Valentine’s Day is less than a month away, and love is already in the air at some local theaters. Well, love and sex, and betrayal … and sex, and also mathematics

Read more: “Emile,” “Stage Kiss” – January 18, 2017

Whatever else one has to say about the year 2016, for those in the North Bay who love live theater, it’s been an especially strong year. If you were willing to

Read more: New Year’s Eve 2017 – December 28, 2016

It all began on a road-trip to Ashland, Oregon.

The acclaimed playwright Lauren Gunderson was taking a theater-going excursion with Margot Melcon, then the Director of New Play Development for Marin

Read more: “Miss Benet: Christmas at Pemberley” – December 14, 2016

“Hope. Do we ever give up on hope? Even in the face of hard evidence?”

That the question at the heart of Si Kahn’s succinctly-titled new musical memory play Hope, running

Read more: “Hope” – December 7, 2016

  1. “Luzia” – November 30, 2016
  2. “Quality of Life” – October 19, 2016
  3. “Threepenny Opera” – October 5, 2016
  4. “Sweeney Todd,” “Baskerville” – September 28, 2016
  5. “The Big Meal,” “August Osage County” – September 21, 2016
  6. “The House That Jack Built” – September 14, 2016

Page 15 of 23

Second Row Center

Oct 01, 2019

Merman’s Apprentice – October 2, 2019

It’s a virtual Merman-palooza in the North Bay as twotheatre companies present ‘musical fables’ with Ethel Merman connections. SantaRosa’s 6th
Jul 02, 2019

Wink – July 3, 2019

“Where is my cat?” So begins the saga of Wink, playwright Jen Silverman’s longgestating play whose title character is said cat. Written in 2013, it’s…
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Jun 25, 2019

A Chorus Line – June 26, 2019

For eight years, theTranscendence Theatre Company has entertained local audiences with top qualitymusical revues featuring magnificent choreography…
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Jun 18, 2019

West Side Story – June 19, 2019

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been the source material for umpteen movies and plays. The tale of star-crossed lovers had its most successful…
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Jun 11, 2019

Cabaret – June 12, 2019

Is there a darker or more depressing Broadway musical than Cabaret? Kander and Ebb’s 1966 musical (with book by Joe Masteroff)won eight Tonys for its…
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May 28, 2019

Faceless – May 29, 2019

Courtroom dramas have long been a staple of massentertainment. From TV’s Perry Masonto plays and films like The Caine MutinyCourt Marshall and A Few…
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May 21, 2019

This Random World – May 22, 2019

Serendipity. Fate. Chance. Destiny. Karma. Fortune. Kismet. Call it what ever you like, but playwright Steven Dietz (Becky’s New Car) doesn’t believe…
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May 21, 2019

Jazz – May 15, 2019

The Oxford Dictionary uerecsa Huerdefines ‘jazz’ as a type of music of black American origin characterized by improvisation, syncopation, and usually…
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Apr 22, 2019

Barbecue Apocalypse – April 17, 2019

It’s been said that the only two things guaranteed to survive the Apocalypse are cockroaches and Cher. Playwright Matt Lyle would like to add one…
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Apr 02, 2019

The Revolutionists – April 3, 2019

“That’s so meta” is a phrase you hear bandied about a lot these days. It’s usually used to describe a reference by someone about themselves.…
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Mar 26, 2019

These Shining Lives – March 27, 2019

At a time when occupational safety regulations are being loosened and funding for the agencies responsible for their enforcement being reduced, it’s…
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Mar 12, 2019

Million Dollar Quartet – March 13, 2019

On December 4, 1956, a legendary jam session was held at rock and roll pioneer Sam Phillips’ Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnny Cash,…
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Mar 05, 2019

Hello, Dolly! – March 6, 2019

Anyone going to a performance of Hello, Dolly! – running now at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco through March 17 – with an appetite for…
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Feb 26, 2019

