Tag archives: Garvin Theatre

The Summer on Stage
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 25, 2023

Guys and Dolls garnered a standing ovation in its glorious opening night at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre last Friday in a production that deserves kudos not only for its smartly-matched and crisply-directly 25-member cast – with plenty of chemistry in the two main couples – but also for its impressive full-scale set, terrific live orchestra, and […]

The Winds of Change
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 18, 2023

If Anikka Abbott’s career had taken a different turn, she might be about to sing a soprano role at the Granada in the Music Academy’s opera in Santa Barbara this weekend.  As what happens in life, there’s been a bit of a detour, including serving as first runner-up to Miss Washington in the Miss America […]

The Play’s the Thing (That Goes Wrong)
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 18, 2022

The Play That Goes Wrong began life in 2012 in a British pub as a frothy vehicle for its three writers to star in. But the comedy about amateur actors attempting to mount a fictional murder mystery called The Murder at Haversham Manor that goes hopelessly awry, chock full of pranks and pratfalls and all […]

Play On: ‘Murder’ at the Garvin
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 8, 2022

Ken Ludwig’s stage version of Murder on the Orient Express was written at the request of the Agatha Christie Estate, so the classic Christie mystery – which was also adapted into a hit movie – was in good hands when it premiered in March 2017 at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Five years later, The […]

To the Garvin! New Revue Puts SBCC Theatre Group Back on Stage
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 22, 2021

If SBCC Theatre Group’s welcome back production at the Garvin Theatre this weekend evokes a feeling of deja vu, that might be because the show, now titled Here We Go Again! A Musical Revue is something of an update of one SBCC offered last fall. But while Looking Back, Looking Forward was made inside its […]

Guys and Ghouls
By Richard Mineards   |   October 24, 2019

Gloria Clark, wife of Aussie musician Peter Clark, hosted a Halloween-birthday bash at Tydes at the Coral Casino. The sunset soirée feted three locals who were celebrating birthdays – Condor Express owner Hiroko Benko, TV host Joyce Shaar and realtor Diana MacFarlane – with other guests including Arlene Larsen and Ginni Dreier. Magic Castle emcee […]

A Little Elbow Grease
By Richard Mineards   |   July 19, 2018

Grease was indeed the word at City College’s Garvin Theatre when the 1950s rock musical launched the Theatre Group’s latest season. Director Katie Laris has done a tip-top job with two excellent collaborators, UCSB choreographer Christina McCarthy and musical director David Potter, More than 150 auditioned for the colorful, energized show, with grueling rehearsals, four […]

Making His Case: Singer Returns to Town
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 12, 2018

Don’t talk to Peter Case about craft. The veteran singer-songwriter who started life as a power pop/punk rocker in such bands as The Plimsouls and The Nerves back in the 1970s and ’80s finds hearing that people love his “well-crafted songs” something close to an insult as it undercuts the artistry. Which seems reasonable, since […]