Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Theater moves at human speed

Go see a show!

The La Jolla Playhouse sent Come From Away to Broadway.
The La Jolla Playhouse sent Come From Away to Broadway.

San Diego has an international reputation for quality theater. And far too many locals aren’t aware of it.

In the past 25 years, we’ve sent at least 45 shows to Broadway. We average around two a year. The most recent, the La Jolla Playhouse’s Come From Away — 38 planes diverted to the small Newfoundland community of Gander during 9/11 — begins previews in New York at the Schoenfeld Theatre February 18. It’s scheduled to open March 12. If this one doesn’t fly, Broadway ain’t got wings.

Place

La Jolla Playhouse

2910 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego

The Tony-winning musical Big River originated at the La Jolla Playhouse, as did Jersey Boys, I Am My Own Wife, The Who’s Tommy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Memphis, plus Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations and Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, among others.

Place

Old Globe Theatre

1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego

The Old Globe Theatre has shuttled at least 20 shows off to the Great White Way. A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which won four Tony Awards in 2014, including best musical, came through the Globe on its way to New York, as did August Wilson’s immortal Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in 1988 and Two Trains Running in 1991. Other Globe gifts: Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Jack O’Brien’s Damn Yankees, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Full Monty.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe have also won Tony Awards for Achievement by a Regional Theatre.

Musicals

Place

Spreckels Theatre

121 Broadway, San Diego

San Diego Musical Theatre is now in the historic Spreckels Theatre (which makes for a perfect fit) does top-shelf, professional productions. Their upcoming season includes 9–5, Damn Yankees, and Pump Up the Volume.

Place

Welk Resort Theatre

8860 Lawrence Welk Drive, Escondido

Place

San Diego Civic Theatre

1100 Third Avenue, San Diego

In North County, Moonlight Stage Productions offers an outdoor summer season often with sold-out performances, as does The Welk Resort Theatre year-round. Broadway/San Diego has brought touring productions to the Civic Theatre for decades. On January 3, 2018, it will top them all when Hamilton comes to town. The smash hit of smash hits will run through January 28.

In recent years, SDSU has produced epic versions of Les Miserables and Jesus Christ Superstar, with over 200 singers, actors, dancers, and musicians for each. SDSU is one of three universities with strong masters’ of fine arts programs. University of San Diego does classics and has ties with the Old Globe. UCSD’s department of theatre and dance ranks among the top three in the country.

Larger theaters

Place

San Diego Repertory Theatre

79 Horton Plaza, San Diego

Currently in its 41st season, the San Diego Repertory Theater should have earned a regional Tony Award by now. The Rep has one of the most eclectic theatrical menus in town. The popular company Amigos del Rep does staged readings of Latino works. The Rep also offers expert talks and post-curtain discussions on each play: how they relate to San Diego and the world. Next up: Laura Eason’s’ comedy Sex with Strangers opens February 23.

Place

Lamb's Players Theatre

1142 Orange Avenue, Coronado

Lamb’s Players Theatre, now in its 40th season under artistic director Robert Smyth: traditional and non-traditional fare with some of the most polished ensemble acting around. Next up: Shadowlands, William Nicholson’s love story about Joy Davidson and confirmed bachelor C.S. Lewis. Opens February 24.

Place

Diversionary Theatre

4545 Park Boulevard, San Diego

Diversionary Theatre, now in its 31st season producing gay-lesbian theater in University Heights. Since Matt Morrow became the artistic director, the company’s been on a roll. Next up: Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride and Well, running in repertory.

North County Companies.

New Village Arts. Opened in Carlsbad in 2001. It began and remains an adventurous company, mounting edgy theater from Sam Shepard and Beth Henley to the classics. In recent years New Village has successfully staged musicals in its relatively small space. Their Big River being a recent and highly praised example. Next up: Clifford Odets's musical Awake & Sing.

North Coast Repertory Theatre. Tom and Olive Blakistone founded the Solana Beach theater in 1983, which stages classics (often newly translated) and comedies in its 194-seat space, and which hires 85% professional actors. NCRT was the subject of a flattering article in American Theatre, 2015. Next up: Tony Kushner's The Illusion, February 25.

Feisty survivors

Place

Moxie Theatre

6663 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite N, San Diego

Several companies began just over a decade ago. Somehow they weathered the economic crisis, the real estate fiasco, and a grim time for the arts. Aptly named Moxie Theatre, currently in season 11, stages plays about women, primarily written by women, but not just for women. Artistic director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg is one of local theater’s most decorated artists, with several Craig Noel Awards to her credit, and prestigious directing assignments to come. Current production: Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door (an African-American professor questions his identity).

