On February 2, 2008, the San Diego Union Tribune (
visit link) reported the following story:
"Opening night performances raise roof at Balboa Theatre
By James Hebert
ARTS WRITER
February 2, 2008
Vasco Núñez de Balboa is not known to have crossed the Alps on his way to discovering the Pacific (and almost certainly failed to don lederhosen for the occasion).
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Ross Porter and Jacki Taylor took their dance moves downtown at the opening gala for the Balboa Theatre.
But the San Diego Chamber Orchestra's tribute to a certain alpine-minded movie Thursday night – part of a program to officially re-christen the downtown theater named for the Spanish explorer – was fitting in at least one respect.
It was one of the first chances for the public to experience the sound of music (not to mention “The Sound of Music”) at the acoustically prized Balboa Theatre since the Spanish Revival landmark, just reopened after a $26.5 million restoration, was in its long-ago heyday.
The orchestra's traipse through the edelweiss came in the latter part of “A Musical Journey Through Time,” a variety-show program celebrating the theater's various eras since its 1924 opening.
And that program in turn was part of a larger, fundraising gala that included a block party on the streets outside the Horton Plaza theater, with attendees decked out in their flapper finest to commemorate the event's '20s theme.
Inside, the music and entertainment offerings were all over the map, though rarely so far afield as Austria.
After conductor Jung-Ho Pak led the orchestra through an opening medley of old show tunes like “That's Entertainment,” the audience of 908 saw a vaudeville act, a dance piece by California Ballet, a scene from “HMS Pinafore” courtesy of San Diego Lyric Opera, and some knockout mariachi sounds from the Mariachi Champaña Nevin and Southwestern College's Mariachi Garibaldi, among other performances.
While some of the miked performances were a little harsh to the ear (the house wasn't built for amplified sounds, although the renovation includes new technologies to accommodate them), the natural tones of the orchestra, choruses and other performers flowed crisp and clear to the top of the theater's lofty balcony.
The theater's turnaround – the last big piece in the decades-long remaking of the Gaslamp Quarter – was put in clear perspective by Steve Gouveia, the San Diego-bred musician and actor who's now touring with the national production of the La Jolla Playhouse-launched “Jersey Boys.”
Gouveia, who sang soulful versions of “Unchained Melody” and “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” recalled between songs that someone had asked him recently if he remembered coming to see movies at the Balboa as a boy.
“There is no way in hell my family would ever have let me near this neighborhood,” was his reply.
The show was emceed by another local guy made good, the actor Mario Lopez, a Chula Vista native seen most recently on TV's “Dancing With the Stars”; he was paired with Kimberly King of KNSD-TV.
(The duo's patter was good-natured if a little goofy. After longtime Balboa Theatre Foundation chief Jan Hicks Manos – whose grandfather, Robert Ernest Hicks, built the theater – was introduced, Lopez marveled: “This is like a really cool History Channel special!”)
On this night, history definitely was in evidence, connecting people in surprising ways; Gouveia, for example, revealed that Manos had been his high-school drama teacher.
Before the show, Jeanne Kestly was showing off a scrapbook she planned to give to Don Telford, president and COO of San Diego Theatres Inc., which runs the Balboa for the city's redevelopment agency.
The book contained clippings about her own grandfather, Robert Hogg, a cellist who was the conductor of the Balboa Symphony Orchestra in the theater's early years.
She never knew Hogg, who died in 1933. But she “spent a lot of time in this theater,” watching shows and movies and imagining her grandfather waving his baton onstage.
When the theater went dark for two decades, she dared to dream of it reopening some day.
“And then it actually happened,” she said. “That's what's so exciting.”"