After Miss Julie – February 27, 2019

Sometimes the most interesting dramas are the simplest – a single set, a few characters, a conflict. “Naturalistic” plays, as they are sometimes…
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Feb 19, 2019

Forever Plaid – February 20, 2019

Musical zombies rise from the dead to sing an evening of ‘50’s pop standards. Let me try that again. On February 4, 1964, The Plaids, an eastern…
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Feb 12, 2019

Hamlet – February 13, 2019

To see or not to see? That is the question. Anyone with even the slightest interest in theatre has probably seen a production or two of William…
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Feb 05, 2019

Arsenic & Old Lace – February 6, 2019

Serial killing would seem to be rather ghoulish subject matter for a comedic play, yet Arsenic and Old Lace has been a reliable audience-pleaser for…
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Jan 22, 2019

Moon Over Buffalo – January 23, 2019

Continuing with the tradition of theatre companies producing theatre about theatre, 6th Street Playhouse is presenting Ken Ludwig’s 1995…
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Jan 01, 2019

Love, Linda – January 2, 2019

For years, Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has closed out the year with a musical cabaret show. Past years’ productions have celebrated the work of…
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Dec 25, 2018

Dear Evan Hansen – December 26, 2018

Dear Evan Hansen, I attended the opening night performance of the San Francisco run of your national tour at the Curran Theatre. I’ve heard a lot…
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Dec 04, 2018

Polar Bears – December 5, 2018

When after sixteen years David Templeton hung up his theater critic’s hat, his stated purpose was to turn his full attention to other pursuits:…
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Nov 20, 2018

The New Century – November 21, 2018

For an area with as large a gay population and as much theatre as Sonoma County, it’s surprising how little gay-themed theatre is produced in the…
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Nov 13, 2018

Uncle Vanya – November 14, 2018

I don’t know anyone who attends theatre to reinforce their belief that life is simply a series of travails to be endured until the sweet release of…
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Nov 06, 2018

God of Carnage – November 7, 2018

In the past month, North Bay stages have been occupied by vampires, ghosts, a Thing, and Transylvanian transvestites. The Novato Community Playhouse…
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Oct 30, 2018

Blithe Spirit – October 31, 2018

If you’re wary of attending the latest splatter fest at your local multiplex and seeking a kinder, gentler Halloween season entertainment, Napa’s…
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Oct 24, 2018

Oslo – October 24, 2018

At a time when the language of diplomacy has been reduced to a 140-character tweet transmitted at 3 am, it’s good to be reminded of the men and women…
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Oct 02, 2018

Guys and Dolls – October 3, 2018

If you’ve missed having Summer Repertory Theatre around this year, 6th Street Playhouse’s production of “Guys and Dolls” may hold you until SRT’s…
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Aug 21, 2018

The Trial of John Brown – August 22, 2018

So, what’s former Spreckels Performing Arts Center Manager Gene Abravaya been doing since his retirement to the Arizona desert? “Well”, he told me in…
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Aug 08, 2018

Shall We Dance – August 8, 2018

Transcendence Theatre Company’s seventh season of “Broadway Under the Stars” continues with a dance-centric production entitled, appropriately…
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Jul 24, 2018

Always… Patsy Cline – July 25, 2018

Jukebox musicals have become the bread and butter for a lot of community theatre groups. Minimal casts, simple sets and the built-in audience that…
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Jul 10, 2018

School of Rock – July 11, 2018

One might think that the talents behind Downtown Abbey and Phantom of the Opera would be odd choices to make a Broadway musical out of a 2003 comedy…
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Jul 03, 2018

llyria – July 4, 2018

In a world of theatre based on movies and television shows, why not Shakespeare? Such is Illyria, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night first…
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Jun 26, 2018

Stairway to Paradise – June 27, 2018

Sonoma’s Transcendence Theatre Company opened its seventh season of “Broadway Under the Stars” in Jack London State Park with Stairway to Paradise,…
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Jun 12, 2018

