2023’s Top Torn Tix, the Plays!

While musicals may be the bread and butter of local theatre, much can be learned about a community through the plays programmed in a company’s season. Comedies seemed few and far between this year, which may be a reflection of our local and perhaps national feelings of unease with what’s going on in our schools…

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,…

North Bay Holiday Show Preview

If the displays in Costco are any indication, the holiday season apparently began in mid-September. How odd then that theatre companies seem to wait until mid-November to unveil their holiday-themed productions. This season, North Bay audiences in search of holiday entertainment will have a variety of shows from which to choose from the traditional to…

On discovering the magic of film festivals

I have loved the idea of film festivals ever since I moved to Northern California in autumn of 1981 and ‒ while applying for a job in downtown Mill Valley ‒ saw a stack of programs for the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival. What is now a world-renowned, 10-day-long cinematic showcase was then celebrating its…

Review: “Romeo & Juliet” in Mill Valley

Mill Valley’s Curtain Theatre must not have gotten the memo about Summer Shakespeare al fresco in Marin requiring a production of Twelfth Night (two other companies are doing it.) Instead of a comedy, Mill Valley’s Old Mill Park Amphitheatre is the scene of great tragedy as the company presents Romeo & Juliet through Sept. 4.…

Review: “Kinky Boots the Musical” in Mill Valley

Watch it, Mill Valley! Your quiet little burg is currently under siege from what may be (according to some pundits and politicians) the greatest threat our nation faces in these troubled times. Lock your windows and bolt your doors because attendees of the latest show at the Throckmorton Theatre have reported multiple sightings of… drag…

Review: “Pride & Prejudice, The Musical” in Ross

Fans of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice have had a plethora of adaptations of the 19th century novel from which to choose, from the trio of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon theatrical extensions of the story to the recent gay-themed film Fire Island, which transported reasonable facsimiles of Austen’s characters from Hertfordshire, England to the…

Top Torn Tix of 2022 – Part II

Between health-related closures, dwindling audiences, casting challenges, and a couple of big changes in company leadership, there was almost as much drama off-stage as on in the North Bay theatre community in the past year. There was an assumption by some that pandemic-weary audiences (and theatre companies) would seek relief in comedies and small-scale musicals…

Top Torn Tix of 2022 – Part I

Live theatre continued its steady march to some semblance of normalcy in 2022, but health related-closures continue to take their toll on the North Bay theatre community. After a promising start to the year evidenced by an increase in the number and scale of productions presented by local companies, the end of the year brought…