San Diego Arts Reviews

Christmas has arrived with a healthy dose of classic cheer (and a roasted turkey twice the size of Tiny Tim!) as the annual remount of A Christmas Carol returns to the Cygnet stage through Christmas Eve.  Written by multi-hyphenate Sean Murray (who also directs and stars in this production) and... Read more »

Erica Ruse, Jacqueleen Schweighardt, Hannah Wyer in “Bayit.” Photo: Jim Carmody Sadie Weinberg’s vision for Litvak Dance, her four-year-old company, is to attract top choreographers to create work for her powerhouse dancers. For Litvak’s performance last weekend, Weinberg assembled an international dream team. The show featured spellbinding premieres by Israeli... Read more »

A quarter century has come and gone and How the Grinch Stole Christmas continues on with much merriment at The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, running now through the end of December. While The Grinch needs little introduction – most are familiar with the story behind the hairy... Read more »

I usually leave The Rady Shell in an upbeat mood after a San Diego Symphony concert, especially when Music Director Rafael Payare is conducting. But there was no elation at the end of Saturday’s San Diego Symphony concert, just relief. After enduring the forty-minute trial of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No.... Read more »

Set in a world where opportunity comes with conditions and a VHS tape can be a lifeline to survival, Makasha Copeland’s Extreme Home Makeover, running through Dec. 4 at Scripps Ranch Theatre, offers some welcome side-eye to that process while elevating one family’s desperation to simply come out standing on... Read more »

It would be easy to interpret Peter Rothstein’s a cappella opera All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 as a feel-good story about enemy soldiers who celebrate the true spirit of Christmas by putting down their arms to sing Christmas carols to each other. Rothstein’s work is historically accurate,... Read more »

Dystopia, drama, and something sinister underlie Lucy Kirkwood’s play The Children, directed by Kim Strassburger and running through December 4 at the Moxie Theatre. Company of The Children at Moxie Theatre. Photo credit Daren Scott. Hailed as an eco-thriller drama, this San Diego premiere stars Catalina Maynard as Rose, Vanessa... Read more »

I first heard pianist Daniil Trifonov play in January, 2015, when he was accompanying violinist Gidon Kremer in a recital for the La Jolla Music Society. During that recital it did not take long to perceive that the role of accompanist was inadequate—to say the least—for this young Russian virtuoso,... Read more »

A host of understudies opened Hamilton’s 11 day tour swing through San Diego and reaped the reward of a standing ovation. This production, in its return to the Civic through November 20, was artistry in motion, and the roaring audience was ready to experience it. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is somewhat... Read more »

Earlier this week I was reading a fascinating article in the current Opera News about American composer Kevin Puts’ new opera about Virginia Woolf, The Hours, which will premier at the Met in two weeks. In addition to portraying Woolf’s struggles writing her novel Mrs. Dalloway, the Met production of... Read more »