National Theatre Live Archives

Artists, Ballets and Plays: Laemmle’s Fall Cultural Programs

September 2, 2026 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

You can’t always make it to the finest art galleries, or the hottest stage shows, but Laemmle can bring them to you. And this fall, with an expanded selection of art in the art-house, we’re bringing plenty. A-list actors, top choreographers, and one of the world’s most famous paintings are all part of it. Let’s run down some of the nontraditional cinematic programming upcoming.

Thanks to our partners at National Theatre Live, Exhibition on Screen, Trafalgar Releasing and more, here are some of the upcoming cultural programs you can look forward to, and in most cases, prepurchase your tickets.

Sept. 14^th – Ballet on Film: The Pygmalion Effect

George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion tells the tale of linguist Henry Higgins attempting to teach Cockney flower saleswoman Eliza Dolittle how to speak with perfect diction. It was famously adapted into a musical as My Fair Lady; now, renowned Russian choreographer Boris Eifman reconceives it as a ballet. Eifman’s not new to adapting literary classics into dance – others have included The Seagull, Don Quixote, Anna Karenina, and Pinocchio. If you’re curious about live ballet filmed for the big screen, this might be a good place to start – it runs a tight 85 minutes, and tells a version of a familiar story.

Sept. 15^th – James McNeill Whistler

The painting informally known as Whistler’s Mother, though its actual title is Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1, is one of the best-known American paintings, and has been referenced in books like Lolita and movies like Bean. But how much do you know about the man who painted it? Exhibition on Screen will take you inside the walls of Tate Britain, where the first major Whistler retrospective in 30 years is held. Learn the stories behind not just the iconic likeness of mom, but his other works as well.

Sept. 22^nd – NT Live: The Misanthrope

Moliere’s 17^th-century comedy about a man who speaks bluntly and critically about everyone’s faults in a polite society might seem oddly dated in an America where it seems every other pundit claims to “tell it like it is.” Yet most of those pundits are male – Martin Crimp turns his modern rewrite of the play on its head by having the title character be a woman, played by Sandra Oh. The critic Alceste becomes novelist Alice, who faces societal pushback for speaking her truth. Filmed live in stage at the National Theatre.

Oct. 22^nd – Fallen Angels by Noel Coward

Fans of Downton Abbey may only know Coward as a character in the third film. They owe it to themselves to see his play that scandalized London in 1925 for its depiction of married women, discussing their sexual experiences and fantasies about men other than their husbands. Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne play the less-than-Heavenly friends who await the arrival of a mutual ex-lover while their spouses are away. Filmed live at Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre.

Nov 5^th – NT Live: Golden Boy

Clifford Odet’s 1937 drama, which was adapted into a breakthrough movie for William Holden, remains a depression-era tale in this new revival. Josh O’Connor, who played Prince Charles on The Crown, is Joe, an Italian-American who aspires to be a great violinist but discovers his true talent lies in boxing. As he rises in the sport, a partnership with a mobster may prove to be his undoing. Filmed in London’s Almeida Theatre, Sam Yates production features a live string quartet.

Nov. 19^th – Giant: The Play

John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. That, perhaps, is all you need to hear about Giant, which scored the actor a Tony Award. But perhaps a little bit more is in order. Set during the run-up to the publication of The Witches, Giant deals with the recurring charges of anti-Semitism surrounding the author, including a then-recent article that revived the furor anew. As Lithgow himself now prepares to play Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series, itself written by an author known for her controversial comments, Giant is a timely reminder that favorite authors can be complicated characters, and the art doesn’t always represent the artist in full.

Culture Vulture Evolves: From Limited Runs to Unlimited Options

July 29, 2026 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

A mere dozen years ago, your Laemmle Theatres forefathers set out with a new mission, one that would really put the “art” in “arthouse theater.” With our Culture Vulture program, we brought live stage to the cinema auditorium, took attendees inside the world’s greatest art museums to see the classics, and gave PBS documentaries the big-screen treatment they deserved, among other deep delves.

That was then, in a more conventional film environment.

These days, with companies like Fathom Events running one-night-only and limited programs, it’s not uncommon to see plays, concerts, TV finales, restored older films, and all sorts of niche documentaries on every topic.

At Laemmle Theatres, you can still expect to see more from the likes of Exhibition on Screen, telling the stories behind famous works of art, and National Theatre Live bringing the best of British stage productions to the movie screen. They no longer need other umbrellas to stand under, as their productions are now recognized by the likes of IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. If we ran just one a week, in some cases, we’d be limiting your options rather than expanding your horizons.

