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On December 4, 1956, a legendary jam session was held at rock and roll pioneer Sam Phillips’ Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley were labeled the “Million Dollar Quartet” by a local journalist and the moniker stuck to the recordings of the session released decades later. In 2006, Colin Escott and Floyd Matrux unleashed a highly fictionalized and time-compressed theatrical version of the event also titled Million Dollar Quartet. After several successful bay area productions, Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse gives the North Bay a chance to check out this popular jukebox musical now running through March 24. Jukebox musicals are usually comprised of a couple of dozen well-known songs connected by expositionary material and Million Dollar Quartet is no different. Sam Phillips (Benjamin Stowe) narrates the tale of the event, filling in the backstory and presenting the dramatic conflict (Will Johnny Cash sign a contract extension or fly the coop?) around which the music swirls. At a recording session for Carl Perkins (Jake Turner) with Jerry Lee Lewis (Nick Kenrick, also music director) on piano, who should happen to drop by but Elvis Presley and his girlfriend (played by Daniel Durston and Samantha Arden) and Johnny Cash (played by Steve Lasiter)! In no time, there’ll be a whole lot of shakin goin’ on as we’re treated to “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “That’s All Right”, “Great Balls of Fire” and 20 other classics. Director Michael Ray Wisely – who has played Phillips and directed this piece before - had the benefit of 6th Street expending significant coin on this production beginning with an impressive set (Conor Woods adapting Kelly James Tighe’s original scenic design) and imported talent. It’s not an easy show to cast as each performer must be a “triple threat” - an actor, a singer, and a musician. Kenrick reprises his TBA Award-winning performance as Jerry Lee Lewis and steals the show with his kinetic piano playing and entertaining characterization. Local performer Jake Turner manages to hold his own against Kenrick as Carl Perkins, and Durston and Lasiter do fine in capturing the essence of their characters while avoiding simple caricatures. They receive good musical support by locals Nick Ambrosino on drums and bassist Shovanny Delgado Carillo. Ignore the shaky musical history and often-pedestrian exposition that’s presented and you’ll find yourself enjoying a well-performed staged concert of some of rock and roll’s greatest hits. 'Million Dollar Quartet' runs Thursdays through Sundays through March 24 at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm; there are Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Anyone going to a performance of Hello, Dolly! - running now at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco through March 17 - with an appetite for an enlightened look at male/female relationships is likely to leave quite hungry. The current national tour of the 2017 revival of the 1964 Broadway smash based on Thorton Wilder’s 1955 revision of his 1938 play extrapolated from an Austrian playwright’s 1842 extension of an English dramatists 1835 one-act reflects the then-common attitudes towards a women’s place in society and the home. Anyone going to a performance of Hello, Dolly! with an appetite to see a Broadway legend at work, or hear magnificent musical classics delivered with gusto, or see a bevy of athletic dancers spring across the stage in spirited numbers based on Gower Champion’s original choreography, or be dazzled by the color and craftsmanship at work in Santo Loquasto’s scenic and costume design, is likely to leave the theatre with their appetite satiated. Tony-winner Betty Buckley (Cats, Sunset Boulevard) plays Dolly Gallagher Levi, a matchmaker and jill-of-all-trades in 19th century New York engaged by the well-known Yonkers half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder (Lewis J. Stadlen) to find him a bride, an assignment which Dolly intends to fill herself. Sub-plots involve Vandergelder’s niece Ermengarde and her paramour Ambrose Kemper (played by Morgan Kirner and Garret Hawe) and Feed Store clerks Cornelius and Barnaby (played by Nic Rouleau Jess LeProtto). At age 71, Buckley does her damnedest to make the part made famous by Carol Channing (at age 42) her own, and succeeds to an extent. It’s obvious and understandable that her choreography has been limited and that she lacks the vocal power to deliver some of the musical’s biggest moments (“Before the Parade Passes By” was disappointingly flat) but she really delivers in the show’s quieter moments when she engages with the memories of her late husband. The supporting cast is outstanding with Rouleau and LeProtto really scoring as the clerks unleashed in New York City and Analisa Leaming and Kristen Hahn as the objects of their affections. MVP of this production goes to Stadlen, a reliable Broadway performer for the past 50 years who often toils in the anonymity common to great character actors. His eyebrows are as expressive as anything else on stage. Go ahead, roll your eyes during “It Takes a Woman” but don’t be surprised to find yourself cheering after “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “The Waiters’ Gallop” and, at the very least, smiling through almost everything else. ‘Hello, Dolly! ’runs through March 17 at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. Dates and times vary. For more information, go to shnsf.com

Sometimes the most interesting dramas are the simplest - a single set, a few characters, a conflict. “Naturalistic” plays, as they are sometimes referred, were the result of a late 19th century movement in European theatre to enhance the realism of plays with an understanding of how heredity and environment can influence an individual. The most famous play to come out of this period is Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Set in the downstairs kitchen of an estate, it’s a three-character piece examining issues of sex and class. The title character’s the daughter of a count with an eye for the manor’s chauffeur, complicated by the presence of the manor cook who also happens to be the chauffeur’s wife-to-be. Playwright Patrick Marber (Closer, film’s Notes on a Scandal) adapted the play for British television in 1995 under the title After Miss Julie and a stage version premiered in 2003. It’s the version running now through March 3 at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West. Marber moved the time and setting of the play to post-WWII England, specifically to the night of the Labour Party’s landslide victory over Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party. The significant upheaval to Great Britain’s political and social system is reflected in the characters. Miss Julie (Illana Niernberger) is literally “to the manor born”, but that doesn’t stop her from slumming with the servants. John (Sam Coughlin) is the Lord of the Manor’s chauffeur who, while harboring a long love for Miss Julie, is to be married to Christine (Jennifer Coté), the manor cook. Miss Julie is used to getting what she wants, and that includes John. John wants something, too, and that is to “improve” his lot in life and Miss Julie can facilitate that. Christine wants a simple life with a husband with a pension and a family. Co-Directors/Scenic Designers Elizabeth Craven and David Lear elicit strong performances from the cast. Niernberger’s Julie is lost in a changing society, turning on a dime from entitled superior to groveling submissive. Coughlin’s John is the villain of the piece, desperate to be something other than he is at any cost, but destined to be no more than a (literally) bootlicking lackey. Coté’s Christine is the most aggrieved of the party, but she is willing to overlook - or forgive – John’s boorishness to ensure she gets what she wants. After Miss Julie is a classic love triangle told exceedingly well, though the question of how much “love” exists between any of them is up for debate. 'After Miss Julie' runs through March 3 at Main Stage West in Sebastopol. Thursday through Saturday evening performances are at 8pm. The Sunday matinee is at 5pm. For more information, go to mainstagewest.com

Musical zombies rise from the dead to sing an evening of ‘50’s pop standards. Let me try that again. On February 4, 1964, The Plaids, an eastern Pennsylvania-based vocal quartet, were headed for a major gig at the Fusel-Lounge at the Harrisburg Airport Hilton when their cherry red Mercury was broadsided by a bus full of Catholic schoolgirls. The girls, who escaped unscathed, were on their way to see the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. The Plaids went on to that Great Performance Hall in the Sky… or at least the green room of the Great Performance Hall in the Sky. Rather than spend an eternity waiting to “go on”, they make their way back to earth to give the concert that never was. That is the plot upon which Stuart Ross and James Raitt hang twenty-four musical standards in their very popular jukebox musical Forever Plaid, running through March 3 at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa. Frankie (F. James Raasch), Sparky (Scottie Woodard), Jinx (Michael Scott Wells), and Smudge (David Murphy) were high school friends who dreamed of musical glory. Following the path created by ‘50’s versions of what we now refer to as “boy bands” (The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Crew-Cuts, etc.), they formed The Plaids and specialized in four-part harmonies. And that’s what you’ll hear over the Michael Ross-directed show’s one hour and 45-minute running time. “Three Coins in the Fountain”, “Sixteen Tons”, “Chain Gang”, and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” are just some of the 20-plus songs performed by the crisply costumed gents (courtesy Barbara McFadden) with matching choreography by Woodard. Music is nicely performed by a trio consisting of music director Craig Burdette (keyboards), Quentin Cohen (drums), and Alan Parks (bass). The guys are good with each one getting a solo shot to go along with the group work. Their stock characters (the shy one, the funny, etc.) banter with each other between numbers and amusingly engage with the audience. The comedic numbers are particularly well done with the show’s highlight being a three-minute recreation of The Ed Sullivan Show, though it helps to have some familiarity with that show. The same can be said for the music. Yes, it’s a trip down memory lane, but if toe-tapping, hand-squeezing and perpetual grinning are any indications, Forever Plaid hits all the right notes with an audience willing to make the trip. ’Forever Plaid' plays through March 3rd at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa. Thursday evening performances are at 7pm; Fridays and Saturdays are at 8pm. There’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to luckypennynapa.com

To see or not to see? That is the question. Anyone with even the slightest interest in theatre has probably seen a production or two of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in their lifetime. Considered by many to be Shakespeare’s - if not the world’s - greatest play, it’s one-third ghost story, one-third dysfunctional family drama, and one-third revenge tale. It’s now the first-ever Shakespeare play to be mounted on the Nellie W. Codding stage at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center. Artistic Director Sheri Lee Miller helms the production which runs through February 17. Something is rotten in the state Denmark. A spirit claiming to be the late King has appeared to Prince Hamlet to inform him he was poisoned by his own brother Claudius, who then married the widowed queen Gertrude and usurped the throne. He has one simple request of Hamlet – revenge! Miller has gathered an impressive roster of talent to essay the Bard’s classic roles. First and foremost, there’s Keith Baker as the brooding Prince. Baker is a marvel to watch and to listen to as Shakespeare’s words come trippingly off his tongue. Peter Downey is magnetic as the scheming Claudius, shading his villainy with a glimpse into his humanity and his true love of Gertrude. Eric Thompson’s Polonius brings a welcome lightness to the stage and is sorely missed upon his “departure”. Chad Yarish as faithful friend Horatio, Danielle Cain as the easily swayed Gertude, Ivy Rose Miller as the doomed Ophelia and the entire supporting cast do honor to their roles. The stark yet imposing set by Elizabeth Bazzano and Eddy Hansen in conjunction with Hansen’s lighting Design and Chris Schloemp’s projections design give the production an otherworldly feel. Costumes by Pamela Johnson pop against the dark and dank (courtesy of ample fog) backgrounds. An extremely effective addition is a live music “soundscape” composed and performed by Nancy Hayashibari. Accompanying many scenes, Hayashibari’s contribution to this production’s success cannot be overstated. Look, folks, I’m no Shakespeare pushover. It’s overdone, usually underproduced, and often interminable, but I get it. It’s royalty free, has roles that are on every actor’s bucket list, and comes with a built-in audience. Yes, it’s long, but director Sheri Lee Miller has put together an outstanding production of Hamlet that should reach beyond that “Shakespeare” audience. Will they come? Aye, there’s the rub. 'Hamlet' runs through February 17th at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm, the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. There’s also a Thursday, February 14th performance at 7pm. For more information, go to spreckelsonline.com

