By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO–Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is currently playing in repertory at Balboa Park’s Old Globe Theater. One of the main characters is Shylock, a Jewish money lender. Shylock lends Bassanio three thousand ducats at no interest, despite the fact that the loan is being acquired for Antonio, who has long […]
Shylock and the battle against anti-Semitism Read More »
Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Loren Kantor STUDIO CITY, California — From 1977 to 1986, Woody Allen had a filmmaking run so impressive it’s been equaled only by the likes of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. Allen’s films included Annie Hall, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, Zelig, Purple Rose of Cairo and Hannah and Her Sisters. Woody was an antidote to the Spielberg/Lucas
Notes from the woodcutter: Woody Allen Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Norman Greene SAN DIEGO — I’ll admit to it. I’m a “Broadway Baby.” Ever since seeing The Pajama Game, directed by Abe Burrows and Jerome Robbins on the Great White Way, at the age of ten, the Broadway musical theater has been a passion of mine. However, aside from the glamour, the music, the
If you love Broadway musicals Read More »
Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USABy Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–I don’t know why I’m surprised that a musical about the assassination of a president, or attempted assassinations of presidents and others should rattle my soul. Many years ago I was at production at San Diego State University Experimental Theatre and sat through the musical “Yours, Anne”, based on the play
How disrespectful are musicals becoming? Read More »
Carol Davis, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—When the opening of the new musical, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder warns you that the show you are about to see is a tale of revenge and retribution and that blood may spill and spines may chill, you may think this is an updated version of “Sweeney Todd”,
Jefferson Mays romps in ‘Gentleman’s Guide’ Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SOLANA BEACH, California—I am in constant awe of war correspondent Richard Engle. It seems that wherever there is a skirmish (and I use the word cautiously) anywhere around the world his is the face I see reporting on it. He is the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News and just as recently
Play probes war correspondents’ ethics and adrenalin rushes Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—The San Diego Opera Company has brought back (by popular demand) Camille Saint-Saëns’ beautiful Samson et Dalila. The last time we were treated to this 19-century French opera was in 2007. No question this tale is of biblical proportions. The sets, rented from the San Francisco Opera, (Douglas Schmidt) are ‘gargantuan’
Voices powerful in lagging ‘Samson and Delilah’ production Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SAN DIEGO — The Clybourne Park neighborhood in playwright Bruce Norris’s biting comedy is the very same neighborhood that the Younger Family of the late 1950’s, in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, was about ready to move into, in that groundbreaking drama so many moons ago. The Youngers are an
‘Clybourne Park’ studies psychology of housing discrimination Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SOLANA BEACH, California—-Some might deem Willy Russell’s 1980’s comedy Educating Rita dated and irrelevant. It is, however, very current and well, quite relevant given the current state of our much maligned public educational system. Russell’s play takes us to a University in the North of England at a time when some major
‘Educating Rita’ in some ways better than ‘Pygmalion’ Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis ESCONDIDO, California—If you’ve not seen Randall Dodge in The Pirates of Penzance, The Fantastics, Annie Get Your Gun, The Sound of Music and a host of other musicals in and around San Diego, I suggest you high tail it up to the Welk Resort Village Theatre in Escondido to see and hear this
‘South Pacific’ retains its tropical punch Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Loren Kantor STUDIO CITY, California –Billy Wilder is one of Hollywood’s all-time great filmmakers. His movies ranged from film noir to screwball comedy and they were known for tight plots and memorable dialogue. Wilder despised sentiment and he sought to tell stories as simply and elegantly as possible. To Wilder, “the best director is
Notes from the Woodcutter: ‘Billy Wilder’ Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—It’s hard to believe that the San Diego Opera will be beginning its 48th International season in January the 26th to be exact. As a long time opera aficionado, I couldn’t be happier and for several reasons not the least being the choices Artistic Director Ian Campbell has made for
San Diego Opera announces exciting 2013 season Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO — Like it or not, we all have a mortal time clock ticking somewhere in our bodies. For most it’s located in or around the heart. In playwright Marisa Wegrzny thought provoking but off the wall dark comedy “Hickorydickory”, the Wicker Family of ‘Wicker’s Watch & Clock Repair shop in
‘Hickorydickory’ is a dark, timely comedy Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Carol Davis LA JOLLA, California—When the La Jolla Playhouse promises a fourteen-foot tall robot, you better believe it delivers. And when they promise the sounds of the band Flaming Lips they deliver on that one too. And when they combine the two, hold on to your hats because former Playhouse Artistic Director Des
‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’ in world premiere Read More »
Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast