiered at Edinburgh Fringe “maybe my favorite thing I’ve ever seen.” Count me in.

Christmas and beyond

For more traditional holiday fare on stage, there’s a wealth of Christmas delights, from the sublime to the silly. Debbie Allen Dance is putting on Hot Chocolate Nutcracker in Redondo Beach, A Noise Within is doing A Christmas Carol, the L.A. Ballet also has the Nutcracker on and the American Ballet Theatre will visit Segerstrom with their version of the Tchaikovsky holiday classic as well. If you haven’t had enough of Clara and the Mouse King, Bob Baker’s Marionette Theatre is putting on a charming show at Sierra Madre Playhouse. On the comedy side, Bob’s Holiday Office Party is at the Odyssey and the musical White Christmas is in Simi Valley. Plus, don’t miss the annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration with a wide range of free performances at the Music Center on Christmas Eve.

And as we head into the new year, the theater scene only gets better. Keep an eye out for the new Larissa Fasthorse play Fake it Till You Make It at the Taper, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Pantages, and Sondheim’s final show Old Friends premiering in a pre-Broadway run at the Ahmanson with Broadway superstars Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga.

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More than three dozen women and children are at risk of losing the services that supported their families after escaping domestic violence, officials are warning.

The contract for an L.A.-area transitional shelter for domestic violence survivors expired at the end of March. No funding has come in since then through the region’s troubled homeless services agency, according to Jewish Family Service L.A., which runs the shelter.

That has forced the organization to cover the roughly $300,000 in annual costs to keep the shelter up and running, according to Eli Veitzer. If that contract doesn’t come through, he said the shelter won't be able to take in new survivors and officials would have to find other arrangements for the families currently in their care.

“The women who are in our shelters have experienced enormous trauma and fear and violence,” he told LAist. “But the children who are in our shelters are just children, and they've also experienced all of that.”

“I'd like to know how they would explain to a 10-year-old girl who's gone through hell why there's no more money for the shelter?” Veitzer added, his voice cracking with emotion.

The number of people experiencing homelessness in L.A. from fleeing domestic or intimate partner violence jumped more than 43% since early last year, according to the results of the annual point in time count released in recent weeks. That equates to more than 5,690 people in the city.

The shelter contract is through the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, also known as LAHSA, and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. LAHSA told LAist the plight of providers like the shelter is why LAHSA is suing HUD over its decision to suspend the agency from federal grant activity.

“Their actions are putting thousands of people who are safely inside housing in danger of returning to the street,” Ahmad Chapman, a spokesperson for LAHSA, said in an email.

A survivor’s ‘safe haven’

Yaminah is a single mother of two children, a 6-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, and a former resident of the Hope Transitional Shelter that’s dealing with the budget shortfall.

She suffered more than eight years of emotional and physical abuse from her children’s father, whom she said she now has a restraining order against. LAist is not publishing her last name out of concern for Yaminah and her children’s safety.

In 2024, Yaminah and her children ended up homeless after fleeing the violence. She said she called more than 20 shelters looking for help and a place to stay. But every call was a closed door, with wait lists stretching up to two years, she said.

Their first stay at an emergency crisis shelter connected her to the Hope Transitional Shelter, which provides free, long-term services for women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. Families get assistance with case management, as well as parenting and mental health support. The average stay is between 9 to 15 months, and the eventual goal is to help families move into their own housing.

Yaminah described the transitional shelter as a “safe haven” that gave her family a chance to get back on their feet.

“We didn't have to worry about our fear that ‘Oh what if he finds us,’” she added. “It just gave us that sense of I'm safe, someone else cares, someone is here to help me. And that's so important, because when you're in a domestic violence situation, you feel alone.”

Yaminah and Veitzer, who leads the shelter organization Jewish Family Service L.A., said many survivors stay in domestic violence situations because they don’t know a way out. Yaminah said a loss of funding could be “detrimental” with fewer shelter beds and even longer wait lists.

“What options are you giving them? Where do they go? So do I just stay with the person that's abusing me?” she said. “If the shelters are not fund[ed], it's out of their hands. How can they help us?”

How we got here

HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity in June, pending an investigation into alleged mismanagement by the agency. HUD has said the suspension means LAHSA cannot fulfill its role as collaborative applicant for the entire region’s application for federal homelessness dollars for the upcoming fiscal year.

LAHSA filed a lawsuit challenging the suspension a few weeks later, and a federal judge intervened last month. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued a legal order pausing HUD’s effort to suspend LAHSA pending an Aug. 6 court date.

Chapman said the agency is looking forward to this week's hearing “where LAHSA will have its day in court on behalf of all of these federally funded service providers.”

