Opera Santa Barbara: Z Is for Zorro
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 23, 2024

One hundred and five years after Zorro first appeared in the 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano by American pulp fiction writer Johnston McCulley, the dashing vigilante hero who defends the commoners and fights for his fellow indigenous people of California, shows up with all of his swordplay, cunning, and romantic flair to take the […]

SBCC’s Clever Contemporary Political Comedy
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 16, 2024

SBCC Theatre Group closes out its 2023-24 season with Paul Slade Smith’s comedy The Outsider from April 10-27 in the Jurkowitz Theatre on SBCC’s West Campus. The comedy concerns a newly appointed governor of a small state who is terrified of public speaking and paralyzed by TV cameras, but great at actually governing. Determined to […]

 

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Hale Shares Comedic Highlights
By Scott Craig   |   April 9, 2024

Three-time Emmy-award winning actor Tony Hale spent an afternoon with Westmont theater arts students before sharing humorous stories and insights with a large crowd in Porter Theatre. Colorado actor Heather Ostberg Johnson (‘11) facilitated the event, Comedy and Faith with Tony Hale, on March 19th that students said helped them visualize a career in the […]

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 […]

Centennial Celebration
By Steven A. Blum   |   April 9, 2024

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow worked well as a title for a 1990s greatest hits album by Santa Barbara’s still thriving singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, and no reason why it shouldn’t serve superbly as a way to celebrate the Granada Theater’s big anniversary over a single weekend April 12-14. Looking back at the iconic venue’s history, pausing to […]

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 […]

Broadway Downtown: Band of Brothers 
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2024

The Lehman Trilogy, which not even two years ago won five Tony Awards for drama including Best Play, is set to make its Santa Barbara debut at Ensemble Theatre Company from April 6- 21. The play explores the human drama behind the Lehman brothers’ empire, tracing the family’s humble beginnings from their immigration from Bavaria […]

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  • 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 […]

    A ‘Seraglio’ Show
    By Richard Mineards   |   March 12, 2024

    To the Arlington Theatre for the one-night only revival of the folkloric ballet Seraglio, an Eastern version of Romeo and Juliet, written, choreographed and produced by Santa Barbara’s Alexandra King. The colorful three-act, two-hour production was first presented in 1989 in our Eden by the Beach, Ojai, Culver City, and Salt Lake City, featuring Greek […]

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    ‘Seraglio’ Delivers Dance, Cobras, and Star-Crossed Lovers
    By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

    When Alexandra King created and produced Seraglio, her original three-act Middle Eastern folkloric ballet about star-crossed lovers in early 20th century Istanbul, she thought it had run its course after performances in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Ojai, and Salt Lake City in 1989-1990.  “I never planned to do anything with it again,” King said. And […]

    Have a Ball with the Capulets
    By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

    As if to underscore the timelessness of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic tale gets a different site-specific spin through Westmont College’s John Blondell as part of a mini festival this weekend. The veteran professor of theater arts has cut and refashioned Shakespeare’s play into something called The Capulet Black-and-White Ball, refracting the classic through a […]

    Swashbuckling on Stage
    By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

    “Who doesn’t want to play pirate?”  That’s how Michael Bernard explained one of his big reasons for choosing a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved adventure story Treasure Island to direct for SBCC Theatre Group’s next production at the Garvin Theatre. “It’s such a classic story and it’s a really fun show, which there […]

    We Like Ike
    By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2024

    Although he handily won both of his presidential elections, Dwight David Eisenhower wasn’t looked upon as a very effective chief executive a year after his term ended in the early 1960s. That’s the impetus for Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, the new one-man show getting its first local production at the Rubicon in Ventura following […]

    Still at It
    By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2024

    Playwright James Still has authored several dozen plays over his long career, many of which focus on a combination of political, cultural, and personal topics, including The Velocity of Gary, Appoggiatura, and the much-translated, globally produced And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. But his current passion project is one […]

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