Jukebox musicals have become the bread and butter for a lot of community theatres. Minimal casts, simple sets and the built-in audience that comes with a show about a popular singer or musical group are tough for an artistic director to resist. In 1988, playwright Ted Swindley took 27 songs recorded by Patsy Cline and…
My guests on the Thursday, July 19 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were director Steven David Martin and actors Christi Calson and Haley Hollis from the Raven Players ‘Raven on the Road’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Click below to hear that interview. *** For more information, go to www.raventheater.org
My guests on the Thursday, July 12 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were director Michael Ross and actress Karen Pinomaki from Sonoma Arts Live’s Always… Patsy Cline. Click below to hear that interview. *** For more information, go to sonomaartslive.org
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was originally scheduled last season at the Spreckels Theatre Company. The musical, whose development started in Germany and ended in New Jersey (having never made it to Broadway), is an atypical Disney production. More Les Misérables than Little Mermaid, it’s an interesting amalgam of Victor Hugo’s gothic novel and music from…
Guests on my Thursday, July 5 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon included director David Lear and actors John Browning and Sydney McNulty from the Shakespeare in the Cannery’s closing production of Shakespeare in Love. The interview begins at the 2:15 mark. Click below to hear that interview. *** For more information, go to http://www.shakespeareinthecannery.com
One might think that the talents behind Downton Abbey and Phantom of the Opera would be odd choices to make a Broadway musical out of a 2003 movie starring Jack Black. One would be correct. School of Rock, now on the San Francisco stop of its national tour, is Julian Fellowes’ and Sir Andrew Lloyd…
In a world of musicals based on movies and TV shows, why not Shakespeare? Such is Illyria, a melodious adaptation of Twelfth Night first produced Off-Broadway in 2002 and now running at 6th Street Playhouse. Don’t let the words ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘musical’ alarm you. Peter Mills has written a book and score that takes the…
For theater lovers, this time of year is a little like Christmas as North Bay theater companies take turns revealing the plays and musicals they have planned for 2018/2019. NBS&S has already announced the upcoming seasons of several companies, including Spreckels, Main Stage West, and Sonoma Arts Live. Here are three other recent season announcements…
After seven years in Santa Rosa—making him the longest-serving artistic director in the company’s 13-year history—Miller has accepted a job at the University of Idaho, where he’ll become an assistant professor of acting and directing, beginning this fall. Miller will officially depart 6th Street on July 13. “Because of my in-the-trenches, real-world work as a…
Guests on my Thursday, June 21 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon included actors Kelly Hitman and Caleb Noal from the Raven Players production of Shrek, The Musical. Click below to hear that interview. *** For more information, go to raventheater.org
North Bay Stage and Screen 