The Arts

By Carol Davis SOLANA BEACH, California —Becky’s New Car, the play by Steven Dietz, is probably newer than the car our heroine Becky Foster (Carla Harting makes the tale convincing) gets from her boss as a perk for selling more cars in one night than the other salesperson at her dealership, Steve (Mueen Jahan), has

    By Carol Davis   SAN DIEGO –Playwright Lee Blessing (A Walk in the Woods, Two Rooms, Cobb) wrote Eleemosynary in 1985. Funny thing about family dramas, relationships and intergenerational forces, they never seem dated. Drop my family into the Westbrook family: Dorothea (Rhona Gold), Artie (Julie Anderson Sachs) and Echo (Rachael Van Wormer),

    By Carol Davis   LAS VEGAS–The very first Cirque du Soleil Show my late husband and I saw was in 1987 in the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium under the big blue and yellow tent. I still have the first press packet with mimeographed sheets of paper filled to capacity with all the

  By Carol Davis   SAN DIEGO– It’s no secret that Marion Ross and Paul Michael are an item. They have been together for 22 years now. But how wonderful is it that, among other things, they can play opposite each other in Joe Dipietro’s  (I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change, co-writer for Tony winning Memphis and

  By Carol Davis   SAN DIEGO–Here’s a challenge for you. The Cygnet Theatre in Old Town is mounting Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy, “The Norman Conquests” both in repertory together and individually. The three shows, Round and Round The Garden, Living Together, and Table Manners are all interconnected and can be seen together or can stand

By Carol Davis CARLSBAD, California —It’s not unusual to credit Daren Scott with the great photos seen in so many of my reviews. He’s one busy guy with a camera strapped over his shoulder, seen around town at so may theatre companies, clicking away and arranging groups for theatre memories. Lest we forget though, he’s

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—It’s hard to wrong with the likes of Sammy Cahn’s lyrics, Jimmy Van Heusen’s music with book by Rupert Holmes when they come up with the idea of writing a brand, spanking new musical based loosely on a theme, kinda like Robin Hood but using gangstah’s from the 60’s (Rat Pack

    By Carol Davis   CULVER CITY, California— Have you ever been so angry, upset, frustrated or agonized over something that happened to you that it hurts to the core, digs to the bone and gets in the way of your life? Well if you trek it to the Kirk Douglas Theatre between now

  By Carol Davis   LA JOLLA, California—If you’ve never seen Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this might be a good time to catch it at the La Jolla Playhouse. If you have seen it, this may be a good time to see it again and compare it to other productions you’ve seen. I think

  By Carol Davis   SAN DIEGO– “Oh what a night”! The San Diego Repertory Theater has joined forces with San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and is mounting, as the opening show of its 35th season, the Tony Award winning musical Hairspray. Based on the John Waters 1988 cult film (I happened to

  By Carol Davis   VISTA, California– What’s not to like about Rogers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!? ‘Nuten Honey’, especially if you’ve been to Vista to catch Moonlight’s production of it. It’s upbeat, funny where it needs to be funny, rousing where it needs to be rousing and overall just plain damn solid entertainment. Moreover the