Grease is the Word at San Clemente California’s Cabrillo Playhouse

In the heart of little San Clemente, California, you can find great local theater at the Cabrillo Playhouse. That’s where we found ourselves listening to the almost surprisingly talented local portrayals of Danny and Sandy, Rizzo, Kenickie, Sonny and Eugene at their adaptation of Grease.

The Cabrillo Playhouse came together as the San Clemente Community Theater in 1953. The community theater group was chartered as a non-profit on March 6 of that year, and their first play was Two Blind Mice when productions were performed in the Las Palmas school’s cafeteria, the Concordia School and the local Elk’s Club. Tired of moving around from venue to venue, in 1966, the group’s Building Committee located an old home and adjacent lot and purchased it, and the Cabrillo Playhouse was born. The Playhouse opened in June of ’66 with a local NBC affiliate shooting various scenes.

Fast forward to today, productions range from Grease to Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Midsummer Night’s Dream to It’s a Wonderful Life. Local members have access to most shows with their season tickets. Refreshments are served pre-show and during intermission on the small patio. The theater is so small and intimate that you almost feel as though you’re part of the show.

After one night catching this excellent local production, it is easy to see how the locals might be Hopelessly Devoted to Cabrillo.