Serial killing would seem to be rather ghoulish subject matter for a comedic play, yet Arsenic and Old Lace has been a reliable audience-pleaser for over seventy-five years. Sonoma Arts Live has a production running through February 10. Joseph Kesselring’s tale of the Brewster sisters and their pension for helping lonely old men meet their maker via a glass of elderberry wine debuted on Broadway in 1941 and ran for 1,444 performances. It starred Jean Adair, Josephine Hull, and Boris Karloff as black sheep Jonathan Brewster. A film adaptation by Frank Capra followed in 1944 starring Cary Grant as Jonathan Brewster. Though the play has since become a staple of the American theater, like an old haunted house it’s starting to creak. Mortimer Brewster (Michael Coury Murdock) returns to his childhood home and his Aunts Abby & Martha (Karen Brocker & Karen Pinomaki). After getting engaged to the next-door preacher’s daughter Elaine (Julianne Bradbury), Mortimer is horrified to discover his aunts have taken on the most macabre hobby. They’re helping lonely old men find “peace” and disposing of the bodies in the basement. Luckily, Uncle “Teddy” (Tim Setzer) believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt and is always willing to dig a new lock downstairs at the Panama Canal for the latest “yellow fever victim.” Mortimer figures he can pin everything on the obviously insane Teddy, but things get complicated when brother Jonathan (Mike Schaeffer) shows up with a physician friend (Rose Roberts) and a body of their own. Director Michael Ross has some good talent at work here. Mmes. Brocker and Pinomaki are delightfully dotty as the sisters, and Setzer invigorates the stage with his every appearance. However, Mr. Murdock is too one-note as Mortimer, showing little range of emotion considering the insanity that’s going on around him. He rarely seems to be “in the moment”, often appearing to be casually awaiting his next line. Ms. Bradbury is far more animated as Elaine, making one wonder what she see’s in Mortimer. Schaeffer and Roberts are two very talented actors, but I’m not sure these were the right roles for them. I found Schaeffer’s menacing Jonathan undone by his distracting John O’Hurley (J. Peterman from Seinfeld)-like voice and Roberts baby-faced Dr. Einstein too youthful to capture the character’s exhaustion and desperation. Nice stagecraft compliments the performances. The black and white set (by Michael Walraven) and costumes (by Janice Snyder) evoke a classic cinema period-like feel. Arsenic and Old Lace is definitely a nostalgia piece, best enjoyed by those familiar with it. ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ runs through February 10 at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 7:30pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to sonomaartslive.org.

When playwright August Wilson passed away in 2005, he left behind a body of work that has become a staple of the American theatre. As much a documentarian as a poet and author, the ten plays (Jitney, Fences, et al.) of Wilson’s Century (or Pittsburgh) Cycle chronicle the twentieth century African-American experience mostly through the lives of the residents of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where Wilson grew up. In 2002, Wilson stepped away from the Cycle and turned to himself as his subject with How I Learned What I Learned, running now at Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company in partnership with San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and Oakland’s Ubuntu Theatre Project. The show will play other Bay Area venues under their auspices after the conclusion of its Marin run. Directed with obvious love by Margo Hall and starring Steven Anthony Jones as Wilson, the show is a 110-minute intermission-less conversation between the author and the audience. It’s not a “greatest hits” review, but a look back at the life experiences that shaped Wilson as a young man and the people he encountered along the way. Those familiar with Wilson’s work will recognize some people as the basis for characters or plot elements in his work. Set on a simple stage against a backdrop of sheets of paper hanging like laundry drying on a line, each of Wilson’s often humorous reminiscences is announced by a projection of a typewritten title. After a quick review of the African-American experience through 1863, it begins with his decision to move out of his mother’s house and zig-zags through his experiences as a young man seeking work, his neighborhood interactions, his dalliances, his time in jail, his discovery of jazz, and the indignities he suffered because of the color of his skin. From an early job interview that ended with a warning not to steal, to being asked to stop mowing a lawn because the white home owner objected to a black man being on her property, to the difficulties in cashing a check, the show’s most powerful moments are those in which Wilson reminds us that the respect of others won’t come without respect of self. Steven Anthony Jones is a marvelous story teller who, though he struggled a bit with lines on opening night, completely captured the audience by the time the lights had dimmed. August Wilson may be gone, but Jones brings him roaring back to life with an entertaining, enraging, and eye-opening evening of solo theatre. ‘How I Learned What I Learned’ runs Tuesday through Sunday through February 3 at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley before moving to other venues in the Bay Area. Dates and times vary. For more information, go to marintheatre.org

Continuing with the tradition of theatre companies producing theatre about theatre, 6th Street Playhouse is presenting Ken Ludwig’s 1995 door-slamming farce Moon Over Buffalo. The backstage comedy runs through February 3. Buffalo, New York’s Erlanger Theater is hosting the repertory company of George and Charlotte Hay (Dodds Delzell & Madeleine Ashe), grade-B actors and grade-A hams who never made it big on stage. Content to spend their waning years touring second-rate theatres and playing roles more appropriate for actors half their age, they’re on the ropes when word comes to George that Frank Capra is coming to see them perform and possibly cast them as replacements for Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson in a big-budget period film. Charlotte doesn’t believe George as she’s just found out he’s been lying about an affair he had with company ingenue Eileen (Victoria Saitz) who happens to be carrying George’s child. Charlotte announces she’s running off with family friend/attorney Richard (Joe Winkler) which sends George into a drunken spiral. Charlotte finds out the Capra story is true, so it’s up to Charlotte, her recently returned daughter Rosalind (Chandler Parrot-Thomas), her daughter’s ex-lover and current stage manager Paul (Robert Nelson) and Charlotte’s hearing-impaired mother Ethel (Shirley Nilsen Hall) to sober up George in time for the matinee. There’s also the confusion over Rosalind’s current fiancé Howard (Erik Weiss), a TV weatherman who is mistaken by Charlotte for Capra and by George as Eileen’s vengeful brother, and a concluding performance of Noël Coward’s Private Lives mashed up with Cyrano de Bergerac. Director Carl Jordan has a terrific cast of comedic talents running, jumping, stumbling and rolling through Ludwig’s tale which comes off as a lesser knock-off of his superior Lend Me a Tenor. All the elements are there (mistaken identity, feuding lovers, running jokes, etc.) but at its core it’s a hollow re-do that starts slowly before hitting its stride. More problematic, the characters as written simply aren’t very likeable. The show only works if you care about the characters and want them to get out of their mess. I just didn’t. The set by Jason Jamerson is solid – literally, as it has to withstand two hours of door slamming – and it’s one of the better sets seen recently on 6th Street’s stage. The cast is game and their timing is great with each squeezing some laughs out of their characters. Delzell gets to play half the show soused, Parrot-Thomas is quite delightful as Rosalind, and while Weiss’s physical comedy is always fun to watch, I’d really like to see him do something different with his next role. Moon Over Buffalo is a case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts. 'Moon Over Buffalo' runs Friday through Sunday through February 3 at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. There’s a Thursday, January 24 performance at 7:30 pm For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

It’s said that musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre, so here’s a list of the North Bay productions I toasted this past year. Here are my top torn tickets of 2018: Part Two, the Musicals (in alphabetical order): Always, Patsy Cline… - Sonoma Arts Live - Danielle DeBow’s Patsy was as heartbreaking as Karen Pinomaki’s Louise was amusing in director Michael Ross’s labor of love. Excellent costume and set design work (also by Ross) along with outstanding live music accompaniment under the direction of Ellen Patterson made this a memorable evening of musical theatre. A Chorus Line - Novato Theater Company - Few small theatre companies would take the risk of producing a vehicle that requires triple-threat performers in most roles. Director Marilyn Izdebksi’s decades of experience in dance and choreography and terrific casting were key to this production’s success. Hands on a Hardbody - Lucky Penny - The perfect sized musical for the Napa company’s small space, there wasn’t much room for anything else once they got the pickup truck that’s central to the story on stage. Director Taylor Bartolucci and choreographer Staci Arriaga had just enough room for a nice, diverse cast to beautifully tell the atypical story. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change - Raven Players - The cavernous Raven Theatre in Healdsburg was converted into a quaint black-box space where director Diane Bailey let loose four talented performers to tell musical stories about the arc of human relationships. It worked really well. Illyria - 6th Street Playhouse - Shakespeare. Ugh. A Shakespeare musical? Groan. A really entertaining musical production based on Twelfth Night? Surprising! Director Craig Miller’s swan song was a clever adaptation of the Bard’s comedy that combined excellent vocal talents and the musical direction of Lucas Sherman to produce the best sounding show I’d seen at 6th Street in a long time. Peter Pan - Spreckels Theatre Company - There’s no better stage in the North Bay on which to see a large-scale musical than the Codding stage at Spreckels. Flying around on wires is so much more impressive in a 550-seat theater, and Sarah Wintermeyers’ winsome performance as Peter was good enough for me to set aside my long-standing beef with always casting a female in the role. Scrooge in Love! - Lucky Penny - A fairly new play (this was only its third production) that’s good enough to become a Christmas standard. A great lead performance from Brian Herndon was supported by a top-notch ensemble in this reverential continuation of the Dickens classic.

‘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 matter goes, this look at a pedophile and his victim is as unsettling a piece of theatre as I’ve seen. Under David Lear’s direction, Sharia Pierce and John Shillington acted the hell out of David Harrower’s script which raised a lot of really uncomfortable questions and provided no answers. Buried Child - Main Stage West – Elizabeth Craven’s direction of Sam Shepard’s nightmarish look at the crumbling American Dream found the right balance between the real and the surreal in this dark, funny, disturbing, and heartbreaking show. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Spreckels Theatre Company – Elijah Pinkham’s revelatory performance as a 15-year-old with an Asperger’s/autism-like condition on a journey of self-discovery was the centerpiece of this Elizabeth Craven-directed production. Death of a Salesman - Novato Theatre Company & 6th Street Playhouse - It’s a critic’s burden to have to go see multiple productions of the same piece within weeks or months of each other and it’s rare when both productions are superb. The Carl Jordan and Craig Miller-helmed productions each had their own strengths and weaknesses but both had towering lead performances. Joe Winkler’s and Charles Siebert’s takes on Willy Loman were utterly different and totally devastating. Equus - 6th Street Playhouse – Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play about a boy and his horse was such a left-field choice for 6th Street to produce that I really didn’t know what to expect. That this very difficult play turned out to be one of the North Bay’s best 2018 productions is a credit to director Lennie Dean and an outstanding ensemble. The Great God Pan – Cinnabar Theater – A terrific combination of script, performance, technical and design craft under the direction of Taylor Korobow made this rumination on recovered memory unforgettable. Oslo - Marin Theatre Company – While the Oslo Accords have been deemed a failure, MTC’s excellent production of the J.T. Rogers drama about the negotiations that lead to them reminded us that humanity is too often the missing element in politics today. Next week: Top Torn Tickets, the Musicals!

