Curtain calls: May performing arts performances

April 30, 2019 3:30 PM PT

Performances coming to San Diego this month include Mozart’s Requiem, Pride and Prejudice and Little Shop of Horrors.

5.10-12: Mozart’s Requiem

Mozart’s final, haunting composition is at the center of Elizabeth Wistrich’s large-scale piece; John Nettles conducts the City Ballet Orchestra (accompanied by the Pacific Coast Chorale) in what the company calls “one of the most satisfying and transforming ballets” it has ever presented.

City Ballet, Spreckels Theatre, 121 Broadway, downtown, 858.272.8663, cityballet.org

5.11-6.16: Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy

It’s another world premiere from the Broadway playwright and Globe regular Ken Ludwig; Amanda Dehnert directs the comedy of young professors who stumble onto a stunning discovery and wind up saddled with some dubious deities.

Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way (Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage), Balboa Park, 619.234.5623, theoldglobe.org

5.14-19: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The touring Broadway musical-stage adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl story is directed by former Old Globe artistic chief Jack O’Brien; it takes in such favorite tunes as The Candy Man and Pure Imagination.

Broadway/San Diego, San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown, 619/858/760.570.1100, broadwaysd.com

5.15-6-16: Pride and Prejudice

The rising playwright Kate Hamill adapts Jane Austen’s beloved story of fraught romance, with plenty of contemporary touches and a strong comic sensibility.

Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town, 619.337.1525, cygnettheatre.com

5.15: One Amazing Night

This year’s edition of the annual opera happening is a tale of two Stephens, as tenor Stephen Costello and baritone Stephen Powell (the lead in the company’s recent Rigoletto) team up on the Balboa Theatre stage.

San Diego Opera, Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter, 619.533.7000, sdopera.org

5.24-8.4: Little Shop of Horrors

That giant flower Audrey II is still bloomin’ insatiable, and NVA revives the movie-inspired horror/comedy musical about the carnivorous plant and the people who try to tame her.

New Village Arts Theatre, 2787 State St., Carlsbad, 760.433.3245, newvillagearts.org

5.24-26: Jazz & Dance: Song of Songs

A score by the internationally renowned jazz saxophonist Charles McPherson (who calls San Diego home) powers this world-premiere piece that showcases the story of two lovers.

San Diego Ballet, Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown, 619.294.7378, sandiegoballet.org

5.29-6.23: A Walk in the Woods

Lee Blessing’s Cold War-set play (a Pulitzer Prize finalist) explores the informal but hugely consequential talks between a U.S. arms negotiator and his Soviet counterpart. The work had its pre-Broadway staging at La Jolla Playhouse in 1988.

North Coast Rep, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Dr., Solana Beach, 858.481.1055, northcoastrep.org

5.30-6.30: What You Are

The Globe commissioned this timely world-premiere piece from the rising playwright JC Lee; it focuses on a working man’s growing sense of alienation from family, co-workers and society at large.

1363 Old Globe Way (Sheryl and Harvey White), Balboa Park, 619.234.5623, theoldglobe.org

James Hebert

James Hebert is The San Diego Union-Tribune’s theater critic, and has covered the San Diego arts scene for more than two decades. He earned his master’s degree at Columbia University in New York and worked as a magazine editor in Boston before joining the U-T. Hebert’s awards include a national arts-writing prize from the Society for Features Journalism (for a profile of the choreographer Twyla Tharp), and some two dozen local and regional journalism honors; his work also has been republished in two college writing textbooks. In 2009, Hebert served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.