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Balboa Theatre
The historic Balboa Theatre originally opened in 1924 as a vaudeville house. It served as a site for live entertainment until it was remodeled and reopened in 1934 as Teatro Balboa, featuring contemporary films from Mexico City and presenting Latin stars to San Diego's increasingly diverse population. In 1959, the Russo family acquired the historic building saving it from potential demolition and then operated it as an action movie house until the 1980s.
San Diego Theatres would welcome remembrances or other details San Diegans may wish to share regarding their experiences and memories of attending the historic Balboa Theatre. Please send those to info@sandiegotheatres.org
Civic Theatre
The San Diego Civic Theatre opened on January 12, 1965. The opening performance featured the San Diego Symphony with soloists Dorothy Kirsten and Brian Sullivan. The evening's activities were co-hosted by the San Diego Opera Guild and the San Diego Symphony. Preceding the concert were opening comments by J. Dallas Clark and Morley Golden.
Since its opening, the Civic Theatre has hosted many of the world's greatest talents in fields of opera, classical music, orchestras, dance, comedians, contemporary music, and Broadway. Additionally, it has served as a community gathering place for inaugurations, governmental addresses, religious services, political activities, lectures, educational presentations, and corporate meetings.
In addition to these highlights, complete production histories of the San Diego Opera and Broadway/San Diego are available on their websites www.sdopera.com and www.broadwaysd.com
Highlights from 2007
Broadway/San Diego's theatrical productions included Joan Collins and Linda Evans in Legends!, Altar Boyz, Hairspray, Stomp, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Go, Diego Go Live!, Mamma Mia, George Hamilton in Chicago, Lou Diamond Phillips in Camelot, Jersey Boys, The Rat Pack Live at the Sands, Cirque Eloize: Rain, and Disney's High School Musical
San Diego Opera productions included Boris Godunov, Samson and Delilah, Il Trovatore, Wozzeck, and The Marriage of Figaro
California Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Beauty and the Beast
Christina Aguilera, Annie Lennox, Kelly Clarkson, and Ben Harper
Neisha's Dance Recital, Body Rock, Shanghai Ballet, Chamber Theatre, High Holy Days, USO Holiday Concert, SIGGRAPH, Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker, San Diego Hospice's Light Up a Life, Tango Buenos Aires, and Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance
Highlights from 2006
Broadway/San Diego's theatrical productions included Disney's The Lion King (continued from 2005), Dr. Dolittle with Tommy Tune, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Rent, Wicked, Sweet Charity, Movin' Out, Cirque Dreams - Jungle Fantasy, Doubt with Cherry Jones, Riverdance, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
San Diego Opera productions included The Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Julius Caesar in Egypt, and The Magic Flute
California Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Midsummer Night's Dream
Foo Fighters, Linda Eder, Carlos Mencia, Chris Tucker, Jerry Seinfeld, Jose Luis Perales, Australian Pink Floyd, and Jamie Foxx
Neisha's Dance Recital, Body Rock Dance Competition, Dynastaes - The Legends of Sichuan, Salute to Teachers, USO Holiday Concert, Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker, and San Diego Hospice's Light Up a Life
Highlights from 2005
Broadway/San Diego's theatrical productions included Oklahoma, Stomp, Evita, Dora the Explorer, Little Women with Maureen McGovern, Annie, The King & I with Stephanie Powers, Mamma Mia!, Ten Tenors, and Disney's The Lion King
San Diego Opera productions included Die Fledermaus, Cosi fan tutte, Simon Boccanegra, Vanessa, and La boheme
California Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty
La Jolla Music Society presentations of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra
Neisha's Dance Recital, Clay Aiken, Robert Wells with Ruben Studdard, Salute to Teachers, Chamber Theatre, and Magician Mark Yuzuik
Highlights from 2004
Theatrical productions included Cirque Dreams, Starlight Express, Riverdance, Miss Saigon, Dora the Explorer, Movin' Out, Hairspray with Marissa Jaret Winokur and Bruce Vilanch, Rent, Les Misérables, Crazy for You, Little Shop of Horrors, Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and The Producers
San Diego Opera productions included Turandot, The Pearl Fishers, Don Carlo, Katya Kabanova, and La Traviata
