Tag archives: Lights Up!

The 1985 film adaptation of Clue has become a beloved cult classic over the years for its clever way of turning the board game into a movie. Not so much the poorly-conceived 1997 Off-Broadway adaptation Clue: The Musical that planted the dagger firmly into the heart of the madcap murder mystery farce. Fortunately Sandy Rustin’s […]

Lights Up! Theatre Company has been around for eight years and twenty-something productions, but the non-school-affiliated organization might have found its perfect musical to mount for its ethos and our times in The Addams Family Musical. The dark, funny, and unexpectedly heartwarming musical comedy is based on the macabre characters famously created by cartoonist Charles […]

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? […]

Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, which chronicles the Motown hitmakers’ journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame through songs, played for nearly three years on Broadway and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards in 2019, winning for Best Choreography. A thrilling story […]

Although there’s only one degree of separation between Santa Barbara and Kevin Bacon, the star of the movie Footloose – soundtrack superstar Kenny Loggins, on the other hand, has lived in town for decades – neither will be involved in Lights Up! Theatre Company’s production of the stage musical this weekend. But what we do […]

There’s something quite magical and yet weighty in the way in which Lights Up! Theatre Company has taken a firm toehold in the Santa Barbara youth theater scene – one that has never been sorely lacking in the first place. Theater stage and screen veteran Amy Love has parlayed her professional and teaching background into […]

Later this month, Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre Company finally reopens, more than two years after the pandemic put the kibosh on live theater everywhere, and long after virtually every other venue in the area has returned to roughly regular schedules. The mounting of theater shows again at the converted church a few blocks from downtown Ventura […]

Something rotten happened to Lights Up!, the teen theater conservatory/company, which opened for business back in 2018. That would be the COVID-19 pandemic, which of course has been pretty rotten for all of us. But the pandemic really put Lights Up! through its paces as the company has been operating under the restrictions for more […]

Jazz singer Tierney Sutton has such a clear, compelling, and communicative voice, it’s surprising to learn that early on in the 20-plus-year career of the band that carries her name, Sutton was a reluctant focal (and vocal) point for the group. “When I came out to L.A., my heroes were Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Flora […]

Lights Up! Theatre Company, a new school-year teen theatre conservatory program offering acting, singing, and dance instruction that just started in August, won’t mount its first full production until spring, when the company will take on the musical version of Big Fish at the Marjorie Luke in April. But the teens were just too talented […]