La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla, California
For groups looking to catch the next Broadway hit before it even reaches New York, the La Jolla Playhouse’s track record makes it one of the most likely places to try. The regional theater has produced 32 Broadway plays, which have won a total of 38 Tony Awards.
Some of the current hit musicals like “Come From Away,” “Escape to Margaritaville” and “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse. Because of its reputation for nurturing new works, the company regularly collaborates with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights and famous actors. Nearly all productions, whether reimagined classics or contemporary works, are built, designed and rehearsed on-site.
Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer founded the nonprofit theater company in 1947. Since then, the regional theater has hosted 75 world premieres and received more than 300 awards for theater work, among them a 1993 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
Though the theater company looked doomed after 25 years of inactivity, director Des McAnuff revived the company in 1983. His leadership soon established La Jolla as a testing ground for future Broadway productions.
Groups receive discount rates and educational experiences at Talkback Tuesdays and Discovery Sundays events. Add-ons also include on-site dining, food truck fare at Foodie Fridays and preshow music at Sonic Saturdays.
Dallas Theater Center
Dallas
Approximately 200 Dallas citizens and five professional actors performed Shakespeare together to blur the lines of professional and novice art for the Dallas Theater Center’s Public Works Dallas. Their experimental first performance in 2017 of “The Tempest” received acclaim for its wild musical numbers and huge cast, which even included Dallas’ mayor.
This type of innovation helped garner the center the coveted Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2017. Founded in 1959, the Dallas Theater Center has reinvented itself many times up to its current production lineup of experimental interpretations of classics, world premieres and educational programs.
The company recently developed premieres of works like “Giant,” “Fly by Night” and “Fortress of Solitude,” which all ended up on Off-Broadway. Productions run at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, and the Kalita Humphreys Theater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
