by Harry Duke * Despite being adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel, The Secret Garden, the Musical isn’t really a “children’s show” in the modern sense. It opens with the death of a young girl’s parents in a cholera epidemic and then focuses on a father’s inconsolable grief at the death of his…
by Barry Willis * This coming weekend (June 26-28) closes Cinnabar Theater’s sumptuous production of The Secret Garden, an operetta of hope and triumph by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon, based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Norman. It’s 1906 and an orphan girl named Mary Lennox (Violet Spears) has returned to England from India, where…
by Harry Duke * Opera is the theatre art with which I have the least familiarity. Interestingly enough, the very first live performance of any kind that I remember attending as a child (excluding Disney on Ice) was a production of Bizet’s Carmen but since that 5th or 6th grade adventure, the number of opportunities…
by Harry Duke * Dysfunctional family dramas have been around since the beginning of theatre (Oedipus Rex, anyone?) Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman are prime examples of American playwrights’ takes on the genre. Leave it to a British playwright to steer…
by Harry Duke * Transcendence Theatre Company opens their 2026 Broadway Under the Stars series with a high energy production of ain’t too proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. The jukebox musical about the legendary Motown group has Bay Area roots having premiered at Berkeley Rep in 2017 before a successful, Tony-winning Broadway…
by Barry Willis * Through June 28, Walnut Creek’s CenterREP presents a daunting interpretation of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill: The Musical. Directed by Matt M. Morrow in the Margaret Lesher Theatre, this Pill is in many ways an alternative vision to one launched in April by Marin Musical Theatre Company. Where MMTC’s show was…
by Barry Willis * Fantasy and reality collide headlong for a married woman in Laura Wade’s Home, I’m Darling at Sonoma Arts Live through June 21. Ashley Kennedy stars as Judy, half of a contemporary British couple who have transformed their home into a pastiche of 1950s kitsch—aqua-colored refrigerator and TV, starburst clock, martini glasses,…
by Barry Willis * Named “Playwright of the Year” in 2017 by the Wall Street Journal, Kate Hamill is among the new crop of trendy young writers. Her Sherlock Holmes spoof, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B, is currently running at Ross Valley Players in Marin County. Publicity supplied with that show indicates that…
by Cari Lynn Pace * It’s hallelujah and high praise for Sister Act, now running in Santa Rosa at 6th Street Playhouse through June 27. This stage version patterns the plot of Whoopi Goldberg’s popular 1992 movie. The movie’s rock ‘n roll soundtrack has been scrubbed to feature original rock and soul music by…
by Barry Willis * A hardcore theater fan treats the audience to a fantastical retelling of his favorite early-20th century musical in The Drowsy Chaperone, now running in Napa at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center through June 14. DC Scarpelli stars as the narrator (“Man in Chair”) who describes every aspect of a cast…
