It truly takes a village to put on a show, and the collective that Ensemble Theatre Company has put together for the 2026-27 season (number 48) is shaping up to be extraordinary. (Very) loosely themed around the exploration of California, “its dreams, its myths, its reckonings, and the people who live them,” the five shows include:
- Buyer & Cellar (October 2026): Jonathan Tolins’s solo comedy set in Barbra Streisand’s private Malibu mall. A meditation on celebrity, consumerism, and the California dream at its most surreal.
- Rent (December 2026): Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning rock musical, celebrating its 30th anniversary. A tribute to the bohemian artist spirit that has shaped California communities for generations.
- The Last Used Car Lot in America (February 2027): A world-premiere musical by Joel Surnow and Sean Callery. A love letter to a vanishing American way of life, and to California’s enduring car culture.
- Doubt: A Parable (April 2027): Mimi Rogers stars in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award–winning moral thriller. A reckoning that California is still living through.
- True West (June 2027): Sam Shepard’s explosive drama set in the San Gabriel Valley, where the desert meets the suburbs, and two brothers fight for the soul of the American West.
At last week’s annual season preview party, Executive Artistic Director Scott DeVine talked about the upcoming slate of shows with a number of very special guests including Mimi Rogers and Madison Lintz, co-stars in the long-running television series Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, who be teaming up to star in Doubt this spring. Director Beejan Land, who recently directed Rogers and Lintz in an all-female production of 12 Angry Men, was also in the house to talk about the show and his stars.
“I had the awesome leap of faith from Mimi Rogers, who came on board to be in 12 Angry Men and roll around on the floor and be an elephant and do all the things that I ask her to do, and I can’t stress to you enough,” he said, turning to Rogers, “I mean this: You’re a true star. You really are, and you’re a true star in the work that you do in the rehearsal room and I feel so blessed and like a leap of faith, that you worked so hard…. And Madison, too, you knocked it out of the ballpark.”
As to why Rogers — well-known for her roles in films such as Ridley Scott’s Someone to Watch Over Me, The Rapture, Austin Powers, and The Door in the Floor opposite Jeff Bridges — wanted to do Doubt in Santa Barbara, she said it’s one of her favorite plays. “It really is a perfect play. It’s so beautifully written and beautifully structured. … It’s a timeless piece of material because it applies as much to society today as it ever has.”
The world premiere of The Last Used Car Lot in America is also particularly notable, with writer Joel Surnow (co-creator of the action series La Femme Nikita and 24) and composer Sean Callery (24, Jessica Jones, Elementary) as the creative forces behind this new musical. Surnow said he wrote the original script 50 years ago, and it eventually became the 2014 movie Small Time, about a young guy who decides to skip college to join his father in the used car business. Callery did the score, and it was his suggestion to make it into a musical. “Little did I know, here we are, like 10 years later, still going through the process. It’s incredible, and every time we think we’ve got it, there’s more,” said Surnow.
It may be still a work in progress, but the live preview song we heard last week, which ends Act I — with Callery on piano and four talented cast members on vocals —was incredibly moving. I think they’ve got a hit on their hands, and Santa Barbara is very lucky to be the setting of the world premiere of such high caliber.
Single tickets are now on sale, as well as subscriptions for the entire season, which opens on October 7 with Buyer & Cellar starring Brian McDonald reprising his award-winning performance as Alex, an out-of-work actor, who lands the strangest gig of his life: working in the private shopping mall that Barbra Streisand built in the basement of her Malibu estate.
See etcsb.org for details.
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