@austin : sorry for the misunderstanding and my ignorance. You are absolutely right that it is in fact a font issue, NOT a theme issue.
It so happens that when I was looking into this yesterday I found out that by simply changing the font of the theme I am using the curly quotes were rendered where they had not before.
BTW, I did not realize your 1st reply was to me. Might be an idea to always add @person in your reply. Just a thought.