San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
THEATER NOTEBOOK
Martinis Above Fourth takes its final bow
San Diego theater fans are mourning the permanent closure of Martinis Above Fourth Table + Stage, a popular Hillcrest cabaret space where local musical theater artists, jazz bands and touring national artists had performed over the past 10 years.
Martinis closed in midmarch due to the pandemic and was never able to reopen. In a post on Facebook, the owners said they couldn’t see how to reopen and survive in the COVID-19 era, so they will instead file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. The supper club’s longtime piano bar entertainer, Don Lemaster-hable, said he was speechless at the latest club closure.
“Honestly I don’t even know what to say,” Lemaster-hable wrote on Facebook. “Lots of wonderful memories will stay close to my heart! Inn At The Park, Caliph and now another one bites the dust. It’s a sad day.”
Moonlight’s Fright Fest a hit; more films likely
Moonlight Stage Productions in Vista was forced to cancel its 2020 season of outdoor musicals, but it sold out virtually every seat for its Fright Fest series of Halloween-themed movies at the Moonlight Amphitheatre this month. The series concluded Saturday with a sold-out screening of “Ghostbusters.”
Colleen Kollar Smith, Moonlight’s managing director, said just 100 of the 1,500 amphitheater seats were offered for sale for the films, which range from familyfriendly titles to grown-up fare. In most cases the family films sold out within 48 hours of going on sale.
The outdoor film series has been such a success, Kollar Smith said Moonlight is now hoping to host a series of holiday-themed films in December.
Moonlight used federal coronavirus relief funds to purchase thermal scanners, hand sanitizer stations, seat covers for socially distanced seating and signs to make the amphitheater safe. Kollar and her husband, actor/ playwright Lance Arthur Smith, have two daughters, Scottie and Pepper, and she wanted the environment to be a safe space for her own children as well as other Vista families.
“Lance and I have been extremely cautious and restrictive, as we have family with health concerns nearby,” she said. “When Lance and Scottie came and felt comfortable with their first night out of the house since lockdown, it affirmed the work that so many put in to make the theater safe.”
Moonlight has one more treat in store for Halloween, “Ka’davaret: The Broadway Villains Ball.” The streamed concert, featuring several Southern California performers, will feature songs by villains in Broadway musicals, including “Sweeney Todd,” “Damn Yankees,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Wicked,” “The Lion King” and more. The show will stream at 5 p.m. Oct. 31. Tickets are $10.31. Visit moonlightstage.com.
Vista actor writes election-themed songs
San Diego theater veteran Bets Malone has been using her time away from the stage during the pandemic writing lyrics and musical tribute songs for her Youtube channel. They included vocal love letters to revered immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci and medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
For election season, she is producing a series of 10 nonpartisan, patriotic song videos with new lyrics that encourage voting during the Nov. 3 election. Malone wrote all the lyrics and collaborated with singers Larry Raben, Sarah Errington and Luke Harvey Jacobs and more for songs set to “Yankee Doodle,” “The Yankee Doodle Boy” and “This Land Is Your Land,” among others. To see the videos, which are rolling out all month, visit youtube.com/user/betsmalone.
‘Lights Off’ goes live
La Jolla Playhouse has released the first of three spooky radio-style plays, “Listen With the Lights Off,” that will be released in the days leading up to Halloween as part of its all-digital 2020 Without Walls Festival. San Diego’s So Say We All literary/performance troupe was commissioned to adapt the audio plays from its horror anthology “Black Candles.” The free plays touch on topics of magical realism, ghosts, monsters and sibling rivalry. To listen, visit lajollaplayhouse.org/wow-goesdigital.
Local team a winner in opera competition
A team of two San Diego artistic ensembles, Twisted Heart Puppetworks and the musical trio Project [BLANK], won the Innovation Prize last week in Catapult Opera’s first Digital Opera Accelerate Competition. It was among hundreds of teams who submitted proposals for one of four operatic excerpts in the national contest.
The $1,500 prize was awarded for the filmed excerpt of the 2004 opera “Hanjo” featuring shadow puppetry by Tania L. Yager of Vista-based Twisted Heart and vocals and piano by Jonathan Nussman, Leslie Ann Leytham and Brendan Nguyen of Project [BLANK]. The video can be seen at catapultopera.org.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the work that we presented and are so grateful to have been recognized by the esteemed judging panel,” Leytham said.