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 the eyes of his wife, Ms. Linda Lee. Veteran cabaret performer Maureen McVerry plays Mrs. Cole Porter and yes, there was a Mrs. Cole Porter. More than a marriage of convenience, the Porters had a genuine affection for each other, despite Porter leading an active homosexual life. Notwithstanding the challenges that presented to the relationship, they remained married until Lee’s death in 1954. The show is set in the Porter’s elegant Parisian apartment where Linda reminisces about her life before Porter, how they met, their life together in Paris, their adventures in Hollywood, and their settling in an apartment at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Interspersed between the memories are, of course, the songs. The tale of their time in Paris is matched with “I Love Paris”, their time in Hollywood with “Night and Day” (also the title of the highly fictionalized film biography where the diminutive Porter was portrayed by the 6’4” Cary Grant). Her complex relationship with Porter is represented by “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and “Wunderbar”. Ms. McVerry’s vocals are accompanied by a terrific on-stage three-piece combo of piano (played by Chris Alexander for the opening performance, musical director Cesar Cancino handles it for the rest of the run), bass by Steven Hoffman, and drums by John Shebalin. McVerry does not possess a particularly rich voice, which led the musical accompaniment to regularly overwhelm her vocals. We hear Porter’s beautiful compositions, but his often amusing, often passionate lyrics are frequently lost. Cinnabar should really consider miking their musicals. Director Clark Sterling keeps things moving at a brisk pace and brings the show in at 85 minutes, including an intermission. Scenic designer Wayne Hovey brings an expansive apartment feel to the Cinnabar space, though I wish the projections used throughout the show had been worked more into the set rather than displayed over it. Love, Linda is an affectionate look back at one of America’s greatest musical talents. My affection for it would be amplified if the vocals were. 'Love, Linda' runs through January 13th at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. There’s a New Year’s Eve party and performance at 9pm on December 31st. For more information, go to cinnabartheater.org.

Dear Evan Hansen, I attended the opening night performance of the San Francisco run of your national tour at the Curran Theatre. I’ve heard a lot about your show - the six Tonys (including Best Musical) and the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. I’ve seen the songs performed on various television shows and many of my friends own the album. I know this show has touched a nerve with a lot of people and, after seeing it, I understand why. Yet, I left the theatre feeling a bit uncomfortable. Your story of a friendless high school student (played by Ben Levi Ross) with an unspecified behavioral condition who finds himself trapped in a lie of his own creation about a fellow student’s death has a lot to say. It speaks to the lonely, the different, and the heartbroken via some beautiful songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, like “You Will Be Found” and “Waving Through a Window”. Your tale of the desperate need for human connections in a technologically oppressive world is filled with terrific performances, especially Jessica Philips as your mother, Jared Kleinman as your “family friend” Jared, and Maggie McKenna as Zoe, the object of your affection. Steven Levenson’s book speaks many truths as well. I have experienced first-hand the phenomenon of what happens at a public school when students are faced with the unexpected death of a classmate; how some latch on to a person they never knew and create a relationship that never existed. Where I find the story less than truthful, however, is in dealing with the issue of your condition and the underlying message of the myth of a “good lie”. What is it that led you to seek therapeutic help? Is your awkwardness a manifestation of that condition? If it is, why is the audience amused by it? Do they find your behavior cute? Funny? Is your pain being played for laughs? Is that why your lying is excused? The more I thought about these things, the more troubled I became. And what of your lie? Is the fact that everyone seems to come out of the situation unscathed, or even better off, a classic case of the ends justifying the means? Is that the message with which the playwright really wants to leave us? We live in perilous times, Evan. Truth is a precious commodity that is in too short supply these days. Let’s not lose sight of that via eye-popping stagecraft and soaring ballads. Sincerely, Me ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ runs through December 30th at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Dates and times vary. For more information, go to sfcurran.com

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 reduced to a one-man show with Scrooge. Playwright Ginna Hoben’s the 12 Dates of Christmas is a rare female-centric holiday themed show that, despite its title, has little to do with the holiday and more to do with a one woman’s experience in the dating world. It runs at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through January 6. Mary (Jess Headington), a thirty-something actress in New York, is getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with her fiancé when he calls to beg off due to food poisoning. She’s watching the Macy’s Parade on television, when what to her wondering eyes do appear but said fiancé nibbling on his co-worker’s ear. No sooner is the engagement ring dropped in a Salvation Army kettle when Mary begins her own parade - of dates. We skip from holiday to holiday and follow her through a year of family set-ups, chance meetings and the occasional hook-up. Each date is represented by an ornament Mary hangs on her Christmas tree. There’s a doctor who’s too good to be true, a bartender who forces Mary to break one of her personal rules (never date anyone with an ass smaller than your own), a stalker, a guy who offers her a steady job, a co-worker, an old friend, and even the ex-fiancé. Some dates are better than others. She turns down a guy who calls back. She waits for a call from a guy who never does. A year later, she’s still single, but seems content with her choices and has moved on, continuing to build her life, whether there’s another person in it or not. Headington is a talented performer and engages the audience from the get-go. Her Mary is a fully-formed character, neither perfect nor a walking disaster. She owns her choices, recognizes the bad ones she makes, revels in the good ones, and keeps plowing forward through the ups-and-downs of dating with her sense of humor intact. Mary is not the only character to take the stage, as Headington takes on the roles of her mother, her busy-body aunt, her perfect sister, her various dates and about a half-dozen other characters who enter the scene. She does a good job making each character distinctive and recognizable, either through vocal choice or physicality. Director Juliet Noonan keeps Mary on the move and brings the show in at about 90 minutes with an intermission. She utilizes the entire black box space and even has Mary come into the audience. Headington’s goodwill prevents these moments from becoming too intrusive. The closing moments of both acts need to be defined a bit more, though. It’s never good when an audience isn’t sure whether a show is over or not. The dating world is often a fertile field for comedy. Headington and the 12 Dates of Christmas do a pretty good job of harvesting that field for good-natured laughs. 'The 12 Dates of Christmas' runs through January 6th at the 6th Street Playhouse Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. There’s one Saturday matinee on December 29th and a Thursday evening performance on January 3rd. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com.

For folks looking for some respite from Christmas shopping or from becoming participants in the demolition derby that is mall parking, North Bay theatre companies are providing several seasonal entertainments to help keep you in the holiday spirit. Family-friendly musicals are the usual fare and there are several on tap. While not all would be classified as holiday-specific shows, they’ll still get the kids out of the house for a few hours and give adults some welcome relief. Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts (theatrearts.santarosa.edu) is presenting Shrek, the Musical. Burbank Auditorium renovations continue to require them to do their shows “on the road”, so you’ll have to travel to Maria Carrillo High School to see this one. Spreckels Theatre Company (spreckelsonline.com) is doing The Tailor of Gloucester. This original holiday musical, based on the Beatrix Potter story, was originally commissioned and produced by Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater back in 2004 and had several Youth Theatre productions there. Michael Ross directs (mostly) adults in this studio theater production. Sonoma Arts Live (sonomaartslive.org) brings Anne of Green Gables to their Rotary stage. This musical version of the L.M. Montgomery classic is about a spunky redheaded orphan winning over her new family and an entire Canadian island. Speaking of spunky redheaded orphans, 6th Street Playhouse (6thstreetplayhouse.com) assures us the sun’ll come out tomorrow with Annie. It’s Daddy Warbucks versus the evil Miss Hannigan with Annie - and her little dog, too – as the objects of their attention. The 12 Dates of Christmas will run in the 6th Street Studio Theater. It’s a single woman’s ‘holiday survival guide’. For nostalgia fans, Redwood Theatre Company (redwoodtheatrecompany.com) will be presenting It’s a Wonderful Life in the live radio play format. A plucky little girl – this time named Eve – takes center stage at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center (cloverdaleperformingarts.com) in Yo Ho Ho: A Pirate’s Christmas. Can she rescue Santa and Christmas from the clutches of a gang of directionally-challenged pirates? If she doesn’t, the audience may mutiny. Over in Napa, Lucky Penny Productions (luckypennynapa.com) is presenting Scrooge in Love. This will be only the third fully staged production of this original musical after having been done twice by San Francisco’s 42 Street Moon. It musically answers all the questions you may have about what happened after the end of Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol. Dyan McBride, the show’s original director, heads this production as well. Finally, for those in the mood for a big, splashy music and dance extravaganza, there’s always Transcendence Theatre Company (transcendencetheatre.org) and their Broadway Holiday Spectacular. They’ll be doing three performances at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center and two performances in Napa at the Lincoln Theatre in Yountville. Lots of entertainment options, and I’m sure the producing companies would like to remind you that theatre tickets make GREAT stocking stuffers. You can find links to all these shows and more on the calendar page of the North Bay Stage and Screen web site at northbaystageandscreen.com.

When after sixteen years David Templeton hung up his theater critic’s hat, his stated purpose was to turn his full attention to other pursuits: artistic, journalistic, theatrical and otherwise. Since then, he continues to write, has a full-time gig as the Community Editor at the Petaluma Argus-Courier, and took a featured role in Left Edge Theatre’s pole dancing extravaganza The Naked Truth. An “otherwise” pursuit for Templeton would be directing, and he’s about to do just that with his holiday-themed one-man show Polar Bears, opening November 30 at San Rafael’s Belrose Theater. Templeton describes Polar Bears as “a heartwarming holiday tragedy.” Say Again? “I wrote it,” said Templeton, “because I've read scads of stories about Christmas and families and Santa Claus, but never have I read any story about that unique passage of childhood, and parenthood, that is the moment that kids stop believing, and the ways their parents help or hinder that rite of passage.” It’s an autobiographical tale of an average father who finds himself a bit in-over-his-head one holiday season and goes to increasingly outlandish lengths to keep his kids' belief in Santa alive. It seems his own faith in Santa was disrupted when he was four-years-old and he's hellbent on making sure that doesn't happen to his kids. Polar Bears had two successful productions in Sonoma County with Templeton under the direction of Sheri Lee Miller. For the this production, Templeton takes over the directing reins and has cast actor Chris Schloemp in the role of David Templeton. Sound strange? “I’m actually not thinking of it as Chris playing ME,” said Templeton, “he’s playing a character named David, who did some things I did, but I told him from the beginning to think of David as a fictional character. He’s constantly surprising me with new things, and I love it.” What’s it like for an actor to be directed by his ‘character’? “Being directed by the guy you’re performing and who’s also the writer is a little intimidating”, said Schloemp, “but also very rewarding in that, in any play, there are always those nagging questions you want to ask. Here I get to ask them at every rehearsal. David’s been very insistent that I am not playing him, so I have free rein.” So, in a season full of Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols, where does Polar Bears fit in? “I think anyone who loves Christmas stories but has grown tired of the same old cloying, overly sentimental holiday stories will appreciate it”, said Templeton. “That was the intention, and based on audience reactions in the past, I think we’ve succeeded.” ‘Polar Bears’ opens November 30 and runs through December 15 at the Belrose Theater in San Rafael. There are Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:30pm. For more information, go to thebelrose.com There will be one performance in Santa Rosa at 7:00pm on December 23 at Left Edge Theatre at the Luther Burbank Center. For more information, go to leftedgetheate.com