Maya Angelou, Diana Ross, Jackie Mason, Jerry Seinfeld, Dennis Miller
Neisha's Dance Recital, Navy Holiday Concert, Chamber Theatre, Salute to Teachers
The Magic of David Copperfield, Michael Feldman's Whad'ya Know, Moscow Ballet's The Nutcracker
California Ballet productions of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake
Highlights from 2003
Theatrical productions included Aida, The Producers, Stomp, Lord of the Dance, Cats, Mamma Mia!, The Graduate with Jerry Hall, 42nd Street, Grease with Frankie Avalon, Chicago with Patrick Swayze, Oliver, and The Male Intellect
San Diego Opera productions included Fidelio, Norma, Therese Raquin, Otello, and Madama Butterfly
Dance presentations included Stuttgart Ballet, Nacional Ballet de Cuba, California Ballet's The Nutcracker, Moscow Ballet's The Nutcracker
Salute to Teachers, Neisha's Dance Recital, Marines Holiday Concert
Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight, Bear in the Big Blue House
Concerts included George Lopez, Mike Epps, Tonex, k.d. lang, Louis Lortie, and the Czech Philharmonic
Highlights from 2002
Theatrical productions included Tommy, Kiss Me Kate, Riverdance, Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, The Full Monty, Blast, Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, Seussical with Cathy Rigby, South Pacific with Robert Goulet, and The Producers
San Diego Opera productions included Rigoletto, Ariodante, Tosca, Don Pasquale, and The Flying Dutchman
Concerts included Wayman Tisdale, Johnny Mathis, Enrique Iglesias, Robin Williams, Harry Belafonte, Carlos Vives, Gary Valenciano, Three Mo' Tenors, Andre Watts, Horatio Gutierrez, Joshua Bell, WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne
St. Petersburg Orchestra
California Ballet Nutcracker, Moscow Ballet Nutcracker, Moiseyev Dance Co., Neisha's Dance Recital, The Magic of David Copperfield, Encore, Pops 2002, Starbound, International Brother of Magicians
Highlights from 2001
Theatrical productions included Fiddler on the Roof with Theodore Bikel, Cinderella with Eartha Kitt, Civil War with Larry Gatlin, Smokey Joe's Café with Gladys Knight, Saturday Night Fever, Les Misérables, Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman, Bear in the Big Blue House, Swing, Footnotes with Savion Glover and Contact
San Diego Opera productions included The Magic Flute, Cold Sassy Tree, Idomeneo: King of Crete, Aida, Faust, and The Requiem Concert
Concerts included Tony Bennett, Mandy Patinkin, The Monkees, Def Comedy Jam, Jaguares, Colors of Christmas, Gary Valenciano
Leipzig Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Anne Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell
American Ballet Theatre, Moscow Ballet Nutcracker, California Ballet Nutcracker
Neshia's Dance Recital, Rock Church
Highlights from 2000
Theatrical productions included Sound of Music, Rent, Blues Clues Live, Annie, Big Apple Circus, Ragtime, Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stomp, Cabaret, Showboat, Annie Get Your Gun with Marilu Henner, Fosse, Titanic and Scarlet Pimpernel
San Diego Opera productions included Il Trovatore, Lohengrin, Don Giovanni, A Streetcar Named Desire, and La Bohème
California Ballet's productions of Dracula and The Nutcracker, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony
Luther Vandross in concert, National Talent, Salute to Teachers, Erisioni Georgian, David Copperfield
Highlights from the 1990s
San Diego Opera's productions of La Bohème, Dialogues of the Carmelites, The Daughter of the Regiment, The Magic Flute, Cosi Fan Tutte, Albert Herring, Die Fledermaus, Passion of Jonathan Wade, La Traviata, Der Rosenkavalier, The Marriage of Figaro, The Rape of Lucretia, The Merry Widow, Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, The Pearl Fishers, Werther, Eugene Onegin, Rigoletto, Rappaccini's Daughter, La Sonnambula, The Tales of Hoffmann, Rusalka, Lucia di Lammermoor, Porgy and Bess, Macbeth, Tosca, The Elixir of Love, Cinderella, Aida, Carmen, The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Conquistador, Turandot, The Barber of Seville, Salome, Romeo and Juliet, Falstaff, Of Mice and Men, Hansel and Gretel, and Un Ballo in Maschera
Dance presentations included California Ballet, Ballet Met with Cynthia Gregory, White Oak Dance Company with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Moiseyev Dance Company, Bolshoi Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Kirov Ballet, and Lyon Opera Ballet
