Tag archives: Broadway

Mystery, Mayhem and Mirth: New Broadway Season Opens with ‘Clue’
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 26, 2024

Don’t make this mix-up mistake: The marvelously mesmerizing performance of MOMIX Alice at the Granada in October was actually a make-up from a date postponed by the water damage at the theater last winter. So American Theatre Guild’s 2024-25 season of Broadway at the Granada isn’t getting underway until November 26-27, when the official North […]

Broadway Legends at the New Vic
By Richard Mineards   |   August 20, 2024

Social gridlock reigned at the Ensemble Theatre Company’s New Vic when it staged a sold-out Play It Forward: Legends of Broadway which raised more than $50,000 for the theater’s education and outreach programs. The celebratory concert, featuring the music of the greatest musical theater composers of our time, and veterans of the Great White Way […]

Cornucopia of Cabarets
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 20, 2024

Ensemble Theatre’s Pay It Forward: Legends of Broadway benefit event last weekend was a smashing success, a sold-out soirée of song which even had some special surprises, including an appearance by the Gay Men’s Chorus augmenting the half-dozen veterans of the New York stage, screen and TV as they all celebrated the music of 10 […]

Alcott Musical’s ‘Little’ Pleasures 
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2024

The musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s most famous novel comes to downtown’s grandest theater when Broadway at the Granada presents Little Women – The Musical on April 10–11. The theatrical work, based on Alcott’s 1868–69 semi-autobiographical book follows the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March, each with divergent personalities yet determined […]

Spin on Superstar
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2024

What’s the buzz? A revolutionary rock musical presented in a revolutionary reinvention in the latest production from Out of the Box Theatre Company; which normally focuses on alternative/contemporary musicals.  Jesus Christ Superstar, the sung-through rock opus musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that stunned Broadway in 1971, juggles the gender in the tale […]

Local Student Set to Shine on International Broadway Tour
By Dalina Michaels   |   April 9, 2024

Santa Barbara is alive with the sound of music… especially for one young performer! Chance Challen is preparing to leave our cozy community to join the international Broadway tour of the beloved musical, The Sound of Music. This incredible opportunity showcases the talent and dedication of Chance, who has continually demonstrated outstanding ability and passion […]

A Well-Rounded Musical
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 12, 2023

In a strange coincidence, three Broadway music revues have arrived on our shores in sequence, and, as it turns out, you have your choice to see any of them for one night on Thursday, December 7. The Cher Show winds up its two-day run at the Granada, Ensemble’s Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny […]

Learning Through Lyrics
By James Buckley   |   September 12, 2023

I recently enjoyed a Sunday evening Broadway Cruise onboard Hiroko Benko’s Condor Express whale-watching vessel here in Santa Barbara. The event featured two young singers – soprano Anikka Abbott and baritone Nicholas Ehlen – who sang classic numbers (accompanied by pianist Renée Hamaty) from a variety of Broadway musicals. The songs featured were such hits […]

Theater Talk: Anya Arrives in Town 
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 25, 2023

Anastasia – the Broadway musical inspired by the 1997 animated film and the 1956 live-action movie that ran in New York from 2017-2020 and has been performed more than 2,500 times worldwide – has its Santa Barbara debut at The Granada Theatre on April 25-26 as part of The American Theatre Guild’s Broadway in Santa […]

‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T.’ for the Queen of Soul
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 27, 2022

There has been no dearth of film and Broadway shows about Aretha Franklin since the soul singer-songwriter star died in August 2018. First there was a documentary by Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack for a documentary about the recording of Franklin’s landmark 1972 Amazing Grace gospel album whose release the singer blocked for decades until after […]

Spring-ing Back to Lincoln Land 
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 18, 2022

Given that Abraham Lincoln might be the most popular president in U.S. history, one whose story is the stuff of legends, it would seem there isn’t a whole lot left to tell about Abe. And even less likely, that a practicing insurance litigator would be the one to tell it.  Yet, here’s Terrence L. Cranert, […]

Broadway on the Condor
By James Buckley   |   August 30, 2022

It wasn’t all Montecito all the time, but there were plenty of Montecito folks who joined a grab bag of Santa Barbarans, Carpinterians, Goletans, Noletans, Mesa denizens, and adventurous tourists, on owner Hiroko Benko’s seventh annual “Broadway Cruise” that took us from Santa Barbara Landing on West Beach – home port of Condor Express – […]

Kloots on Coping 
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 19, 2022

Hospice of Santa Barbara’s free virtual “Illuminate” Speaker Series steps up the star quotient with its next presentation on Wednesday, April 20: Amanda Kloots, the TV host, Broadway actress, award-winning fitness entrepreneur, and recently a finalist on the 30th season of Dancing with the Stars. Kloots might also be the speaker who has been most […]

Slice of Life
By Richard Mineards   |   February 1, 2022

The Broadway run of the show Waitress may have ended prematurely because of COVID, but the American Theatre Guild’s touring production at the Granada served up a highly entertaining show. With music and lyrics by Grammy winner Sara Bareilles, the production, based on a 2007 comedy-drama film of the same name, is about a young […]

Singing Kismet’s Praises
By Mark Leisure   |   November 22, 2021

Theater came roaring back to life in town since last we published these pages known as the Sentinel, with every local company save for Ventura’s Rubicon offering something to savor. I caught three of the productions, including the biggest of them all in the revival of Kismet,executive produced and presented by philanthropist/publisher Sara Miller McCune. […]

A Birthday Bash for the Ages
By Richard Mineards   |   November 2, 2021

Montecito über philanthropist Sara Miller McCune certainly knows how to celebrate! For her 80th birthday Sara, a longtime fan of New York’s Great White Way, underwrote the costs of Kismet, which opened on Broadway in 1953 and the following year won a Tony Award for best musical. “Over the years, the music and the words […]

‘Kismet’ Fated to Make Santa Barbara History
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 21, 2021

The dictionary says “kismet” is an Arabic word that has come to mean fate or destiny in English. In theater, Kismet was a hit on Broadway back in the 1950s, as the love-and-duty musical about a glib-tongued street poet in old Baghdad whose family encounters princesses and a young caliph was smartly adapted from a […]

From Broadway’s ‘Nosebleeds’ to the Granada
By Nick Masuda   |   October 19, 2021

“Love is a game that two can play and both win by losing their heart.” – Eva Gabor For Sara Miller McCune, her first crush wasn’t sitting across from her in a classroom or a neighbor from the Queens, New York block she grew up on — her heart belonged to Broadway, a lifelong love […]

‘Quite Extraordinary’: Broadway Legend Bringing Talents to Santa Barbara
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 12, 2021

It’s not hyperbole at all to suggest that the original production of Kismet that will play three performances at the Granada Theatre later this month might be the most exciting show ever to play in Santa Barbara. While official touring shows of classic Broadway hits and more modern musical fare are still appearing at the […]

Heading Into the Home Stretch
By Sara Miller McCune   |   October 12, 2021

As I write this early in October, I can really feel my heart beating just a little bit faster. Kismet, that wonderful musical show, is coming to life once again — right here in Santa Barbara. For one thing, the first week of rehearsals late September in New York City are now over. For that […]