Review: “The Motherf**ker with the Hat” in Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre continues to push the boundaries for North Bay theatre audiences with another provocative production, this time with a show whose title is usually redacted in print. Steven Adly Guirgis’s The Motherf**ker with the Hat runs at The California though February 22.    Guirgis, who won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama…

Review: “Six Degrees of Separation” in Sonoma

‘Six Degrees of Separation’ is the concept that every individual on the planet can be connected to every other individual through six or fewer social connections. First posited in the late 1920s, it entered the cultural lexicon via John Guare’s same-named play in 1990, so much so that a parlor game in which participants were…

Review: “Present Laughter” in Novato

For audiences who didn’t get their fill of Noël Coward with the recent Ross Valley Players production of Blithe Spirit, the Novato Theater Company is offering a second helping of Coward comedy with their production of Present Laughter. The show runs in Novato through February 16.  But Coward purists beware. Audiences expecting a traditional production…

2024’s Top Torn Theatre Tix

It’s time for this critic to take an end-of-year look back at local theatre. To start, I’m happy to report that no theatres closed in this area. As a matter of fact, there’s a new company in town with the formation of Petaluma’s Mercury Theater. So, continuing on that positive note, here, in chronological order,…

Review: “Oliver!” in Napa

Napa’s Lucky Penny Community Arts Center opened just about ten years ago with a production of Lionel Barts’ classic musical Oliver! The musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist has long been an audience favorite since its debut at a Southwest London theater in 1960. It’s a big show, in many ways, and not the…

Review: “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” in Santa Rosa

Old-fashioned holiday musicals don’t get much more old-fashioned than Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. The David Ives and Paul Blake adaptation of the 1954 film that starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen runs at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through Dec. 22.  Fans of the film won’t be disappointed as it’s a faithful…