Honky – June 13, 2018

“Everyone’s a little bit racist” sing the puppets in the musical Avenue Q. Playwright Greg Kalleres takes that thought and runs with it in Honky,…
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Jun 05, 2018

Hands on a Hardbody – June 6, 2018

Ten down-on-their-luck Texans gather on a car lot to compete for a cherry red Nissan pickup. They must lay their gloved hands upon the truck and,…
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May 29, 2018

Mamma Mia – May 30, 2018

High atop Mount Tamalpais, at about the 2,000 foot level, sits the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre where the “great outdoor theatre adventure” known as…
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May 08, 2018

Peter Pan – May 9, 2018

J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan has been seen on stage in one form or another for well over 100 years. It’s survived being Disney-fied and even Christopher…
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May 01, 2018

La Cage aux Folles – May 2, 2018

It’s been thirty-five years since La Cage aux Folles took Broadway by storm. What began in 1973 as a French stage farce followed by a series of…
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Apr 24, 2018

Into The Woods – April 25, 2018

The Santa Rosa Junior College theatre season ends with their production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. It’s a fairy tale…
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Apr 03, 2018

Amadeus – April 4, 2018

In Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg assesses Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with the criticism that it has “too many notes.”…
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Mar 27, 2018

By The Water – March 28, 2018

One wouldn’t think that a play that deals with the wreckage left behind by a natural disaster would be particularly attractive to North Bay residents…
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Mar 20, 2018

Blackbird – March 20, 2018

At a post-show Q & A following the opening night performance of Main Stage West’s Blackbird, director David Lear stated he felt that one of theatre’s…
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Mar 06, 2018

The Realistic Joneses – March 7, 2018

One of the oddest plays I’ve seen in a while, Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses isn’t particularly real in its examination of two suburban couples who…
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Feb 27, 2018

Tenderly – February 28, 2018

Ask anyone under fifty years of age who Rosemary Clooney is and they’re likely to respond “George Clooney’s wife?” They’d be in the ballpark (she was…
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Feb 20, 2018

Equus – February 21, 2018

Why? It’s a question we seem to be asking ourselves daily as we wake up to the news of the latest national tragedy or act of incomprehensible…
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Feb 13, 2018

South Pacific – February 14, 2018

World War II didn’t seem like ancient history in 1949 when South Pacific made its Broadway premiere. Sadly, its warnings of the damage that bigotry…
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Jan 30, 2018

Disgraced – January 31, 2018

Blistering drama takes the stage at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre with the North Bay premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama…
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Jan 23, 2018

The Dining Room – January 24, 2018

The plight of the vanishing New England WASP is the subject matter of A. R. Gurney’s The Dining Room, running now at Sonoma Arts Live. No, it’s not a…
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Jan 16, 2018

Honky Tonk Angels – January 17, 2018

North Bay theatre kicks off the new year with 6th Street Playhouse’s Honky Tonk Angels, a country music revue by Ted Swindley. Swindley, best known…
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Nov 28, 2017

Daddy Long Legs – November 29, 2017

If you like A.R. Gurney’s popular two-person play “Love Letters”, you’re going to love “Daddy Long Legs”, a musical adaptation of the 1912 novel by…
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Nov 21, 2017

Bakersfield Mist – November 22, 2017

In 1992, a retired truck driver named Teri Horton paid five dollars for a painting from a southern California thrift store to give as a gag gift to a…
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Nov 14, 2017

2017 Holiday Plays – November 15, 2017

The holiday season will soon be upon us and Sonoma County Theatre companies will be providing plenty of opportunities to escape the bumper-to-bumper…
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Nov 05, 2017

Steel Magnolias – November 1, 2017

The unique bonds of female friendship are at the heart of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias, now in the middle of its run at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street…
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Oct 24, 2017

Mary Shelley’s Body – October 25, 2017

“Am I supposed to be retelling my creature’s story or confessing my own?” – so asks Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, author of Frankenstein and the…
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Oct 17, 2017

