In the crosshairs of history, part threeYP-289 goes to war Hurry up and wait. San Diego’s tuna clippers conscripted for World War II saw far more downtime than action. Like the much larger Liberty ships …
April 10, 2013
Prosperina
Damien at Lamb's Players
April 5, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Hear the word "saint" and you might imagine a cherubic face and gentle spirit floating three feet above ground and beautific as all get out. But look at a photo of Mother Teresa - at that face! Read G.K. Chesterton's …
End of things behind enemy lines
The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabbler at Diversionary
April 15, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Henrik Ibsen liked to close his plays with a bang: the slamming door in Doll's House; a pistol shot in Hedda Gabler. Nora in Doll's goes off to find herself. But what about suicidal Hedda? According to Jeff Whitty's screwball, …
Federal Jazz Project time travels at the Rep
The good news about the Rep’s Federal Jazz Project: music lovers unfamiliar with the name Gilbert Castellanos are in for a surprise, maybe even an epiphany. The San Diegan’s a world-class trumpet player who can …
April 24, 2013
References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at Moxie
April 22, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Borders blur between dream and reality in Jose Rivera's magic-realism piece, even between the Barstow desert and young Gabriela's military housing, where the neighbor women, who bore her to tears, are just "sex slaves" for macho husbands and where, she's …
Mr. TJ does a reading, part two
May 2, 2013 · Jeff Smith
When Antonio TJ Johnson reads the part of Paul Robeson next Monday night, it will be his last performance before moving to New York on June 5. A great African-American actor/singer (and All-American football player at Rutgers), Robeson's a character …
Old Globe maps Other Desert Cities
"Families are terrorized by their weakest member,” says a character in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities. The line’s got that yowza zing to it, as if a fire-spewing profundity. But give it some thought …
May 8, 2013
Chicago at Welk Resort Theatre
May 9, 2013 · Jeff Smith
I've seen two versions of Bob Fosse's blazing musical in the last three months - SD Musical Theatre and Welk Resort , both pyrotechnical - and am even more convinced Chicago is his American Cabaret. In both, standards are sinking; …
Unforgettable: Floating Target, part 2
YP-346 Goes to WarVincent Battaglia, machinist mate of Yard Patrol boat 346, never wore dog-tags in the engine room. No one did. Tropical heat made them so white hot they’d brand you. But on the …
May 22, 2013
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Ion Theatre (part one)
May 20, 2013 · Jeff Smith
In Rajiv Joseph's amazing drama, "God's Garden" isn't Eden — or is it? According to the Bible, four rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, joined at the Garden of Eden. Though there are as many possible sites as for Atlantis, …
Mule Hill: Field Notes
May 17, 2013 · Jeff Smith
The Mule Hill Historic Trail begins near a golf driving range. With an imaginative twist, the sounds of cracking and clunking woods and irons could be rifle fire 167 years ago, as General Stephen Watts Kearny's wounded and emaciated troops …
Shakespeare's R&J at Cygnet Theatre
May 28, 2013 · Jeff Smith
One of those "give it a week" opening nights. Joe Calarco's reimagined take on Shakespeare's tragedy pushes actors to extremes: it requires a steeplechase of split-second physicality and verbal chops worthy of the Bard. Calarco tells the story of "star-crossed" …
Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo, Ion Theatre (Part two)
May 21, 2013 · Jeff Smith
If you like your war plays/movies to be recruiting posters for the next big one, then skip Ion's first-rate production of an amazing play. It's clear why Bengal Tiger was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2011. The question is …
Lamb's Players stage musical drama Fiddler on the Roof
Lamb’s Players’ Fiddler on the Roof is one of the best shows they’ve ever done. Ever. The title comes from a wall painting Marc Chagall did for the Moscow State Yiddish Theatre in 1920. He …
June 5, 2013
Becoming Cuba at North Coast Rep
June 6, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Melinda Lopez's world premiere drama is overlong: in length and ambition. It's an epic set in Cuba during the revolt against Spain, 1897-98, and tries to cover all angles from a pharmacy in Havana. Everyone wants the island - Spain, …
La Jolla Playhouse stages John Guare's tour de farce His Girl Friday
Ben Hecht was a writer’s writer. He won the first Academy Award for a screenplay (Underworld, 1927). He rewrote the first nine reels of Gone with the Wind in seven days. He wrote 35 books …
June 12, 2013
Insights from within: Robert Foxworth
June 12, 2013 · Jeff Smith
We watch plays from the house seats or read them under a lamp. If curious, we peruse what others have to say. But what's it like to be that character? What's it like to be, say, Beverly Weston, the alcoholic …
San Diego Fringe Festival
June 22, 2013 · Jeff Smith
In 1947, Edinburgh, Scotland, held its first International Arts Festival: theater, opera, dance, classical music, and visual arts. The aim: "to provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit" after World War II. Performances took place in august …
Neva at La Jolla Playhouse
June 27, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Though the story has several attributions, many claim it's what Anton Chekhov told actress Olga Knipper when they first met. "Can you make me an artist?" she asked the great Russian writer. "Yes," he replied, "but to do it I …
Tribes at La Jolla Playhouse
July 2, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Billy was born deaf. His family are "hearing." Without giving him the choice, his parents refused to have him learn sign language. Why? His father, Christopher, fears that signing would identify him with a "minority," even a cult (i.e. a …