Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Winter songs and dance at the Welk

With everything else going on in the world, there’s a nice little respite below the hills in Escondido at the Welk Resort Theatre where co-creator Larry Rabin with co- director Noelle Marion and choreographer and co-creator Cheryl Baxter Ratliff are presenting “Welkome Home For The Holidays” in a two hour sing and dance fest through Dec. 29. Billed as a love letter to “The Rat Pack” TV Holiday Specials of the past, it’s a holiday/variety/ fun filled songfest with a thinly veiled story line. [Carol Davis]

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

An iconic tale comes to San Diego

We’ve all seen variations of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol many times in stage plays, films and musicals. His iconic character, Ebenezer Scrooge with his catchphrase, “Bah Humbug” is so well known that I doubt many Israelis name their children “Ebenezer” except for some ultra-orthodox sects who avoid all things Krastmik along with the rest of the goyishe velt. So what can you do to put a new twist on this classic tale? Set it in sunny San Diego, California. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Holocaust education planned throughout county

There will be an emphasis on Holocaust education in December and January.  The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum of Washington D.C. puts on a presentation Dec. 5 at Congregation Beth El about the experience of deaf people under the Nazis.  The main Chula Vista Library prepares for an exhibition that begins Jan. 12 on Survivors who immigrated to the South Bay. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Yee’s back with ‘Cambodian Rock Band’

Playwright Lauren Yee has returned home to roost at UC San Diego’s Potiker theater. No stranger to San Diego stages, Yee has been producing plays since before 2005 at the Old Globe, South Coast Rep, and farther afield as well. Audiences in Denver, Seattle and Miami have enjoyed Yee’s shows, many of which have garnered her coveted awards including the Doris Duke Artists Award, the Horton Foote Prize and the Steinberg/ATCA Award. Other projects have been seen on television and film. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Dueling movies and the case against torture

“I’m not in favor of torture,” Dershowitz writes, “but if you’re going to have it, it should damn well have court approval.” His claim is that if we are, in fact, going to torture then it ought to be done in accordance with law: for tolerating torture while pronouncing it illegal is hypocritical. In other words, democratic liberalism ought to own up to its own activities, according to Dershowitz. If torture is, indeed, a reality then it should be done with accountability. There are, however, significant problems with the reasoning behind torture-warrants [Sam Ben-Meir, PhD]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Middle East, Sam Ben-Meir, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Backyard Renaissance fits ‘American Buffalo’

Director Rosina Reynolds, with only three characters in this black comedy, manages pull off the heist of the year with her excellent cast, perfect timing and gentle nudging to build on Mamet’s language that is oft called ‘Mametspeak.’ She strikes it rich with the solid gold talent pool she has at her center. [Carol Davis]

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

$200m offered in match for Rady Children’s Hospital

In the past, philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady donated $60 million and $120 million to Children’s Hospital, which renamed itself as Rady Children’s Hospital.  Now, the married philanthropists have offered to outdo themselves.  They promised to match $200 million in donations from other people in an effort to create a $400 million Rady Reimagine Fund to chart and implement the pediatric hospital’s growth. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, International, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

‘Hold These Truths’: A story we need to hear

Hold These Truths is a story we need to hear. Director Jessica Kubzansky describes it as “a love story between a man and his Constitution.” The true shonda is that Gordon Hirabayashi resisted injustice precisely because he believed in the noble ideals enshrined in our Constitution far more than the leaders who swore to uphold and defend them. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Cambodian Rock Band’ at La Jolla Playhouse tells of genocide

The story picks up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 30 years after the invasion of the Khmer Rouge, and as it unfolds it travels back and forth in time between then and now. Yee’s ‘Band’ story is a father-daughter revelation, about not knowing what daddy did in the war 30 years earlier and the music that drove him to stay in his native homeland. {Carol Davis]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Carol Davis, Eric George Tauber, Eva Trieger, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Another mob thriller from Scorsese

It’s time for Martin Scorsese to reprise one of his greatest films, Goodfellas. This new version is called The Irishman and, like Goodfellas, it stars Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci and includes
some of the same actors in both films: Samuel L .Jackson, Paul Sorvino, Chuck Low, Jim Norton,
Mike Starr. The Irishman is fleshed out with Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, Ray Romano as Bill Bufalino, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel, Steven Van Zandt, and a cast of nearly 40 other players. [Cynthia Citron]

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Cynthia Citron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

A freshened grinch at the Old Globe

Just as September’s high holidays are  marked by boxes of matzo ball soup on Von’s endcaps, so the annual Christmas season is heralded by  the Old Globe’s production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The show opened last night to a full house and an enthusiastic fan base welcomed all the Whos from Whoville, Max the loyal dog, and the once-curmudgeonly Grinch who did teshuva. [Eva Trieger]

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Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Chabad of Poway’s Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein retires

Never able to shake off the painful memory of having his fingers shot off by an intruder at Chabad of Poway nor of seeing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye murdered and two other congregants wounded, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein has decided to retire. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

A thoughtful plot from Korea

Parasite is a social satire written and directed by a man named Bong Joon-ho, and stars a brilliant cast of actors whose names you probably don’t recognize. They portray a wealthy family, the Parks, who live in a spectacular home created by a prominent Korean architect, and an indigent family, the Kims, who live a ragtag existence in the poorer part of town. Their connection begins when a friend who is about to leave for college persuades Kim Ki-woo, the son of the Kim family, to take over his job as an English teacher for Park Da-hye, the daughter of the Park family. [Cynthia Citron]

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Cynthia Citron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Superstar’ rocks on Broadway

The scenic design by Tom Scutt is a construction site with bare girders  –possibly for downtown condos that few of us can actually afford. And just as many churches have foregone traditional pipe organs and choirs, the traditional orchestra hidden in the pit has been traded in for a rock band incorporated into the set. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast