Posts by Martin Jones Westlin
The Art of Politics Was Surely Welcome in the San Diego Theater Scene of 2019
Especially in the strictest sense, theater is nothing if not political. That’s important to remember given the state of world current events — and in 2019, San Diego theater proprietors served notice that they haven’t forgotten.
Read MoreFrance Finally Called, and Marty’s Doing a Whole Lot More Than Listen
We already know we only live once. Until the proverbial bolt out of the blue, it’s the ‘where’ we’re not necessarily aware of. Amid his colossally advanced chronology, theater critic Martin Jones Westlin has found his answer, and he elaborates in his final column for San Diego Story.
Read MoreTerrific Tech Effort Doesn’t Justify Displaced ‘Miss Saigon’ Revival
Some 58,000 Americans either died or disappeared in the nation’s thoroughly ill-advised effort to “liberate” Vietnam. Broadway San Diego is currently mounting “Miss Saigon,” a Tony-winning anecdote built around the whole grotesque affair — and while the technical effort is first-rate, the script takes on a multitude of sins with the passage of time.
Read MoreFair to middlin’ ‘Walk in the Woods’ Is a ‘Zoo Story’ for the Trump-Putin Age
The nuclear age comes wrapped in a sea of pacts, treaties, eleventh-hour phone calls, banner headlines, gleaming host cities, worn-through bargaining tables, heartfelt promises and outright lies. Lee Blessing’s ‘A Walk in the Woods’ tries to explain some of it — but the current North Coast Repertory Theatre entry doesn’t know which part it wants to play.
Read MoreBroadway SD’s So-So ‘Fiddler’ Is on the Wrong Side of Its Own History
It’s been in the national conscience for decades, along with its vigorously implied indictment of anti-Semitism — but even so, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is subject to the foibles traceable to misinterpretation. The current Broadway San Diego entry serves as a point of fact.
Read MoreCygnet’s Fair ‘Pride/Prejudice’ Begs the Overarching Question: Why?
Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a timeless classic, but only to a point — its scrums on love and marriage take a back seat to the institutions themselves. In its current turn, Cygnet Theatre transgresses this; the result is a less-than-standard effort.
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