~ post by Clark Burnett
We San Diegans are so lucky to have the beautifully-designed “Art Deco-style” California Center for the Arts – Escondido so close by.
And, they have recently started their own top-notch “in house” theater (mostly musicals) productions: “CCAE Theatricals.”
Last year’s inaugural season brought the best production of “Once” that I’ve seen, a magnificent “The Light in the Piazza,” and the world-premiere “Witnesses” which landed as #2(!) on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s “10 Best Theater Productions of 2022.”
This year starts with the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Sunday in the Park with George” (February 17 – March 5, 2023) [Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Book by JAMES LAPINE]. This show also won two Tony Awards (nominated for 10), the 1991 Olivier Award for Best Musical, five Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. Wow! I’m definitely going and I hope to see you there.
Additionally, they’re staging yet another world-premiere … “Bottle Shock” based on the 2008 movie with Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman about the incredible true story of The Judgment of Paris. The 2023 season rounds out with “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.”
PS: It’s a total breeze to carpool up there from San Diego on the I-15 (just take the last carpool exit going north – on the left – for Hale Ave. And when returning to San Diego – turning left 1/2-way under the freeway overpass up onto the “Carpools Only” on-ramp heading southbound – you’re already in the carpool lanes).