Majestic Repertory Theater bring Sweeney Todd inspired show to LA
Majestic Repertory Theater is best known for its AWARD-WINNING show ‘SCREAM’D’, which has taken audiences by storm in Las Vegas! Fans in LA got a taste of the show at Midsummer Scream last year, and it was a god damn treat. The cast was outstanding, and they embodied the main cast to a T. It was honestly scary.
This year, we’re getting not one, but TWO Majestic shows in LA for the first time in a long time. The press release for ‘EMPANADA LOCA’ does the heavy lifting for us and gives you an insight into what to expect this February.
Los Angeles, CA — Las Vegas’s award-winning Majestic Repertory Theatre proudly presents the Los Angeles premiere of Empanada Loca, the acclaimed play by Aaron Mark, at After Hours Theatre Company in North Hollywood, sponsored in part by Midsummer Scream.
Inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd, Empanada Loca is a modern horror story spun as a classic campfire tale. Living deep beneath Manhattan in an abandoned subway tunnel, a very hungry Dolores recounts her years selling weed with her boyfriend; her return to Washington Heights after thirteen years in prison; her fortuitous reunion with an old stoner friend who lets her give massages for cash in the basement beneath his empanada shop; and the dark, delicious bloodbath that ultimately sends her fleeing underground.
“Dolores has haunted us ever since Majestic Rep first produced Empanada Loca,” says director Troy Heard. “To exorcise her ghost, playwright Aaron Mark and I conspired to create a deeply immersive and intimate production last Halloween that admits only twenty-five guests per performance. Now we’re excited to bring L.A. audiences into her subterranean lair.”
“To my own horror, Dolores’ tale of murder, cannibalism, weed, gentrification, and survival of the fittest feels just as timely now as it did when we premiered the play Off-Broadway in 2015 — or, for that matter, when Sweeney Todd first appeared in 1846,” says playwright Aaron Mark.
“After spending a decade reinterpreting Dolores’ story in other media, I was beyond thrilled to experience Troy’s uniquely intimate, hypnotic production in Vegas last year — and to meet Amanda Guardado’s mesmerizing, terrifying, heartbreaking Dolores.”
“These two incredible artists have brought the play back to life in its original horror monologue form magnificently,” Mark continues. “I’m even more thrilled that Los Angeles audiences will now have the chance to experience Empanada Loca for the first time in Amanda and Troy’s ‘magic’ hands.”
The production’s immersive design lures audiences from a North Hollywood alley straight into Dolores’s chamber. “It’s a literary haunted house for audiences who prefer a terror that crawls under their skin rather than jumps out of the shadows,” says Heard. “Although there might be a touch of that as well.”
Empanada Loca runs February 5–28, with performances Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:00 p.m., and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. After Hours Theatre Company is located at 5628 Vineland Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601. General admission tickets are $49.95 and are on sale now at www.majesticrepertory.com.
