Actually at Chance Theater

Staged Reading of CALL YOUR MOTHER Comes to Chance Theater

April 02, 2024

Chance Theater will present the first musical of our 2024 On The Radar (OTR) New Works Series, “Call Your Mother,” with music, book, and lyrics by Morgan Hollingsworth and directed by Chance Theater’s Literary Manager James Michael McHale.

Review: Bold Staging of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Rocks Chance Theater

February 09, 2024

Featuring a humorous yet surprisingly poignant original story from John Cameron Mitchell and piercing, high-octane tunes from composer Stephen Trask, the gloriously ribald glam-rock musical HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is currently flipping its wigs out in a brand new extremely engaging production at the Chance Theater continuing thru February 25.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Kicks Off Chance Theater's 2024 Season

January 13, 2024

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH will kick off Chance Theater's 2024 Season. Learn more about the production details here!

Photos: First Look At GREEN DAY'S AMERICAN IDIOT At The Chance Theater

July 24, 2022

Chance Theater, Anaheim’s official resident theater company, announces the regional premiere production of the 2009 rock musical “Green Day’s American Idiot.” Check out the first photos!

GREEN DAY'S AMERICAN IDIOT Starts July 15th At Chance Theater

June 24, 2022

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company,announces the regional premiere production of the 2009 rock musical “Green Day's American Idiot.”  Directed by James Michael McHale,  choreographed by Miguel Cardenas, and with music direction by Gabrielle Maldonado, “Green Day's American Idiot” runs July 15 to August 14 on the Cripe Stage of the Bette Aitken theater arts Center. Previews are July 15 to 22 and regular performances are July 23 to August 14. 

Cast Announced for INTERSTATE Presented by East West Players

May 10, 2022

East West Players has announced casting for the rolling world premiere of INTERSTATE, an Asian-American pop-rock poetry musical that follows Dash, a transgender spoken word performer who becomes internet-famous along with his best friend Adrian, a lesbian singer-songwriter.

FANCY NANCY, THE MUSICAL Returns to Chance Theater

May 03, 2022

Chance Theater, Anaheim’s official resident theater company, announces its 5th production of “Fancy Nancy, The Musical” the stage adaptation of the best-selling series of books by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. The 2012 play by Susan DiLallo (book and lyrics) and Danny Abosch (music) is the second show in the venue’s 2022 TYA Family Series and is suited for all age groups. 

Chance Theater Cancels SIGNIFICANT OTHER And FANCY NANCY

September 17, 2020

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is sad to announce that the upcoming productions of Significant Other and Fancy Nancy, The Musical have been canceled. 

Chance Theater Cancels Upcoming Productions Due to COVID-19

March 14, 2020

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is sad to announce that the upcoming productions of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity and Actually (which had replaced Yellowman in its 22nd Anniversary Season) will be canceled.

BWW Review: Deeply Moving FUN HOME Gets Intimate Staging at OC's Chance Theater

February 19, 2020

A deeply complex father-daughter dynamic is the central narrative that drives the searingly poignant and emotionally absorbing musical FUN HOME, the Tony Award-winning stage adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 autobiographical graphic memoir now appearing in an admirable new intimate theater production at Anaheim's Chance Theater through March 1, 2020. Under the thoughtful and attentive direction of Marya Mazo, the production's smaller footprint automatically enhances the musical's rich, engrossing story and its lovely musical score.

BWW Review: Musical Theatre West Revisits the Epic RAGTIME in Grand Splendor

February 14, 2020

Fifteen years after its first production of the musical, Musical Theatre West revisits the Tony Award-winning musical RAGTIME for only its second time---smartly reviving the musical in a similarly lavish production that beautifully converges the show's classic staging and vibe with wonderfully integrated 21st Century tech upgrades that help elevate the material rather than hinder its storytelling. Under the enlightened direction of Paul David Bryant (who also provides the production's high-energy choreography), this brand new, spectacularly engrossing production bellows with an emotional fervor and is one of my favorite iterations of this musical I have seen in recent years. This local revival---which continues performances at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through February 23, 2020---is a feast for the senses.

BWW Review: Chance Theater Offers Ambitious 'Intimate' Production of Still Timely Epic RAGTIME

July 19, 2019

A sweeping, grandiose, and emotionally-searing stage musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's expansive 1975 novel, RAGTIME is a gripping, multi-character, and multi-story theatrical experience that uses era-authentic specificity to depict America's past during a time when its increasingly diverse population has been forced to adjust to the ramifications of new technological, social, political, and economic changes that are spreading throughout the nation. Of course, one can't help but observe that, eerily, many of these very same issues are somehow still top-of-mind today, particularly in recent years with the surge in anti-immigrant policies and sentiments, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and, of course, the horrific rise of racist sentiments and, worse, racist acts against people of color. Perhaps this overarching motif---that many of these era-specific issues that RAGTIME's characters struggled with in 1906 are still alarmingly present in 2019---is the true motivator behind director Casey Stangl's impressive, 'intimate' theater reimagining of RAGTIME for Chance Theater, which continues performances in Anaheim through August 11, 2019.

BWW Review: Chance Theater's Superb SKYLIGHT Reunites Flawed Ex-Lovers Scarred by their Affair

May 12, 2019

The specific highs and lows---and all the cloudy, uneasy details in between---of a failed relationship are all picked apart and analyzed by a pair of distressed former lovers in British playwright David Hare's absorbing 1995 play SKYLIGHT, currently on stage at Anaheim's Chance Theater through May 19, 2019. Directed with an appealing yet captivating casualness by Chance Theater's own artistic director Oanh Nguyen, this excellent, beautifully-acted new local revival of the Olivier and Tony Award-winning drama focuses on a pair of deeply flawed individuals who have been trying their best to move on separately with their respective lives despite the deep scars that continue to haunt them. After three years apart, could a resuscitation of their past relationship be the key to put them both back in the right frame of mind again---or is their love unsalvageable?