Irving Berlin's White Christmas at SD Musical Theatre
SDMT made a daring choice. Not the musical, which offers some of the master's most popular songs of the season, but the size of the project, which calls for near Busby Berkeley proportions. And SDMT has met the challenge with …
Street.Art.Prophets at Circle Circle dot dot
The company's admirable mission: give voice to the voiceless (or as Jim Mullin, former editor of the Reader, used to demand of is writers, "tell me something I didn't know about San Diego"). Collaborating with artists from the community, they …
Christmas on My Mind at Lamb's Players
Okay, Manny's just a musician with a great log cabin way up in the mountains. It's got a huge picture window looking east and is stocked with enough food to feed the 5000. He's taking time to relax and remodel …
This is no drill!
71 years ago, San Diego woke to terrible news, and wondered: where next?
Seventy-one years ago, today, San Diegans awoke to cloudy skies. When the sun pierced through, those who went outside for the Sunday paper looked forward to yet another pristine December day to brag about to friends back east. A front …
A Christmas Carol at Cygnet
At the end of Fahrenheit 451, outcasts stand around a campfire and decide which piece of writing they'll commit to memory. They must choose because a reactionary government isn't just anti-intellectual, it's anti-intelligence, and is banning every book that inspires …
Plaid Tidings at New Village Arts
Bad news on the Heaven Front: for many, acceptance doesn't guarantee tenure. The Our Lady of Harrisburg bus did the Four Plaids in, decades ago, before they had a chance to strut their tight harmonics. They had their chance, in …
Persuasive
OnStage Playhouse is world premiering Jon Jory's adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Persuasion. Yeah, yeah, some may say. Another San Diego world premiere. We average what, 20 a year? True. But the eye-openers are the author and the company he …
Hickorydickory
Marisa Wegrzyn's comedy-drama plays with time, and how much time we have, and space. Three generations of clock-repairers share a secret: people have a "mortal clock," coiled around their heart, which tells how long they'll live. Some are born with …
In the Red and Brown Water at UCSD
Teenaged Oya sprints through the projects like a blur. State wants to give her a scholarship. But her mother is ill. So Oya stays home. Mother dies. No scholarship forth-comes. Of the three men in Oya's life, she chooses the …
The Little Flower of East Orange at Ion Theatre
"Don't get old, Nadine," says silver-haired Therese, hooked to intravenous painkillers on a Bronx hospital bed. "I don't think I'm headed in that direction," replies young Nadine, who's been free-basing rock cocaine six days straight. She rode cross-country from Scottsdale …
Remembering Dr. Faustus
In recent blogs, Lamb's Players artistic director Robert Smyth looked back on the company's most "important" productions, not favorites, necessarily, or best sellers, but shows that moved the theater forward. One of his choices remains one of my favorite local …
Protest lecture
"A Hammer, A Bell, and a Song to Sing" fails to inspire
The San Diego Rep has "expanded and enhanced" an earlier draft of this tribute to protest songs, from the American revolution to the Occupy movement. The idea grabs. Director Todd Salovey originally wanted to showcase Pete Seeger's music, which became …
Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (nine through 12)
Lamb's Players Theatre is currently staging its 300th production. Artistic director Robert Smyth looks back on the company's 12 most important ones. 9.) Art (2004). In Yasmina Reza's comedy-drama, a man buys a very expensive painting that's a large, all-white …
Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (five through eight)
Lamb's Players Theatre has produced 300 shows. Artistic Director Robert Smyth looks back on the 12 he felt were most important for the company. 5.) It's Christmas and It's Live! "In 1978, I asked Kerry Meads, who had written a …
Robert Smyth: Lamb's 12 most important shows (one through four)
Around the World in 80 Days is Lamb's Players Theatre's 300th production. Robert Smyth has been with the company since 1976, when it was a touring troupe based in El Cajon. He became producing director (under Lamb's founder, Steve Terrell) …
Kahneman II.5
I still can't shake Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, especially on the eve of an election. Early in the book he talks about "primers." These are triggers, usually but not always visual, that influence important decisions. We assume, he …
Kahneman II
This isn't a review of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. It's a re-view of quotations from the book, which makes sobering observations about how the mind works. In his first novel, V, Thomas Pynchon wrote: "life's single lesson: that …
Kahneman I
Books and plays throw punches. They hit in the moment, and often that's about it. Some, however, throw counter punches days, even months later. The book that's hounded me most this year is Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. It's …
Words by...at North Coast Rep
He's usually recognized, these days, as the three-letter answer to a crossword entry: "George's brother" - Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin wrote the music first. Then older brother Ira wrote the lyrics. On Tin Pan Alley, Ira became known as the …
Post view: Women on local stages
A recent survey announced that, even in these allegedly enlightened times, playwrights still write far more roles for men than women. Right now on local stages, women given key roles are making the most of them. We're having a run …