Coronado Playhouse is presenting through Feb. 23 Broadway’s Matilda The Musical with book by Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. It is certain to be one of the all-time family entertainment productions here as it hits all the high notes while pointing out that wisdom is not necessarily reserved for “adults only.” [Carol Davis]
‘Matilda The Musical’ hits high notes Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Carol Davis CHULA VISTA, California — In my growing up years, heaven was a place other people’s religions believed in. The one thing I knew for certain was Jews did not believe in heaven or hell. My friends and I talked that one to death – pardon the pun- when we got into philosophical
Roberta meets her Angel at the OnStage Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
some of the ‘stuff’ said by character’s ‘A’ -Timothy L. Cabal and ‘M’ – Nancy Ross (the two adults playing the eleven-year olds in the West Coast Premiere of “Red Bike” at Moxie Theatre through Feb. 16th) , brought me back to an old TV Show -“Kids Say The Darndest Things.” … But these kids are not saying just the darndest things. They are looking at their world and their decaying community/low wage-earning parents, and the old bus driver who will one-day die on the job, through a different lens than those who are living the American Dream. [Carol Davis]
The world according to 11-year-olds Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
When I first read the premise for The Great Leap, I imagined an errant ball hitting a patron in the third row. No need to worry. Even though there is a hoop hanging over the middle of the house, they only mime those shots. Projection Designer Blake McCarty presents a flowing river of images of basketball games, newsreel footage and stills of party propaganda that sweep us into playwright Lauren Yee’s complex, bi-cultural world. [Eric George Tauber]
China jumps into basketball in ‘The Great Leap’ Read More »
Eric George Tauber, International, San Diego County, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
The film 1945 and the play The Class give new meaning to the phrase “bad neighbor.” These very relevant works of performance art were among those highlighted at the 5th Kisufim (Hebrew for “longings”) conference held at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, in November. This year’s topic was: “Writing, Memory and Vision” and it was produced in partnership with the Zalman Shazar Center, the Hebrew Writers Association, and the Matanel Foundation, among others. [Toby Klein Greenwald]
Movie, play offer gripping Holocaust stories Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Toby Klein Greenwald
Their patter and body language have an expressive musicality that’s really fun to watch and listen to. They enjoy the playful camaraderie of old friends who don’t need to be polite. Raised in the Black church, their patter is peppered with Biblical allusions such as the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the stolen birthright of Esau and Daniel in the Lions’ Den. [Eric George Tauber]
‘Jitney’ evokes laughter, suspense Read More »
Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Opposition to Nazi power is a theme of two stories set in the Austrian Alps. The musical The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II featuring the von Trapp Family Singers appeared on Broadway in 1959. The 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer broke Gone with the Wind box office records. It ran 174 minutes and won five Academy awards. The sound track sold over 20 million albums. It was loved. [Oliver B. Pollak]
‘A Hidden Life’ and ‘The Sound of Music’ Read More »
International, Oliver Pollak, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
The ‘Fireflies’ in Donja R. Love’s tale of things that go boom in the air refer to the souls of the four little girls killed in the Birmingham Alabama Church bombing in 1963 at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. [Carol Davis]
‘Fireflies’ depicts Civil Rights Movement’s losses Read More »
Carol Davis, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
In recent articles, we have been profiling San Diegans who have been nominated by various slates to serve as delegates to the World Zionist Congress, which will take place in Jerusalem Oct. 20-22 Among the nominees is Rabbi Jeremy Gimbel, the assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel. [Donald H. Harrison]
Gimbel’s WZC goals: ‘Pluralism, peace, economic justice’ Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
Stephen Karam’s drama The Humans, 2016 recipient of The Tony Award for Best Play, is currently showing at The San Diego Repertory Theatre downtown on the Lyceum Stage through Feb 2nd. I’ve said it in jest and in truth that I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall just to see what goes on behind closed doors in X Y or Z’s house. [Carol Davis]
A wall fly’s view of an intense family dinner Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Thanksgiving dinner: A time for families to be thankful for one another even as they bicker about religion, politics and life-choices between forkfuls of turkey and glasses of wine. Brigid Blake and her boyfriend Rich have moved into a garden duplex in Chinatown. There are noises from above and a view of an alley filled with cigarette butts from the only window. The movers haven’t arrived with all of their stuff yet, so furnishings are pretty spare. It’s modestly pleasant by New York City standards. But driving in from the quiet suburb of Scranton, it’s not exactly what Brigid’s parents are used to. [Eric George Tauber]
‘The Humans’ speak to all of us Read More »
Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
In playwright Steven Dietz’s Bloomsday, currently in a charming and reflective production at North Coast Repertory Theatre though Feb. 2nd, Robert (Martin Kildare), a handsome and rather distinguished 50-something former professor tells the audience ‘that” Ulysses is the most under-read and over praised piece of doggerel ever hemorrhaged onto the world! Don’t take my word for it. Ask half the critics and every college sophomore on earth. [Carol Davis]
Whatever you think of ‘Ulysses,’ ‘Bloomsday’ delights Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
North Coast Rep’s s Bloomsday is a sweet and charming story of love lost, re-imagined, and possibly regained. Bloomsday is a clever switch of past and present with four excellent actors taking us along their past, or is it the present? [Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]
‘Bloomsday’: A time-bending love story Read More »
Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
In charge of these auditions in this show is the director, Zach, (Jeffrey Ricca) who barks out orders to this chorus of those wannabe chosen. He does this by relentlessly probing, questioning, and eliminating while all the while getting under their collective skins by having each one give a brief background of themselves as the “I Hope I Get It” mantra is chanted in the background. This is the heart of A Chorus Line. One by one Zach prods, encourages and yells out orders from some place in the back of the ‘theatre’ for information from each with the usual suspects and personalities standing out over and above the others. [Carol Davis]
Welk Village revives ‘A Chorus Line’ Read More »
Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast