Hollywood Rush: Theater Made in Less Than a Day

Theater people love a deadline, and The Hollywood Rush takes that to an extreme. On September 27 at 7 p.m., a group of working Hollywood actors and creators will arrive at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre with no script, no set list, and roughly 18 hours on the clock. By showtime, they'll have a complete piece of theater to perform for you.

The lineup reads like a call sheet for something you'd actually pay to see: Catherine Reitman, Adam Shankman, and Tony Hale are among the performers slated for the night. Reitman created and starred in the Canadian series "Workin' Moms"; Shankman directed "Hairspray" and has been a fixture on TV competitions for years; Hale is best known for playing Buster Bluth on "Arrested Development" and Gary Walsh on "Veep." Put them together in a room with a blank page and a ticking clock, and you've got the makings of something unpredictable in a way that scripted theater rarely is.

This is one of the more unusual arts events Los Angeles has on the calendar this fall. Most shows arrive after months of rehearsal and previews. Here the process is the spectacle. You watch performers work with what they have, solve problems in real time, and somehow arrive at something coherent and entertaining by curtain. The fun is partly in not knowing exactly how it will land.

The event benefits FosterMore, a nonprofit that works to improve outcomes for foster youth across the country. This is explicitly a one-night-only show, so there's no catching a later performance if you miss it.

The Wilshire Ebell Theatre sits in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood, a short drive from most parts of the city. The venue dates to 1927 and is a remnant of a period when Los Angeles had more civic gathering spaces like it: ornate, intimate by modern standards, and built for performance. Its main hall seats around 1,200 people. Parking is available along nearby side streets, and the building is accessible from the Metro Purple Line at Wilshire/Vermont.

Tickets start at $46.65 and go up to $377.45, with the higher-end pricing likely corresponding to premium seating or VIP access. If you're looking for things to do near me this late September or want an out-of-the-ordinary night for the arts-and-culture corner of your calendar, this one's worth looking at before it sells out. The nature of the show means every seat is watching the same experiment unfold.

Doors and start time are 7 p.m. Plan for a roughly two-hour show. Tickets are available through the Eventbrite link below.

Explore more arts and culture events happening around Los Angeles, and browse the Los Angeles neighborhood guide for more Things Happening In Los Angeles this season.