If you’re trying to avoid attending the umpteenth production of The Nutcracker in your lifetime, Marin theatre companies are providing several other entertainment options for this holiday season. Last year, the Marin Theatre Company (marintheatre.org) was one of the participants in the rolling world premiere of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. The continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was a smashing success, so it’s no surprise that Gunderson and Melcon have returned to the material and created a companion piece entitled The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley. While Miss Bennet dealt with the folks celebrating Christmas ‘upstairs’ at the manor, The Wickhams is more of a ‘downstairs’ piece focusing on the estate’s staff as they deal with an unwelcome visitor and a potential holiday disaster. Megan Sandberg-Zakian directs the show which will no doubt be colorfully costumed and impressively designed. The College of Marin Performing Arts Department (pa.marin.edu) will be presenting the musical comedy Nuncrackers in their Kentfield campus’s studio theater. Yes, it’s a Nunsense Christmas musical. Creator Dan Goggins’s Little Sisters of Hoboken return to stage a Christmas special in their new basement cable access TV studio to raise funds for the Mount Saint Helens School. The nuns will be singing songs like “The Twelve Days Prior to Christmas” and “Santa Ain’t Comin’ to Our House”, dancing in their habits, and handing out fruit cake. I think Sister Amnesia makes a return appearance, but I can’t remember. Actors Basement is staging PacSun contributor David Templeton’s one-man holiday show Polar Bears at The Belrose (thebelrose.com) in San Rafael. It’s the autobiographical tale of a father’s attempt to keep his children’s belief in Santa Claus alive way past the point most others do. Templeton has performed the piece in Sonoma County several times in the past few years. For this Marin production of his “heartwarming holiday tragedy”, Templeton moves into the director’s chair and turns over the performance duties to actor Chris Schloemp. The Ross Valley Players (rossvalleyplayers.com) are giving audiences the chance to completely forget about the holiday season with their production of The Odd Couple. The Neil Simon classic comedy about a mismatched pair of middle-aged roommates that’s been a proven laugh-getter since it’s 1965 Broadway premiere. For those willing to travel and in the mood for a big holiday musical extravaganza, the Transcendence Theatre Company (transcendencetheatre.org) will be presenting their Broadway Holiday Spectacular with three performances up at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center and two performances out at the Lincoln Theatre in Yountville. There’s nary a Sugar Plum Fairy in sight on these North Bay stages. You can find links to all these shows and more on the calendar page of the North Bay Stage and Screen web site at northbaystageandscreen.com

For an area with as large a gay population and as much theatre as Sonoma County, it’s surprising how little gay-themed theatre is produced in the region. Oh sure, the larger companies will produce the more mainstream musicals like Cabaret or La Cage aux Folles every few years, and Halloween usually brings The Rocky Horror Show, but little else seems to cross local stages. The nomadic Pegasus Theater Company, in existence in one form or another for about 20 years, is the exception. Its Russian River roots have been planted firmly in the gay community since its inception, and it regularly programs shows with gay content into its seasons. Previous productions include newer plays like Avow to old chestnuts like Norman, is that You? This season Pegasus brings Paul Rudnick’s The New Century to the Mt. Jackson Masonic Lodge in Guerneville. Rudnick (I Hate Hamlet, In & Out) has taken a collection of comedic one-acts and put them together for this show. It’s basically three monologues and a “wrap up” scene. “Pride and Joy” opens the show with a meeting of the Massapequa, Long Island chapter of the PLGBTQCCC & O – the “Parents of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered, Questioning, Curious, Creatively Concerned and Others”. Ms. Helene Nadler (Thea Rhiannon) introduces herself to the membership as the "most loving mother of all time". She has to be. She has three children: a lesbian daughter, a transgendered son who dates lesbians, and a gay son into BDSM and scatology. Beat that, parents. We the meet “Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach”. Charles (Nick Charles) has been exiled from New York by the gay community for being “too gay”, which happens to be the title of the cable access show he now hosts along with his “ward” Shane (director John Rowan) where he answers viewer mail and revels in being who he is. With “Crafty” we meet Barbara Ellen Diggs (Noel Yates), a crafts-crazy Midwesterner who makes toilet paper koozies and tuxedo toaster covers. The passing of her son by AIDS has led her to question her faith. “I don’t know if I believe in God anymore,” she says, “but I do believe in cute.” All these characters come together in a really contrived closing scene set at a New York Hospital maternity ward that seems tacked on to create a full-length show. The show suffers from the challenges inherent in running a small theatre company - no budget, minimal sets and lighting, a limited talent pool leading to casting issues, etc., but it has heart, which counts for a lot, and you have to love a show that credits costumes to an entity called “Nutsack Creations”. ‘The New Century’ runs through November 25 at the Mt. Jackson Masonic Lodge in Guerneville. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm, the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to pegasustheater.com

I don’t know anyone who attends theatre to reinforce their belief that life is simply a series of travails to be endured until the sweet release of death, but if you’re out there, have I got show for you. Birdbath Theatres is presenting Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a new adaptation by Jesse Brownstein, directed by David Abrams and playing at The Belrose through November 18. Vanya (Rob Garcia) and his niece Sonya (Winona Wagner) manage the small estate of his late sister where they live with the family matriarch Mariya (Molly Noble), an old family nurse (Shirley Nilsen Hall), and a guitar-playing family friend (Andrew Byars). The estate’s meager proceeds have gone to support his late sister’s husband Professor Serebryakov (Ray Martin) and his new trophy wife Yelena (Claire Champommier). A perpetually infirmed Serebryakov, after spending the summer at the estate, has come to a decision. He wishes to sell the estate to come up with enough money to purchase a nice retirement cottage in Finland for him and his wife. What of the others who live there? Well, those details can be worked out later. This infuriates Vanya, who’s already ticked off because Yelena, for whom he secretly pines, has shown affection for country doctor Astrov (Jesse Lumb), who has also caught the eye of the perpetually sad Sonya, who bemoans her looks. After two and a half hours, no one ends up with anyone, nothing is sold, and life drones on. Abrams takes a minimalist approach to Chekhov’s look at the miserable lives of a turn-of-the-twentieth century Russian family. There’s no set of which to speak; the audience is seated against the theater walls and up on the stage; and the action (and I use that term loosely) often takes place at opposites sides of the small space, leading many in the audience to have to make a tennis match-like back-and-forth observation of the proceedings. It’s a well-acted production, with Garcia’s Vonya a cauldron of self-loathing that, after finally boiling over, returns to a state of eternal simmering. Lumb’s Dr. Astrov is the least dreary of the lot who, while filled with remorse about his life decisions, provides a welcome spark to the often-lethargic proceedings. The play’s bleak tone is reinforced with some fine cello accompaniment by Diego Martinez Mendiola. Is there any sadder sound produced than that of the bowed chordophone? Regret is the overriding theme of Uncle Vanya; the regret that comes when revisiting the decisions that define a life. I don’t regret the time I spent with the dispiriting Voinitsky family, but I don’t see the need to revisit them anytime soon. ‘Uncle Vanya’ runs through November 18 at the Belrose Theater in San Rafael. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to birdbaththeatres.com

In the past month, North Bay stages have been occupied by vampires, ghosts, a Thing, and Transylvanian transvestites. The Novato Community Playhouse now finds itself overrun with the most ghastly, heinous, and horrifying creatures ever to set foot on a theatrical stage. I am referring, of course, to white upper middle-class parents. They are the featured monsters in playwright Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, directed by Terry McGovern and running at the Playhouse through November 11. Alan and Annette Raleigh (Ken Bacon & Jena Hunt-Abraham) have come to the home of Michael and Veronica Novak (Marty Lee Jones & Heather Shepardson) to discuss the matter of a fight between their sons. It seems that the Raleigh’s son knocked two teeth out of the mouth of the Novak’s son with a stick. After a quick review of the Novak’s statement on the incident (and the decision to change the verbiage to reflect the Raleigh boy being “furnished” with a stick, as opposed to “armed”), the two couples sit down to awkwardly determine what to do next. Over the next ninety intermission-less minutes, the façade of civilized gentility will give way to tribal warfare. Reza’s play has always seemed to me to be a grade B knock-off of Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? If it was Reza’s attempt to show that who we appear to be is rarely who we really are, she’s at least fifty years late to that party. What she adds to that familiar trope is the omnipresence and annoyance of cell phones in our lives and a considerable quantity of stage vomit. Ah, yes, the vomit. Within the theatre community, this show has garnered the nickname “the vomit play” as there is a scene that requires (per the stage directions) “a brutal and catastrophic spray of vomit.” While it’s always interesting to see how a company accomplishes this, it’s really little more than a device to represent the verbal garbage spewn by many on a daily basis. The Novaks and Raleighs have been vomiting on each other all evening, why not take it to its logical conclusion? Have I mentioned yet this is a comedy? Yes, there are plenty of opportunities to laugh at the parents’ idiocy, but the joke is ultimately on the audience. Go ahead. Laugh at them, because they couldn’t possibly represent you. The late, great cartoonist Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” line comes to mind: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” ‘God of Carnage’ runs Friday through Sunday through November 11 at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse in Novato. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8 pm; there’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to novatotheatercompany.org.

If you’re wary of attending the latest splatter fest at your local multiplex and seeking a kinder, gentler Halloween season entertainment, Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions brings you Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, running through November 4. It’s an old-fashioned ghost story laden with Coward’s acerbic wit and charm. Author Charles Condomine (Tim Kniffin) is researching the occult world for his next novel. He’s invited a local medium, Madame Arcati (Karen Pinomaki), to conduct a séance in his home. Charles is convinced she’s a charlatan, but Arcati manages to call forth the spectral presence of his late first wife Elvira (Sydney Schwindt). As Charles is the only one who can see or hear Elvira, Charles’ current wife Ruth (Kirstin Pieschke) thinks he’s going quite mad. Soon convinced of Elvira’s presence, Ruth finds herself in a battle with Elvira over their husband. At first terrified with the situation, Charles actually begins to take some delight in the circumstances and starts to adapt to living with two wives – even if one is dead. Elvira goes about scheming to get Charles to join her on the ‘other side’ while Ruth seeks out Madame Arcati to help rid her of the troublesome spirit. That’s easier said than done. Director Barry Martin brings a light touch and a good cast to this production. Kniffin is solid as the initially flustered but soon rolling-with-the-punches Charles who, after closer examination, is really quite a cad. He’s the perfect vehicle to deliver some classic Coward lines in a classic Coward manner. Schwindt is a lot of fun as the devilish Elvira and gets a major assist from makeup designer Brette Bartolucci. Small, intimate spaces like Lucky Penny can be a test for makeup designs as the audience’s proximity to the stage can make the artificiality abundantly clear. In this case, Bartolucci’s makeup and April George’s lighting design work really well together. As Madame Arcati, Pinomaki has the showiest role (it won Angela Lansbury her fourth Tony for the 2009 revival) and garners big laughs with her physicality. Festooned in costume designer Barbara McFadden’s colorful accoutrements, Pinomaki earns those laughs by playing the character straight. Her visual outlandishness and other spectral bits are nice counterparts to the dry verbal humor for which Coward is best known and that this cast delivers well. The play creaks a bit, but in a day when stage pyrotechnics often overwhelm a show, it’s nice to be reminded that the words are what really matter. ‘Blithe Spirit’ plays through November 4 at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa. The Thursday performance is at 7pm; Friday and Saturday’s are at 8pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to luckypennynapa.com

