Spirit

April 24 (UPI) — The Trump administration is working on a bailout of Spirit Airlines, which is in bankruptcy for the second time in a year, to keep it from shutting down.

President Donald Trump several times this week that the government may get involved in the situation — specifically highlighting his concerns about jobs and the airline industry — after increases in jet fuel cost made the airline’s situation even worse, CNBC and USA Today reported.

Spirit has not commented on the bailout negotiations, which would have to be approved by its creditors, but the administration has offered Spirit a $500 million loan, with the government receiving the right to own 90% of the company when it exits bankruptcy, CBS News reported.

“We’re thinking about doing it, helping them out, meaning bailing them out, or buying it,” Trump said on Thursday.

“I’d love to be able to save those jobs,” he said. “I’d love to be able to save an airline. I like having a lot of airlines so it’s competitive.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has argued it is necessary for the government to step in and save Spirit because if it is shut down and liquidated during bankruptcy, at least 7,500 jobs will be lost.

The White House may use the Defense Production Act, which gives the government the ability to compel private companies to prioritize its contracts in the event of an emergency and to loan money to those companies, to give Spirit a loan.

The loan would make the government Spirit’s main debtor and, while the company is working its way through bankruptcy, the Department of Defense would use extra seats for transporting troops or moving other military cargo.

The union that represents Spirit’s ramp service employees, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, urged the administration to prioritize employees at the airline, The Hill reported.

“IAM Union members at Spirit, and all frontline aviation workers, did not cause this crisis,” the union said in a statement.

“They should not be the ones forced to pay the price. Any federal assistance must prioritize protecting jobs, preserving pay and benefits, and maintaining the affordable air service that millions of Americans rely on,” the union statement said.

Spirit filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024 after a judge blocked its proposed $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airlines in March of that year, and filed for bankruptcy again in 2025.

Spirit’s current bankruptcy plan includes the cost of jet fuel, which has roughly doubled for the company since the United States and Israel launched the war in Iran. The cost of fuel has also tanked their current business model, according to reports.

Spirit missed an interest payment this week, leading to it being warned that it could be in default with its creditors — to which Spirit has warned they may only have days to operate, which spurred the bailout talks.

The federal government already is working with the company’s creditors and has made a loan offer, CBS News reported, and Spirit has said it continues to operate normally, which includes deeply discounted flights.

Kicking off the upcoming season at the Mark Taper Forum — which recently celebrated its top-grossing musical ever with “Here Lies Love” — is the world premiere of Zack Zadek’s original musical “The Turning,” a folk thriller set in California’s Sequoia groves.

The show, said Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Snehal Desai as the company announces its 2026-27 slate of performances, has a “very L.A. vibe.”

Next up is a batch of shows meant to provide audiences some comedic relief amid a midterm season that’s sure to sow anxiety: Karen Zacarías’ “Destiny of Desire,” Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” and the family-favorite “Dog Man: The Musical.” Then in the spirit of springtime renewal, thought-provoking plays like “John Proctor Is the Villain” and “Fences” will leave audiences in contemplation before festive summer item “Boop! The Musical” swoops in to lift spirits.

When Desai plans the company’s season lineup, he always surveys the year ahead — literally.

“I look at the calendar a lot as to, where do we think we’re gonna be a year from now? Six to eight months from now?” Desai said in a recent interview at his office in downtown L.A.

Some entries in Center Theatre Group’s upcoming season are scheduled intuitively, like the Mischief Comedy team’s “Christmas Carol Goes Wrong,” running in the thick of the holiday season. But with others, Desai said he orchestrated the lineup to tell a programmatic story, like an artist might order tracks on an album.

As an artistic director, Desai said, he always encourages visitors: “Join us all season, versus just coming for the things you like,” and maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

This year as Desai consulted his calendar, he looked even farther ahead than usual, toward Center Theatre Group’s 60th anniversary season (2027-28) and the L.A. Olympics in 2028.

“We were having conversations of, what are the plays that we want to do or we want to bring back,” Desai said, when the theater company’s associate artistic director Lindsay Allbaugh suggested “Fences,” the final play of August Wilson’s acclaimed Century Cycle to be staged at Center Theatre Group.

“I said, ‘Oh, that’s what we want,’” Desai said, “both to end this season and kick off our 60th.”

The artistic director could not yet confirm who would direct the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a former Negro League baseball player and his family navigating life in 1950s segregated Pittsburgh.

Desai, who has not shied away from politically charged material during his tenure at the theater company, said Wilson’s play aligned with his intent this season to platform work “asking who we are as a country and as a community and society.”

“I wanted voices that felt bold and fearless, that were both outspoken and unafraid in a world where, right now, it feels like there’s a lot of things that are trying to stifle us from speaking out or coming together,” he said. To him, presenting “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish is revolutionary, as is “John Proctor Is the Villain’s” dissection of a classic through a feminist lens.

Desai added that he planned to balance that rabble-rousing spirit with productions that leaned more “celebratory and communal” and provided “different ways of having catharsis.”

“Oh, Mary!” offers riotous fun, and “Destiny of Desire” is an homage to an oft-dismissed yet widely consumed medium, the telenovela.

“With ‘Destiny,’ you’re able to take that format of something that people often watch in isolation at home, and enjoy it together,” Desai said.

Regional theater faces a slew of challenges: rising production and personnel costs, post-pandemic audience declines and competition from digital media. The situation has felt particularly bleak in L.A., Desai said, as seeming moments of recovery in the past year or so were squashed by the L.A. wildfires, then last summer’s immigration crackdown and associated civil unrest.

“We just constantly live in this time period that feels like we’re on shifting sands,” Desai said. Nonetheless, the company is finding paths through the desert, including with alternative programming through CTG: FWD.

The CTG: FWD initiative this season will bring “Riverdance 30 – The New Generation,” “Clue” and “The Music Man” to the Ahmanson Theatre, and “Dog Man” to the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

Another strategy Desai said the theater company has employed is heavy investment in new works development, particularly new musical development. New works are time-and resource-intensive, Desai said, but they’re also good investments, offering the best chances at longevity and commercial prospects.

With “The Turning,” Center Theatre Group spotlights an emerging voice that Desai said represents “the future of American theater.”

After Desai was introduced to Zadek’s folksy musical “The Turning,” he said, “I just kept listening to it over and over again. I was like, ‘I can’t wait for the cast recording of this to be on Spotify.’”

The artistic director was also thrilled to find an ultra-rare gem in Zadek’s piece: a truly original story.

“A lot of things are adaptations these days: adaptations of films, of TV shows,” Desai said. “So to get a world premiere musical that is based on its own original concept — that, I found, was really compelling.”

Following back-to-back seasons of directing his own productions, Desai is taking a breather this go-around to focus on broader administrative duties. But he still hopes to be a resource for visiting directors learning how to navigate the “special space” that is the Mark Taper Forum — and its neighbors the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, which will get its own season announcement in the spring or early summer.

See the full season, here.