Carol Davis

Carol Davis

Carol Davis is a well-known reviewer and theater critic based in San Diego.

Tharp’s choreography, Sinatra’s voice star in ‘Come Fly Away’

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–It’s not that I haven’t seen this show, Come Fly Away before, because I have. It’s not that I don’t love Frank Sinatra. I do love his voice. It’s because of the above-mentioned Sinatra voice and Twyla Tharp’s absolutely stunning choreography that I love this show. Once in Vegas was not […]

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

OnStage Playhouse mounts first-rate ‘Diary of Anne Frank’

By Carol Davis CHULA VISTA, California–“It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything that people are truly good at heart”. “It is utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Bountiful’ are the destination and rewards of play at South Coast Rep

By Carol Davis COSTA MESA, California — The trip from my house in San Diego County to The South Coast Repertory Theatre in Orange County to see Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, took me about 90 minutes from door to door with medium traffic along the way. Carrie Watts’ (Lynn Milgrim) trip from Houston,

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Mice and Men’ production true to Steinbeck’s heartbreaking story

By Carol Davis CARLSBAD, California— New Village Arts Theatre has hit a homerun out of the park with its current production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It deserves a standing ovation. Steinbeck’s play set in the drought and dreariness of Salinas Valley, 1937 isn’t exactly what one might call a fun play to

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Oldies but goodies star in ‘Heroes’ at North Coast Rep

By Carol Davis SOLANA BEACH, California — When you put Jonathan McMurtry, Ray Reinhardt and Ken Ruta in the same room you’ve got history knocking at your door. I’ll venture to say none will see 65 again and that’s being generous. But ‘Old Actors Never Die’ they continue to do what they do best. As

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Something broken in new interpretation of ‘Glass Menagerie’

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO—-Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is a haunting play. It has been said that Williams was in the middle of many of his rewrites of the play during the time his sister Rose had undergone a prefrontal lobotomy and this was his way of coming to terms with his sister’s illness

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Gypsy’ overcomes small theatre space

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–No it’s not Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell, Tyne Daly or even Patty LuPone. It’s our own Linda Libby who heads up the first ever big-time musical, or musical for that matter, staged by ion theatre in the company’s BLKBOX space in Hillcrest. Libby, whose credits stretch from stage to TV, is

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Social protest in ‘Hair’ at Civic, and outside by ‘Occupiers’

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO — It didn’t take the observations of a rocket scientist to see the comparisons between the ‘Occupy San Diego’ movement outside the Civic Theatre and the 44-year-old (but revised) smash hit of the late 60’s Hair. Here’s what the young folks protesting the Vietnam war in the 60’s were railing

Social protest in ‘Hair’ at Civic, and outside by ‘Occupiers’ Read More »

Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Grossmont’s production of ‘Dead Man’s Cell’ lacks Moxie’s flair

SAN DIEGO–This region, it appears, is more than ready for Sarah Ruhl’s quirkiness. It’s not that we have not yet been exposed to her plays. We have indeed. The San Diego Repertory Theatre downtown has produced two of her works, The Clean House and In The Room Next Door (or the vibrator play”) to critical

Grossmont’s production of ‘Dead Man’s Cell’ lacks Moxie’s flair Read More »

Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Temple Solel and Write Out Loud announce collaboration

By Carol Davis CARDIFF BY THE SEA, California — Write Out Loud has a unique mission: to read literature aloud to live audiences – short stories, poems, and other short subjects come to life – as talented actors bring the stories “off the page” to the delight of the audience. Theatre critic Pat Launer called

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

West Side Story sequel needs some retooling

By Carol Davis   SAN DIEGO—Somewhere between reality and romanticism is the space in which the Candelaria Family lives. Somewhere is also the title of one of Leonard Bernstein’s reflective ballads from his popular West Side Story and it is also the title of Matthew Lopez’s brand new world premiere comedy drama now being given a

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Carol Davis, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

“Walter Cronkite is Dead’ plays out at Ronald Reagan Airport

By Carol Davis SAN DIEGO–The trouble with airport waiting rooms and flight delays is that everyone at one point or another is sitting next to someone they don’t know, don’t want to know about and really don’t care about. For reasons beyond their control, they are all in the same boat and conversations have a

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Carol Davis, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast