All stories by JAMES HEBERT on BroadwayStars

Sunday, January 6, 2019

'Trash' makes the sale as first musical in Playwrights Project festival, returning to Old Globe this week by James Hebert

In its 34 years of staging contest-winning student works, the San Diego-based Playwrights Project had never before put up a fully produced musical for its annual Plays by Young Writers Festi…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 05:00PM
Wednesday, December 26, 2018

12 reasons I loved San Diego theater in 2018 by James Hebert

If you thought last January’s tour visit of the world-beating Broadway musical “Hamilton” was destined to steal the thunder of San Diego’s theater year, our local stage scene stood r…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:00PM
Wednesday, December 19, 2018

9 holiday-themed San Diego productions to make your season bright by James Hebert

So you’ve roasted all the chestnuts, decked all the halls and whipped up enough figgy pudding to feed a legion of carolers. But if you haven’t seen any holiday theater yet, there’s sti…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 11:00AM
Monday, December 17, 2018

Old Globe Theatre sets lineup for latest edition of Powers New Voices Festival by James Hebert

New plays by both national talents and enterprising local community members will all be part of the celebration when the sixth edition of the Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival gets un…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:20PM

Seeing the holidays through the eyes of actors — and characters — in local theater productions by James Hebert

The holidays bring more seasonally themed staged productions to San Diego theaters than you can shake a candy cane at. And along with those shows come a parade of characters both naughty and…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 08:00AM
Tuesday, December 11, 2018

'La Pastorela' takes on special meaning this year with playwright's illness by James Hebert

Nearly every holiday season for the past 27 years, San Diego’s Teatro Máscara Mágica has staged a fresh take on the Mexican Christmas tradition of the “Pastorela,” a play about the b…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:00PM
Monday, December 10, 2018

La Jolla Playhouse's compelling 'The Year to Come' a grand family story set on rewind by James Hebert

In the first moments of “The Year to Come,” a woman named Pam shambles onstage, oxygen tank in tow, to offer what seems some deeply considered advice: “Only look ahead.” And if you t…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 06:45PM
Sunday, December 9, 2018

TuYo Theatre aims to reinvigorate Latinx theater in San Diego by James Hebert

The five prime movers behind the new Tuyo Theatre are in the middle of trying to articulate the happy accidents and artistic affinities that brought them all together, when a single word see…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 09:00AM
Wednesday, December 5, 2018

A different kind of holiday tribute with 'Always ... Patsy Cline' at North Coast Rep by James Hebert

It’s been 30 years now since “Always … Patsy Cline” was first produced, which means that the show now has been around as long as its famous country-music namesake was alive. That doe…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:00PM
Friday, November 30, 2018

La Jolla Playhouse's 'Year to Come' looks back to see where we are now by James Hebert

As if diving into the lives of a big extended family over two decades and three generations weren’t quite enough for Lindsey Ferrentino, the rising playwright’s latest work poses an adde…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 02:00PM
Monday, November 26, 2018

Mixing it up with Sara Bareilles, as the singer-songwriter talks 'Waitress,' pie and her new musical-theater life by James Hebert

Sara Bareilles didn’t know quite what she was getting into when she signed on to write the score for “Waitress,” the musical-stage adaptation of the late Adrienne Shelly’s film about…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 01:00PM
Sunday, November 25, 2018

As 'Come From Away' comes home to California, a look at the musical's road from La Jolla to Broadway — and beyond by James Hebert

Three years after it premiered at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, the musical “Come From Away” — a story of journeys interrupted by tragedy and redeemed by kindness — is about to s…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 12:33PM
Friday, November 23, 2018

Broadway stars Matthew Morrison and Kelli O'Hara pairing up again for a rare performance with San Diego Symphony by James Hebert

When the Broadway stars Matthew Morrison and Kelli O’Hara reunite for a concert with the San Diego Symphony next week, you can count on hearing their voices soar. There’s also a slight p…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 11:42AM

San Diego theater productions to help put you in the spirit of the season by James Hebert

When it comes to holiday stage happenings in San Diego, the traditional theater feast feels just a bit slimmed-down this year, with such notable absences as Lamb’s Players Theatre’s long…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 08:00AM
Sunday, November 18, 2018

A play — and its star — revisit a theater icon in San Diego Rep's 'A Doll's House, Part 2' by James Hebert

A door gets the last word (as it were) in Henrik Ibsen’s great 1879 play “A Doll’s House,” when the disaffected Norwegian housewife Nora Helmer slams it on her husband and her own st…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 11:00AM
Monday, November 12, 2018

Sarah Ruhl's 'Melancholy Play' casts the blues in eccentric hues at InnerMission by James Hebert