Culture Vulture began in 2014, with an all-male production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, starring Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry. It used to run at every Laemmle theater – the Claremont ran it for all 12 years, which is more than any other. Over those eleven-plus calendar cycles, the programs have broken down to: fine art 31%, stage capture 28% (Shakespeare 12% of that), opera 10%, ballet 10%, and music docs 7%.

In all, 24 of Shakespeare’s 38 plays have been a part of the program, some more than once. Hamlet, easily the highest-grossing title in Culture Vulture’s history, came through in three different productions, as did Romeo and Juliet, including in Matthew Bourne’s all-dance version.

Here are some more Culture Vulture numbers: a total series run-time of 11 years and 10 months, from September 22, 2014 to July 27, 2026.

In that time, our screens have run 434 titles, 2,078 engagements, 4,449 theatre-days, 10 theatres, and 90 distributors.

Culture Vulture titles needed strength in numbers, but the future has more than we can count. Just keep an eye on Laemmle.com for keywords like ballet, opera, and stage. If you sign up for Laemmle’s e-newsletter, you’ll be even more ahead of the curve.

Culture Vulture as a label may be phasing out, but like a phoenix from the ashes, it’s just rebirthing to spread its wings wider. Long live culture, on even more screens and locations!

Culture Vulture: All the World’s a Stage, and These Are Its Players

May 13, 2026 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Culture Vulture is Laemmle Theatres’ ongoing invitation to experience world-class art, performance, and cultural storytelling on the big screen and with an audience at your side. Curated from across the ballet, opera, theatre, fine art, and documentary landscapes, this series brings exceptional works to the Laemmle Glendale, Monica, and Town Center locations on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m. and Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m.

Below are four upcoming National Theatre Live presentations, each exploring the intersections of power, identity, ambition, and performance in strikingly different ways:

The Audience (05/16–18)

Returning to cinemas for the first time in over a decade, The Audience offers a rare showcase for Helen Mirren’s celebrated performance as Queen Elizabeth II, reprising the role that earned her both Olivier and Tony Awards. Written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry, the play imagines the monarch’s private weekly meetings with each of her twelve prime ministers, tracing the shifting political and cultural landscape of modern Britain through conversations held behind closed doors. Elegant, witty, and sharply observed, The Audience stands as a fascinating companion piece to The Crown, which later expanded upon many of the same themes for television.

The Playboy of the Western World (05/30 – 06/01)
Few plays capture the volatility of storytelling quite like John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, this new production stars Nicola Coughlan, Éanna Hardwicke, and Siobhán McSweeney in a story that begins when a mysterious young man arrives in a rural pub claiming to have killed his father. Instead of recoiling, the local community becomes enthralled by him, transforming violence into legend almost overnight. By turns riotously funny and quietly unsettling, the play explores how charisma, fantasy, and social hunger can reshape reality itself.

All My Sons (06/13–15)
Arthur Miller’s All My Sons remains one of the great American dramas precisely because its moral questions never lose their urgency. In visionary director Ivo van Hove’s new staging, the play’s portrait of postwar prosperity becomes newly immediate, exposing the fragile foundations beneath the promise of the American dream. Bryan Cranston leads the production as Joe Keller, a businessman whose financial success masks devastating ethical compromises, alongside Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Paapa Essiedu, and Tom Glynn-Carney. Filmed live from the West End, this production emphasizes the claustrophobic tension simmering beneath family rituals and domestic normalcy, revealing how denial and self-justification can echo across generations.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses (06/27–29)
Seduction becomes strategy in Christopher Hampton’s celebrated adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Directed by Marianne Elliott, this new staging stars Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner as the calculating Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont, aristocrats who transform romance into a ruthless game of power and humiliation. Set amid the glittering salons of pre-revolutionary France, the play examines the performance of status itself, where every gesture, confession, and flirtation functions as part of a larger social battlefield. Elegant, dangerous, and psychologically incisive, the production highlights why Hampton’s adaptation remains one of the defining theatrical works of the modern era.

Culture Vulture continues to celebrate the unique power of live performance experienced collectively. Whether revisiting history through royal conversations, unraveling moral catastrophe within an American family, or plunging into worlds shaped by seduction and mythmaking, these National Theatre Live presentations bring internationally acclaimed productions directly to Los Angeles audiences, combining the thrill of theatre with the immersive scale and intimacy of cinema. Buy your tickets today and prepare to be wowed!