Sign up for our eNewsletterBy Joan Lowerison | Theater Review
Three unique people — a guy who owns a garage, the schizophrenic sister he’s been looking out for since their parents died in a car crash years ago, and a guy named Sam (as in “play it again”) who clutches a book about Buster Keaton and dresses like he’s in a ’20s Chaplin movie — are the main characters in “Benny & Joon,” playing through Oct. 22 at The Old Globe.
By Jean Lowerison | Theater Review
Gentlemen’s clubs, British imperialism and sexism are just some of the topics spoofed in Nell Benjamin’s “The Explorers Club,” making its San Diego premiere through Sept. 24 at Lamb’s Players Theatre.
Picture the first scene: 1879 in the bar of London’s Explorers Club, where a group of scientists gather periodically to schmooze, brag about their latest discoveries and — oh, yes — indulge in their favorite pastime; brandy and cigars.
By Jean Lowerison | Theater Review It’s likely that Sherwood Forest and its inhabitants were never as frantic, nor as goofy, as it seems in “Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood!” — now in its world premiere at The Old Globe’s White Theatre.
By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review
Theatergoers with knowledge of Ira Aldridge (1807-1867) looked forward eagerly to the March 30 Old Globe opening of Lolita Chakrabarti’s 2012 London play “Red Velvet.”
Aldridge, who has a San Diego theater company named for him, was a great African-American actor who in 1833 became the first to play Othello au naturel on the London Stage.
By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review In the world of Topher Payne’s “Perfect Arrangement,” it’s 1950. We’re at a cocktail party on one side of the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) duplex supposedly inhabited by Bob and Millie Martindale (John DeCarlo and Laura Bohlin). Jim and Norma Baxter (Joshua Jones and Jennifer Paredes) supposedly live in the other […]
By David Dixon Politics and sexuality are two timely subjects in 2017. That makes this an ideal year for Intrepid Theatre’s production of the 2016 comedy-drama, “Perfect Arrangement.” Taking place in 1950, the story follows two U.S. State Department employees, Bob Martindale (John DeCarlo) and Norma Baxter (Jennifer Paredes).
By Charlene Baldridge Theater critics are usually given complimentary tickets for a performance near the opening of each production. A ticket to see another performance is ordinarily at the critic’s expense. The Dec. 21 deluge did not matter. I had purchased a ticket to see ion theatre’s “The Normal Heart” again before it closed and […]
By Charlene Baldridge
By Charlene Baldridge | Theater Review
As a certain music critic of yore used to lament in regard to Italianate tenors, “I wish I had a dictionary of superlatives with which to describe his voice.”
Currently there is much in San Diego theaters on which to rain praise, what with the double bill of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” and “King Hedley II” playing through Nov. 6 at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town, and now, the latest, equally-challenging and exquisite, the regional theater premiere of Bill Cain’s hilarious and brainy 2009 ode to Shakespeare, theater and love, “Equivocation,” at Lamb’s Players Theatre through Nov. 20.
By Charlene Baldridge
The Old Globe presents another musical for our delectation – this one a West Coast premiere titled “October Sky” with book by Brian Hill and Aaron Thielen and music and lyrics by Michael Mahler. It continues in the Old Globe Theatre through Oct. 23.
Opening night, Sept. 22, was packed to capacity with patrons, staff and “suits,” that will no doubt determine the next move for the piece, which premiered in August 2015 at the Marriott Theatre. It is inspired by the Universal Pictures film of the same name, and the original book, “Rocket Boys,” by Homer Hickam, Jr.