It takes a perverse sense of poetry to make a grin sound grim. But leave it to Sarah Ruhl to achieve that early on in “Melancholy Play,” her charmingly oddball 2002 work now getting a re…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:00PM
Sunday, November 11, 2018

Diversionary Theatre revisits 'This Beautiful City' on groundbreaking, music-laced play's 10th anniversary by James Hebert

First, it was the story of religion in a scenic mountain metropolis — and maybe, to some degree, the story of any place in America confronting tensions between the secular world and commun…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 12:00PM
Tuesday, November 6, 2018

A soldier's homecoming is at center of Clint Black's world-premiere holiday musical for the Old Globe by James Hebert

Country music has always been the place where Clint Black hangs his hat — and if you know this Texas-raised superstar, you’ve seen the jet-black cowboy number that has long been his head…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:30PM
Sunday, November 4, 2018

Old Globe's 'Midsummer' brings love and laughter to senior center as Globe for All tour begins by James Hebert

The forest outside Athens was a patch of plastic chairs, and fluorescent lights stood in for moonglow, but playgoers still found magic in the staging of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night�…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 03:25PM

Sharing ideas is the next step toward embracing diversity in San Diego theater by James Hebert

“What’s past is prologue,” as Shakespeare wrote in “The Tempest.” And when people from across the San Diego theater community first began gathering last spring for a series of summ…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 12:00PM

Review: Oooohs and "Oz" still reign as WICKED returns to San Diego for the fifth time! by James Hebert

Both leads Jackie Burns (Broadway's longest running Elphaba) & Kara Lindsay (a comic natural)have deep experience with their roles and it shows brilliantly as they get strong support from Jo…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 10:01AM
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Stage Doers: Meet Hannah Logan — actor, coach and peanut-butter partisan by James Hebert

Whether portraying a frazzled acting teacher in La Jolla Playhouse’s “What Happens Next”, a troubled waitress in Ion Theatre’s “Bug” or a fame-hungry spinster in Diversionary’s…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 06:30PM
Wednesday, October 24, 2018

As 'Wicked' flies into San Diego again, co-creator Stephen Schwartz chats about show's lasting popularity by James Hebert

Stephen Schwartz remembers exactly where he was when “Wicked” opened on Broadway 15 years ago this month. And it wasn’t anywhere near the Emerald City. “I was already in Vermont,” …

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 11:00AM
Monday, October 22, 2018

Moxie Theatre's 'Fade' lasers in on characters confronting biases and barriers by James Hebert

Assimilation, discrimination, the hazards of navigating dual cultural identities: Those are big, potentially daunting concepts that are skillfully distilled into an intimate story made both …

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 06:00PM
Monday, October 15, 2018

Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' finds fitful rhythms in well-acted new musical adaptation at Lamb's Players Theatre by James Hebert

You might’ve thought Jane Austen had visions of orchestras and chorus lines in her head when she was penning all those famous novels, so regularly are they now adapted into works of musica…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 08:00PM
Tuesday, October 9, 2018

At North Coast Rep, 'Holmes and Watson' probes mystery behind missing detective by James Hebert

The trailers for the upcoming movie “Holmes & Watson” depict Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly — as the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty confidant, Dr. John Watson — snap…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:00PM
Monday, October 8, 2018

At New Village Arts, 'Guadalupe' a gently affecting glimpse of grief and moving on by James Hebert

Spanish-language telenovelas — those pulpy soap operas that play out like romance-novel cover shots come to life — are clearly not the subtlest of entertainment forms. But in Tony Menese…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:30PM
Friday, October 5, 2018

Playwrights Project staging a musical about refuse that this festival couldn't refuse by James Hebert

Every year, the winners of the statewide Playwrights Project contest prove that young dramatists are fully capable of thinking outside the box. This time around, though, one honoree has show…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 02:00PM
Thursday, October 4, 2018

'Beautiful' does justice to scope of Carole King's life and music in return to San Diego by James Hebert

If it’s true, as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, that there are no second acts in American lives, then Carole King is one radiant exception: The pop composer co-wrote a string of enduring hits f…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 06:15PM
Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Getting the Lowe-down on Rob, as actor and '80s icon heads for Balboa Theatre by James Hebert

Ask Rob Lowe what part of his touring one-man show he likes the best, and he’ll tell you, basically: The end. Not in a “please put me and the audience out of our collective misery and gr…

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 07:30PM
Monday, October 1, 2018

La Jolla Playhouse's 'Hundred Days' a compelling, cathartic musical saga of coming to terms with life's limits by James Hebert

If you think about it — that is, if you care to think about it, because it’s not the happiest thought — every relationship is kind of one long breakup. It’s pretty much assured that …

SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune at 06:15PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic