The recession has hit everyone hard, but it may have hit Los Angeles the hardest. The city is broke, the state is very broke (if it weren't for federal help, people on unemployment there would be receiving government IOUs), and the once recession-proof entertainment industry finds itself taking a scalpel to its budget mostly because the real estate collapse has wiped out a huge amount of wealth. The bubble was huge in Southern California and the deflation was very dramatic affecting everything.

In short, there might not be any money for theater in Los Angeles. Most of the people I know there don't have any extra cash for theater tickets. And the people who could produce a theater event are certainly in no mood for such a financial risk.

So maybe it's a money issue?

1)Los Angeles has NEVER been very supportive of alternative art, esp theater.
2)Seattle LIKES to think that it's art friendly, but it's really not...the developers don't like it.

also, The Last Cargo Cult was great, even in its rough embyonic form but I was a little surprised the Stranger didn't push it more...of course, it sold out, so it really didn't need to fill the seats but more publicity might get one of the big regionals or arts groups to bring it back when it's in its polished version...

When did Tommy Smith become Tom Smith? Sometime in the early naughties?

For one thing LA has never had much of a rep as a "theatre town"; with so much of the industry focused exclusively on film and TV, theatre is what many people do "between gigs". So, ir's really not much of a surprise that there would not be much demand for a "home grown product" there.

And FWIW, per capita Seattle has a much higher concentration of professional theatre than LA, given that most of what passes for theatre down there consists of little 99-seat waiver companies that pay squat; a $50 stipend from a Seattle fringe company looks positively princely in comparison.

Screw Stew. Poor baby, nobody in LA loves him. After picking up a Tony for that crap show of his, and conning Spike Lee into filming it (gives me an idea of Spike Lee's taste in theatre) he can't get any love!

Go away, Stew. Just go the fuck away.