"This is monumental for us," co-executive director Alex Evans told the Los Angeles Times in April. He was talking about the theater's agreement to buy its home at the corner of York Boulevard and North Avenue 50. "It's been decades of us struggling to survive. Now we're at this moment where it's not a struggle. It's a blossoming moment where our future is set up forever."
Seven months later, Bob Baker Marionette Theater has had its biggest year since it moved to Highland Park. The Hallowe'en Spooktacular sold out its whole season before its last performance on November 8. Next up is A Holiday Wonderland Special, which opens November 14. The whole year traces back to one decision. Once the company knew it would keep its stage, it started making new work for it.
The rent that pushed a puppet theater into real estate
Bob Baker came to Highland Park because it had to leave its old home. In 2018, LAist reported that the property at the edge of downtown had been sold for mixed-use redevelopment, and the developer's plans didn't leave room for the theater. The company had spent more than 55 years at 1345 W. 1st Street. It looked at more than 80 spaces and signed a 10-year lease at 4949 York Boulevard in 2019.
The building has always housed whatever the neighborhood needed at the time. It opened as the York Theater in 1925 and showed movies and vaudeville. It later held a barbershop and an organ sales and repair shop, and before the puppets arrived it was home to the Pyong Kang First Congregational Church.
The lease bought the theater time, but the cost kept climbing. The Times reported that Bob Baker expected to pay close to half a million dollars in rent in 2026. That is about double the theater's entire budget at its old location near downtown. The lease also runs out in a couple of years. With those two pressures, the theater went to its landlord, Capstone Equities, with an offer to buy. The two sides reached a $5 million agreement. Brian Mikail of Capstone told the Times that when the lease was signed, the owners had hoped Bob Baker could buy the building someday.
Co-executive director Mary Fagot explained to LAist what ownership would change: "we won't be subject to rent increases or even another displacement in the future."
A permanent stage made the first new show since 1981 possible
Bob Baker hadn't opened a completely new production since "Hooray LA!" in 1981. "Choo Choo Revue" changed that in May. According to the Times' premiere coverage, the long process of buying the building, and the belief that the company would be in Highland Park to stay, gave it the confidence to stage a new show.
Evans told the paper that the 40-year gap had more to do with priorities than money. "Like, do we get the staff healthcare first, or do we do a new show first? So we got the staff healthcare." The show cost $300,000, and about half of that went to new puppets and scenery. The workshop built more than 100 new puppets for it. They include a pelican with a frog hidden in its beak, a cicada band playing a half-open sardine can and a stringed matchbook, and train whistles modeled on the Andrews Sisters.
Some of that work appears in this fall's lineup. A swarm of glow-in-the-dark bats built for "Choo Choo Revue" first appeared in the 2025 Halloween season. This year's Spooktacular added a Día de los Muertos sequence that the theater describes as a tribute to the holiday and to the community. The holiday show has a new host, too.
The full year at 4949 York
| Date | What happened | Where it stands on November 5 |
|---|---|---|
| April 13 | Agreement to buy the building announced | $4.7 million of $5 million secured as of May 20 |
| May 16 | "Choo Choo Revue" opened | Summer run has ended |
| September 5 | Hallowe'en Spooktacular opened | Sold out through November 8 |
| September 20 | Bob Baker Day, rained out in April, held at Los Angeles State Historic Park | 2027 information coming |
| November 14 | A Holiday Wonderland Special opens | Runs through January 17, 2027 |
Bob Baker Day had to move because of the puppets themselves. The Times explained that the historic, fragile puppets can't be exposed to water, so the April 12 festival was pushed to the fall. The company also performed at Coachella in Indio this spring. Evans told the Times that the crowd's reaction there gave the team confidence to try more contemporary music back on York Boulevard.
The theater says it draws more than 145,000 audience members a year, including about 20,000 students who come on school field trips. The Times also credited Highland Park itself for the full houses, describing the theater as sitting in a walkable neighborhood with young families.
What's in A Holiday Wonderland Special
The holiday show runs from November 14, 2026, through January 17, 2027. It's built like an old TV holiday special. Demitrius Nova Twinklestar III, or "Demi Star," hosts, with Pink Cat, the Rockette Reindeers and other characters. The tagline is "A Twinklestar is Born!" The theater promises surprise cameos and musical numbers, and it calls the show part of a holiday tradition that goes back 63 years.
Tickets are $25. Shows last about an hour and end with ice cream for everyone. For showtimes with ASL interpretation, email the box office at [email protected].
A sensory-friendly performance is set for Saturday, December 19, at 10:30 a.m. These are the changes for that show:
- Fewer lighting changes
- Lower volume
- Seating on the left side for guests who would rather not interact with the puppets, marked in blue for floor seats and orange for chair seats
- Guests can talk during the show
- A rest and quiet space in the lobby during the performance
Getting to York and Avenue 50
The theater's Parking & Directions page suggests these options:
- Metered parking on York Boulevard.
- The public lot on Avenue 51, between York and Meridian, a short walk away.
- The public lot at 5033 Lincoln Avenue, also a short walk away.
- Metro Bus Line 83, which stops at York and Avenue 49.
- DASH Highland Park/Eagle Rock, which stops at York and Avenue 52.
- Highland Park Station on the Metro line, about a 30-minute walk away.
If you want breakfast or brunch before a morning show, Zero Fox at 4607 York Blvd. held its grand opening on September 16 and 17, The Eastsider reported. Eater LA describes it as a family-owned spot for brunch, coffee, burgers and cocktails.
Where the campaign stands
When the purchase was announced in April, the theater had raised $4.5 million of the $5 million price over the previous year. It was asking for $500,000 more to close, plus another $2 million for critical repairs, including the roof and restrooms. Fagot told the Times that a $500,000 loan was lined up so the deal would close either way, but the company didn't want to start its next chapter in debt. She pointed to 2020, when the theater raised $365,000 in four weeks. By the "Choo Choo Revue" premiere on May 20, she said the total had reached $4.7 million.
The In LA to Stay Forever campaign page is still asking for gifts to close the gap. It says most of the purchase money is committed, thanks to a leadership gift from the Perenchio Foundation and a matching gift from the Kohl Family Foundation. Other major donors include the Ahmanson Foundation, Wallis Annenberg, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation, the Chris and Melody Malachowsky Family Foundation, the Carol and James Collins Foundation, the Mohn Family Foundation, and Jack Black and Tanya Haden.
Fagot told the Times she thought the theater was the ideal owner, because the building would need a major overhaul for almost any other use. "For us, it's exactly what we need." Evans also mentioned an idea for the next new show. He brought up the Olympics twice in his interview with the Times.
Places like the Bob Baker Marionette Theater are part of what makes a block on York Boulevard feel like home, and following how they're doing is part of knowing Highland Park well. If you'd like to talk about the neighborhood, or what's next for your own place in it, Chris Reisbeck would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
