by Cari Lynn Pace * Santa Rosa Junior College’s Theatre Arts Department is the first out of the gate of what is sure to be a plethora of productions throughout the Bay Area of Disney’s Frozen, The Broadway Musical. It’s a grand scale production capturing the best of fantasy and fine singing. The smash Broadway…
My guests on the 11/05/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Danielle Schmidt and Reilly Trainor from the SRJC Theatre Arts production of Disney’s Frozen the Musical. The Broadway adaptation of the hit 2013 animated film runs in the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Burbank Auditorium through November 22. Click below to listen:…
by Harry Duke* Local audiences seeking a solid presentation of an American theatrical classic actually have two very diverse choices right now. The Raven Performing Arts Theater hosts the Raven Players’ production of Stephen Sondheim’s massive macabre musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street while The 222 offers Sam Shepard’s more intimate fraternal…
by Cari Lynn Pace * I was a teenager when two “monster comedy” shows aired on network TV in 30-minute black and white episodes from 1964 to 1966 (and in reruns ever since.) The Munsters and The Addams Family delighted us with their weird antics and bizarre proclivities which contrasted with and confused the outside…
by Woody Weingarten * Harold Pinter sure packs a brainload into his plays. Take Betrayal, which is on stage at Marin Theatre through Nov. 15, for example. • It’s tautly dramatic, with its pinpoint focus on a seven-year affair, predominantly in the ‘70s, between Emma, an art gallery owner played by Liz Sklar, one of…
My guests on the 10/29/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Jared Emerson-Johnson and Sergio Diaz from the Mercury Theater production of The Black Rider. The theatrical collaboration between musician Tom Waits and novelist William S. Burroughs runs in Mercury’s Petaluma theater through November 15. Click below to listen: ********** Click HERE…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Harold Pinter penned 29 plays on his way to becoming a major dramatist of the 20th century and earning the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. Marin Theatre has taken on the British playwright’s challenging Betrayal. Carey Perloff directs the production running in Mill Valley through Nov. 15. Perloff has a…
by Barry Willis * An old Napa Valley legend morphs into an outrageous musical comedy at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa through November 8. The decades-old story purports that the hills surrounding the valley are home to hybrid critters—part ape, part bat, and with the aid of a mad scientist in the…
My guests on the 10/22/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Garet Waterhouse and Katie Watts-Whitaker from the Raven Players production of the Stephen Sondheim classic Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The macabre musical runs at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg through November 8. Click below to…
Over 150 members of the North Bay theater community gathered at The California in Santa Rosa on Sunday night for the Marquee Theater Journalists Association/North Bay Bohemian 2026 Norbay Theater Awards. The MTJA presented awards for outstanding work in 18 production, performance, and technical categories. Sonoma and Napa County productions in the 2025-2026 season that…
My guests on the 10/15/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Ken Urso and Lynzee Foreman from the THTR production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. The stage musical upon which the cult classic movie was based will have three performances – October 22, 23 and 24 – at The California…
by Harry Duke * Most theatregoers familiarity with the works of George Bernard Shaw begins and ends with his play Pygmalion, the source material for the classic musical My Fair Lady. His other plays range from historical dramas to comedies of manners. All contain elements of social criticism of their time. His works usually get…
by Harry Duke * When I see a show late in its run, or the run itself is short, I’ll take some time and provide a short take on the production… Dear Evan Hansen – Spreckels Theatre Company, Rohnert Park Pluses: excellent performances by veterans and new talent, technical elements Minuses: a wretchedly irresponsible book…
My guests on the second of two 10/01/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Emily Hansen and Haley Ayyad from the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts production of Emilia. The reimagining of the life of 17th-century poet and musician Emilia Bassano runs in the Studio Theatre in the Burbank Auditorium…
My guests on the first of two 10/01/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Drew Bolander and Laura Downing-Lee from the 6th Street Playhouse production of George Bernard Shaw’s Misalliance. The turn-of-the-20th-century comedy runs on the Monroe Stage at the Playhouse in Santa Rosa through October25. Click HERE for more info.
