by Barry Willis * Sonoma Arts Live continues its ambitious and mostly successful run of boy-meets-girl favorite The Light in the Piazza through May 10. A tale about an American woman and her daughter on a tour of Italy, with book by Craig Lucas and music by Adam Guettel, the stage show, based on the…
My guests on the first of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM on 04/30/26 were Lizzy Bies and Jaden “Moose” Frank from the Santa Rosa Junior Colllege Theater Student Production Club’s presentation of Alastair McDowall’s X. The sci-fi drama plays in the SRJC’s Frank Chong Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa for…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Sonoma Arts Live invites the audience to join a mother and daughter as they sightsee in Florence, Italy in this musical with lyrics by Adam Guettel based on Craig Lucas’s book. The stage, designed Laurynn Malilay and Sandra Ish, overflows with statuary, fountains, lush plantings, and a live band directed…
My guests on the first of two 04/23/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Sandra Ish and Jaime Love from the Sonoma Arts Live production of The Light in the Piazza. The romantic musical runs on the Rotary Stage of the Sonoma Community Center through May 10. After a discussion about…
by Harry Duke * A middle-aged British woman, wife, and mother wonders whatever became of herself and sets out to rediscover life in Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine. Jennifer King stars in the one-woman show now running on the Rotary Stage in the Sonoma Community Center through Feb. 22. We meet Shirley in her Liverpool home…
by Cari Lynn Pace * A middle-aged housewife tosses her worn apron aside and packs a silk kimono for the Greek Islands. Meet Shirley Valentine, a charming woman in Liverpool, England who does everything for everyone, including her spoiled daughter and demeaning husband. Shirley doesn’t complain as she talks aloud, examining her life and the…
My guest on the second of two 02/05/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM was Jennifer King, currently appearing in Sonoma Arts Live’s production of Shirley Valentine. The show runs on the Rotary Stage of the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma through February 22. Click below to listen: ********** Click HERE for…
by Harry Duke * What’s Christmas without a production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) on a local stage? Sonoma Arts Live fills the bill with their production of Scrooge! The Musical. The SAL production runs at the Sonoma Community Center through Dec. 21. The stage version, which Leslie Bricusse…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Scrooge! The Musical is Charles Dickens’ timeless story A Christmas Carol shined up by Leslie Bricusse with a book, music, and lyrics. It’s Sonoma Arts Live’s holiday show, now running on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center through Dec. 21 The show gives several children and teens their…
If there’s one word to describe North Bay theatre companies’ choices for their 2025 holiday productions, it’s “familiar”. One company is repeating their selections from last year while two others bring back chestnuts whose memories still linger from their successful mounting on other local stages. Rohnert Park’s Spreckels Theatre Company is the company with two…
North Bay Stage and Screen 