2018’s Top Torn Tickets – The Plays!

‘Tis the time for “Best of …” lists, so in the spirit of my illustrious predecessor and with a nod to the substantial differences in mounting a musical versus a play, here are my top torn tickets of 2018 – Part One, the Plays (in alphabetical order): Blackbird – (Main Stage West) – As dark subject…

Review: “Love, Linda” in Petaluma

For years, Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has closed out the year with a musical cabaret show. Past years’ productions have celebrated the work of musical artists from Edith Piaf to Mahalia Jackson to Frank Sinatra. This year, the work of classic American tunesmith Cole Porter takes center stage via Love Linda, a look at Porter through…

Review: “the 12 Dates of Christmas” in Santa Rosa

One-person shows with a holiday theme tend to skew toward the male variety, whether it’s a show about a disgruntled department store Christmas elf (David Sedaris’s Santaland Diaries) or a single dad desperate to maintain the fiction of Santa Claus with his children (David Templeton’s Polar Bears). Even Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol has been…

Review: “The House of Yes” in Sebastopol

Calling Wendy MacLeod’s The House of Yes a “family” show – while accurate – is not entirely truthful. Calling it a “fucked-up family” show would be infinitely more precise. The jet-black comedy is running now at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West through December 16. Meet Mrs. Pascal (Laura Jorgensen), the matriarch of a family that has…