The shelter is being left in limbo amid the federal funding drama, according to Veitzer. LAHSA’s contract is its largest funding source, accounting for 50% to 60% of the program’s budget.

Veitzer said LAHSA and the L.A. County Department of Homeless Services and Housing have been “fairly good” about communicating the status of the legal fight, “but most of what they're communicating is we don't have any answers for you right now.”

He said the most immediate concern is getting a signed contract and funding for ongoing services.

As the organization waits, Veitzer said he’s focused on the 12 women and 25 children living in the shelter, not how the politics play out.

“I do get emotional about this because people are very busy doing a lot of legal stuff, and we're just looking at the hopes and dreams of women and their children to actually live a better life,” he said.

Aaron Schrank’s reporting contributed to this story.

Aidan Reilly, who grew up in Santa Monica, was in college when the pandemic hit. Back at home, he decided to volunteer at his local food bank.

“And they said, ‘We don't need volunteers. We need food, especially fresh food,’” Reilly told LAist.

That inspired him and a couple of friends to found the Farmlink Project. They cold-called hundreds of farmers across the state, learned about various produce markets and what causes farmers and warehouses to have to dump their food, and figured out how to build a truck fleet to pick up that food on a dime.

Today the nonprofit rescues millions of pounds a week from farms and warehouses in California and across the country.

“We've moved well over half a billion pounds of food at this point, and that's at a rate of about 5 million pounds a week of usually almost entirely fresh produce,” Reilly said.

While Reilly is by no means the first to attempt food rescue to address food insecurity, the scale at which his company does it has earned international attention in large part because of their scale — they mostly work in California but do have operations in all 50 states.

The nonprofit was recently one of 10 companies around the world awarded the Keeling Curve prize. The award comes with a check of $50,000, which Reilly said will go, in part, to paying the salaries of their small team of 25, as well as trucks to move food from farm to food bank. He estimated they could move another 500,000 pounds of fresh produce with the funds.

That food goes to people facing hunger, instead of rotting in farm fields or landfills and releasing the powerful greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, further heating up our planet.

Reilly says the rescues also help farmers save money on costly dumping fees for food that may not be grocery-store perfect, but is fine to eat.

“We make sure it gets to people who need it and provide a tax benefit back to the farmers,” he said.

Fresh produce and fruits at a farmers market.

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Courtesy Food Access LA

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A long tradition

With his nonprofit, Reilly joins a long tradition of neighbors stepping up to help their neighbors in times of crisis. One of their primary partners, Food Forward, has a similar story, as does another hyperlocal partner, United Hands of Compton, which was also launched during the pandemic.

Arnali Ray, executive director of the Hollywood Food Coalition, which has operated since 1987, said  the Farmlink Project is an important addition to the existing food rescue “ecosystem.”

“You need all the different players at the different scales in order to make this happen,” she said.

Federal cuts and state policy add to the need

Ray said cuts to and additional requirements to access federally funded benefits, such as CalFresh, as well as rising grocery prices and other costs of living, are rapidly increasing the number of people who are food insecure.

“We've started to see more people that are housed that are seeking resources,” Ray said. “We're noticing more people opting out [of CalFresh], especially folks who are undocumented and scared and nervous about putting their information into the system.”

State policies, such as SB 1383, which requires residents and businesses to divert food from landfills, is pushing more demand for food rescue at the same time. The law was intended to prioritize food rescue, but has proved complicated for many businesses to implement because the mandate came with no long-term funding and requires tailored approaches for each business. And that can take time and resources that many lack.

Still, Ray said they’re getting more calls from local restaurants, grocery stores and other potential food donors who are trying to comply.

“ I look at this as a perfect opportunity because we've got such an abundance of food, and we have so many people who are starving,” she said.

An estimated 26,000 children who entered the U.S. without parents or guardians are expected to be left without independent legal representation as soon as Monday, according to lawyers who help represent them.

For more than two decades, the U.S. has been required by law to protect children who cross the border alone, because of fears that they could be easily exploited, abused or trafficked. After children cross the border unaccompanied, they are typically transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A network of nearly 100 legal groups helps provide children who arrive in ORR custody with legal services, funded by Congress.

But in November, ORR stopped paying for those legal services, after lawyers declined to provide the agency with confidential information it had requested about the children. The attorneys say that information is covered by attorney-client privilege.

"The government is withholding payment for work that has already been performed in order to extract confidential information about kids, information the government has no right to," Acacia Center for Justice, the nonprofit that manages the legal services contract with ORR, said in a statement on Thursday.

ORR did not renew the contract with the network of legal providers, which expired Friday.