Place

Cygnet Theatre

4040 Twiggs Street, San Diego

Cygnet Theatre, season 14. Has earned its place on the top rung of local companies. In the intimate thrust-staged theater, Cygnet mounts musicals, classics, and controversials (i.e., its recent, incendiary Bad Jews). Next up: Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Cy Coleman’s musical On the 20th Century, about a train ride from Chicago to NYC. Opens March 18.

Place

Ion Theatre Company BLKBOX Theatre

3704 Sixth Avenue, San Diego

Ion Theatre. You could park two SUVs, maybe, in its 49-seat space next to a cleaner’s. This intimacy’s one of their biggest strengths, since Ion favors tough, often raw theater.

Place

Horton Grand Theatre

444 Fourth Avenue, San Diego

Intrepid Theatre began in Encinitas. Season 7 finds them in residence at the Horton Grand. Intrepid can boast two of the top productions in the past two years: The Quality of Life (Craig Noel Award for 2015) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Next up: Perfect Arrangement, Topher Payne’s 1950s comedy about the Red Scare and two unlikely witch-hunters. Begins February 11.

Newcomers

Among relatively new companies — if you don’t count San Diego’s International Fringe Festival — two stand out. New Fortune Theatre staged a handful of shows and has won at least as many awards. They present “contemporary classics and classics in contemporary settings.” Their recent Les Liaisons Dangereuses gave evil a sophisticated veneer.

Backyard Renaissance is a “homeless” company, whose growing legion of followers now track them down. Next up: Beth Henley’s Abundance (two mail-order brides come west in the latter half of the 19th Century). Opens March 16.

Go see a show! If you attend only one theater, try another, or two. If you’re new to live theater, here’s the deal: it moves at a human speed. Most movies and TV explain everything and corral audiences into a general response. Live theater encourages, even incites, the imagination to participate. No laugh track or swoony background music will tell you how to feel. You can laugh when you want and have your own unique experience. To paraphrase Meatloaf: Just let the drama tell your heart what to do.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gilbert Castellanos, Buddha Trixie, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Shane Hall, Brian Jones Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival

Grand Socials, gigs, and record releases in Del Mar, City Heights, Solana Beach, Little Italy, and Ocean Beach
The La Jolla Playhouse sent Come From Away to Broadway.
The La Jolla Playhouse sent Come From Away to Broadway.

San Diego has an international reputation for quality theater. And far too many locals aren’t aware of it.

In the past 25 years, we’ve sent at least 45 shows to Broadway. We average around two a year. The most recent, the La Jolla Playhouse’s Come From Away — 38 planes diverted to the small Newfoundland community of Gander during 9/11 — begins previews in New York at the Schoenfeld Theatre February 18. It’s scheduled to open March 12. If this one doesn’t fly, Broadway ain’t got wings.

Place

La Jolla Playhouse

2910 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego

The Tony-winning musical Big River originated at the La Jolla Playhouse, as did Jersey Boys, I Am My Own Wife, The Who’s Tommy, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Memphis, plus Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations and Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, among others.

Place

Old Globe Theatre

1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego

The Old Globe Theatre has shuttled at least 20 shows off to the Great White Way. A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, which won four Tony Awards in 2014, including best musical, came through the Globe on its way to New York, as did August Wilson’s immortal Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in 1988 and Two Trains Running in 1991. Other Globe gifts: Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Jack O’Brien’s Damn Yankees, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Full Monty.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe have also won Tony Awards for Achievement by a Regional Theatre.

Musicals

Place

Spreckels Theatre

121 Broadway, San Diego

San Diego Musical Theatre is now in the historic Spreckels Theatre (which makes for a perfect fit) does top-shelf, professional productions. Their upcoming season includes 9–5, Damn Yankees, and Pump Up the Volume.

Place

Welk Resort Theatre

8860 Lawrence Welk Drive, Escondido

Place

San Diego Civic Theatre

1100 Third Avenue, San Diego

In North County, Moonlight Stage Productions offers an outdoor summer season often with sold-out performances, as does The Welk Resort Theatre year-round. Broadway/San Diego has brought touring productions to the Civic Theatre for decades. On January 3, 2018, it will top them all when Hamilton comes to town. The smash hit of smash hits will run through January 28.

