Tag archives: Lobero Theatre

Flying High at the Lobero
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 2, 2024

Jazz at the Ballroom’s latest show, “Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared,” is committed to keeping the Great American Songbook and swinging, classic jazz thriving. The producing organization is a California-based nonprofit that is as much about education as entertainment, and “Flying High,” which celebrates female jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald […]

Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara 20th Anniversary Grantee Celebration
By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 21, 2024

For its capstone annual event, The Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara (WFSB) held its 20th year anniversary “Celebration of Grants” at the Lobero Theatre on Tuesday, May 7.  The WFSB provides grants for the much-needed services and organizations that support all citizens in our town. With its strict guidelines of qualifications and series of interviews […]

Voices on Pointe
By Richard Mineards   |   May 21, 2024

State Street Ballet ended its latest season on a high note with Other Voices at the Lobero. It was a captivating blend showcasing the talents of choreographers who pushed boundaries, redefining the art of dance. A sweeping panorama of innovation. The productions were as thought provoking as they were entertaining. The show featured four short […]

The Lobero Polearms
By Elizabeth Stewart   |   May 14, 2024

The audience waiting on the steps of the Lobero Theatre on the Sunday night of December 9, 1957, were hip jazz lovers, some from the College Jazz Club, sponsors of the concert, all eager for the night’s concert. The legendary master of the vibes and the bongos, Cal Tjader, would be performing “hot numbers” (as […]

A Divot-ing Dinner
By Richard Mineards   |   May 7, 2024

Divotees were out in force as the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club hosted the second annual Dinner & Divots bash with 110 guests raising around $100,000 for Lobero Theatre Associates’ program to support underserved local youth music education, which also honored the popular theater’s 100th building anniversary. The tented fun fête, a tiara’s toss […]

Zpectacular Performance
By Richard Mineards   |   April 30, 2024

Opera Santa Barbara sold out both performances at the Lobero of its highly entertaining show Zorro by Hector Armienta, who wrote both the music and the libretto. The action character, a sort of Spanish Robin Hood, made his debut in a 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano by author Johnston McCulley. The action – with […]

Cole’s Career Concept: The Tortoise, not the Hare
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 23, 2024

Singer-songwriter Paula Cole was a household name back in the mid to late 1990s, when her commentary on gender stereotypes “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “I Don’t Want to Wait,” picked up as the theme song of TV’s Dawson’s Creek, were all over the airwaves. She was nominated for seven Grammys, including Record, […]

Cinderella on Pointe
By Richard Mineards   |   April 2, 2024

There was a great deal of sole searching going on at the Lobero when State Street Ballet performed a highly entertaining version of Cinderella, choreographed by the company’s founder Rodney Gustafson. State Street Ballet’s Cinderella at the Lobero was celebrating its 20th anniversary. The production, with its stirring music by Sergei Prokofiev, was written in […]

Gaviota Gathering 
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 30, 2024

An interdisciplinary event on a much smaller and more local scale takes place at the Lobero on January 30 when Scojo and The Keel hosts a record release concert for their new album, Gaviota. The evening is planned as a celebration of the Gaviota Coast with poets, painters, wildlife experts, geologists, and surfers who, along […]

‘Texican’ Rock & Rollers: Lonely in Name Only
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 30, 2024

It wasn’t pre-ordained that Los Lonely Boys member Ringo Garza, Jr. – who was named after a John Wayne movie, not the ex-Beatle – was going to end up being the sibling band’s drummer. It had a lot more to do with the fact that, not only was he the youngest sibling of the three […]

The Long and Short of It: Brad Williams Is Very Funny
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 9, 2024

Comedian Brad Williams has fond memories of his first appearance at the Lobero Theatre almost a decade ago, when he recorded Fun Size, his first one-hour special, at the venue. Things were a bit different then: Williams wasn’t yet all that well-known and the show wasn’t even close to sold out. “When you see the […]

A “Magnificat” Evening with the Choral Society
By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

Santa Barbara Choral Society was in top form under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman with its 9th annual Hallelujah Project at the Lobero, which included SING! program choral students from the Music Academy and Dishwalla lead singer Justin Fox in a rocking chair reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Accompanied by an orchestra, the enthusiastic singers […]

A Tea-riffic Time
By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

To the historic Santa Barbara Club when Lobero Theatre Associates hosted its annual Christmas tea for 60 guests. The bounteous bash, co-chaired by Leslie Haight and Emily Johnson, focused on the organization’s youth events, including It’s Magic!, the Nebula Dance Company, and musician Derek Douget, a New Orleans musician who visits schools in the area.  […]

The Sound of Flamenco
By Richard Mineards   |   December 19, 2023

Fiesta may be long over, but flamenco enthusiasts thronged to the Lobero for dancer Maria Bermudez’ Sonidos Gitanos, a 90-minute show showcasing the art of flamenco. Santa Barbara-based Bermudez, who was named an official Flamenco Ambassador by her hometown of Jerez de La Frontera in 2022, has promoted the dance art for more than 30 […]

Lobero Nose Ballet 
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 5, 2023

The annual invasion of local productions of The Nutcracker doesn’t begin until mid-December, as Festival Ballet and then the State Street Ballet roll out their full-fledged renditions of Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic. But this weekend brings a tasty holiday appetizer, especially for the tots and teens, as State Street Ballet Academy presents Rudolph, the charming holiday […]

The Divine Sounds of Bruce Cockburn
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 21, 2023

Singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn has released some 35 albums over his half-century career, enjoying enough success stateside to sustain making music, but also falling far short of the household name recognition of fellow Canadians like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, or even Gordon Lightfoot.  Now at 78, Cockburn – whose catalog includes such transcendent love songs as […]

One-Shots on Screen 
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 7, 2023

All Time, the 2023 ski film from Warren Miller Productions screening at the Lobero on November 7, results from 74 years of filmmaking reimagined, full of good turns and good snow on good hills with good people. Narrated by Olympic and World Cup Freestyle skiing analyst Jonny Moseley, the movie dives deep into elements that […]

Film Fests from Around the World
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 31, 2023

The Santa Barbara Jewish Film Festival returns to the New Vic Theatre November 1-5 at a tense time in Israel and around the world, but aside from beefing up security at the theater, the festival is focusing on what it does best, which is to present some of the finest international cinema about the Jewish […]

Virtuoso Duo
By Richard Mineards   |   October 31, 2023

The launch of CAMA’s Masterseries at the Lobero with two virtuoso musicians, Avi Avital on mandolin and Hanzhi Wang on accordion, was a heady combination. Israeli Avital, who has performed with the Community Arts Music Association twice – with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 2018 and Les Violins du Roy 2021 – was in […]

Benoit Brings It All… Including Charlie Brown
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 29, 2023

Jazz pianist and composer David Benoit is best known for his big-selling contemporary jazz albums of the 1980-’90s, including three Grammy nominations and a lot of hits. But the 70-year-old Palos Verdes resident whose influences include Leonard Bernstein and Bill Evans has had a much more expansive career. Here are excerpts from our conversation earlier […]