Return of the ‘Heroes’
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2024

Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s loose translation of Gérald Sibleyras’ 2003 French play Le Vent des Peupliers (“The Wind in the Poplars”), won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy – the highest honor in British theater, equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards. A year later, the funny, heart-warming work – about three aging World War I […]

Sizzling Season 60 in Solvang
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 18, 2024

I’ve been singing the Solvang Festival Theater’s praises for decades, and the little amphitheater downtown in the Danish-themed village – call it the Santa Ynez Valley’s scaled-down version of the Santa Barbara Bowl – has only burnished that bountiful reputation with the recent renovations. While concerts and other events now also take place on the […]

 

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Outstanding ‘Alice’
By Richard Mineards   |   June 11, 2024

Ensemble Theatre Company’s final show of its 45th season at the New Vic, the world premiere of Alice, Formerly of Wonderland, based on a true story of the romance between the girl featured in the Lewis Carrol books and Prince Leopold, the youngest son of Queen Victoria, is a real corker! Switching scenes from Oxford […]

‘Godspell’ Director Earns Praise
By Scott Craig   |   June 4, 2024

Mitchell Thomas, professor of theater arts, won a coveted Indy Award for Directing for his role in staging Godspell. The May 20 event was the first time the Santa Barbra Independent has hosted the awards since the pandemic.  Thomas was most recently awarded an Indy for directing Pride and Prejudice in 2019. The jazz band […]

Feeling ‘Footloose’
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 28, 2024

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 […]

The Ascent of  ‘Indecent’
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 28, 2024

Indecent is a 2015 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, inspired by the controversial events surrounding the play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch. God of Vengeance was briefly produced on Broadway in 1923 before the producer and cast were arrested and convicted of obscenity due to the play’s depiction of lesbian love. Vengeance […]

Theater from Hahn Hall to the Granada
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 30, 2024

Shpilkes is Yiddish for “pins,” as in “sitting on pins and needles.” The Jewish English Lexicon defines the term more colloquially as “Nervous energy, anxiousness, restlessness.” But for local playwright Barbara Gural, Shpilkes is the Yiddish equivalent of “ants in your pants,” an appropriate title for her new comedy, which was inspired by her close […]

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  • Opera Santa Barbara: Z Is for Zorro
    By Steven Libowitz   |   April 23, 2024

    One hundred and five years after Zorro first appeared in the 1919 novel The Curse of Capistrano by American pulp fiction writer Johnston McCulley, the dashing vigilante hero who defends the commoners and fights for his fellow indigenous people of California, shows up with all of his swordplay, cunning, and romantic flair to take the […]

    SBCC’s Clever Contemporary Political Comedy
    By Steven Libowitz   |   April 16, 2024

    SBCC Theatre Group closes out its 2023-24 season with Paul Slade Smith’s comedy The Outsider from April 10-27 in the Jurkowitz Theatre on SBCC’s West Campus. The comedy concerns a newly appointed governor of a small state who is terrified of public speaking and paralyzed by TV cameras, but great at actually governing. Determined to […]

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    Hale Shares Comedic Highlights
    By Scott Craig   |   April 9, 2024

    Three-time Emmy-award winning actor Tony Hale spent an afternoon with Westmont theater arts students before sharing humorous stories and insights with a large crowd in Porter Theatre. Colorado actor Heather Ostberg Johnson (‘11) facilitated the event, Comedy and Faith with Tony Hale, on March 19th that students said helped them visualize a career in the […]

    Local Student Set to Shine on International Broadway Tour
    By Dalina Michaels   |   April 9, 2024

    Santa Barbara is alive with the sound of music… especially for one young performer! Chance Challen is preparing to leave our cozy community to join the international Broadway tour of the beloved musical, The Sound of Music. This incredible opportunity showcases the talent and dedication of Chance, who has continually demonstrated outstanding ability and passion […]

    Centennial Celebration
    By Steven A. Blum   |   April 9, 2024

    Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow worked well as a title for a 1990s greatest hits album by Santa Barbara’s still thriving singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, and no reason why it shouldn’t serve superbly as a way to celebrate the Granada Theater’s big anniversary over a single weekend April 12-14. Looking back at the iconic venue’s history, pausing to […]

    Spin on Superstar
    By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2024

    What’s the buzz? A revolutionary rock musical presented in a revolutionary reinvention in the latest production from Out of the Box Theatre Company; which normally focuses on alternative/contemporary musicals.  Jesus Christ Superstar, the sung-through rock opus musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that stunned Broadway in 1971, juggles the gender in the tale […]

    Broadway Downtown: Band of Brothers 
    By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2024

    The Lehman Trilogy, which not even two years ago won five Tony Awards for drama including Best Play, is set to make its Santa Barbara debut at Ensemble Theatre Company from April 6- 21. The play explores the human drama behind the Lehman brothers’ empire, tracing the family’s humble beginnings from their immigration from Bavaria […]

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