Alexa Sendukas, an attorney at the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, one of the organizations that provides legal help to migrant children, said that come Monday, the children may have to represent themselves in court and that most who would have to do that would likely end up being deported.

"We know that without a lawyer, unaccompanied children win the right to stay in the United States less than 1% of the time," said Sendukas. "And they've come to the United States seeking safety and protection. And what this administration is asking us to do now is to turn our backs on them completely. And they will undoubtedly be sent to harmful, dangerous situations. And I worry some will be killed if they lose their lawyers."

A group of legal nonprofits filed a lawsuit last year asking a judge to order the government to pay them for what it is owed — some $65 million — and continue paying them for more services. After going more than eight months without pay from ORR, some legal service providers have had to reduce their staff.

"Due to the loss of funding for children's immigration work, ProBAR laid off more than 20% of its staff this week," Lauren Fisher Flores, the legal director of ProBAR, a project of the American Bar Association that provides legal services to children in ORR care, said in an emailed statement on July 31.

On July 29, Acacia received notice from the federal government that ORR was considering a new contract, potentially with different legal providers. But ORR did not share much more information.

"It is not clear who the new contractor will be. They have not answered the questions that we have put to them," said Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel of Acacia, in response to a question from NPR. "And so there remains a lot of uncertainty and a great deal of concern."

Neither ORR nor the White House responded to NPR's requests for comment about this story.

Almost 1,800 children were in ORR custody in June, according to agency data. ORR has a legal obligation based on a 2008 law to promptly match children with guardians, or "sponsors," in the U.S. who can take care of them. Those children were held in custody for an average of 194 days before being released to sponsors, which lawyers who represent the children say is unusually long and has been detrimental to the health and safety of the children.

For years, lawyers from the network have given presentations for children arriving in ORR care to inform them of their rights and screen them to determine which legal services they are eligible for. Children who are victims of trafficking or abuse, for example, are entitled to special protections. Some of the network's lawyers told NPR they will no longer be able to provide some of those services.

But some of the attorneys say they won't simply abandon the children, even though the contract has not been renewed and they have not been paid by ORR.

"We have an ethical responsibility. We can't just drop a case. If you have a hearing tomorrow, we can't just not show up because the government decided to stop paying us," said Mickey Donovan, the director of legal services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. "So we'll be there in court on Monday, to introduce ourselves to kids and try to do what we can to prevent their deportation."

Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

Skubal got the news during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a star to join the two-time defending World Series champions.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to be a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West and were already the favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 before adding Skubal. They began the season with a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. They will pay Skubal about $9.5 million for the remainder of the season.

ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He has a $32 million salary, a record total in arbitration, after the team offered $19 million, and is expected to sign a massive contract in the offseason.

The 29-year-old lefty said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal took the loss in the decisive Game 5 of the division series against Cleveland in 2024 and then got a no-decision in a 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5 of the division series last year.

He said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.

“Ever since that ’24 Game 5, the failure that I experienced on the mound, I’ve used that as fuel to try and bring a World Series to the city of Detroit. I truly did,” he said. “That whole offseason, I’ve never been more motivated and then go in and we lose Game 5 again. That failure kind of sparks some more motivation, just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be. The goal was always to win a World Series for the city, for the organization that took a chance on me. It’s tough. I love all those guys in there. They’re some of my best friends.”

Detroit planned to contend again this season, bolstering the Skubal-led rotation by giving two-time All-Star pitcher Framber Valdez a $115 million, three-year contract in free agency and retaining three-time All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres with a $22 million deal.

The Tigers, though, got off to a rough start and are currently 2 1/2 games out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.

“It’s crazy. Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing,” Skubal said. “But circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.”

They bounced back in June and most of July to get into playoff contention with Skubal leading a rotation and three All-Stars in the lineup: rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle, catcher Dillon Dingler and outfielder Riley Greene.

With a chance to possibly persuade management to keep Skubal by improving its playoff positioning, Detroit lost ground by dropping four of its last five games at home, including Skubal’s last start that was made even more memorable by a late-inning collapse.

The Tigers led Baltimore 7-0 after six innings Wednesday and lost 10-9 in 12 innings. Skubal started the game, recorded his 1,000th career strikeout and was cheered at every opportunity by a crowd of 34,406.

“I’ve watched this guy rise to the top of the sport,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s carried us a lot. I’ll forever be grateful that our paths crossed and the things that he did for this organization and for a couple of playoff teams. His presence, his work ethic, his example, his dominance. There’s so much to go through, it’s hard to capture in one quote or kind of one setting. But I’m very grateful that I was able to manage him for the time that I did.”

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.

“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.

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AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report