From the moment Shaun and Abigail Bengson met 11 years ago, there was a third wheel in their relationship " a matter for no small measure of stress and apprehension. In fact, the matter was …
To paraphrase the title song: Here we go again. The never-say-die musical "Mamma Mia!," whose movie sequel hit theaters over the summer, has landed at Escondido's Welk, about three months af…
When you're at a Huey Lewis and the News musical, you don't necessarily see a wrap number coming. But early on in the Old Globe's world-premiere production of "The Heart of Rock and Roll," a…
From Jane Austen to Frankenstein to sweet cherry pie: There's a little bit of everything on San Diego's fall theater menu. Here's a look at what's cookin': "Hundred Days" This folk-rock musi…
Before she ever set foot in the United States, Naomi Iizuka lived in three different countries scattered around the globe. But when her family finally settled in Washington, D.C., during her…
For Amanda Naughton, the memories of seeing "Fun Home" for the first time are still vivid three years later: "The lump in my throat, a swelling in my heart, and tears. And my brain just goin…
If you want to get to the heart of rock 'n' roller Huey Lewis' love for theater, you've gotta go pretty far back in time " to the drama club of New Jersey's Lawrenceville School, circa 1966.…
Huey Lewis, the hit singer-songwriter and harmonica ace whose scads of pop hits include "I Want a New Drug," "Hip to be Square" and "The Power of Love," is about to test the power of his mus…
A decade ago at La Jolla Playhouse, Will Power memorably put a hip-hop charge into Greek tragedy with "The Seven." Now comes the playwright's often caustic take on Shakespeare: "The Five." T…
'The Phantom of the Opera" is a musical shot through with emotional fireworks. Also, actual pyrotechnics: Those in the front rows of the touring production that just hit the Civic Theatre mi…
As the song goes: You don't tug on Superman's cape. Also: You don't make a play for the Phantom's mask. Not that it would make Quentin Oliver Lee particularly upset if you did, necessarily; …
A shift in artistic staffing is under way at La Jolla Playhouse, as the theater's associate artistic director departs and a new producing director is hired. The Playhouse has announced that …
Further evidence that Shakespeare did not actually write all those plays: "Much Ado About Nothing" is clearly derived from the diaries of the mean girls (and boys) at Stratford Middle. Witne…
For more than 400 years, theater people have been trying to get a bead on the volatile bond between Beatrice and Benedick, the epic frenemies from Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." But…
A Dublin bus conductor with a passion for the works of Oscar Wilde is at the center of the latest show from the ever-ambitious Coronado Playhouse. Manny Bejarano directs the 2002 musical " b…
For the newlyweds in Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," the ups and downs of settling into married life are more literal than usual: The pair have moved into a sixth-floor Manhattan flat w…
Plenty of entertainers court controversy; Kathy Griffin, though, has been in something like a long-term relationship with it. And yet maybe nothing could have quite prepared the Emmy- and Gr…
The peppy sorority anthem "Omigod You Guys" is the first song in the movie-inspired musical "Legally Blonde." And "Omigod you've gotta be kidding" was pretty much Kristianne Kurner's first r…
The actors in North Coast Rep's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" work up enough antic comic energy to levitate a fleet of chariots. All that exertion (and talent), though, ca…
Theater is often at its best and most powerful when it says to those who feel overlooked, misunderstood or invisible: You are seen. Of course, theater doesn't always manage to do that " eith…
If you go see "Dr. Seuss's The Lorax" expecting an environment-minded variation on the Old Globe's "Grinch" musical, get ready for a darker shade of green. Both shows feature lime-hued lunkh…
In a more than 40-year career on the San Diego arts scene " including a 22-year stint as local chief of the touring-show presenter Broadway/San Diego " Joe Kobryner has witnessed enough cult…
As tales of theatrical baptism go, Martyna Majok's is pretty hard to top: She saw her first play, "Cabaret" on Broadway, with money she won playing pool while still a teen-ager. Actually, th…
The exotic Truffula tree may not exactly be native to San Diego " its natural habitat being books instead of back yards. But the story that surrounds the tree is very much of our town: It wa…
The intimation of intimacy in the title of "The King and I" belies the sheer size of the sumptuous touring production that just opened at the San Diego Civic Theatre. With its scads of cast …