Orchestras included Cleveland Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Dresden Philharmonic, State Symphony of Russia, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke, St. Louis Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with pianist Richard Goode, Philadelphia Orchestra with Wolfgang Sawallisch, music director, The Met Orchestra with conductor James Levine & violinist Maxim Vengerov, Moscow Radio State Symphony & Chorus
Variety artists included Red Skelton, Smothers Brothers, Basia, Michael Feinstein, Patti LaBelle, Harry Connick Jr., Howie Mandel, Pearl Jam, Peter Nero, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jerry Seinfeld, Yanni, Gallagher, Bruce Springsteen, Juan Gabriel, Tori Amos, Yes, Sheryl Crow
Recital presentations included Radu Lupu, Eugenia Zukerman & Tokyo String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma & Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Khung Wha Chung, Jose Carreras, Galway & Yamashita, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Midori, Peter Serkin, Jessye Norman, Anne Sophie Mutter, Louis Lortie
Theatrical productions included The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with Michael Crawford, Lettice and Lovage with Julie Harris, Tommy Tune Tonight, Damn Yankees with Jerry Lewis, The Phantom of the Opera, Jelly's Last Jam with Maurice Hines, Hello Dolly with Carol Channing, Miss Saigon, Master Class with Faye Dunaway, Riverdance, Bring in Da' Noise, Bring in Da' Funk with Savion Glover
Special engagements included World Cup Figure Skating Champions and the Miss California Pageant
Highlights from the 1980s
San Diego Opera's productions of Mefistofele, Don Pasquale, La Bohème, Giovanna d'Arco, Il Trovatore, Elektra, Die Fledermaus, Werther, Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Love for Three Oranges, Nabucco, Un Giorno Di Regno, Andrea Chenier, Susannah, Faust, Giulietta e Romeo, The Barber of Seville, Turandot, Il Corsaro, Un Ballo in Maschera, Gwendoline, Madama Butterfly, La Perichole, Henry VIII, Aida, Adriana Lecouvreur, Lohengrin, Hamlet, Cinderella, Anna Bolena, Don Giovanni, Carmen, I Masnadieri, Simon Boccanegra, Peter Grimes, La Traviata, Hansel and Gretel, The Merry Widow, Oberto, The Tales of Hoffmann, Eugene Onegin, The Marriage of Figaro, Otello, Norma, Der Fliegende Hollander, Porgy and Bess, Rigoletto, The Elixir of Love, Fidelio, and Boris Godunov
San Diego Symphony including guest artists Vladimir Horowitz, Isaac Stern, Leontyne Price, Benny Goodman, Aaron Copland
Concerts featuring Irish Rovers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Frank Zappa, Rodney Dangerfield, Charley Pride, Sandi Patti, Carole King, Barry Manilow, Earth Wind & Fire, Linda Ronstadt, Al Jarreau, Dave Brubeck, George Winston, Chaka Khan, Everly Brothers, James Taylor, INXS, Billy Ocean, David Sanborn, Jeffrey Osborn, The Winans, Jackson Browne, Freddie Jackson, The Temptations, Dwight Yokam, Roger Whittaker, Whoopi Goldberg, Louis Miguel, Vincente Fernandez, Pat Benatar
Orchestra performances included Boston Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra & Pinchas Zukerman, Boston Pops, Vienna Chamber Orchestra w/Philipp Entremont, Moscow State Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra
Recitals featuring Andre Watts, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Joan Sutherland, Dame Kiri Te Kenawa, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Lynn Harrel, and Vladamir Ashkenazy
Dance presentations included Joffrey Ballet, Eliot Feld Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham Dance Company, San Francisco Ballet, Nureyev & Friends, Twyla Tharp Dance Company, Georgian State Dance Company, Antologia de La Zarzuela, Ballet of Canada, and Frankfurt Ballet
Theatrical productions included Zorba with Anthony Quinn, Legends with Mary Martin & Carol Channing, Cats, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Mickey Rooney, The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds, Forbidden Broadway, Anything Goes, A Chorus Line, Me and My Girl, Oba Oba, La Cage Aux Folles, and Starlight's 42nd Street and Peter Pan
Special engagements included Magic of David Copperfield, Miss California Pageant, Tip O'Neill, Ted Koppel, Zig Ziglar, Underwater Film Festival, Hope for a Drug-Free America with Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart
Highlights from 1970s
San Diego Opera's productions of Faust, The Tales of Hoffmann, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, The Barber of Seville, Boris Godunov, Gianni Schicchi, Help, Help the Globolinks!, Aida, Medea, Romeo and Juliet, The Daughter of the Regiment, Mefistofele, Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, The Rhinegold, Tosca, Manon, Lucia di Lammermoor, A Village Romeo and Juliet, The Valkyrie, La Bohème, Il Trovatore, Rusalka, Siegfried, Der Rosenkavalier, Norma, Otello, The Saint of Bleecker Street, Die Fledermaus, Gotterdammerung, The Merry Widow, Don Giovanni, Carmen, Falstaff, The Love for Three Oranges, Hamlet, Rigoletto, Cosi Fan Tutte, Manon Lescaut, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, La Loca, I Lombardi, Don Carlo, and The Abduction from the Seraglio
