by Harry Duke * Jukebox musicals, with few exceptions, are not known for their intricate plots or dramatic surprises. They exist to provide their audiences with musical comfort food. Case in point, the Sonoma Arts Live production of A Night with Janis Joplin. The show is heading into its closing weekend on the Rotary Stage…
by Cari Lynn Pace * The sleepy little wine tasting hamlet of Sonoma has a real rockin’ blues concert with Sonoma Arts Live’s latest production. A Night with Janis Joplin, originally produced on Broadway in 2013, is a stage full of classic blues re-enacted by powerhouse singers. They’re backed up with a 7-piece band raising…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Every star has a story to tell as she worked her way to the Broadway stage. Transcendence Theatre Company, the Sonoma home for stage and screen luminaries, realized these stories are fascinating for their fun and failures. They built a show around seven women who spanned seven decades of singing…
My guests on the first of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on 09/04/25 on The Drive on 95.5 were Jaime Love and Libby Oberlin for a discussion about the Sonoma Arts Live production of An Night with Janis Joplin. The show runs on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma through September 21.…
by Harry Duke * It’s been fourteen years since the Transcendence Theatre Company landed and took root in the Sonoma Valley with their Broadway-caliber musical revues. They added the occasional fully-produced Broadway show to their repertoire in 2018 with A Chorus Line and in 2023 they showed The Full Monty in Glen Ellen. After a…
By Cari Lynn Pace * When I was 20, I listened to Carole King’s album Tapestry so often it’s a wonder the phonograph needle didn’t cut through to the other side. I sang along with the gusto of youth and the emotion of young love. I was nurtured by all the heartfelt lyrics to “It’s…
by Harry Duke * Fans of the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels will be pleased to hear that the Broadway musical adaptation sticks pretty close to the Steve Martin/Michael Caine comedy. Sonoma Arts Live has a production directed by Carl Jordan running on the Rotary Stage at the Sonoma Community Center through July 27. Suave and…
No less a source than the Mayo Clinic recommends laughter as a great source of stress relief and in these stressful times, two North Bay productions may be just what the doctor orders for local audiences. The SRJC Theatre Arts Department is presenting Neil Simon’s Rumors through April 27, while Sonoma Arts Live presents the…
‘Six Degrees of Separation’ is the concept that every individual on the planet can be connected to every other individual through six or fewer social connections. First posited in the late 1920s, it entered the cultural lexicon via John Guare’s same-named play in 1990, so much so that a parlor game in which participants were…
My guests on the 01/30/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Libby Oberlin and Jonathen Blue from the Sonoma Arts Live production of Six Degrees of Separation . The show runs on the Rotary Stage in the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma through February 16. Click below to listen: ********** Click HERE…
North Bay Stage and Screen 