The Divine Sister at Diversionary
Okay, Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story, Ingrid Bergman in Bells of St. Mary's, Greer Garson, The Singing Nun, Roz Russell, The Trouble With Angels. And, of course, Charles Busch in The Divine Sister Whoa. Wait. What? Busch, the legendary …
Becoming Cuba at North Coast Rep
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, …
Moonlight and Magnolias at Scripps Ranch Theatre
Stories about the making of movie classics make you wonder how they ever got made. Ron Hutchinson based this comedy on rewrites for Gone With the Wind. If even half of what he says is true, it's hard to believe …
Thwarted advice to a beginning golfer
My good friend J-B wants to take up golf. Even Surgeon General's warnings - golf promotes bruxism; shanking is karmic payback - couldn't sway him. I recommended two books: Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf and Paul …
Advice to a beginning golfer
My good friend J-B wants to take up golf. My first reaction: DON'T!!! Hunt rattlers with a toothpick. Camp out in a morgue. You'll have more peace of mind. I've played many sports. None can tease or torment like this …
Shakespeare's R&J at Cygnet Theatre
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" …
Seascape at New Village Arts
Edward Albee's evolutionary comedy won the Pulitzer in 1975. Must've been a slow year on the prize circuit. It's a gentle piece, even when angry, and especially when compared to Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It's about making transitions …
Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo, Ion Theatre (Part two)
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 …
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Ion Theatre (part one)
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
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 …
On the trail of San Diego history: Mule Hill
If you drive Interstate 15, just south of Via Rancho Parkway you'll pass a major local landmark without knowing it. In part because the boulder strewn mound east of the freeway looks like every other grassy lump in the Escondido/Rancho …
The Sound of Music at San Diego Musical Theatre
In a way it's like cheating. Whenever Gabriella Dimmick enters, she hoards your eyes. She plays Gretel, youngest of the Von Trapp Family Singers, and always knows where to go (usually arriving first) and what to do. Thing is: Gabriella …
Chicago at Welk Resort Theatre
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; …
Mr. TJ does a reading, part two
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 …
Mr. TJ does a reading, part one
The timing's both perfect and sad. On Monday, May 6, Vagabond Theatre Project will do a staged reading of Ed Schmidt's drama, Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting. The story, like a footnote to the movie 42, tells about an imaginary …
The Coffee Shop Chronicles at New Play Cafe
The set's authentic. That's because Coffee Shop Chronicles takes place at the Big Kitchen in South Park, where Judy "the Beauty on Duty" Forman has reigned benevolently for decades, and where San Diego's famous comediennes - Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy, …
References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at Moxie
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 …
The Odd Couple at North Coast Rep
I doubt I could stand either Oscar Madison or Felix Ungar as a roommate. Oscar's an oaf trailing cigar ashes and moldy sandwiches in his wake (his refrigerator must look like a horror movie). Felix is an anal-retentive control freak …
The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabbler at Diversionary
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, …
Oleanna at Intrepid Shakespeare Company
I've seen three or four versions of David Mamet's mean-spirited drama about a teacher-student conference that goes haywire. Depending on the director, productions favor the professor, assaulted by the over-reacting young feminist; or the student, put upon by a closeted …