At a time when the language of diplomacy has been reduced to a 140-character tweet transmitted at 3 am, it’s good to be reminded of the men and women for whom the quest for peace demanded actual thought and personal interaction. J. T. Rogers’ Oslo, now running in its West Coast premiere at the Marin Theatre Company through October 28, is a look at the circumstances and personalities responsible for the Oslo Accords. The 1993 Accords, considered to be a breakthrough in the search for Middle Eastern peace, brought about Israeli acceptance of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as official representatives of the Palestinian people and the PLO’s recognition of the state of Israel. Norwegians Terje Rod-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips) and Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan) are a well-connected husband and wife. He runs a think tank in Oslo; she is an official in the Foreign Ministry. They are the unlikely leaders of a plan to try a “gradualist” approach in middle east diplomacy. Issues would be dealt with one at a time, from the smallest to the largest, and they would be resolved person-to-person, not nation-to-nation. As it was the official stance of both parties to never deal directly with each other, this had to be accomplished through secret, back-channels. Those channels, though far from Washington, D.C., led to that moment on the White House South Lawn when Israeli Prime Minister Rabin shook the hand of PLO chairman Arafat. Rogers’ play takes the same approach as the negotiations. We get to gradually know the individuals involved. As they become better acquainted, we become better acquainted. As the process evolves, the audience evolves with it to the point where you would swear you were in the room with them. Director Jasson Minadakis has gathered a terrific ensemble to tell this riveting story. It’s an exceptional cast of fourteen players. Sullivan’s Juul acts as the narrator, providing context and humor and facilitating the initial connection between the audience and the play. Phillips is magnificent as the part strutting peacock, part heartfelt peacemaker Rod-Larsen. His alcohol-fueled takedown at one point in the negotiations by the participants was wrenching. J. Paul Nicholas and Ashkan Davaran as the PLO representatives and Brian Herndon and Ryan Tasker as the initial Israeli contacts are excellent as the across-the-table enemies who soon develop a friendship. While a true peace remains elusive, and regardless of how much of this dramatization is actually factual, Oslo reminds us that when humanity is allowed to enter a political process, there’s still hope. ‘Oslo’ runs through October 28 at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley. Tuesday through Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm. The Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to marintheatre.org.

The credits for the Spreckels Theater Company production of The Addams Family, running now through October 28, notes that the musical is “based on characters created by Charles Addams.” It is not a recreation of the beloved 1960’s sitcom. It is not an adaptation of the visually inventive films of the ‘90’s. At the insistence of the Charles Addams Foundation, who retain control of all things Addams, the source material for the musical had to be the cartoons Addams published for fifty years in the New Yorker. The 2010 Broadway musical by Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice and Andrew Lippa had a moderately successful run before becoming a theatrical Halloween season staple. It banks on the goodwill and fond memories of the generations raised with the reruns or the films and then goes in a very different direction. Uncle Fester (Erik Weiss) narrates the show and lets the audience know it’s gonna be a story about love. A teenage Wednesday Addams (Emma LaFever) is worried about bringing her “normal” boyfriend/fiancée Lucas (Cooper Bennett) and his straight-laced, midwestern parents (Larry Williams, Morgan Harrington) home to meet her unconventional family. Wednesday lets her father Gomez (Peter Downey) in on her marriage plans but gets him to agree to not reveal her intentions to her mother Morticia (Serena Elize Flores) till an announcement is made at dinner. Things don’t go as planned. It’s a stock plot dressed up with the Addams characters though the characters bear little resemblance to their previous incarnations. Downey comes closest with a very nice paternal take on Gomez while Flores’ voluptuous Morticia lacks the character’s dark, funereal tone. The score is bouncy yet unmemorable, but there are a lot of good voices delivering it. Prepare to be knocked out when Pugsley (Mario Herrera) sings about the potential loss of a playmate sister with “What If.” Ignore the trick the show’s creators play with The Addams Family characters and you’ll enjoy a family-friendly Halloween treat. ‘The Addams Family’ runs through Oct. 28 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Fri. & Sat @ 8 pm; Sun @ 2 pm, Thurs, Oct. 25 @ 7 pm. For more information, go to spreckelsonline.com. Now, in order for a show like Count Dracula - running now in Monte Rio through October 27 - to work, it has to be either played straight or as total camp. Playwright Ted Tiller’s 1971 version of the Bram Stoker novel under the direction of Nadja Masura tries to do both and the mix just doesn’t work. Tiller also seems to have worked under the assumption that no one had ever heard vampire lore before and inserted reams of lengthy, dull exposition that makes the show run an hour longer than it should. A good set, some nice effects, and a game cast can’t mask the un-dead weight of a leaden script. ‘Count Dracula’ runs through Oct. 27 at the Russian River Hall in Monte Rio. Fri. & Sat. @ 8pm; Sun @ 3pm. For more information, go to curtaincallrussianriver.com.

There’s an interesting style of theatre in which a piece of dramatic prose, usually a short story or selected chapters from a longer piece, is fully staged and performed. Usually referred to as a “word-for-word” or “page-to-stage” dramatization, it takes some getting used to as literally every word on the written page -every word- is spoken. It’s the approach director John Shillington and the SRJC Theatre Arts Department take to tell the story of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Two chapters are taken from the 1991 novel by Julia Alvarez and given the page-to-stage treatment. Alvarez’s novel is a collection of stories told from the perspectives of the four Garcia sisters about the challenges they faced as emigrants from the Dominican Republic. It covers thirty years in the family’s life, from their childhood on the Caribbean island to their adult lives as emigrants to the United States. Two of the chapters are performed. “Floor Show” tells the tale of the family’s big night out courtesy the largess of a well-to-do American friend. It’s told by Sandi (played by Jasmine Flores-Nunez), the youngest of the four sisters and features the Garcia parents. Papi (Khalid Shayota) is having difficulty getting his license to practice medicine approved while Mami (Jisaela Tenney) is trying to raise her four girls properly in a foreign land. They are preparing to go out for a fancy meal at the invitation of Dr. and Mrs. Fanning, a couple they met back in the Dominican Republic. Mami is very clear as to what she expects from her girls (she will order their modest meals, they will like everything they eat) and Papi is somewhat ashamed at what he sees as charity. Several things happen over the course of what should be a pleasant evening that reinforce the family’s feelings of displacement. “The Rudy Elmhurst Story” is told by Yolanda (played by Aaronne Louis-Charles, Annelise Hermsen, and Katerina Flores as the character at various ages), the third-oldest of the sisters. It’s the late 1960’s, the sexual revolution is well underway and she’s away at school. On her first day of English class, she draws the attention of one Rudy Brodermann Elmenhurst III (Riley Craig). They are soon an “item” but the conflict between Rudy’s liberal take on sex (“Can’t it just be fun”?) and the mix of Yolanda’s Old-World upbringing with the fragmentation of identity that comes with assimilation leads him to leave her and her to believe that she “would never find someone who would understand my particular mix of Catholicism and agnosticism, Hispanic and American styles." There’s a bittersweet, but empowering ending to the story. Shillington and his diverse cast are good storytellers. They’re housed in Newman Auditorium where the use of technical elements is limited, but designer Andrew Moore manages enough lighting to give the show a more theatrical feel to it than the lecture hall environment usually allows. The (mostly) young multi-cultural cast are the perfect vehicles to tell stories that must resonate with many of them. High school student Jasmine Flores-Nunez perfectly captures the petulant behavior of the even younger Sandi, and the actresses playing Yolanda give a real sense as to the character’s internal conflicts and maturation. There’s good work by the young ensemble throughout the piece. While the stories focus on the girls, the challenges faced by their parents are not ignored. The difficulties in having to start over after leaving a good life are well played by Shayota and Tenney. The combination of the unique presentational style of interesting stories with a diverse, vibrant cast makes the SRJC production of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents well-worth checking out during its limited run. ‘How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents’ runs Wednesday through Sunday through October 14 in Santa Rosa Junior College’s Newman Auditorium. Wednesday–Saturday, 8pm; Saturday & Sunday, 2pm. There's more at theatrearts.santarosa.edu