SPAMALOT – October 18, 2017

The old axiom “the show must go on” traces its origins back to traveling circuses when, if an animal got loose, the ringmaster and the band tried to…
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Sep 19, 2017

Constellations – September 20, 2017

Back in my college days when, after the ingestion of a substantial quantity of adult beverages, the conversation topic amongst my friends inevitably…
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Sep 12, 2017

Sideways – September 13, 2017

Two shows hit North Bay stages whose titles audiences may recognize from their somewhat better-known film adaptations. First up is Santa Rosa’s Left…
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Aug 17, 2017

The Farce Awakens – August 9, 2017

According to IMDB, the budget for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens was an estimated $245,000,000.00. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here in…
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Jul 18, 2017

Gypsy – July 19, 2017

Musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre. They’re usually crowd pleasers and with their large casts they can bank on a crowd of family…
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Jun 27, 2017

George M! – June 28, 2017

George M. Cohan was known as “the man who owned Broadway” in the first two decades of the twentieth century. A prolific playwright and composer of…
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Jun 20, 2017

Becky’s New Car – June 21, 2017

Middle-aged angst takes center stage at the Sonoma Community Center as Becky’s New Car pulls into Sonoma Arts Live. Steven Dietz’s bittersweet comedy…
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Jun 13, 2017

Clue: The Musical – June 14, 2017

Your enjoyment of Clue: The Musical, now running at Napa’s Lucky Penny Community Arts Center, may be wholly dependent on two factors – 1.) Your…
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Jun 06, 2017

Beauty and the Beast – June 7, 2017

If you haven’t had a chance in the last 104 years to check out the Mountain Play, now’s as good a time as any. This year brings an enjoyable…
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May 30, 2017

The Money Shot – May 31, 2017

“Vapid” and “vacuous” are two terms that come to mind when discussing the characters in The Money Shot, Neil LaBute’s theatrical thumb-in-the-eye to…
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May 16, 2017

Guards at the Taj – May 17, 2017

It’s 1648 and the splendiferous Taj Mahal awaits its opening. Humayun and Babur, the two lowliest members of Emperor Shah Jahan’s Royal Guards, are…
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May 09, 2017

Tarzan – May 10, 2017

In recent years, when you entered the Spreckels Performing Arts Center’s Codding Theater you found yourself in an undersea world, or on the deck of…
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May 02, 2017

Songs For A New World – May 3, 2017

Songs for a New World is not a typical piece of American musical theatre. There is no book or “story”, per se, with a standard beginning, middle and…
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Apr 25, 2017

Breeders – April 26, 2017

Sonoma County is, some would say blessed, others might say cursed, with a lot of theatre. Currently running or recently closed shows range from…
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Apr 18, 2017

The Birds – April 19, 2017

Before attempting to explain what Conor McPherson’s The Birds is, running now at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West, best make it clear what it isn’t. It…
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Apr 16, 2017

The Odd Couple – April 12, 2017

There’s a certain segment of the “thea-tuh” community that turns its collective nose up at the mere mention of a mainstream, commercially-successful…
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Apr 05, 2017

Visiting Mr. Green – March 29, 2017

There’s a nice, little show running in the 6th Street Playhouse Studio Theatre right now. You’ve probably never heard of it, though it’s been around…
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Apr 04, 2017

Sugar Bean Sisters – April 5, 2017

A title like The Sugar Bean Sisters may conjure up images of sweet Southern belles, mint julips, or quaint sibling rivalries that end in hugs,…
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Mar 21, 2017

The Handoff – March 22, 2017

The Handoff… DAVID: The art of theater and the inevitability of change – they’ve gone together from the beginning of, well, of theater. And I’m not…
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Mar 15, 2017

“Race” – March 15, 2017

It has been argued, effectively, that the person most qualified to talk about race and racism is the victim of that racism – not those who,…
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Mar 01, 2017

