Drive past 14900 La Mirada Boulevard this September and the marquee will be doing exactly what marquees are built to do: selling you a show. Little Shop of Horrors opens the Broadway Series on September 18, and the Southern California regional premiere of Dear Evan Hansen follows a few weeks later. That's the season most residents will hear about, because it's the season with a subscription brochure and a ticket price attached to it.
What the marquee won't tell you is that the same 1,251-seat auditorium hosts a second full season this year, on different nights, with a different price tag: nothing. The La Mirada Symphony's 2026-27 season plays the exact same stage the Broadway shows do, and admission to every one of its four concerts is free. Same building, same seats, two completely separate calendars that almost never get mentioned in the same sentence.
What's Actually on the Marquee
The Broadway Series is a partnership between La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment, and the 2026-27 lineup is five shows deep. Little Shop of Horrors runs September 18 through October 11. Dear Evan Hansen, a Tony Award winner making its Southern California regional premiere, follows October 30 through November 22. After the holidays the season turns dramatic with a February staging of To Kill a Mockingbird, then swings back to musical theater with Hairspray, and closes out the year with Les Misérables.
None of that comes cheap, and it isn't supposed to. Season subscriptions range from $86.25 to $431.25, with a discount for La Mirada residents that brings the range down to $69 to $345. Single tickets for Little Shop of Horrors, Dear Evan Hansen, and To Kill a Mockingbird went on sale July 20. Tickets for Hairspray and Les Misérables go on sale October 12. If you've only ever thought of the theater as "the place with the Broadway shows," this is the season you already know about.
The Season That Doesn't Need a Marquee
The La Mirada Symphony announced its own 2026-27 season on August 3, and it runs in the same hall as the Broadway Series, just quieter about it. The season opens October 22 with a screening of the 1925 silent film Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, accompanied by the full orchestra performing the score live. On January 24, the Symphony trades the full stage for an intimate chamber music afternoon featuring musicians from the orchestra performing in smaller ensembles. March 14 brings Sketches of Spain, built around Glinka's Spanish Overture No. 2, Granados' Intermezzo, Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, and music from Bizet's Carmen, preceded by a free pre-concert lecture at 2:15 p.m. The season closes with a program built around Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
Every one of those four concerts is free to attend. Not discounted, not resident-priced. Free.
| Broadway Series | Symphony Season | |
|---|---|---|
| Producer | McCoy Rigby Entertainment | La Mirada Symphony |
| Shows | 5 productions, Sept 2026 through mid-2027 | 4 concerts, Oct 2026 through spring 2027 |
| Price | $69 to $431 (subscription) | $0 |
| Venue | La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts | Same building, same auditorium |
Put side by side like that, the gap is the whole point. A resident who subscribes to both series in the same year could spend over $400 on one and nothing at all on the other, and never leave the same parking lot.
A Third Calendar Sharing the Same Stage
The Broadway Series and the Symphony aren't even the only two organizations that consider this building home base. La Mirada Theatre also houses Phantom Projects Theatre for Teens and a children's series called Programs for Young Audiences, both running their own schedules independent of the marquee out front. The theater itself has been presenting productions since 1977, and more than 8 million patrons have passed through its doors in that time. That's a lot of history for one stage to carry, and it explains why the building has ended up hosting three or four audiences that rarely overlap. A family bringing kids to a Saturday matinee, a couple subscribing to the full Broadway season, and a retiree who shows up every October for the free silent film screening are all walking through the same lobby doors, just on different weeks, for reasons that have nothing to do with each other.
Getting In and Eating First
However you end up at the theater, a few things stay constant. Parking is always free, every night, every show, no exceptions carved out for the pricier Broadway tickets versus the free Symphony seats. The theater runs its own Courtyard Café, open about 90 minutes before most performances with sandwiches, small snacks, desserts, and drinks, though outside food and beverages aren't allowed inside.
If you'd rather eat somewhere with a full menu first, Cabo Taco Baja Grill and Ginzaya Sushi both sit in the same Rosecrans Avenue retail strip as the theater, close enough to walk over once you've parked. About ten minutes away at the Holiday Inn on Firestone Boulevard, 12Sixty Modern Pub & Kitchen runs under Executive Chef Ruben Gonzales, who traded a professional soccer career in Guadalajara for culinary school and now runs a kitchen built around scratch-made pub food and a rotating craft beer list.
If you've been treating La Mirada Theatre as a once-a-year Broadway stop, the actual building is running a fuller calendar than the sign out front admits, and half of that calendar won't cost you anything to sit in on. The marquee sells the show it's selling. The rest of the season is just as real, and it's already on the books.
The Kennedys have spent decades getting to know La Mirada one street at a time, the theater seats included. If you're thinking about what your own La Mirada home is worth in today's market, reach out for a free home valuation whenever you're ready to talk.
