Review: “The Wind in the Willows” in Rohnert Park

Large scale, family-friendly theatre returns to the North Bay with the Spreckels Theatre Company production of The Wind in the Willows. Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame adapted Kenneth Grahame’s classic 1908 novel in collaboration with composer George Stiles and lyricist Anthony Drewe (the same team that adapted Mary Poppins for the stage.) The musical…

Review: “Small Mouth Sounds” in Yountville

You’ve probably heard of this new age, hippy dippy thing that many people, overwhelmed with today’s hectic pace of life, are doing: a silent retreat.  This is where you go to a retreat center for a few days or even a week, and do not speak to anyone the entire time.  The idea behind this…

Review: “The Mountaintop” in Healdsburg

Healdsburg’s The 222 concludes its season of professional drama with The Mountaintop, co-directed by Aldo Billingsley and Rebecca Novick. Playwright Katori Hall’s 2009 imagining of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last night on Earth runs through April 14. It’s late in the evening of April 3, 1968 and Dr. King (Ron Chapman) has returned to…

Review: “The Wizard of Oz” in Healdsburg

Healdsburg’s Raven Players is one of the few local companies to wear the phrase “community theater” as a badge of honor.  Absent a delusion of grandeur and pretenses of ‘Broadway quality’, the Players simply make the commitment to be a place that all are welcome, both on and off the stage. Their casts are frequently…

Review: “Spring Awakening” in Napa

If live theatre, which is in crisis, ends up in a doom spiral, it won’t be for a lack of talent and energy from the current generation of performing artists. The stages at College of Marin and Santa Rosa Junior College recently hosted productions featuring some very good work by their youthful casts. Napa Valley…

Review: “Orlando” in Santa Rosa

Gender fluidity flows like the Russian River after a torrential rain in the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Department production of Orlando. Laura Downing-Lee directs the Sarah Ruhl-penned adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel. The show runs in the Frank Chong Studio Theatre in the Burbank Auditorium on the SRJC Santa Rosa campus through…

Review: “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in Novato

It’s been almost 50 years since the antics of the British comedy troupe known as Monty Python’s Flying Circus were unleashed on an unsuspecting Texas audience by a Dallas PBS station. The BBC-produced series soon found a loyal American audience and a series of feature films followed. Python made it to Broadway in 2005 with…

Review: “Dream Hou$e” in Petaluma

Cinnabar Theater hosted one of five productions that opened in the North Bay last weekend.  Dream Hou$e, by Eliana Pipes, may be the least well-known among those five, but it is a show that should be seen. The production runs in Petaluma through February 25.  Sisters Julia and Patricia have agreed to sell their mother’s…