Cinnabar announces relocation plans

Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has announced their plan to relocate after 50+ years in the “Little Red Schoolhouse” on the hill. The company’s website announced the following: “Cinnabar is at a crossroads after five decades of producing shows. The infrastructure of our current space, built in 1908, cannot support modern theater technology, limiting the scope of…

2023’s Top Torn Tix, the Musicals!

Live theatre continues to struggle to find its footing in a post pandemic world. The year was marked by audience numbers still failing to return to pre-pandemic levels, the use of understudies becoming more prevalent as a way to reduce cancellations due to COVID, the passing of some beloved members of the local theatre community,…

Review: “Elf, the Musical” in Santa Rosa

Of course they made a Broadway musical out of the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy Elf. Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan took the basic elements from the film, softened one of the major characters, added more “Christmas spirit” and music by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, and came up with Elf, the Musical. It’s a show…

Review: “Light Sensitive” in Monte Rio

Just aside the Bohemian Highway on the outskirts of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hamlet of Monte Rio sits the Russian River Hall. For fifteen years, it’s hosted the productions of Curtain Call Theatre, a company comprised of a dedicated group of local volunteers who bring live theatre of all sorts to the West County. The productions usually…

Review: “A Christmas Carol” in Santa Rosa

A cranky member of the 1% spends years exploiting the labor of his employee by paying a sub-standard wage and forcing him to work unregulated hours in an unsafe work environment. Spectral social activists attempt to persuade the capitalist exploiter to see the error of his ways, but it takes the threat of death for…