San Diego Symphony including guest artists Danny Kaye, Benny Goodman, Mstislav Rastropovitch
Theatrical productions included Promises, Promises, Zorba, 1776, Dame Judith Anderson as Hamlet, Hair, Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight, world premier of Mack & Mabel with Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters, Godspell, Applause, Don Juan in Hell, No, No Nanette with Don Ameche, A Chorus Line
Dance presentations included California Ballet, San Diego Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Rudolf Nureyev and the Australian Ballet, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Dame Margot Fonteyn and the New London Ballet, Soviet Georgian Dancers, Les Ballets Trockadero
Concerts and recitals featured Burt Bacharach, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin, The Carpenters, Andy Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck, Rod McKuen, Lily Tomlin, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77, Jose Feliciano, Dave Mason, Seals & Crofts, Don McLean, George Carlin, Ella Fitzgerald & Count Basie, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Miles Davis, Harry Chapin, Helen Reddy, Grover Washington Jr., Hubert Laws, George Benson, Ron Carter, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge, B.B. King, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bill Cosby, Chuck Mangione, Maria Muldaur, Herbie Hancock, Vikki Carr, Joshua Rifkin, Genesis, Charles Aznavour, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Waylon Jennings & the Waylors, Cheech & Chong, America, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Righteous Brothers, Glenn Yarbrough, Todd Rundgren, Jefferson Starship, Marty Robbins, The Pointer Systers, Gordon Lightfoot, Jackson Browne & Linda Ronstadt, Procol Harum, War, Randy Newman, Willie Nelson, Emmy Lou Harris, Styx, Dan Fogelberg, Roberta Flack, Supertramp, Bonnie Raitt, Chick Corea, Iggy Pop, Dionne Warwick, Luciano Pavarotti, Barry Manilow, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio, Mac Davis, Rich Little, Steve Miller Band, Kathryn Grayson, Nana Mouskouri, Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick, and Manhattan Transfer
Coldstream Guard & The Black Watch, Grand Ole Opry, Ansel Adams, Warren Miller Ski Film, Underwater Film Festival, Sweet Adelines, Barbershoppers
Highlights from the 1960s
San Diego Opera's productions of La Bohème, Faust, The Barber of Seville, Aida, The Young Lord, Tosca, Salome, Carmen, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto, Don Quixote, Pagliacci, The Moon, and Tannhauser
Orchestras included San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic - Zubin Mehta, conductor, Cleveland Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Dance companies included The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Grand Ballet Classique de France, Royal Danish Ballet, San Diego Ballet, Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, and Stuttgart Ballet
Theatrical productions included Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Subject Was Roses, Barefoot in the Park, Fiddler in the Roof, Any Wednesday, Funny Girl, D'Oyly Carte's Mikadeo and The Pirates of Penzance, The Odd Couple, Finian's Rainbow, Hello Dolly, Cabaret, Cactus Flower, I Do, I Do, George M, Man of La Mancha, and Starlight's productions of Oliver and Gypsy
Concerts and recitals featured Smothers Brothers, Pete Seeger, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mathis, Victor Borge, Carlos Montoya, Duke Ellington, Meredith Willson, Joan Baez, Glenn Yarbrough, Bob Dylan, The Romeros, Jack Benny, Jose Greco and his Spanish Gypsy Dancers, Marcel Marceau, Andres Segovia, Ferrante & Teicher, Fred Waring, Al Hirt, Eddie Arnold, Della Reese, The Mamas & the Papas, Phyllis Diller, Van Cliburn, Vienna Choir Boys, Roger Wagner Choral, Vladamir Ashkenazy, Peter, Paul & Mary, Artur Rubenstein, Petula Clark, Mahalia Jackson, Nancy Wilson, Richard Pryor, Johnny Cash, Itzhak Perlman, Roberta Peters, Ed Ames, Jack Jones, Bob Hope, Buffy St. Marie, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, Ray Charles, Andy Williams, Judy Collins, Isaac Stern, and Don Ho
Governor Ronald Reagan
Indianapolis 500 Telecast
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