In recent years, SDSU has produced epic versions of Les Miserables and Jesus Christ Superstar, with over 200 singers, actors, dancers, and musicians for each. SDSU is one of three universities with strong masters’ of fine arts programs. University of San Diego does classics and has ties with the Old Globe. UCSD’s department of theatre and dance ranks among the top three in the country.

Larger theaters

Place

San Diego Repertory Theatre

79 Horton Plaza, San Diego

Currently in its 41st season, the San Diego Repertory Theater should have earned a regional Tony Award by now. The Rep has one of the most eclectic theatrical menus in town. The popular company Amigos del Rep does staged readings of Latino works. The Rep also offers expert talks and post-curtain discussions on each play: how they relate to San Diego and the world. Next up: Laura Eason’s’ comedy Sex with Strangers opens February 23.

Place

Lamb's Players Theatre

1142 Orange Avenue, Coronado

Lamb’s Players Theatre, now in its 40th season under artistic director Robert Smyth: traditional and non-traditional fare with some of the most polished ensemble acting around. Next up: Shadowlands, William Nicholson’s love story about Joy Davidson and confirmed bachelor C.S. Lewis. Opens February 24.

Place

Diversionary Theatre

4545 Park Boulevard, San Diego

Diversionary Theatre, now in its 31st season producing gay-lesbian theater in University Heights. Since Matt Morrow became the artistic director, the company’s been on a roll. Next up: Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride and Well, running in repertory.

North County Companies.

New Village Arts. Opened in Carlsbad in 2001. It began and remains an adventurous company, mounting edgy theater from Sam Shepard and Beth Henley to the classics. In recent years New Village has successfully staged musicals in its relatively small space. Their Big River being a recent and highly praised example. Next up: Clifford Odets's musical Awake & Sing.

North Coast Repertory Theatre. Tom and Olive Blakistone founded the Solana Beach theater in 1983, which stages classics (often newly translated) and comedies in its 194-seat space, and which hires 85% professional actors. NCRT was the subject of a flattering article in American Theatre, 2015. Next up: Tony Kushner's The Illusion, February 25.

Feisty survivors

Place

Moxie Theatre

6663 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite N, San Diego

Several companies began just over a decade ago. Somehow they weathered the economic crisis, the real estate fiasco, and a grim time for the arts. Aptly named Moxie Theatre, currently in season 11, stages plays about women, primarily written by women, but not just for women. Artistic director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg is one of local theater’s most decorated artists, with several Craig Noel Awards to her credit, and prestigious directing assignments to come. Current production: Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door (an African-American professor questions his identity).

Place

Cygnet Theatre

4040 Twiggs Street, San Diego

Cygnet Theatre, season 14. Has earned its place on the top rung of local companies. In the intimate thrust-staged theater, Cygnet mounts musicals, classics, and controversials (i.e., its recent, incendiary Bad Jews). Next up: Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Cy Coleman’s musical On the 20th Century, about a train ride from Chicago to NYC. Opens March 18.

Place

Ion Theatre Company BLKBOX Theatre

3704 Sixth Avenue, San Diego

Ion Theatre. You could park two SUVs, maybe, in its 49-seat space next to a cleaner’s. This intimacy’s one of their biggest strengths, since Ion favors tough, often raw theater.

Place

Horton Grand Theatre

444 Fourth Avenue, San Diego

Intrepid Theatre began in Encinitas. Season 7 finds them in residence at the Horton Grand. Intrepid can boast two of the top productions in the past two years: The Quality of Life (Craig Noel Award for 2015) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Next up: Perfect Arrangement, Topher Payne’s 1950s comedy about the Red Scare and two unlikely witch-hunters. Begins February 11.

Newcomers

Among relatively new companies — if you don’t count San Diego’s International Fringe Festival — two stand out. New Fortune Theatre staged a handful of shows and has won at least as many awards. They present “contemporary classics and classics in contemporary settings.” Their recent Les Liaisons Dangereuses gave evil a sophisticated veneer.

Backyard Renaissance is a “homeless” company, whose growing legion of followers now track them down. Next up: Beth Henley’s Abundance (two mail-order brides come west in the latter half of the 19th Century). Opens March 16.

Go see a show! If you attend only one theater, try another, or two. If you’re new to live theater, here’s the deal: it moves at a human speed. Most movies and TV explain everything and corral audiences into a general response. Live theater encourages, even incites, the imagination to participate. No laugh track or swoony background music will tell you how to feel. You can laugh when you want and have your own unique experience. To paraphrase Meatloaf: Just let the drama tell your heart what to do.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest
Next Article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.