947 stories by "James Hebert"
On a Wednesday evening in Manhattan's East Village, 21 years ago this month, Christopher Ashley was attending the final dress rehearsal of a new rock musical called "Rent," and reveling in t…
Lamb's launches the year with a return to the James Sherman comedy "Beau Jest," which centers on mistaken identity and romantic subterfuge. The piece, which plays off the title of the advent…
There's nothing modest about "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." Certainly not the play's scope " nor the conduct of its characters. "It's a beast," says Richard Baird, who's both co-directing…
Five very different shows from across the San Diego theater spectrum tied for the most nominations in the just-announced field for the Craig Noel Awards, presented annually by the San Diego …
Between its often-toxic politics and its seemingly endless string of sad passings (beginning with David Bowie, always a pioneer), 2016 hardly appears destined to land on anyon…
For artists and audiences, a new year brings a blank canvas, a fresh page, a wide-open stage upon which to start building from the blueprint of creative dreams. With that opportunity for a b…
The presents may all be put away and the Christmas tree contemplating retirement, but as far as San Diego theater is concerned, the holidays ain't over yet. Not quite so many yuletide shows …
Carrie Fisher, who died today at age 60, is destined to be known now and forever as Princess Leia Organa from the "Star Wars" saga. But Fisher's creative exploits stretched well beyond Holly…
San Diego's theater scene staked its claims far and wide in 2016, with the Old Globe Theatre-bred "Bright Star" (dreamed up in part by some guy named Steve Martin) landing on Broadway, an…
It's that time of year again when the forces of good gear up for a throwdown with those pesky legions of evil, in a last-ditch bid to save the galaxy/republic/aging entertainment franchise f…
Say this about the ever-festive Marshall family of Lamb's Players Theatre's "An American Christmas": They know how to do the holidays in style. For 25 years now, they've been the (fictional)…
Late in Deborah Stein's play "The Wholehearted," the central character is recounting a horrific attack at the hands of her own husband when a TV-documentary host asks:Â "What did you do to…
A look at some top local productions of "The Nutcracker," that holiday ballet staple: California Ballet California Ballet returns to the Tchaikovsky favorite for an impressive 46th season…
Intrepid Theatre is shaking up its season and launching an ambitious community-outreach project as the rising company heads into the new year. First, Intrepid has announced that it will repl…
If San Diego's Hafso siblings ever do the musical "White Christmas" together, someone will have to rework the beloved duet "Sisters" to accommodate a party of three. As it happens, that s…
La Jolla Playhouse has picked its lead duo for "Freaky Friday," the stage-musical take on the movie-based saga of switched personalities. And the theater didn't have to look far: The two Bro…
Just over a year ago, George Takei experienced what he calls the "incredible, absolute thrill of a lifetime": Seeing the title of the stage musical he inspired go up on a Broadway marquee. T…
It's 1916 all over again (say hey to Woodrow Wilson and World War I) as Lamb's Players Theatre steps back 100 years in time for "An American Christmas,"Â its sumptuous annual stage show an…
Just when you think there's nothing new under the sun (or inside the snow globe), along comes a Christmas show that reminds even the Scrooge-iest soul how rewarding holiday theater can be…
When things are going well at a nonprofit arts organization " revenue up, audiences engaged, creativity flourishing " the glory often goes to the group's top executive (or exe…
The holidays won't be the same this year for fans of San Diego's longest-running Christmas theater tradition. For the first time in 25 years, "La Pastorela" "Â a show that's updated each y…
Sometimes, creating theater is like making a fresh miracle happen every day (twice a day if you're talking weekends). So sure, why not add a few degrees of difficulty by dreaming up…
Just when you think you've got "The Mystery of Love and Sex" all figured out (the play, not the riddles it references), someone can be counted on to throw expectations to the curb with a sim…
Works by a quartet of rising playwrights will get their first showcases in January, as the Old Globe Theatre announces the lineup for its fourth annual New Voices Festival. Among the plays t…
Some shows make you want to shout. Others very much want to make you shout, whether you had it in mind or not. "A Snow White Christmas" is unabashedly one of the latter: Audiences for …
