Tag archives: Granada

The Granada Theatre Celebrates 100 Years
By Hattie Beresford   |   April 2, 2024

In December 1922, Edward A. Johnson, president of the California Theater Company that owned most of the movie houses in Santa Barbara, announced plans to build a theater and eight-story office building on State Street. Despite touches of Spanish design, many felt the tall rectangular structure did not suit Santa Barbara’s emerging Mediterranean style. Nevertheless, […]

The Granada Is Back
By Richard Mineards   |   March 19, 2024

Just six weeks after its disastrous sprinkler mishap the venerable Granada Theatre was back to its sparkling self when the 27-time Grammy winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performed as part of the CAMA Masterseries. Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, music director since 2022 and only the second woman in history to lead a major American orchestra, joined Chinese […]

Movie Scenes, Music and Guests, oh my! 
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 12, 2024

If you find yourself still craving Academy Award-winning cinematic splendor on the big screen, the Santa Barbara Symphony has just the ticket. In its return to the Granada – following a forced move to the Lobero last month due to water damage at The G – the symphony builds on the Oscar buzz with its […]

A Pretty Big Break for Baker
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 23, 2024

In the film Pretty Woman, courtesan Vivian catches lightning in a bottle when she meets Richard Gere’s charming and chivalrous billionaire businessman. Being cast in the title role of the film’s touring stage musical serves as a similarly unlikely lucky break for Ellie Baker. A really big break.  Not only does Pretty Woman: The Musical represent […]

A Joy-Filled Evening
By Richard Mineards   |   December 12, 2023

Westmont College fielded its full arsenal at the Granada for its 19th annual sold-out Christmas Festival. Always a great start to Yuletide, the concert Fullness of Joy was the third year at the historic State Street theater after years at the First Presbyterian Church. Ruth Lin, chair of the music department, conducted the Westmont Orchestra, […]

The Beat Goes On: It Takes Three Actresses to Play Cher
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2023

Morgan Scott was understandably excited Monday morning over the phone from the Coachella Valley, where The Cher Show had just wound up five performances over the weekend in Palm Desert. The area is home not only to one of Cher’s famed exes, Sonny Bono, who was both mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. representative […]

Sweet Midori a Ride Along the Silkroad
By Richard Mineards   |   November 21, 2023

UCSB Arts & Lectures was on a roll at the Granada last week with two major productions within 48 hours. Kicking off the impressive program was Japanese violinist Midori and the Festival Strings Lucerne, under artistic director Daniel Dodds. Founded in 1956, the Swiss company is now considered one of the world’s most distinguished chamber […]

One Charming (Not Alarming) Show
By Richard Mineards   |   November 14, 2023

Kristin Chenoweth had one of the hottest concerts of her career at the Granada when the theater’s fire alarms went off three times during her highly entertaining, 90-minute show! Fortunately, they were all false alarms, allowing the 4’11” dynamo from Oklahoma – dressed in a silver pantsuit even more sparkling than her personality – to […]

Kings and Strings Meditate on Morrison
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 14, 2023

When the home-grown classic rock band Doublewide Kings plays the Granada Theatre on November 11, it will mark a lot of firsts for the group. It will be the debut at Santa Barbara’s grandest venue for the band founded by Montecito’s Palmer Jackson, Jr., who also happens to be the Executive Chairman and Chairman of […]

Christmas Festival Offers ‘Fullness of Joy’
By Scott Craig   |   November 7, 2023

Tickets are on sale now for the 19th annual Westmont Christmas Festival, which marks the beginning of the holiday season for many in Santa Barbara. The concert combines orchestra and choirs at the Granada Theatre, the central coast’s premier performing arts venue in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, on Saturday, December 2, at 7 […]

Crowds Turnout for ‘Turn It Out’
By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2023

The venerable Granada was chock-a-block when UCSB Arts & Lectures staged the new season’s second dance event Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends, a delightful and innovative two-hour show. Award-winning New York City Ballet principal dancer Peck embraced the role of director for the colorful, energized performance running up the heat with an […]

‘Giselle’ Excels
By Richard Mineards   |   October 31, 2023

As it prepares to celebrate it 30th anniversary, State Street Ballet staged one of its biggest productions ever at the Granada with its premiere of the hauntingly beautiful two act production, Giselle. New artistic director Megan Philipp, who has taken over from retiring founder Rodney Gustafson, excelled – helming the two-hour show with Ryan Lenkey […]

Great Performances All Around
By Richard Mineards   |   October 24, 2023

A tony triumvirate of award-winning classical musicians wowed at the Granada. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, 62, joined countryman Gautier Capuçon, 42, playing a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, and Georgia, Russian-born Lisa Batiashvili, 44, playing a 1739 Guarneri del Gesu violin, kicked off UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Great Performances series for a hugely entertaining evening of […]

Here Comes Jemma
By Richard Mineards   |   October 24, 2023

Jemma Montecito is opening in our rarefied enclave. The new eatery, which has number of branches including Brentwood and Hollywood, is at The Post, the reinvented Las Aves complex near the Andree Clark Bird Refuge. The restaurant, owned by Jackson and Melissa Kalb of Memento Mori Hospitality, boasts 2,761 square feet of interior space and […]

Living Legends at the Granada
By Richard Mineards   |   September 26, 2023

The capacious stage of the venerable Granada Theatre, which hosts six resident companies, was socially gridlocked with more than 200 guests for the 7th annual Legends gala, appropriately enough emceed by the ubiquitous Andrew Firestone, whose parents Brooks and Kate Firestone were being lauded. The recipients also included the historic Ensemble Theatre Company (ETC), the […]

Symphony’s Season Kick Off
By Richard Mineards   |   September 19, 2023

Veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, who has conducted the Santa Barbara Symphony for 18 years, took center stage at the Lobero when promoting the orchestra’s 71st season for more than 600 guests, who quaffed champagne and noshed on canapés on the Lovelace Esplanade outside the theater beforehand. The new season, which kicks off at the Granada […]

Granada Legends: Annual Gala Takes the Stage
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 12, 2023

There’s no doubt that The Granada Theatre has played a vital role in developing and extending Santa Barbara’s thriving music and performing arts landscape for many decades – especially since 2008, when the theater reopened after a massive multi-million dollar renovation. The result not only restored The Granada to its 1930s glory but established the […]

The Granada Theatre
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 15, 2023

There’s no doubt that the Granada Theatre is one of the crown jewels in Santa Barbara’s enviable and outsized arts scene, one that after undergoing a mega-millions upgrade has become home to nearly all of the South County’s major presenting arts organizations. What’s more, the nonprofit continues to upgrade on a regular basis, most recently […]

Podium Power: JoAnn Falletta Conducts Electricity at the Granada
By Jeff Wing   |   August 1, 2023

You’re at the symphony, so your socks match for once. You’ve made several such concessions to high art and anxiously await the concert. Finally, the enormous, pleated curtain slowly rises with the seriousness and gravity of stone, the audience bursts into applause, and here we have a hundred-plus musicians in their finery, staring out at […]

A New Setting for an Old Favorite
By Richard Mineards   |   July 25, 2023

Italian composer Puccini’s beloved opera La bohème took on a whole new tone at the Granada as part of the Music Academy’s 76th annual Summer Festival. Instead of Paris’ Latin Quarter in the 1830s, as in the original 1895 work, the setting was Brooklyn and Manhattan in 2011, a time of restless energy and a […]