THE YEAR IN REVIEW. The world’s most anticipated drama — its end — came and didn’t. Advocates of the apocalypse are probably scrambling for a new Day of Doom so they won’t have to face …
December 26, 2012
Prosperina
Craig Noel Award nominees, part two
December 22, 2012 · Jeff Smith
Nominees for Craig Noel Awards for 2012 include: LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A PLAY, MALE Laurence Brown, Topdog/Underdog, Ion Theatre Robert Foxworth, Inherit the Wind, Old Globe Theatre Jeffrey Jones, The Little Flower of East Orange, Ion Theatre Mark Christopher Lawrence, …
Hilarities and incompletions in 2012’s theater productions
The year in post-(re)view
December 28, 2012 · Jeff Smith
Reviewing a year of theater on deadline's like trying to take the pulse of a lion on the move. Omissions come to mind immediately. Here are a few: TOM STEPHENSON. What a year he had! In Cygnet's radio version of …
Shaw's back in town — finally! The Old Globe stages Pygmalion
What a treat! George Bernard Shaw’s back at the Old Globe — finally! — with first-class direction, performances, and design work. Even a balky turntable on opening night couldn’t tarnish the luster. For the past …
January 23, 2013
Stage props: a tale of two chairs, part two
January 24, 2013 · Jeff Smith
Scenic designer Sean Fanning has been on the lookout for matching chairs for Intrepid Shakespeare's Hamlet. As he wrote on Facebook, January 9, they had to be "late 19th/early 20th century Scandinavian or Danish high-backed chairs...in gray or black, or …
A next step for San Diego theater
January 31, 2013 · Jeff Smith
San Diego has a national reputation for theater. So do Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis, among others. But what do they have that San Diego doesn't? At least twice as many Equity houses. These hire professional actors, stage managers, and technicians …
The Old Globe stages The Brothers Size
They are three African-American males at San Pere, Louisiana, near the Bayou. Ogun Henri Size, a mechanic, prides himself for being a responsible adult. Free-spirited younger brother Oshoosi’s back from two years in prison. Now …
February 6, 2013
Beauty goin' down
Sun Beauty crew members were saved after using an asparagus can to signal they needed rescuing.
January 30, 2013
Birds of a Feather at Diversionary
February 21, 2013 · Jeff Smith
They may flock together, but it's more complicated than that in Mark Acito's allegorical comedy. Married birds find themselves aboard a "relation ship," on smooth and stormy waters. And yet the unmarried birds, and human bird-watchers, yearn to find a …
San Diego Musical Theatre presents a killer diller Chicago at the Birch in North Park
San Diego Musical Theatre’s knock-out production of Bob Fosse’s Chicago must close Sunday, March 3. If you like your entertainment steamy, decadent — and all that jazz — then sprint, don’t just run, to the …
February 27, 2013
Venus in Fur: #1
At the San Diego Rep’s opening night, artistic director Sam Woodhouse announced that David Ives’ thought-provoking sex comedy, Venus in Fur, is 2013’s most-produced play. Including the Rep’s top notch effort, there have been 22 …
November 25, 2013
Geyser murders, part 1
Sunday, October 16, 1892Thomas Smallcomb got the news around 11:00 p.m. Trouble up at the Geyser’s. A double murder. The deputy constable flicked the reins and steered his two-horse buckboard east on Otay Valley Road. …
October 30, 2013
She-Rantulas from Outer Space in 3D! at Diversionary
It’s a “fartire.” That’s what Phil Johnson and Ruff Yeager call their “unique combination of farce and satire.” It’s based on the B-movies of the Fifties, where monsters from who knows where threaten to obliterate …
November 5, 2013
The Mountaintop: The Rep stages Dr. King's last night on Earth
I make it a hard and fast rule when entering a theater: leave expectations at the door. Even if I know the play or the subject, I want as clean a slate as possible. Be …
March 13, 2013
Charles M. Hatfield: Rain or Shine (on)?
March 15, 2013 · Jeff Smith
The Reader will convert some of my history columns into eBooks. This gives me something few who write on deadline ever have: a second chance. I can buff and vacuum stuff I wrote long ago. And change my mind. I'm …
The Old Globe presents A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
You see a great number in a musical and stop the show with rabid applause. But how many times have you really wanted the show to stop — and have them repeat the number on …
March 20, 2013
Assassins at Cygnet Theatre
March 25, 2013 · Jeff Smith
When Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman wrote their musical collage about presidential assassins, they wanted it to be as audacious as possible. But, Sondheim wrote, "audacious is an inch away from smartass." Assassins is that too. The musical links nine …
The Pork Chop Express was no pleasure cruise
Adventures of San Diego tuna boats in WWII’s Pacific theater.
March 27, 2013
The Old Globe stages Ibsen classic A Doll's House
I don’t mean to reduce Ibsen’s drama, but in some ways you could subtitle A Doll’s House “Behind the Scenes with Ken and Barbie.” Torvald and Nora Telmer live in such a profoundly rigid society …
April 3, 2013