If you’ve missed having Summer Repertory Theatre around this year, 6th Street Playhouse’s production of “Guys and Dolls” may hold you until SRT’s return in 2019. SRT Artistic Director James Newman helms this production of the 1950 musical about colorful New York gamblers trying to avoid the police, a persistent fiancé, and the goodly influence of local missionaries. Nathan Detroit (played by Ariel Zuckerman) runs the “oldest, established, permanent floating crap game in New York" but police pressure is making it difficult to find places to house it. The only willing host wants a thousand bucks, which Nathan ain’t got. When word gets out that big-time gambler Sky Masterson (played by Ezra Hernandez) is in town, Nathan figures he can finance his game by getting him to make a sucker-bet that Nathan can’t lose. Nathan bets Sky he’ll be unable to get Sarah Brown, the leader of the newly-opened Save-a-Soul Mission, to go away with him for an evening. While Skye goes about winning the bet (and falling in love, of course), Nathan scurries about trying to get the game going while avoiding the matrimonial pressure of his fiancé of fourteen years Adelaide. Trouble comes to town in the forms of gun-toting Chicago gambler Big Jule (Carl Kraines), and General Cartwright (Laura Davies) who wants to close the mission. Things work out for everyone after about a dozen-or-so Frank Loesser tunes and dance numbers. Perhaps the most SRT-like aspect of this production is its youthful cast. It’s chock-full of SRJC Theatre Arts and high school grads mixed in with some stage vets. The casting leads to some significant age issues with the characters as written. Apparently, Miss Adelaide has been engaged since age six and there’s something a little unsettling about a teenage Harry the Horse (Benjamin Donner) roughing up senior citizen Big Jule. Thankfully, the talent onstage can get you past that issue. Zuckerman brings a legitimate New York vibe to his character and Hernandez has the cockiness requisite for Sky. The character arc for Sarah Brown isn’t particular believable, but Elenor Paul makes it work. Ella Park is an absolute delight as Adelaide and her rendition of “Adelaide’s Lament” is a show highlight. The shows other highlights include Randy Nazarian’s terrific work as Nicely Nicely Johnson and the show-stopping “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” production number. If you enjoy well-crafted productions of classic American musicals, it’s a good bet you’ll enjoy “Guys and Dolls”. 'Guys and Dolls' runs Thursday through Sunday through October 14 at the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 7:30pm. There are Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Last year, Healdsburg’s Raven Players surprised this critic with a very interesting production of Quiara Alegría Hudes “Water by the Spoonful”. The play, which tells parallel stories of the tribulations of a returning Iraq war vet trying to assimilate back into civilian life and a group of recovering drug addicts trying to stay clean, was not what I expected from this theatre group whose home is located one block from the quaint wine country destination’s town square. It was a fascinating variation in the norm of this venerable community theatre. This year, they’re opening their season with not one, but two very interesting shows running in repertory – a serious comedy called “Church & State” and the intense drama “Time Stands Still”. With just 72 hours before election day, North Carolina Senator Charles Whitmore (played by Matt Farrell) is having a crisis of faith. A recent school shooting in his hometown has led him to question his belief in God and in his usual staunch defense of the Second Amendment. What’s worse, he’s admitted as much to a reporter. His re-election campaign manager is apoplectic. His Bible-quoting, Glock-toting wife will have none of it. He’s about to make the biggest campaign speech of his life. Will he stick to the script or speak from the heart. Playwright Jason Odell Williams has written an interesting 80-minute polemic on the political paralysis that has gripped our nation on this subject. While there’s no doubt where Williams and director Steven David Martin stand on the issue of gun control, the play does not reduce those who take a different stand to cartoon figures. He’s does, however, wrap the debate in a sitcom-like script albeit one with a joltingly dramatic climax. Farrell does well as the conflicted Senator, though he lacks some of the gravitas and maturity one would expect from a southern politician. Priscilla Locke is terrific as the tough-as-nails wife, and Katie Watts-Whitaker holds her own in scenes between the two. Zack Acevedo plays multiple roles and provides some of the play’s lighter moments as a campaign gofer. For the second show. Caitlin Strom-Martin directs a very strong cast in the Donald Margulies-penned “Time Stands Still”. Maureen O’Neill plays Sarah Goodwin, a photojournalist returning home after being blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq. She’s accompanied by her partner James (Rusty Thompson), a reporter who had returned stateside earlier after suffering a breakdown from his own war zone experiences. While Sarah’s are more visible, both individuals have scars that run deep. The scabs from those scars are ripped by off by the arrival of Sarah’s editor Richard (Pablo Romero) and his rather young (“There’s young, and there’s embryonic.”) and deceptively lightweight girlfriend Mandy (Emily Tugaw). Their relationship has James contemplating a less chaotic life while Sarah looks to return to her work. Time may stand still but relationships don’t. Margulies’ thought-provoking script about life’s dramas both big and small is well-served by the artists involved in this production. Kudos to the Raven Players for continuing on their occasionally-out-of-the-ordinary programming path. ‘Church & State’ and ‘Time Stands Still’ run in repertory through October 7 at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg. There are Thursday through Sunday performances but the specific show dates and times vary. For more information, go to raventheater.org

Spreckels Theatre Company opens their season with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel about a boy with ‘behavioral difficulties’ took England and Broadway by storm and earned multiple awards on both continents. Christopher (Elijah Pinkham) is a 15-year-old boy with an unspecified cognitive condition (that some read as autism or Asperger’s) living with his father in Swindon, England. He discovers a neighbor’s dog has been killed and, to his father’s consternation, decides to undertake an investigation. That investigation leads to another mystery culminating in a journey of self-discovery and affirmation. Director Elizabeth Craven gets outstanding performances from her cast. Pinkham completely inhabits the incredibly difficult lead role. David L. Yen as Chris’s father and Bronwen Shears as a woman in their lives are also superlative and there’s a “who’s who” of quality North Bay performers filling out the ensemble. Excellent technical elements (set design, lighting design, sound, and projections) effectively transport you inside Christopher’s oft-confused mind but occasionally overwhelm the story. Performance and presentation combine to make The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time unlike anything previously produced in this area. ’The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ runs through September 30 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Thursday performances are at 7pm; Friday and Saturday’s are at 8pm; and there’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to spreckelsonline.com If you’re going to see only one ‘five British women of varying ages, socio-economic statuses and body types bonding over pole dancing’ play in your lifetime, might as well make it Dave Simpson’s The Naked Truth. A big hit in England, director Argo Thompson imports it to the North Bay for its U.S. premiere at Left Edge Theatre. Its story of five disparate individuals brought together with the goal of putting on a charity show is hardly original and its characters are pretty stock (the shy one, the bawdy one, the snobby one, etc.), but its well-acted and the five performers (Angela Squire, Bonnie Jean Shelton, Katie Kelly, Annabel Pimentel, Serena Elize Flores) and their instructor (Heather Danielle) have definite chemistry. After your ears adjust to the accents, there’ll be two hours of laughs and tears as the ladies deal with self-image and relationship issues, sex talk, ill health, and betrayal. Will all conflicts be resolved in time to put on the big charity pole dance? How did you think the show would end? ‘The Naked Truth’ runs through September 30 at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to leftedgetheatre.com

Like an Elizabethan game of whack-a-mole, as soon as North Bay theatre companies knock out one outdoor summer Shakespeare production, another one seems to pop up. Marin Shakespeare brought us Pericles at Dominican University’s Forest Meadows amphitheater, the Raven did A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Healdsburg’s Seghesio Winery, and Shakespeare in the Cannery did Shakespeare in Love in the, well, Cannery. A few more weeks of summer means a few more weeks of North Bay Shakespeare al fresco. The Petaluma Shakespeare Company is presenting their Shakespeare by the River Festival with two shows – the bard’s All’s Well That Ends Well and an original production by Jacinta Gorringe entitled Speechless Shakespeare – through September 2. Marin’s Curtain Theatre is presenting Henry IV, Part 1 at the Old Mill Park in Mill Valley through September 9, and Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse closes out their season with The Comedy of Errors, one of Shakespeare’s earliest and mercifully shortest plays (merciful as it gets might cold in the Cannery after the sun goes down.) It’s the tale of two sets of twins - masters and servants - separated by shipwreck who years later come together in the city of Ephesus, thoroughly confusing wives, mistresses, merchants, and each other. Yes, the basic plot isn’t very original (Shakespeare “borrowed” it from a couple of even earlier plays) but that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. Director Jared Sakren has gathered a group of quality actors who all seem to be having fun with their roles. William Brown and Ariel Zuckerman are the masters who share the moniker Antipholus while Jared Wright and Sam Coughlin each play a servant named Dromeo. They’ll find themselves dealing with a bewildered wife (Jessica Headington), her supportive sister (Isabella Sakren), a doctor (Eyan Dean) who diagnoses demonic possession and an Abbess (Jill Wagoner) who’s just this side of Misery’s Annie Wilkes before everything is sorted out in the end. Colorful Victorian-era costumes (that’s when it’s set) by Pamela Johnson add to the jovial tone of the show and there’s some excellent physical comedy by Wright and Coughlin as the put-upon servants. It’s a silly show done seriously (and occasionally a bit too intensely) but overall, it’s an amusing way to bring summer theatre to a close. The Shakespeare by the River Festival runs Thursday through Sunday through September 2 on the Foundry Wharf Green in Petaluma. Times & shows vary. Admission is free. For more information, go to petalumashakespeare.org ‘Henry IV, Part 1’ runs Saturdays and Sundays through September 9 at the Old Mill Amphitheatre in Mill Valley. All performances are at 2pm and admission is free. For more information, go to curtaintheatre.org 'The Comedy of Errors' runs Friday through Sunday through September 2 at the Cannery Ruins behind 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. Performances are at 7pm For ticketing information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

With September come football games that actually matter, open season on California tree squirrels (daily limit of four) and the opening of the new artistic season for many North Bay theatre companies. Here’s some of what they have in store for local audiences: Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater (cinnabartheater.org) transforms itself into Berlin’s Kit Kat Club and bids you willkommen, bienvenue, and welcome to the classic Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret. Broadway veteran Michael McGurk and Petaluma native Alia Beeton take on the roles that won Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli their Oscars. The Spreckels Theatre Company of Rohnert Park (spreckelsonline.com) opens its season with the multi-Tony-Award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Fans of the Mark Haddon novel about a young boy on the autism spectrum investigating the death of a neighborhood dog will find that it’s been somewhat reworked for the stage, but Tony voters liked it enough to name it 2015’s Best Play. Sebastopol’s Main Stage West (mainstagewest.com) opens its season with the world premiere of an original comedy by local playwright Bob Duxbury. Savage Wealth examines the impact of the sale of a Lake Tahoe home and the vacant lot next to it on a pair of brothers and their childhood friend. John Shillington directs a cast of three in a story that also manages to work new age philosophy, politics, and romantic betrayal into it. Dancing and singing New York “wiseguys” take over Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse (6thstreetplayhouse.com) as they present Guys and Dolls. Summer Repertory Theatre Artistic Director James Newman moves to Railroad Square to helm what has been called “the greatest of all American musicals”. Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre (leftedgetheatre.com) continues to provide North Bay audiences with recently written plays never before seen in the area with the U.S. premiere of a hit British comedy. David Simpson’s The Naked Truth involves charity fundraising, female empowerment, and pole dancing. Argo Thompson directs and somehow has worked former Second Row Center host David Templeton into the mix. The Pegasus Theatre Company of Guerneville (pegasustheater.com) will present its 12th annual Tapas: New Short Play Festival. This year’s festival will include seven short plays by Northern California playwrights and will be the first production overseen by new Artistic Director Rich Rubin. Healdsburg’s Raven Players (raventheater.org) open with two contemporary dramas that deal with a host of complex issues including war, PTSD, gun violence, politics and religion. Time Stands Still and Church & State will run in “rep”. In Marin, the Novato Theater Company (novatotheatercompany.org) hopes to have one singular sensation with their production of A Chorus Line, while Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company (marintheatre.org) will present the West Coast premiere of the 2017 Best Play Tony-winning political thriller Oslo. Ross Valley Players buck the trend and bring Shakespeare indoors for a change with their production of Twelfth Night. Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions (luckypennynapa.com) invites you Into the Woods, where director James Sasser has apparently added another layer of “fun” to the musical fairy tale mash-up. Plenty of options for the avid theatregoer. Information on all these shows can be found in the “Calendar” section of the North Bay Stage and Screen web site at northbaystageandscreen.com

