LAFPI

FOUR WEEKS ONLY
MAY 6 TO JUNE 1 | PRESS OPENING IS MAY 7
TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE AT CENTERTHEATREGROUP.ORG

Center Theatre Group announces LIFE OF PI, the Tony Award®-winning theatrical experience that has wowed audiences around the globe performing May 6 to June 1 at the Ahmanson Theatre.  Tickets are now on sale at centertheatregorup.org.

Produced by Simon Friend, Daryl Roth, Hal Luftig, Mark Gordon Pictures, and NETworks Presentations, Lolita Chakrabarti’s dazzling stage adaptation of LIFE OF PI is based on Yann Martel’s best-selling novel – one of the best-loved works of fiction and winner of the International Booker Prize (formerly Man Booker Prize) which has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. LIFE OF PI has become a global phenomenon with acclaimed engagements on Broadway, London’s West End and UK tour and now LIFE OF PI is thrilling US audiences on a multi-city tour.

After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, a sixteen-year-old boy name Pi is stranded on a lifeboat with four other survivors – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Told with jaw-dropping visuals, world class puppetry and exquisite stagecraft, LIFE OF PI creates a visually stunning journey that will leave you filled with awe and joy. Martel’s extraordinary story of family, resilience and survival and the natural world combined with Chakrabarti’s brilliantly staged story speaks to every generation.

Critics rave that LIFE OF PI “gives new life to Broadway” (The Today Show) and is “one of the most visually stunning shows I have ever seen.” (Time Out) The global phenomenon was lauded as “an exhilarating evening of theater” (The Wall Street Journal), “a wonder to behold” (Entertainment Weekly) and “the single greatest innovation in puppetry ever to hit the global stage.” (NY Daily News)

Critic Alexis Soloski said, in The New York Times, “With dazzling imagination and sublime control, the show’s cast and crew conjure a delirious, dynamic, highly pettable world. And oh, is it a wonder. LIFE OF PI succeeds as a broader tribute to human ingenuity and animal grace. Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel — absorbing, florid — is a work of magical realism. Max Webster, the director, makes sure to deliver the magic and the realism both.”

She continued, “The animals here, designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, with movement direction by Caldwell, prowl and canter and leap with astonishing character and style. And Richard Parker, animated by three puppeteers at any given time, is the show’s striped jewel. Chuffing, growling and panting as he stalks the boat’s perimeter, he is at once beguiling, gentlemanly and quite dangerous.”

“At its most abstract, this a play about how we come to terms with our own choices, even with our own survival, and the stories we might tell to make those choices and that survival make sense.”

The puppetry and movement directors praised by Soloski were interviewed by The New York Times. Finn Caldwell said, “We look at anatomy. We look at pictures of skeletons of tigers, blow that up to a real tiger size and start marking on pieces of paper on the wall where the joints are all going to be. Because when we build on a framework, our armature, it wants to move like a tiger, because the limbs are all the right length. The joints want to move in the right way.”

Scarlet Wilderink, Global Associate Puppetry and Movement Director, said, “One of the most helpful tools for us is imagination. If the puppeteer is really seeing the thing, the audience will see the thing. The tiger’s fur, you know, he doesn’t have real fur. But if you imagine the softness of it, this sort of stretchiness of their skin, the weight — like if he collapses into Pi, how do you make him look like he’s soft in his lap? It’s part of the design because we’ve got all those bungees that tie all of the armature together, which makes him look like that. But the sensory stuff, I think, is in our minds.”

Leading the production is powerhouse actor Taha Mandviwala as Pi, supported by a dynamic company including Jessica Angleskhan, Alan Ariano, Pragun Bhardwaj, Ben Durocher, Shiloh Goodin, Anna Leigh Gortner, Austin Wong Harper, Aaron Haskell, Rishi Jaiswal, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Mi Kang, Intae Kim, Sharayu Mahale, Sinclair Mitchell, Maya Rangulu, Betsy Rosen, Anna Vomáčka, Sorab Wadia & Savidu Geevaratne.

LIFE OF PI is originally Directed by Max Webster, with the Tour Directed by Ashley Brooke Monroe, Set and Costume Design by Olivier and Tony Award winner Tim Hatley. The production features Puppet Design by Olivier Award winners Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, with Puppetry and Movement Direction by Finn Caldwell, supported by the Global Associate Puppetry and Movement Direction of Scarlet Wilderink with US Associate Puppetry and Movement Direction by Jon Hoche and US Assistant Puppetry and Movement Direction by Betsy Rosen.  Lighting Design is by Tony Award winner Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling, Sound Design by Tony Award Winner Carolyn Downing, Video and Animation Design by Olivier and Tony Award winner Andrzej Goulding, Hair and Wig Design by David Brian Brown, Original Music Composed by Andrew T. Mackay, Dramaturgy by Jack Bradley, and Casting by Duncan Stewart and Patrick Maravilla with ARC Casting.

For the US tour, the team includes Associate Puppet Designer Caroline Bowman, Associate Scenic Designer Ross Edwards, Associate Costume Designer Robin L. McGee, Associate Hair and Wig Designer Meg Murphy, Associate Lighting Designer Paul Toben and Tim Reed, Associate Sound Designer Sam Clarkson and Elliott Williams with Sound Quiet Time, Associate Video and Animation Designer Brad Peterson with Dan Trenchard, Fight Direction from Rod Kinter and Puppet Captain Betsy Rosen.

The LIFE OF PI US tour Stage Management team is led by Kelsey Tippins with Matthew Brooks and Fouad Hassan, with Resident Director Jon Hoche. The Company Management team is Katie Cortez and Frank Deming II.

LIFE OF PI first opened to great critical acclaim with its cutting-edge visual effects at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2019. It took the West End by storm when it opened December 2, 2021, and ran for 500 performances at the Wyndham’s Theatre, winning five Olivier Awards in 2022, including Best New Play, Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. The global sensation made its North American Premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University on December 4, 2022 before opening on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 9, 2023 to celebratory reviews and going on to win three Tony Awards (Best Scenic Design of a Play Best Lighting Design of a Play, and Best Sound Design of a Play), four Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play, Outstanding Projection and Video Design, and Outstanding Puppetry) and two Outer Critics Circle Awards (Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play or Musical and Outstanding Video or Projection Design of a Play or Musical).

LifeOfPiBway.com