by Cari Lynn Pace * Welcome to Putnam County, where a middle school spelling bee championship takes place with a ragtag collection of juveniles and two clearly biased judges. William Finn wrote the clever words and music to two dozen numbers based on Rachel Sheinkin’s book presented onstage at the Novato Theater Company. Adults play…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Cinnabar Theater opens its 54th season with the nostalgia-filled musical Bye Bye Birdie, now running in the Warren Auditorium at Sonoma State University through Oct. 4. The Broadway musical (with book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse, and lyrics by Lee Adams) won several Tony Awards in 1961 including…
My guests on the 09/17/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were cast members Noah Evans and Molly Larsen-Shine from the Cinnabar Theater production of Bye Bye Birdie. The classic musical runs in the Warren Theater on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park through October 4. Click below to…
My guests on the 08/14/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Nathan Cummings and Daphne Cummings from the Cinnabar Theater for Young Audiences production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The show runs in the Cinnabar Theater Studio Space located at the Petaluma Premium Outlet Mall, 2200 Petaluma Blvd.,…
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…
My guests on the first of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM on 06/04/26 were cast members Syona Ayyankeril and Zachary Hasbany from the Cinnabar Theater production of The Secret Garden. The family musical runs through June 28 in the Warren Auditorium on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert…
by Harry Duke * After a series of lightweight comedies and Broadway musicals, Cinnabar Theater gets serious with a production of Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. The theological drama runs in the Warren Theater on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park through April 26. Folks walking into the usually sterile Warren Theater may…
My guests on the 04/02/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Jared N. Wright and Andrew Patton from the upcoming Cinnabar Theater production of The Christians. The provocative drama runs in the Warren Auditorium in Ives Hall on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park from April 10 – 26.…
My guests on the 01/15/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Brittany Law and Trevor Hoffmann from the Cinnabar Theater production of My Fair Lady. The show runs in the Warren Theater on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park from January 23 through February 8. Click below to listen:…
My guests on the 12/11/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Cinnabar Theater Executive Director Diane Dragone and director Bridget Codoni for a conversation about their upcoming holiday presentation of The Holiday Songbook. The show has four performances in the Warren Auditorium on the campus of Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park…
