Review: “Sweeney Todd” in Novato

Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd is an exceedingly difficult show to produce.  More opera than musical (San Francisco Opera actually did a production in 2015), the vocal demands alone create a significant casting challenge for most theatre companies. The complexities of Sondheim’s score and the requirements of the set design add to the…

Review: “Gypsy” in Santa Rosa

In sports, the term ‘ringer’ generally refers to the practice of using a clearly superior competitor in order to gain an unfair advantage. In theatrical terms, it can be used to describe the importation of outside talent in the hope of drawing a larger-than-normal audience. In both cases, the hope is that the player/performer will…

Review: “Little Shop of Horrors” in Kentfield

When Little Shop of Horrors opened in New York in 1982, it was in a small 98-seat Off-Off-Broadway theatre. Its success led to its move Off-Broadway to Manhattan’s 299-seat Orpheum Theatre where it ran for five years. It had a chance to move to the Great White Way, but playwright/lyricist Howard Ashman felt the show…

KSRO Interview: “The Good Doctor”

My guests on the Thursday, October 3 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Leslie McCauley, Haley Hollis, and Riley Craig from the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Department production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor. Click below to listen: **********

Review: “Merman’s Apprentice” in Sonoma

It’s a virtual Merman-palooza in the North Bay as two theatre companies present ‘musical fables’ with Ethel Merman connections. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse has Gypsy running through Oct. 20 while Sonoma Arts Live has Merman’s Apprentice, an original musical with a fictional Merman character, running through Oct. 13. Merman’s Apprentice is a throw-back to…