Hello Yellow Brick Road and More Theater Things

Given Wicked: For Good recently opening to box-office-busting business – even as star and likely role-repeating Oscar nominee (and EGOT hopeful) Cynthia Erivo receiving SBIFF’s 18th annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Bacara on December 4 – was there ever a better time to revisit the original The Wizard of Oz? Lights Up! Theatre Company kicks off its eighth season with the beloved musical, the teen cast taking on a production put together by the professional theater vets December 4-7 at the theater at Santa Barbara High School.

Audiences can enter the enchanting land of Oz in three dimensions (versus the 2-D presentation of the films, you see…) as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion are off to see the Wizard in the unforgettable adventure; the hero’s journey through a fantastical land which reveals that the answers to our quests often lie within. The parallel of 16-year-old actress Reina Fontanez, a San Marcos High School junior, taking on the role of Dorothy – played in the 1939 movie by Judy Garland when she was just 16 – adds extra appeal to the production directed by company founder/artistic director Amy Love. Visit www.lightsupsb.com. 

Wilde Screening at ETC

Ensemble Theatre interrupts its all-Austen-all-the-time December doings for the second installment in its brand-new partnership with the National Theatre of Great Britain, bringing National Theatre Live (NT Live) productions to Santa Barbara audiences. The collaboration offers local theatergoers the opportunity to experience current world-class productions from one of Britain’s most prestigious theaters – without leaving home – via screenings at The New Vic.

Debuting on December 8 is The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s ever-popular and always hilarious story of identity, impersonation and romance in the English countryside. Wilde’s tale of nonsense and sensibility details the untangling of a web of lies spun by two men in full pursuit of a delightful double life. Their self-serving false facades invite delicious turbulence when eligible ladies enter the scene. Max Webster, who helmed the Olivier and Tony-nominated productions of the stage version of Life of Pi, directs the joyful and flamboyant reimagining of a show the Telegraph called Wilde’s “glittering masterpiece”. 

Visit https://etcsb.org/national-theatre-live

‘Miracle’:The Stirring Sanity Clause Situation 

The Alcazar Ensemble, the company that performs at Carpinteria’s community theater, acknowledges the advent of the Christmas season with its heartwarming holiday tradition production of Miracle on 34th Street. The show conjures up an enchanting world based on the movie where Kris Kringle, a gentle soul with a twinkle in his eye, claims to be the real Santa Claus, and a young girl’s faith kindles a spark of wonder. Kringle fills in for a missing store Santa at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, winning hearts and quickly becoming Manhattan’s favorite Santa. But when he proclaims he is the genuine Santa Claus, the city is swept up in a flurry of both skepticism and hope, leading to a suspenseful courtroom climax. Back for a fifth year presenting Alcazar Ensemble’s Åsa Olsson adaptation of Valentine Davis’s timeless tale, the show is led by Van Riker reprising his role as Kringle at the head of a cast of more than 30, ages 5 to 77, from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. 

Visit www.thealcazar.org for details and tickets to the December 5-14 run.