Theatregoers hankering for a classic or the desire to see something new have two productions running now that fit the bill. Cinnabar Theater presents the 50-year-old classic Cabaret. The Kander and Ebb musical, which has gone through significant changes via numerous revivals since its 1966 debut, is the tale of two couples whose lives intersect via the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy pre-WWII Berlin cabaret. Cliff Bradshaw (Lucas Brandt) is an American traveling through Europe as he attempts to write the great American novel. His train mate Ernst Ludwig (Mark Robinson) sets him up at the boarding house of Fräulein Schneider (Mary Gannon Graham) whose other boarders include members of the chorus of the Kit Kat Club. Cliff meets Sally Bowles (Alia Beeton), the “headliner” at the club with whom he’s soon sharing his room. Fräulein Schneider, who’s becoming adept at looking the other way at certain situations, finds herself being courted by Herr Schultz (Michael Van Why), the local grocer. The future of these relationships grows gloomier as the cloud of National Socialism forms over Germany. One of the darkest American musicals ever written with as depressing an ending ever staged, director Elly Lichenstein proves that Cabaret still has the ability to stun, evidenced by the opening night audience’s hesitation at applauding the end of Act One. Michael McGurk makes the iconic role of the cabaret Emcee his own, but it’s the delicate and devastating performances of Gannon Graham and Van Why that will haunt you. Mary Chun does her usual fine job of musical direction, though a balance between vocals and accompaniment was occasionally elusive. ‘Cabaret’ runs through September 23 at the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 pm; There’s a Sunday matinee at 2 pm. For more information, go to cinnabartheater.org For audiences looking for something a lot lighter, there’s Main Stage West’s production of Savage Wealth. It’s a world premiere comedy by local playwright Bob Duxbury. John Shillington directs Peter Downey and Matt Cadigan as Todd and Gabe, two very different siblings dealing with the disposal of their late father’s Lake Tahoe home. Complications are provided by their new-age neighbor/friend/ex-lover Beenie, played by Ilana Niernberger. It’s a very amusing script that only occasionally belies the pedigree of its retired English professor author. Timing is everything in comedy and the three performers have it down to a tee. It’s well worth checking out, particularly for those who decry the cyclical and repetitive nature of local theatre. ‘Savage Wealth’ runs through September 16 at Main Stage West in Sebastopol. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 8 pm; their Sunday matinee is at 5 pm. For more information, go to mainstagewest.com

So, what’s former Spreckels Performing Arts Center Manager Gene Abravaya been doing since his retirement to the Arizona desert? “Well”, he told me in a recent interview, “I’ve been enjoying my retirement and developing style and techniques for the abstract sculptures I am interested in designing.” “Oh”, he added, “and I’ve been working on a new play.” That play, The Trial of John Brown, will have a one-time staged reading at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park this Saturday, August 25th. In 1859, John Brown, an ardent abolitionist and a fanatically religious man, led his followers into Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His objective: confiscate weapons from a rifle factory and an Armory, then sweep across the Southern United States, setting free every black slave he encountered. He was met with heavy resistance. After a three-day battle, during which all but five of his men were killed, Brown was finally captured. The trial that followed brought the issue of slavery to the attention of the nation and the entire world. What piqued Abravaya’s interest in this moment in American history? Abravaya told me that he’s “always been fascinated with it ever since seeing Raymond Massey’s portrayal in a 1940 Errol Flynn film called Santa Fe Trail”. Although he felt that the character was somewhat distorted and superficial, there was much about John Brown's personality that rang true to him and he was captivated after reading more about the actual raid and the trial that followed. Abravaya is bringing it to Spreckels from Arizona for practical reasons – his previous connection to the facility plus the quality of talent he knew he could find in the North Bay. Abravaya said that he “wanted actors who were talented enough to make the written words come to life”. He knew he would find the people he needed up here to give life to the play and to help him see what legitimately works in the play and what still needs work. Spreckels Theatre Manager Sheri Lee Miller is excited for the opportunity to offer North Bay patrons the first look at Abravaya’s script and will be participating in the reading. “Since Gene had been so much a part of Spreckels for many years,” said Miller, “it was only natural he should give us the first shot at sharing the script publicly.” Miller said that when she read the script, she found herself in the very uncommon position of having no suggestions on how it might be improved. She thinks it's a tight script with a clear narrative. “I didn't know much at all about John Brown,” she said, “so it was great to learn something historic through a play.” Cast members will include Heather Buck, ScharyPearl Fugitt, Chris Ginesi, Mary Gannon Graham, Nate Mercier, Sean O'Brien, Dixon Phillips, Michael Ross, Chris Schloemp, Tim Setzer, William Thompson, Zane Walters, and Sarah Wintermeyer. The project, Abravaya says, is more than about just writing a play. “I want to illustrate that the injustices of the past, no matter how much we try to deny them, are still with us, influencing the course of our lives”, said Abravaya, “If I manage to agitate someone enough to become an agitator or an activist, I will have succeeded and maybe have contributed something of value to what might be the most important issue of our time.” ‘The Trial of John Brown’ will be performed at a staged reading on Saturday, August 25 at 7:30pm at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Admission is free, but the seating is limited.

Relationships are front and center in two very different shows now running on the North Bay’s northernmost stages through August 19. The Cloverdale Performing Arts Center is presenting Heroes, playwright Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of a 2003 French play about three World War I vets in a retirement home. Gustave (Robert Bauer), Henri (Peter Immordino), and Philippe (Dale Harriman) pass their days sitting on a terrace, annoying each other, and plotting their escape from the veterans’ home. Convinced that the tyrannical nun in charge has it out for Philippe, their latest plan starts out with the goal of running to French Indo-China but ends on settling for a poplar grove within view of their terrace. Now if they can just figure a way to take a 200 lb. statue of a dog with them. An odd combination of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Waiting for Godot, and The Golden Girls (with Gustave as Dorothy, Henri as Blanche, and Philippe as Rose), Heroes is a slight piece with some amusing dialogue and geriatric slapstick. 'Heroes' runs Friday through Sunday through August 19 at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center in Cloverdale. Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:30pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to cloverdaleperformingarts.com Healdsburg’s Raven Players have converted the cavernous Raven Theatre into an intimate black box performance space and are presenting an updated version of 1996’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts musical revue holds the record as the second-longest running Off-Broadway show. It consists of a series of comedic vignettes that follow the arc of human relationships from dating, sex, and marriage through children and aging. Four versatile performers (Bohn Connor, Kelly Considine, Troy Evans, and Tika Moon) sing and dance their way through eighteen scenes with songs like “Better Things to Do”, “Single Man Drought”, and “I Can Live with That”. Recent revisions include 21st century additions like sexting (“A Picture of His…”) and same-sex families (“The Baby Song”). It’s a very entertaining show helped immensely by the talented cast. All do well by the multiple roles they play, but the rubber-faced Connor really makes an impression with characters ranging from an incarcerated mass murderer giving dating tips to a hapless husband trying to put the kids to bed so he and the missus can get it on. ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ runs Thursday through Sunday through August 19 at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 8pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to raventheater.org.

Transcendence Theatre Company’s seventh season of “Broadway Under the Stars” continues with a dance-centric production entitled, appropriately enough, Shall We Dance. The show runs through August 19 at the Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Transcendence imports Broadway and national touring professionals to populate their productions so the caliber of performance is always quite high. Director Leslie McDonel and choreographer Marc Kimelman guide a cast of seventeen talented artists through a program featuring songs from eighteen Broadway shows like The King and I and Hamilton as well as pop hits from artists like Madonna and Ed Sheeran. The show opened, as is tradition, with a passage from the writings of Jack London as introduced by a coterie of tap dancers. The audience was then welcomed by the full company with an amusing adaptation of “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast that replaced banquet table staples with wine varietals, though I’m not quite sure what dancing strawberries were doing on the stage. The (mostly) fast-paced, forty minute first act included numbers from In the Heights, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Kiss Me, Kate. The highlight of the act was an energetic production of Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” which incorporated a variety of dance styles that complimented its swing roots. Things then slowed down with “Mama Who Bore Me” from Spring Awakening, which seemed tonally out of step in a mostly joyous program, before concluding on a lighter note with the hilarious “A Musical” from Something Rotten. Act two featured dancing set to numbers from a diverse group of artists ranging from Janelle Monae (“Tightrope”) to Madonna (“Vogue”). The evening’s most visually striking moment came courtesy of a tango-infused production of Sting’s “Roxanne” from Moulin Rouge with the winery ruins bathed in red. The juxtaposition between the diversity in dance styles and music selection in this production with the lack of diversity among the cast is noticeable. For a company that imports a great deal of its talent from New York and the world, the relatively small number of artists of color utilized is disappointing. Simply put, it’s jarring to have Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” and Michael Jackson’s “Bad” sung and danced by a bunch of white guys, talented as they may be. It’s time for Transcendence’s casts to be as colorful as the costumes they wear. ‘Shall We Dance’ runs Friday through Sunday through August 19 at the Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Doors open for picnicking at 5pm; the show starts at 7:30pm. For more information, go to transcendencetheatre.org

‘Tis the season for Shakespeare al fresco so pack a picnic, grab a blanket and check out these North Bay productions: Marin Shakespeare closes out its season under the stars with Pericles, a play whose authorship by Shakespeare has fostered many a debate. Plot points include incest, assassination, famine, a shipwreck, marriage, maternal death, familial separation, attempted murder, kidnapping, pirates, prostitution, and a seemingly dead person rising from a watery grave. Who knew Shakespeare wrote a zombie play? And this is a comedy. Director Lesley Currier and her design team have taken all these elements, dressed them up in modern garb, added a few topical references, and come up with the theatrical equivalent of a “B” movie. It’s entertaining and even moving at the end, but it evaporates quickly in the night air. Artist-in-residence Dameion Brown brings his commanding stage presence to the title role. Fine supporting work is done by Cathleen Ridley as the loving Queen Simonedes and the treacherous Dionyza; Eliza Boivin as Marina, Pericles’s daughter; Rod Gnapp and Richard Pallaziol in a variety of roles; and Diane Wasnak, who is very engaging as the puckish storyteller Gower. 'Pericles' runs Thursday–Sunday through August 5 at Forest Meadows Amphitheater at Dominican University in San Rafael. The showtimes vary and the venue opens one hour before curtain for picnicking. For more information, go to marinshakespeare.org Santa Rosa’s Shakespeare in the Cannery ceases to exist after this season’s production as the property is being “repurposed.” Co-founder/director David Lear decided to go out on a lighter note so they’re presenting Shakespeare in Love, the stage adaptation of 1998’s Best Picture Oscar winner. Poor Will Shakespeare (John Browning) has writer’s block and can’t seem to finish his latest opus, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. A muse arrives in the person of Viola (Sydney McNulty), who disguises herself as ‘Thomas Kent’ so as to get around the ‘no women on stage’ rule. Shifty theatre producers, a loathsome Lord, a treacherous boy and a haughty queen all come into play before Romeo and Juliet sees the light of day. It’s a piffle but the cast has fun, with good comedic support from Alan Kaplan and Liz Jahren. Isiah Carter impresses in two roles and keep an eye out for Isabella, one of the moodiest, scene-stealing “bitch” characters I’ve seen on a North Bay Stage. 'Shakespeare in Love' runs Friday through Sunday through August 5 at the Cannery in Railroad Square in Santa Rosa. Show time is at 7pm with the gate opening at 5pm for picnicking. For more information, go to shakespeareinthecannery.com

