The Bob Baker Theater kicks off ‘milestone’ year, prepping first new show in 40 years

After coming close to closing permanently just a few years ago, the historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater is about to have its biggest year yet.

In April, the 63-year-old puppet theater is set to perform at Coachella, the same week as its 12th annual Bob Baker Day festival. And in May, it will premiere Choo Choo Revue, their first fully original show in over 40 years.

Everything kicked off this past weekend with the premiere of Hooray LA!, marking the beginning of what the nonprofit theater’s leadership is calling a “milestone” year.

After a 'rough year for LA,' Bob Baker says, 'Hooray LA!'

Hooray LA! is a celebration of Los Angeles that was first performed in 1981. It was the last original show produced by the theater’s founder, Bob Baker, who passed away at age of 90 in 2014.

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When the show was revived in 2024, it was updated to better reflect the diversity of L.A. history, with additions like a Grizzly Bear named Huunot and a rainbow trout named Wiggles explaining the significance of the L.A. River to the Gabrieleño Tongva people.

Huunot is a puppet featured in "Hooray LA!"

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The Bob Baker Marionette Theater

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This year, the show is back with even more new elements to celebrate L.A.

The theater’s co-executive director and artistic director Alex Evans says, “Last year was a very rough year for Los Angeles and we thought it was a perfect time to mount the show and celebrate everything that's special about the city.”

The new additions include Mexican hat dancers, a marimba player and a mariachi band with costumes modeled on the local LGBTQ+ mariachi band, Mariachi Arcoiris.

The first fully original show in 40 years

The theater is also now in preparation mode for Choo Choo Revue, which has been in the works for the past five years.

The idea is that the audience is on a train ride across America, looking out the window and having their imaginations sparked by things like a giant moose singing about the Pacific Northwest, glow in the dark bats, trees on skis and a sea lion singing a sea shanty.

“This is the first time,” Evans says, “that we have the resources, the support of the community — we had an incredible fundraising campaign at the end of last year — so we have truly just hit this milestone of being able to do it,  and it is tons of work and tons of money to put on a puppet show, and we’re so proud that we’re at that juncture now."

Back from the brink, and thriving

The milestone is all the more significant considering where The Bob Baker Theater was in 2020, along with so many other live performance venues.

Just four months after opening their new Highland Park location (after losing their original theater in Westlake/Echo Park), the pandemic shut them down. They pivoted to socially distant shows, created walk-through experiences for small groups and did performances online, but that wasn’t enough to keep things running.

So they made a public plea for $365,000 to stay open for a year, and Fagot says the community "turned up, and we had the support that we needed [...] in less than a month.”

That led to “a lightbulb moment” for the theater’s leadership, where they realized, “This isn't just about scraping by and trying to keep this alive. This is about building something for the future of the city because the community wants it.”

And all the big things happening for the theater this year, Fagot says, “ that's thanks to the support of the community here in L.A. and reflective of their desire for us to thrive and survive.”