As a kid, my two favorite Disney movies were Aladdin and The Lion King. With Aladdin especially, I was just as much a fan of the sequels as I was the original, and “A Whole New World” has always been one of my favorite Disney jams.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to catch the National Tour of Aladdin on Broadway here in San Diego, and was even fortunate enough to chat with one of the stars, Aaron Choi as Iago, prior to the show.

I'm gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down… And all that jazz.

The national tour of Chicago has made its way to San Diego, and the show did not disappoint. Those who are familiar, however, will notice it’s not quite the same as what they’re used to, particularly when it comes to the set design and costumes.

I had mixed emotions heading into the San Diego Civic Theater’s national production of Mamma Mia. I was excited because Abba was one of my father’s favorite bands, and having lost him recently, it felt good to do something I felt honored in his memory. Having a local actress, Alisa Melendez, in a starring role as Sophie Sheridan was also exciting, and I couldn’t wait to see her blow her hometown house down.

What I was nervous about, however, was the fact I hated the movie.

Ever since I saw Black Swan, I get overwhelmed every time I see a live dance and think about what the dancer has had to go through to get to this moment under the spotlight. When the girls do point and I think about their crumpled toes standing on top of wooden blocks within their shoes, I cringe and experience empathy pains as I imagine their cracked and bleeding toenails.

But I’ll be damned if they don’t look good while they’re doing it.

There’s a lot going on in Les Mis, and with the source material being over 1,000 pages long, it’s easy to see how the stories can get so complicated as they weave together. That said, there’s also a reason this show is so timeless, and the production of it at the San Diego Civic Theater was nothing short of a masterclass in how live theater should be done.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetle—

Okay, hang on a second, I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

Beetlejuice: The Musical (The Musical, The Musical) has officially hit San Diego on its national tour, and the mind trip of fun that took up the three-hour runtime was an awesome deep-dive into the themes and storyline from the original movie it’s based on.

After the lights flickered their final call to usher the eager guests to their seats, the ethereal drumbeat of “Etherland — Sound of Mystic Law” started trembling as the curtains opened, and a group of people surrounded a grown Tina Turner, who sat with her back faced away from the audience.

The chant is later revealed to be a Buddhist mantra that played a pivotal role in Turner’s life, which we quickly learned was full of hurt, abuse, and betrayal.