by Cari Lynn Pace * Don’t hate me, but I have never been much of a fan of Stephen Sondheim musicals (except for West Side Story.) Sondheim’s Follies, now being presented by Sonoma Arts Live through September 27 on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center, changed my sentimental mind. James Goldman wrote the…
by Barry Willis * Decades of Cuba’s revolution unfold in the microcosm of an elaborate kitchen in a stately old home in Eduardo Machado’s The Cook, at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre through October 11. The perfect focal point for the venue’s steeply-raked three-sided seating, Tanya Orellana’s huge stunning set exquisitely captures the decadence of old…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Lucky Penny Productions really delivers on Freaky Friday, the Musical, a hilarious stage musical based on Mary Rodgers novel and the two Disney movies from 1976 and 2003. This huge show features 19 actors of all ages, and the surprising thing is they all fit splendidly on Lucky Penny’s small…
by Cari Lynn Pace * I was hesitant to invite my friend to join me for Marin Theatre’s Bay Area premiere of The White Chip, now running in Mill Valley through Sep. 20. This semi-autobiographical comedy, written by Sean Daniels, is billed as “a humorous and human play about addiction and recovery.” The title refers…
by Barry Willis * The black-box Condiotti Theatre at Spreckels Performing Arts Center morphs into Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, a 17th-century courtroom, a torture chamber, an execution site, and more in Bill Cain’s Equivocation, now running in Rohnert Park through September 13. Adroitly directed by Spreckels’ artistic director Sheri Lee Miller, Cain’s 2009 play melds real…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Mercury Theater has done a masterful job presenting the hopes and dreams of a hardworking, self-sustaining seamstress in Intimate Apparel. This award-winning story by Lynn Nottage is presented by Mercury Theater at the old Cinnabar theater on top of a hill in Petaluma. The show runs through Sep. 13. It’s…
by Barry Willis * Playwright Lynn Nottage is a national treasure. Her plays such as Sweat, Clyde’s, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, and The Secret Life of Bees are always popular, always entertaining, and always thought-provoking. They tend to run in unexpected directions, which only partly explains their enormous appeal. Petaluma’s Mercury Theater is…
by Harry Duke * We live in a time when the need to attract an ever-dwindling audience to live theatre often leads to a company programming the latest Hollywood-style spectacle or musical adaptation of a well-known movie or television series. It’s either that or the old tried-and-true and very familiar. Shakespeare, anyone? It’s good to…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific, now running at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa through Sep. 20, debuted 75 years ago. Even though it harkens back to a simpler and more sanitized time, it still resonates today with romantic songs and a powerful message. Its strengths leads one to forgive…
by Cari Lynn Pace * I took my English friend with me to Marin Shakespeare Company’s current production of Julius Caesar in the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University (now running through Sep. 13). My friend was as riveted as I was with the staging and characters and joked “This is bloody good.” Indeed—Julius Caesar…
