Tag archives: Kismet

It Had to Happen (Or Did It?)
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   October 1, 2024

One of my favorite poems is by a woman named Susan Marr Spalding. It’s called “Fate,” and is in two parts, each of nine lines. It contrasts the different ways life could have turned out for two presumably imaginary couples. In the first part, the man and woman lead lives which make it extremely unlikely […]

State Street Ballet
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 6, 2022

It’s no accident that Rodney Gustafson landed in Santa Barbara to launch his State Street Ballet dance company almost three decades ago. The company’s executive and artistic director had targeted returning to town ever since he’d performed as a dancer with the famed American Ballet Theatre (ABT) at the Arlington Theatre many years before. “I […]

Santa Ynez General Pop-up
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   July 19, 2022

One of Santa Ynez’s most popular shops has popped up in Montecito’s Upper Village, located in the space once occupied by George Meta Jewelry near Montecito Village Grocery. Owned by Pearson and Spencer Turnbull, the company, which features its own brand of goods along with other lifestyle and clothing brands, opened in downtown Santa Ynez […]

Kismet in the Upper Village
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   June 14, 2022

Nearly a year after one of Montecito’s longest running businesses, Glamour House, closed its brick and mortar in the Upper Village after 18 years, Kismet, the new business that took over the space, is going strong, offering lingerie, loungewear, and pajamas to Montecito shoppers.  Owner Lindsay Eckardt has more than 15 years in the beauty […]

2021: The Year in Review
By Montecito Journal   |   January 4, 2022

It was a year full of questions, sometimes without many answers. But we persevered. As a staff, we took a few moments to reflect on our 2021s, which featured a few tears, triumphant returns, overwhelming innovation, and news that no one likes to report. Here’s a look at eight of our standout stories from the […]

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. […]

Granada, the Great
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 18, 2021

It’s purely coincidence that this week’s Montecito Journal hits newsstands the same day the Granada Theatre officially unveils Plaza Granada, a new pathway to the theater and the historic arts district in downtown Santa Barbara with a private ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Plaza transforms the formerly barren parking lot behind the theater and the previously dark […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Devil’s in the Details!
By Sara Miller McCune   |   September 7, 2021

One of the more interesting things I have learned now that we are getting closer to our Kismet performance dates in late October is the fact that all businesses are full of details — and then still more details. This should not have come as a surprise to me since I started my own publishing […]

It’s Kismet: A Love for Broadway, and Bringing it Home to Santa Barbara
By Sara Miller McCune   |   July 1, 2021

Growing up in New York during the 1950s turned me into a lover of Broadway theatre — especially musicals. By the age of 18 I’d been fortunate enough to see wonderful productions of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and close to a hundred other musicals, dramas, and comedies. I next fell in love with […]