Blistering drama takes the stage at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre with the North Bay premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced. Akhtar has taken the “friends drink to excess and soon truths are revealed” theatrical trope (see Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, etc.) and dragged it into the 21st century. Amir Kapoor (Jared Wright) is…
The plight of the vanishing New England WASP is the subject matter of A. R. Gurney’s The Dining Room, running now at Sonoma Arts Live. No, it’s not a science lecture on the more annoying cousin of the honeybee, but a look at the cultural transformation of a specific component of 20th-century America: the White Anglo-Saxon…
Some people make a lasting impression with a smile, a handshake, a way with a joke or a compliment, or perhaps with a beautiful singing voice and a knack for delivering a line on stage in an unexpected way. For Stephen Walsh, known to many Petalumans for his frequent appearances on stage at Cinnabar Theater,…
North Bay theater kicks off the new year with 6th Street Playhouse’s Honky Tonk Angels, a country-music revue by Ted Swindley. Swindley, best known for the community theater staple Always . . . Patsy Cline, has taken about 30 country standards and wrapped the thinnest of stories around them to create a raucous and enjoyable evening of…
When contemplating the ending of things, we often feel compelled to look back to the beginning. This being my final column as the Bohemian‘s theater reviewer, I thought I’d do the same. When I first started writing for the Bohemian, I was mainly known as a film writer. Though I’d had a fair amount of…
It’s that time of year again for the usual “Best of…” lists where critics review their picks for the best (and sometimes worst) in music, movies, fashion, etc. and give people at holiday parties something to argue about. For the past three years my approach has been a little different as I prefer to offer…
Another year of theater has passed, and I’ve got a cigar box filled with torn ticket stubs. It’s time to reflect on the shows that moved me most to laugh, cry and change my view of the world. I present, once again, my 10 favorite theatrical experiences of the last 12 months. ‘Bondage’ (AlterTheater) Gorgeously written by…
In most modern musical revues, much of the drama and emotion springs from the nostalgic hit an audience gets at hearing beloved and familiar old songs. That’s certainly the case with My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, now playing in a cozy, cabaret setting at Cinnabar Theater. Anyone who feels their pulse quicken at…
To Margot Robbie, Tonya Harding was a pit bull. That’s not just a metaphor. It’s how the fast-rising Australian actor (Suicide Squad, Goodbye, Christopher Robin) elected to play the real-life figure skater in the just-released movie I, Tonya. The film, which is already appearing on many end-of-year top 10 lists, screened on December 2 at…
“I love performing at holiday time,” says composer-musician David Arkenstone. “People are almost always in a great wintery mood during the holidays. If they’re not, it’s our job to put them in the mood.” Shepherding busy, stressed-out people into a warm, wintery frame of mind. That’s the primary goal of “David Arkenstone’s Winter Fantasy,” an…
