Mysteries and thrillers present interesting challenges for critics. We want to give audiences enough of an idea of the plot to pique their interest without giving away any of the twists, turns and surprises audiences should discover for themselves. Well, here goes. Playwright Sidney Bruhl, once a successful writer of theatrical thrillers, is tired of…
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 over seventy-five years. Sonoma Arts Live has a production running through February 10. Joseph Kesselring’s tale of the Brewster sisters and their penchant for helping lonely old men meet their…
My guests on a special Wednesday, January 23 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Keith Baker and Eric Thompson from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of Hamlet. Click below to listen: **********
When playwright August Wilson passed away in 2005, he left behind a body of work that has become a staple of the American theatre. As much a documentarian as a poet and author, the ten plays (Jitney, Fences, et al.) of Wilson’s Century (or Pittsburgh) Cycle chronicle the twentieth century African-American experience mostly through the…
Theatre companies love to produce theatre about theatre. 6th Street Playhouse gets in the act with Ken Ludwig’s 1995 door-slamming farce Moon Over Buffalo, running through February 3. Buffalo’s Erlanger Theater is hosting the repertory company of George and Charlotte Hay (Dodds Delzell & Madeleine Ashe), grade-B actors and grade-A hams who never made it…
My guests on the Thursday, January 17 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Michael Ross and Karen Pinomaki from the Sonoma Arts Live production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Click below to listen: **********
It’s said that musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre, so here’s a list of the North Bay productions I toasted this past year. Here are my top torn tickets of 2018: Part Two, the Musicals (in alphabetical order): Always, Patsy Cline… – (Sonoma Arts Live) – Danielle DeBow’s Patsy was as heartbreaking…
My guests on the Thursday, January 10 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Dodds Delzell and Chandler Parrott-Thomas from the 6th Street Playhouse production of Moon Over Buffalo. Click below to listen: **********
‘Tis the time for “Best of …” lists, so in the spirit of my illustrious predecessor and with a nod to the substantial differences in mounting a musical versus a play, here are my top torn tickets of 2018 – Part One, the Plays (in alphabetical order): Blackbird – (Main Stage West) – As dark subject…
North Bay Stage and Screen 