“Mojada” – March 1, 2017

Well, it’s spring, and the annual Oregon Shakespeare Festival has kicked off its 2017 season with four new shows – out of an eventual total of eleven…
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Feb 21, 2017

“Hand To God” – February 22, 2017

I’m not sure what it is, but there’s just something appealing—if that’s the word—about watching a puppet – especially a cute puppet – talking dirty ……
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Feb 14, 2017

“Evita” – January 25, 2017

Powered by some pretty spectacular voices, Sonoma Arts Live’s clever, minimalized production of Webber-and-Rice’s iconic musical “Evita” scores major…
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Feb 14, 2017

“Native Son” – February 1, 2017

Beauty, one could argue, isn’t always very pretty. Especially in the case of great literature. Richard Wright’s 1940 masterpiece Native…
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Dec 06, 2016

“Hope” – December 7, 2016

“Hope. Do we ever give up on hope? Even in the face of hard evidence?” That the question at the heart of Si Kahn’s succinctly-titled new musical…
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Nov 29, 2016

“Luzia” – November 30, 2016

Describing a new Cirque du Soleil show is a little like describing a dream while still half asleep. Talking about ‘Luzia,’ appropriately subtitled “A…
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Oct 04, 2016

“Threepenny Opera” – October 5, 2016

The Threepenny Opera — Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 “play with music — is like an expensive desert that’s so complex and filled with flavor most people…
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Aug 16, 2016

“Big Fish” – August 17, 2016

Some stage musicals are lighter than air, soothing as water, sounding good and feeling delightful as long as they last, then evaporating on the wind,…
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Jul 27, 2016

“Rock Of Ages” – July 27, 2016

Let’s talk about Jukebox Musicals. That’s a slangy term describing a stage show that is built around an assortment of pre-existing, usually…
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Jul 19, 2016

“Macbeth” – July 13, 2016

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” One of Shakespeare’s scariest lines comes from what is easily his scariest play,…
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Jul 10, 2016

“A Winter’s Tale” – July 6, 2016

Prince Hamlet is a moody death-metal addict with a messed-up ghost on his case. The jealous monarch from The Winter’s Tale has become a tyrannical…
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Jul 10, 2016

“The Invisible Hand” – June 9, 2016

Money corrupts, as does Power, and they often work together, because of course, everywhere you go in this world, money is power. In playwright Ayad…
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Jun 01, 2016

“West Side Story” – June 2, 2016

West Side Story—Sondheim, Bernstein and Laurents’ beloved 50s-era street-gang homage to Romeo and Juliet. Few American musicals are as widely loved…
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Jun 01, 2016

“Red Velvet” – May 25, 2016

Fictionalized history, like ‘free trade’ and ‘forgotten memories,’ is something of an oxymoron. The minute you introduce fiction to a story, its…
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May 11, 2016

“Bob” – May 12, 2016

The writings of San Francisco playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb have always been a balance of the weird, the wondrous, the sensitive, and the cynical.…
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May 03, 2016

“Twelfth Night” – May 4, 2016

For several years, the lack of strong roles for women has been the talk of the theater world, lighting up blogs and theater-related websites. With…
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May 03, 2016

“Anne Boleyn” – April 27, 2016

Anne Boleyn lost her head. Everyone knows that. Little else is known about the infamously short-lived second wife of King Henry VIII. Largely because…
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Apr 06, 2016

“Time Stands Still” – April 7, 2016

War is not just about bombs and bullets and blood. It’s also about politics and position and power. Playwright Donald Margulies is not particularly…
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Mar 23, 2016

“God of Carnage” – March 23, 2016

As theatergoers, we occasionally attend plays we never previously liked, and end up changing our minds by the end. Maybe the acting and directing…
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Feb 16, 2016

“Kismet” – February 17, 2016

Last year, Spreckels Theater Company staged an unconventional revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel,’ a play many have heard of but few have…
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Jan 27, 2016

