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Theatre West production of ‘Garden of Alla’
honored with three Robby Award nominations

LOS ANGELES (January 8, 2024) — Theatre West’s recent production of Garden of Alla: The Alla Nazimova Story, written and performed by Romy Nordlinger and directed by Lorca Peress, has been nominated for three Robby Awards including Best Actress in a Drama (Nordlinger), Best Projection Design (Adam Jesse Burns) and Best Sound Design (Nick T. Moore).

Twenty-three shows musicals, dramas and comedies-produced by 16 different entities share the 137 nominations. The 37th annual Robby Awards will be presented in a live show on Sunday, February 4, 2024, at 7 p.m.

Using immersive video and original music to invoke the Roaring Twenties and create a panoramic, live silent film, Garden of Alla traces Nazimova’s remarkable journey, from her early days as an immigrant performing Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side to her groundbreaking role as one of the first women to become a powerful director and producer in Hollywood. There, her famous — and infamous — Garden of Allah mansion, dubbed the “Camelot of Hollywood,” was a haven of sexual and intellectual freedom.

Garden of Alla received its West Coast premiere last July in a triumphant run at Theatre West produced by Anne Leyden and Benjamin Scuglia (Behind the Bar Productions) in association with Theatre West and Georganne Aldrich Heller. On Stage Los Angeles called it “an impressive tour-de-force”; Colorado Boulevard found it “fascinating high drama [offering] juicy glimpses of life among the theatrical and wealthy ‘old Hollywood’ elite”; and the Hollywood Progressive wrote, “Dash, do not walk… If you are a fan of plays featuring and exploring bravura acting, Hollywood history, LGBTQIA issues, creative stagecraft, feminism, anti-Semitism, one-person shows, illustrator Aubrey Beardsley and more, strap on those running shoes.”

Established in 1962, Theatre West is celebrating its 62nd year as the oldest continually running professional theater company in the City of Los Angeles. A membership collective of actors, playwrights, directors and technicians, Theatre West’s alumni members include Ray Bradbury, Beau Bridges, Richard Dreyfuss, Sally Field, Betty Garrett, Martin Landau, Lee Meriwether, Jack Nicholson, Carroll O’Connor, Sherwood Schwartz, Joyce Van Patton and Paul Winfield. Theatre West has produced more than 300 plays and musicals; of these plays, nearly 70% are original works developed in its workshops, and many have led to Broadway, regional tours and feature films, including A Bronx Tale by Chazz Palminteri, A Very Brady Musical by Lloyd Schwartz and Hope Juber, and, most recently, Our Man in Santiago by Mark Wilding which transferred to off-Broadway.

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