On June 3, Diversionary Theatre opened “Head Over Heels,” its final production under the leadership of eight-year executive artistic director Matt M. Morrow.
Morrow is leaving the LGBTQ-identified company’s at the end of June to serve as the new artistic director at Center Repertory Theatre in Walnut Creek. Morrow’s husband, Skyler Sullivan, will also be leaving his position as Diversionary’s arts education director when they move to the Bay Area in July.
Jenny Case, Diversionary’s managing director since 2017, has been promoted to the position of executive director. In July, Stephen Brotebeck will step in as Diversionary’s interim artistic director while a national search is under way for Morrow’s replacement.
Brotebeck — who co-directed “Head Over Heels” with Morrow — is a professor in San Diego State’s MFA program in musical theater. He is the artistic director of Okoboji Summer Theatre in Okoboji, Iowa, and has previously served as a director and choreographer at Diversionary for its productions of “Girlfriend” and the world premiere of “The Loneliest Girl in the World.” His Broadway credits include serving as a movement associate on the Tony Award-winning production of “Peter and the Starcatchers” and as assistant director on “Ghost the Musical.”
Meanwhile last week, Morrow announced Diversionary’s 38th season, which will include four shows running September through June 2024. Subscriptions are now on sale. Here’s the lineup:
“Dragon Mama”: This play, making its San Diego premiere, is the centerpiece of playwright-performer Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle of three musicals about three generations of women in a Filipino American gangster family. “Dragon Mama,” which debuted at American Repertory Theatre in Seattle in 2019, is a solo show about 25 years in the life of Maria, a queer woman looking for a more diverse life, so she leaves her family behind in rural Washington state for the wilds of Alaska. Andrew Russell will direct. Sept. 14-Oct. 8.
“The Glass Menagerie”: Lisa Berger directs this revival of Tennessee Williams’ acclaimed 1944 memory play about Tom, a young gay man looking back with regret on his desire to break free of his controlling mother, Amanda, and his disabled, mentally fragile younger sister, Laura. Nov. 30-Dec. 23.
“Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members”: This high-energy drag comedy by Mara Vélez Meléndez makes its West Coast premiere in a co-production with Moxie Theatre. Lolita is the office receptionist in the Wall Street office of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board. Like the infamous Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, this Lolita makes it her goal to decolonize places and people with glamour, glitter and a gun. All performances will take place at Moxie Theatre. May 5-June 2, 2024.
“TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix”: EllaRose Chary and Brandon Gwinn’s world premiere musical begins with T and L driving their 1966 Ford T-bird convertible off the edge of the Grand Canyon, just as the movie “Thelma & Louise” concluded. In this version, directed by Sherri Eden Barber, T and L don’t die. Instead they embark on a queer odyssey, attempt to sort out their new identities and find a gay happy ending, with the help of a Riot Grrrl band. “TL;DR” won the 2021 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre Writing. May 9-June 2, 2024.
For details, visit diversionary.org.
TV comedian and writer/producer Hasan Minhaj returns to La Jolla Playhouse with his new one-man stage show “Experiment Time” July 28-30.
(Eric Hobbs)
Hasan Minhaj returning to Playhouse
Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns to La Jolla Playhouse next month to present six performances of material for his upcoming one-man comedy show “Experiment Time.”
Last July, Minhaj made his first visit to the Playhouse testing out new material with local audiences. He’s returning with more new work for performances at 7 and 9:30 p.m. July 28 and 29, and at 4 and 7 p.m. July 30. Tickets, priced from $44.50-$69.50, will go on sale June 15.
Minhaj became known in 2014 with his satirical interviews as a senior correspondent for “The Daily Show” TV series, and he won Peabody Awards for his Netflix comedy special “Homecoming King” and his talk show “Patriot Act.” Minhaj is a first-generation American born to Indian Muslim parents who emigrated from Northern India.
Brett Goldstein.
(Richard Shotwell / Richard Shotwell/invision/ap)
Brett Goldstein comedy show
Fresh off his three-year run as gruff soccer coach Roy Kent in Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso,” comedian Brett Goldstein has launched a comedy tour that arrives at the San Diego Civic Theatre on June 10.
The concert at the nearly 3,000-seat theater sold out within hours on June 2. Tickets are now being resold on the secondary market with prices starting at $99.
The 20 finalists at the 2023 Broadway San Diego Awards for high school musical theater achievement on May 28. The winners at this year’s awards are Tirzah Villarreal, fourth from right in the back row, for Best Actress, and Keegan McGowan, far right in the middle row, for Best Actor.
(Courtesy of Broadway San Diego)
Broadway San Diego Award winners
Tirzah Villarreal from Classical Academy High School in Escondido and Keegan McGowan from San Dieguito High School Academy in Encinitas won the top awards of Best Actress and Best Actor at the 10th annual Broadway San Diego Awards on May 28.
Villarreal and McGowan beat out 18 other finalists who appeared in high school musical theater productions throughout San Diego County in 2022.
The two winners will now head to New York City compete June 26 in the Jimmy Awards, a national showcase of outstanding student achievements in vocal, dance, and acting performance. The Jimmys feature about 100 student winners drawn from regional competitions that include more than 140,000 students each year.
Last year’s Broadway San Diego Awards winner for Best Actress, Fletcher Hills High School graduate Kendall Becerra, won national honors as Best Actress at the 2022 Jimmy Awards. She was awarded a $25,000 cash prize from the Nederlander Organization, which sponsors the Jimmy Awards and is the producer for Broadway San Diego, which brings touring national shows to the San Diego Civic and Balboa theaters.
The other winner at this year’s Broadway San Diego Awards was Rancho Buena Vista High School’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” which won the Best Musical award from a field of three finalists.
Full disclosure: I have served as one of the volunteer judges for the Broadway San Diego Awards for the past decade.