“A Steady Rain” – January 28, 2016

Good cop. Bad cop. It’s a formula so mainstream that it was the basis of a character in the ‘The LEGO Movie,’ where Liam Neeson voiced the…
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Jan 19, 2016

“Mahalia Jackson” – January 6, 2016

“Sometimes,” exhorts actress Sharon E. Scott, stirringly embodying the rich voice and sassy-sweet attitude of the great Gospel singer Mahalia…
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Jan 19, 2016

“Into The Woods” – January 13, 2016

Magic isn’t easy. And sometimes, it takes a village to make something truly magical—and that even goes for fairy tale villages perched on the edge of…
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Dec 08, 2015

“Polar Bears” – December 9, 2015

Many of our Christmas entertainment traditions are tales of tribulation from Jimmy Stewart contemplating suicide in It’s a Wonderful Life to Charlie…
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Nov 17, 2015

“Seminar” – November 18, 2015

It has been said that there is nothing less dramatic or more lacking in entertainment value than watching a writer write. In the clever comedy-drama…
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Oct 21, 2015

“The Creature” – October 21, 2015

1999 years ago, an unmarried teenage mother had a bad dream. The next morning, she decided to turn that dream into a short story. Over the next few…
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Oct 06, 2015

“Glorious” – October 7, 2015

Oh, the glory of the human voice. And the power of the human mind to hear one’s own voice, and somehow experience it as beautiful when to other’s…
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Jul 28, 2015

“Yesterday, Again” – July 29, 2015

It’s a mystery, a challenge, a puzzle, a conundrum. How do you keep theater alive and interesting, when the majority of your audience has proven…
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Jul 15, 2015

“Shiner” – July 16, 2015

For those who prefer not to travel far for their onstage entertainment, and like to avoid any excursions into foreign territory, there are,…
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Jul 14, 2015

“Twelfth Night” – July 15, 2015

“Twelfth Night” is amongst Shakespeare’s most popular plays, in part because the story is so accessible, and the situations so universally funny.…
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Jun 30, 2015

“Head Over Heels” – July 1, 2015

Well, the recent Supreme Court ruling affirming marriage equality to all couldn’t be better timed, ‘cause the big celebration’s already started up in…
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Jun 23, 2015

“Oh, What A Night!” – June 24, 2015

Lets talk about inspiration. Inspiration is often likened to lightning striking, or an electric bulb popping on over our heads. Metaphorically, when…
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May 26, 2015

“Peter Pan” – May 27, 2015

No one’s ever done an official scientific study on this, but I have observed certain conspicuous distinctions between the way adults react to the…
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May 06, 2015

“Point Break Live!” – May 6, 2015

Whatever else one says about “Point Break Live!,” you have to agree there aren’t many other live entertainments where the audience is doused with…
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Apr 21, 2015

“Nunsense!” – April 22, 2015

There may be more-than-one theatrical franchise of musical plays that started out as a line of greeting cards showing nuns saying vaguely racy…
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Apr 07, 2015

“Venus in Fur” – April 8, 2015

Something kinky has been taking place lately in the world of mainstream entertainment. Sadism and masochism are now to romantic comedy what romance…
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Mar 02, 2015

“The Convert” – March 4, 2015

Change is part of life. Some changes are easy, others much less so. And when cultures collide, change is often dangerous, violent, and destructive.…
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Feb 18, 2015

“Carousel” – February 18, 2015

“Carousel,” the second musical created by the legendary Rogers & Hammerstein, is noted today for two major things. One – it’s the show from which we…
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Jan 20, 2015

“The Fever” – January 21, 2015

I saw an amazing performance last weekend, but I have no clue how to properly describe what I saw. I could start by talking about Wallace Shawn, the…
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Jan 13, 2015

“Clybourne Park” – January 14, 2015

One need not have ever seen Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun to appreciate the setup – or laugh at the jokes – in Bruce Norris’s…
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