by Harry Duke After a couple of rabble-rousing, politically-bent productions, Petaluma’s Mercury Theater shifts to British comedy with their production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives. The Michael Fontaine-directed production runs through Mar. 21. The play, written in 1930, has served as a vehicle for some of the top performers of the past century, including Elizabeth…
by Cari Lynn Pace If you are a fan of Stephen Sondheim, you will be delighted with this Throckmorton Theatre production of Company. If you don’t care for Sondheim’s repetitive musical style, you will still be delighted with this production. It’s a show filled with non-stop energy. Company focuses on bachelor Bobby’s 35th birthday and…
Berkeley Rep’s Uneven “All My Sons” by Barry Willis A week has passed since the press opener of Berkeley Rep’s revamp of Arthur Miller’s enduring family drama All My Sons. Presumably some of the hysteria around this production has faded a bit, but during opening week there was plenty of it among the critical community.…
by Harry Duke For centuries France has produced such famous playwrights as Molière, Beaumarchais, Rostand, Sartre, and Ionesco and such plays as Tartuffe, The Marriage of Figaro, Cyrano de Bergerac, No Exit, and Rhinoceros. And yet, according to the Guinness World Record organization, the most performed French play in the world is a 1960s sex…
By Beulah F. Vega Napa Valley College has opened it’s two weekend (02/27- 03/08) run of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. The almost three-hour-long show tells the story of a baker (Gabriel Logan Reyes) and his wife (Lindsay Stark) who must go into the woods to gather the ingredients needed to lift a curse their…
by Beulah F. Vega Napa County’s Valley Players presents the Jones Hope Wooten comedy The Savannah Sipping Society at the Rutherford Grange through March 15. Directed by Debbie Baumann, this look at women of a certain age brings a perspective often missing from the stages around our area. Middle-aged Randa Covington (Christina Julian) finds herself…
by Cari Lynn Pace A Parisian bachelor, armed with only an airline flight schedule and a disapproving maid, successfully juggles simultaneous romances with three gorgeous flight attendants. It’s a setup for international disaster when an American buddy visits and endeavors to learn relationships from the master. Marc Camoletti’s Boeing Boeing, directed by Justin Smith, is…
My guests on the 02/26/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Michael Fontaine and Zane Walters from the Mercury Theater production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives. The show runs in “the little red schoolhouse on the hill” in Petaluma from March 6 through March 21. Click below to listen: ********** Click HERE…
My guests on the 02/19/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Isiah Carter and Lexus Fletcher from the Left Edge Theatre production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The…
by Cari Lynn Pace Ten contestants vie for a shiny red pickup, a publicity gimmick by a car dealership in Longview, Texas. Whoever can keep a hand on the truck the longest wins the keys to drive off with it. Hands on a Hardbody keeps you guessing how long the contestants will last and who…
My guests on the 02/12/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Jake Druzgala and Orion Pudoff from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of Hands on a Hardbody. The show runs in the Codding Theater at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park through March 1. Click below to listen: ********** Click…
by Harry Duke A middle-aged British woman, wife, and mother wonders whatever became of herself and sets out to rediscover life in Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine. Jennifer King stars in the one-woman show now running on the Rotary Stage in the Sonoma Community Center through Feb. 22. We meet Shirley in her Liverpool home kitchen…
by Harry Duke An upside-down family gets right-sided with the help of a practically perfect nanny in P.L. Travers classic Mary Poppins. In between the 1964 Disney film adaption and its belated 2018 sequel, Cameron Mackintosh put together a Broadway musical that featured elements of the Disney film along with new material. Santa Rosa’s 6th…
by Cari Lynn Pace A middle-aged housewife tosses her worn apron aside and packs a silk kimono for the Greek Islands. Meet Shirley Valentine, a charming woman in Liverpool, England who does everything for everyone, including her spoiled daughter and demeaning husband. Shirley doesn’t complain as she talks aloud, examining her life and the choices…
by Beulah F. Vega Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse delves into the world of Shakespeare once more with its production of Romeo & Juliet running through Feb. 15 on their Monroe Stage. Director Drew Bolander’s adaptation is a traditional (almost) fully uncut production. If you don’t know Romeo & Juliet, the simplest explanation of the…
North Bay Stage and Screen 