by Cari Lynn Pace * Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific, now running at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa through Sep. 20, debuted 75 years ago. Even though it harkens back to a simpler and more sanitized time, it still resonates today with romantic songs and a powerful message. Its strengths leads one to forgive…
by Cari Lynn Pace * I took my English friend with me to Marin Shakespeare Company’s current production of Julius Caesar in the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University (now running through Sep. 13). My friend was as riveted as I was with the staging and characters and joked “This is bloody good.” Indeed—Julius Caesar…
by Cari Lynn Pace Who should control – and profit from – a cure for all diseases in the world? Does the creation of such potential benefit belong in the hands of a joint venture firm who developed it? Who can be trusted to test its effectiveness, and if it works, who would distribute such…
My guests on the second of two 08/20/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were director/choreographer Malia Abayon and assistant director/choreographer HarriettePearl Fugitt from the 6th Street Playhouse production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. The show runs on the GK Hardt stage at 6th Street Playhouse through September 20. Click HERE…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Several Broadway stars escaped New York’s scorching heat to join a sensational cast of 24 and show up on the bucolic Sonoma stage under the stars in Transcendence Theatre Company’s Mamma Mia! The show features twenty-two songs and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, two members of the wildly…
My guests on the first of two 08/20/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Jeff Coté and playwright Joseph Rodota for a discussion about 6th Street Playhouse’s Live Reading Series presentation of Chessman. Jeff filled us in on the Live Reading Series while Joe talked about his dramatization of the circumstances…
by Harry Duke * Transcendence Theatre Company closes out their 2026 Broadway Under the Stars series with the popular ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia! It’s the show’s first Sonoma County appearance after a couple of Marin County mountings including a 2018 production by The Mountain Play atop Mt. Tamalpais and a season-closing production just this…
by Barry Willis * San Francisco Playhouse has launched another incisive play from the talented Aaron Loeb, whose dark comedy Ideation went from a much-praised local phenomenon to a weeks-long run off-Broadway. That production was a disturbing look into the world of business consultants tasked with creating a foolproof way to dispose of millions of…
My guests on the 08/14/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Nathan Cummings and Daphne Cummings from the Cinnabar Theater for Young Audiences production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The show runs in the Cinnabar Theater Studio Space located at the Petaluma Premium Outlet Mall, 2200 Petaluma Blvd.,…
by Harry Duke * With summer drawing to close, local theatre companies are prepping their houses for a robust 2026/27 season. Live theatre productions in Northern Sonoma County will include the usual mixture of the tried and true along with a sprinkling of newer works to keep things interesting for the frequent theatre-goer. Healdsburg’s Raven…
by Harry Duke * With summer drawing to close, local theatre companies are prepping their houses for a robust 2026/27 season. Live theatre productions in Marin will include the usual mixture of the tried and true along with a sprinkling of North Bay premieres to keep things interesting for the frequent theatre-goer. Mill Valley’s Marin…
by Harry Duke * With summer drawing to close, North Bay theatre companies are prepping their houses for a robust 2026 – 2027 season. Live theatre productions in Sonoma and Napa counties will include the usual mixture of the tried and true along with a sprinkling of North Bay premieres to keep things interesting for…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Ray of Light Theatre’s Urinetown: The Musical opened on July 31 in San Francisco and has been filling The Barbary Stage with wildly enthusiastic audiences ever since. This show, with music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, has everything going for it: dazzling staging,…
by Harry Duke * Fans of Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 sci-fi thriller Total Recall (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) or, for the real cinephile, John Frankenheimer’s underrated 1966 sci-fi thriller Seconds (starring Rock Hudson, of all people) looking for something in the same vein would do well to seek out a production of Bay Area playwright Greg Lam’s…
My guest on the 08/06/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM was Lori Haley Fox from the upcoming Transcendence Theatre Company presentation of Mamma Mia! Lori appeared in the original West End production, the National Touring company, the Broadway production, and the Meryl Streep movie version of the musical! The ABBA musical…
North Bay Stage and Screen 