Tag archives: Granada

Ringing in the New Year!
By Richard Mineards   |   January 11, 2022

Santa Barbara Symphony returned to its popular New Year’s Eve tradition at the Granada to dazzle the audience with the music of Gershwin, movie classics, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Motown, Broadway, and other celebratory symphonic favorites while donning party hats and quaffing champagne. Regular Pops conductor Bob Bernhardt, celebrating his 40th anniversary with the Louisville Orchestra, […]

Folk Heroes
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 4, 2022

The popularity of Simon & Garfunkel, the most famous duo in folk music history, remains unabated more than a half-century since the pair first broke up over artistic differences and personal issues following the release of the groundbreaking album Bridge Over Troubled Water. Problems persisted each time Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel contemplated reuniting after […]

Buoyant with Bernhardt: Pops Returns to Granada
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 28, 2021

One of the reasons Bob Bernhardt has secured several long-term gigs as Principal Pops Conductor at several symphonies simultaneously — including the Louisville Orchestra (where his tenure spans four decades), the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera (19 seasons), and the Grand Rapids Symphony (seven years) — is his versatility and adaptability in leading an ensemble and […]

Some ‘Salvation’
By Richard Mineards   |   December 14, 2021

The venerable Granada was socially gridlocked when Westmont College held its 17th annual Christmas Festival “Salvation For All” over two days given the demand for tickets. Michael Shasberger, Adams professor for music and worship, who is retiring in May after 16 years, created the hugely popular event and has directed it each year, normally at […]

Pristine Pathway
By Richard Mineards   |   November 30, 2021

The venerable Granada Theatre has officially unveiled Plaza Granada, a new $2 million pathway to the historic arts district in downtown Santa Barbara. “It took more than 10 years to complete,” says Montecito’s Palmer Jackson, the Granada’s executive chairman. “It is a meticulously planned project. It was the dream of the late Michael Towbes and […]

Cuba to California: Hope and Faith Carry Sisters Safely to College
By Scott Craig   |   November 30, 2021

Two first-year students encountered setbacks and obstacles on their journey to Westmont. But as sisters Roxana and Rosario Montané traveled to Southern California from Havana, Cuba, they witnessed God’s provision.  “It’s important to always have faith, believe that you can do whatever you want to do and know that God is with you and is […]

Back With a Bang
By Richard Mineards   |   November 23, 2021

Broadway is back with a bang at the Granada, courtesy of the American Theatre Guild. With the musical version of An Officer and a Gentleman, based on the 1982 multi-Oscar winning film with Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossett, Jr., the traveling version of the Great White Way hit our Eden by the Beach […]

Christmas Festival Makes Its Granada Premiere
By Scott Craig   |   November 23, 2021

The 17th Annual Westmont Christmas Festival appears for the first time at Santa Barbara’s famed Granada Theatre on Saturday, December 4, at 7 pm and Sunday, December 5, at 3 pm. Tickets, which cost $20 each, go on sale Tuesday, November 23, at 5 pm at westmont.edu/festival. Each year, the festival celebrates the birth of […]

Singing Kismet’s Praises
By Mark Leisure   |   November 22, 2021

Theater came roaring back to life in town since last we published these pages known as the Sentinel, with every local company save for Ventura’s Rubicon offering something to savor. I caught three of the productions, including the biggest of them all in the revival of Kismet,executive produced and presented by philanthropist/publisher Sara Miller McCune. […]

the Fortnight
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 22, 2021

November 21-December 30 Santa Barbara Sounds at SOhO   The popular restaurant nightclub took a little longer than almost all other establishments to reopen after the forced COVID closures expired at the end of spring, but the entertainment-every-night emporium is now fully back in action. Peruse the calendar carefully for the hangout owned for more […]

Granada, the Great
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 18, 2021

It’s purely coincidence that this week’s Montecito Journal hits newsstands the same day the Granada Theatre officially unveils Plaza Granada, a new pathway to the theater and the historic arts district in downtown Santa Barbara with a private ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Plaza transforms the formerly barren parking lot behind the theater and the previously dark […]

Adding Needed Depth ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ coming to the Granada Theatre
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 9, 2021

When the musical version of An Officer and a Gentleman plays November 9-10 at the Granada Theatre, it won’t be quite the singular sensation provided by the massive Santa Barbara-only one-off presentation of Kismet at the same venue two weekends ago. But Officer does offer a rare chance for locals to get an early viewing […]

A Birthday Bash for the Ages
By Richard Mineards   |   November 2, 2021

Montecito über philanthropist Sara Miller McCune certainly knows how to celebrate! For her 80th birthday Sara, a longtime fan of New York’s Great White Way, underwrote the costs of Kismet, which opened on Broadway in 1953 and the following year won a Tony Award for best musical. “Over the years, the music and the words […]

‘Kismet’ Fated to Make Santa Barbara History
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 21, 2021

The dictionary says “kismet” is an Arabic word that has come to mean fate or destiny in English. In theater, Kismet was a hit on Broadway back in the 1950s, as the love-and-duty musical about a glib-tongued street poet in old Baghdad whose family encounters princesses and a young caliph was smartly adapted from a […]

From Broadway’s ‘Nosebleeds’ to the Granada
By Nick Masuda   |   October 19, 2021

“Love is a game that two can play and both win by losing their heart.” – Eva Gabor For Sara Miller McCune, her first crush wasn’t sitting across from her in a classroom or a neighbor from the Queens, New York block she grew up on — her heart belonged to Broadway, a lifelong love […]

‘Quite Extraordinary’: Broadway Legend Bringing Talents to Santa Barbara
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 12, 2021

It’s not hyperbole at all to suggest that the original production of Kismet that will play three performances at the Granada Theatre later this month might be the most exciting show ever to play in Santa Barbara. While official touring shows of classic Broadway hits and more modern musical fare are still appearing at the […]

Grand Reveal
By Richard Mineards   |   September 28, 2021

It was music to everyone’s ears when veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti outlined the Santa Barbara Symphony’s upcoming season at the venerable Granada Theatre at a program reveal party at the Lobero. Symphony chairman Janet Garufis enthused: “It will be so nice to hear live music in person again. We are active and thriving!” The season […]

Quite the Deal
By Richard Mineards   |   September 21, 2021

Opera Santa Barbara has come up with a most novel way to sell tickets to fans after the pandemic lockdown. Artistic director Kostis Protopapas has announced that a limited number of tickets for this season’s productions will be available to patrons on a name-your-own-price-basis. The name of this new initiative, made possible by a grant […]

A Roarin’ Good Time
By Mark Leisure   |   September 9, 2021

My job here at the Sentinel as a Man About Town encompasses keeping everyone informed about what’s been going on around town in the performing arts in and near State Street and beyond, even if some of it’s on the down low. The thing is, these days in my case the DL refers more to […]

Let the Shows Begin!
By Richard Mineards   |   July 15, 2021

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 […]