Tag archives: Granada Theatre
Santa Barbara’s venerable Granada Theatre is back in business! The eight-story icon that towers over State Street, originally built in 1873 and rebuilt in 1924, has been eerily silent for the past 15 months, other than intermittent audience-free video filming by the Santa Barbara Symphony under maestro Nir Kabaretti. But it will finally be all […]
Growing up in New York during the 1950s turned me into a lover of Broadway theatre — especially musicals. By the age of 18 I’d been fortunate enough to see wonderful productions of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and close to a hundred other musicals, dramas, and comedies. I next fell in love with […]
“Nay, why reproach each other, be unkind,For there’s no plane on which we two may meet?” The words might be a little too poetic and eloquent for modern times, but the sentiment is surely something that might have been spoken aloud on the floor of the U.S. Senate this week, say, perhaps by a centrist […]
A new pathway to the historic arts district in downtown Santa Barbara, Plaza Granada, broke ground near the venerable theater. The project, costing nearly $2 million raised from donors and theater board members, will totally transform the parking lot behind the Granada and the pedestrian walkway into a safer, more accessible, and aesthetically pleasing space […]
When Edward Johnson, principal stockholder of the Portola Theater Company, purchased the California Theatre on W. Canon Perdido Street in 1920, he envisioned a bright entertainment future for the town. At that time, there were only four movie houses, and one, the Strand Theatre, was being replaced by a motorcycle shop. By 1922, Johnson had […]
There’s plenty to celebrate in Santa Barbara these days, and not just the spurt of greenery and wildflowers poking up from the earth in the sunshine following last month’s rains or the fact that the number of daily COVID-19 cases has dropped down to double digits for the first time in nearly two months. Joy […]
With the virulent coronavirus pandemic sweeping the nation impacting innumerable cultural programs, the orchestra, under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti, has not been deterred in any way whatsoever and has launched a series of seven virtual concerts to sate the appetites of its many local fans. Last week I was at the cavernous Granada Theatre where […]
Opera Santa Barbara is not only eagerly anticipating a return to live performances in front of audiences, the company has already begun taking reservations for its planned production of La Traviata at the Granada Theatre on September 25 and 27. Due to the likely government guidelines about social distancing in public performances, fewer than 500 […]
On their 50th Anniversary tour, Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) performed at the Granada Theatre in November as part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures Dance Series, with Montecito sponsors Irma and Morrie Jurkowitz, Margo Cohen-Feinberg and Bob Feinberg, Annette and Dr. Richard Caleel, Barbara Stupay, Sheila Wald, and Jody and John Arnhold. The 15 […]
Santa Barbara Symphony kicked off its 66th season with Festa Italiana! at the Granada featuring works by Verdi, Paganini, Mendelssohn’s Italiana symphony and Tschaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien under the baton of Nir Kabaretti. International Italian violinist Francesca Dego was at the top of her game playing Paganini’s fiendishly complicated Concerto No.1 in D Major, and then […]
I may be prejudice since Broadway is my favorite thing, but I think the best concert I’ve ever seen for UCSB Arts & Lectures was Kristin Chenoweth. She’s a teeny tiny thing (4’ 11”) with a mighty voice that reaches the rafters. And she thinks we Santa Barbarians are so lucky to have Hidden Valley […]
Two of the Granada Theatre’s resident companies, the State Street Ballet, celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the 72-year-old Santa Barbara Choral Society, combined their abundant talents in American Masters. The enticing program featured masterworks from Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Morten Lauridsen, and choreography ranging from neoclassical to the avant garde combined in an endeavor […]
Meg and Dan Burnham grew up together in Michigan, married three days after college graduation, and have been on a whirlwind of business and family adventures ever since, more than half a century in all. After earning an MBA and spending time in the Army, Dan Burnham’s career took the couple from coast to coast […]
We’re not pulling your ear – pardon, leg – when we tell you that Carol Burnett, the funny lady whose career dates back nearly six decades – is coming to downtown’s jewel of a theater next month to be honored as a Granada Legend. They could hardly have picked a more worthy or highly decorated […]
She’s been the toast of the town, friend of Oprah and Ellen, been to the White House with President Obama. Her list of notable customers ranges from Katy Perry, the aforementioned Ms Winfrey and Ms DeGeneres, Kirk and Anne Douglas, and, well let’s put it this way: they didn’t come for the publicity; they came […]
It was all a case of location, location, location as the Music Academy of the West’s 72nd annual summer festival entered its second week. Having staged all concerts at Hahn Hall on the Miraflores campus with the fest’s kickoff, the Lobero and Granada were added into the mix this week. The Festival Artists Series at […]
The Music Academy of the West transforms the Granada Theatre into Mission Control for a special London Symphony Orchestra space-themed family concert next Friday, July 12, kicking off three straight days of different programs with the esteemed British orchestra in the second year of its partnership with MAW. The Voyager program, which incorporates excerpts from […]
Pianist Jeremy Denk isn’t the only MacArthur Fellow returning to town under the auspices of Arts & Lectures this week. Michelle Dorrance, the founder of the New York City-based dance company that bears her name, won the prestigious prize back in 2015. ETM: Double Down is the title for her latest evening-length work that merges […]
The venerable Granada was the place to be when UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted the world premiere of the multi-talented 15-strong Silkroad Ensemble’s Heroes Take Their Stands with a 90-minute, five-piece concert, making ample use of the theater’s state of the art movie screen. Of particular note was Bharatanatyam dancer Aparna Ramaswamy, who added an […]
Multi-talented Scottish actor and performer Alan Cumming brought his highly entertaining show Legal Immigrant to the sold-out Granada, part of the popular UCSB Arts & Lectures program. The almost two-hour intermission-free performance, with a four-member backup band, was a meditation on his ten years as an American citizen and the experiences and change has witnessed […]