Jukebox musicals have become the bread and butter for a lot of community theatre groups. Minimal casts, simple sets and the built-in audience that comes with a popular singer or musical group is tough for an artistic director to resist. Around since the 1970’s, the genre really exploded onto the scene with the success of the ABBA-themed “Mamma Mia!” and continues with the recent Broadway opening of the Go-Go’s-themed “Head Over Heels”. Back in 1988, playwright Ted Swindley took 27 songs recorded by Patsy Cline and created “Always… Patsy Cline”, which is running now at Sonoma Arts Live through July 29. It’s not so much a musical biography as a snippet of Cline’s career as seen through the eyes of one of her biggest fans. It covers the six years from her appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s television program till her untimely death at age 30 in an aviation accident. Louise Seger (Karen Pinomaki) fell in love with Cline’s music the moment she heard it on a Texas radio station. When she hears that Patsy (Danielle DeBow) will be making a local appearance, she and some friends hightail it to the Empire Ballroom to discover no one’s there yet but Patsy. They strike up a conversation and become fast friends. Patsy ends up spending the night at Louise’s before heading back out on her tour. They regularly corresponded with each other after that night and it’s those letters that are the basis for the show. DeBow is a gifted vocalist who, in conjunction with her backup singers “The Jordanaires” (Sean O’Brien, F. James Raasche, Michael Scott Wells, Ted Von Pohle) and musical director Ellen Patterson and a six-piece band, delivers a quality evening of Cline’s greatest hits including “Sweet Dreams” and “Crazy”. The songs are interspersed with Louise’s musings about her life and her love for Patsy. Pinomaki is very entertaining as the bombastic, big-haired Louise, though there were moments where less would be more. Director Michael Ross, who’s directed a few female-centric musicals in his day (“Gypsy”, “Little Women”, “Sister Act” for example) shows a real mastery of the material here. Also responsible for costumes and some of the set design, he gets almost everything right. Costume work is stellar as DeBow must go through a dozen changes throughout the evening with each one colorfully evoking period and personality. The two-level set/three-sided audience design is interesting, but it leads to some awkward blocking and audience perspectives. Terrific performances, colorful design work, and classic Americana combine to make “Always… Patsy Cline” one of the better jukebox musicals I’ve seen on a North Bay Stage. “Always… Patsy Cline” plays Thursday through Sunday on the Rotary Stage of Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 7:30 pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2:00 pm. For more information, got to sonomartslive.org.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was originally scheduled as the closing production of the Spreckels Theatre Company’s 2017-2018 season. The musical, whose development by Walt Disney’s theatrical arm started in Germany and ended in New Jersey (having never made it to Broadway), is an atypical Disney production. More Les Miserables than The Little Mermaid, it’s an interesting amalgam of Victor Hugo’s original gothic novel with music and elements from Disney’s 1996 animated adaptation. Far darker than one would expect from a production with the Disney named semi-attached, Spreckels’ decision to replace it in their season with a more ‘family-friendly’ production of the classic Peter Pan is understandable. It’s also regrettable, because as the production running now in San Francisco produced by Bay Area Musicals reveals, it’s a very good show. Hugo’s 15th century-set tale of Quasimodo (Alex Rodriguez), the bell ringer at Paris’s Cathedral of Notre Dame, his guardian (and uncle) Archdeacon Frollo (Clay David), and a gypsy girl named Esmeralda (Aysia Beltran) contains enough thematic elements for a half-dozen shows. Religious extremism, class differences, bigotry, love vs. lust, lookism, repression and oppression are all explored in Hugo’s story and Peter Parnell’s book and through the score with music by Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast) and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Wicked). It’s grand opening number “The Bells of Notre Dame” provides the somewhat lengthy backstory before the main narrative kicks in. A band of gypsies has come to Paris and its newest member Esmeralda has caught the eye of both Quasimodo and Archdeacon Frollo. Quasimodo is taken by her kindness while Frollo is taken by ‘impure thoughts’. Add a dashing French soldier to the mix (Jack O’Reilly) and you have one helluva triangle. Music director Jon Gallo and the nine-piece orchestra do well by the score, which runs from the light (“Topsy Turvy”, “Tavern Song) to the dark (“Hellfire”). The choral numbers are particularly powerful with tremendous vocal work done by the entire cast. Alex Rodriguez makes for a fine Quasimodo and Clay David is excellent as the conflicted Frollo, who utters a few comments about immigrants and borders that might seem rather prescient. Both bring substantial vocal power to their musical moments. Director/Choreographer/Scenic Designer Matthew McCoy and his team do a pretty good job with the show’s technical aspects and the limitations imposed by the venue. Narration eliminates many of the challenges, but the solution to how to present a flood of molten lead poured over a rioting crowd was ingenious. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is no children’s show, talking gargoyles to the contrary. Operatic at times, classic American musical at others, it’s a worthy addition to the season of any company with the talent, facility and budget to do it as well as this production. 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' runs Thursday through Sunday through August 5 at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. Thursday and Friday evening performances at 7:30 pm, Saturday evening performances at 8:00 pm. Saturday and Sunday matiness at 2:00 pm. For more information, go to bamsf.org

One might think that the talents behind Downtown Abbey and Phantom of the Opera would be odd choices to make a Broadway musical out of a 2003 comedy 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 Webber’s overblown take on that modest film whose charm relied mostly on one’s appreciation of its star. Dewey Finn (Rob Colletti, doing Jack Black-light) has been kicked out of his band, has no visible means of support and is months behind on the rent due his best friend Ned (Matt Bittner). After receiving an ultimatum from Ned’s girlfriend (a shrewish Emily Borromeo) to raise the money or get out, he answers a phone call seeking Ned’s services as a substitute teacher. Since subbing obviously requires no skills at all, Dewey decides he can impersonate Ned and make some quick money. Soon it’s off to the toney Horace Green Academy where Dewey takes charge of an elementary class whose students have one thing in common – their parents all ignore them. When Dewey discovers he’s got a musically gifted group of kids, he hits upon the idea of creating a band and entering them in a competition. How long can he fool the stern headmistress (Lexie Dorsett Sharp, doing Joan Cusack-light) and bring his plan to fruition? Well, almost to the end of the show’s two hour and 40 minute running time, which is about an hour longer than the film took to tell the story, albeit with less music – which isn’t a bad thing. Webber’s score is his least memorable as may be this entire production. The characters are all one dimensional. Every adult comes off poorly (except, of course, Dewey, who is not what one would think of as a role model) with every parent self-absorbed, every educator an idiot and every child a prodigy. The kids are talented musicians – yes, they play their own instruments – but when it comes to acting, not so much. To be fair, they’re on stage a lot, the choreography requires them to jump up and down a great deal, and they spend a fair amount of time moving set pieces. Maybe that’s a lot to ask of a group of pre-teens. The best parts of the show, beyond the kids’ musical performances, are drawn straight from Mike White’s film script. There are laughs, but kids deserve a better School than this. This School simply doesn’t make the grade. 'School of Rock' runs Tuesday through Sunday through July 22 at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. Show times vary. For more information, go to SHNSF.com

In a world of theatre based on movies and television shows, why not Shakespeare? Such is Illyria, a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night first produced Off-Broadway in 2002 and now running at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse. Don’t let the words ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘musical’ chase you away. Peter Mills has written a book and score that takes the plotline of the Bard’s 17th century comedy, modernizes it a bit in speech and time period, sets it to music and comes up with a terrifically entertaining piece of theatre. Shakespeare’s tale involves shipwrecked and separated twins Viola and Sebastian (played by Carmen Mitchell and Lorenzo Alviso), Duke Orsino, the lovelorn leader of the isle of Illyria (played by Burton Thomas), and Olivia, the in-mourning object of his affection (as played by Tracy Hinman.) There’s also Andrew Aguecheek, a silly suitor for Olivia’s hand, Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s soused uncle, Malvolio, a stuffed-shirt steward, Maria, a servant with eyes on Sir Toby, and Feste, a fool who narrates the tale. Impersonation, mistaken identity, gender confusion, and trickery all come into play before things get sorted out and everyone ends up with his or her intended. Well, most everyone. To fully enjoy this production, more than the usual suspension of belief is required in a couple of areas. One must accept Ms. Mitchell being regularly mistaken for a male and Ms. Hinman is a more mature Olivia than one usually sees in the role, but just go with it. Mills’s 20+ songs vary in style from a lilting ballad (the beautiful “Save One”) to English Musical Hall numbers like the hilarious “Cakes and Ale”. Musical director Lucas Sherman has a six-piece band delivering the beguiling score flawlessly while director Craig Miller’s cast brings superb vocal talents to bear. As strong a group of voices I’ve heard on a North Bay stage, this may be the best sounding musical 6th Street has produced. It’s gratifying that the characterizations provided by the performers match their vocal quality. Mitchell charms as the gender-bending Viola and is matched by Burton’s flustered Orsino. Orsino’s musical confession of love to Alviso’s Sebastian (whom Viola was impersonating) shows Shakespeare was a couple of centuries ahead of society when it came to same-sex relationships. Ample comedic support is provided by Seth Dahlgren as Toby Belch, Larry Williams as Malvolio, and Stephen Kanaski as the foppish Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Tim Setzer’s clowning and dancing as Feste was rakishly amusing. Craig Miller ends his tenure at 6th Street Playhouse on a high note with this delightful production. 'Illyria' runs Friday through Sunday through July 8 at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa; Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30pm; there are Saturday & Sunday matinees are at 2pm. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Sonoma’s Transcendence Theatre Company opened its seventh season of “Broadway Under the Stars” in Jack London State Park with Stairway to Paradise, the first of four staged concert events scheduled this year. The company takes performers with Broadway, touring company, film and television experience and creates an original themed musical revue around them. This year’s theme is ‘Every Moment Counts’ and director/choreographer Tony Gonzalez has designed 20+ production numbers full of memorable moments. Along with Broadway show tunes, the Transcendence play list includes a mix of recent and past pop hits, classic rock, and specialty numbers. They’re all done ‘Broadway style’ and occasionally with a twist. It often works well, but sometimes it doesn’t. The first act ran the gamut from numbers from Sunday in the Park with George, South Pacific, The Wiz, and Victor/Victoria to “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “Feelin’ Groovy” by Paul Simon. Highlights included a recreation of the famous Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand duet of “Get Happy/Happy Days are Here Again” with Courtney Markowitz and Shaleah Adkisson, Christine Lavin’s popular “Air Conditioner” song, also done by Adkisson with Tim Roller, and a large-scale production number of “Blue Skies” with the entire company led by Joey Khoury singing and dancing to the Irving Berlin classic. In an amusing bit that allowed the performers (and audience) a break, the cast played a round of ‘Transcendence Family Feud’ with contestants pulled from the crowd. The act ended on a local note with a performance of “Everything”, a tribute song written by Sonoma County songwriters Mark Beynon and Joe Label and the Transcendence version of “Oklahoma!” which morphed the Rogers and Hammerstein classic into “Oh, Sonoma!” The second act included numbers from Cabaret, Into the Woods, and The Sound of Music mixed with Justin Timberlake, Van Halen and, in the evening’s one clear misstep, Don McLean’s “American Pie”. Sorry guys, but perky, Cheshire cat-like smiling performers singing “This’ll be the day that I die” just doesn’t work for me. It actually came off a little creepy. Things snapped back with a jaunty Michael Linden performing Drew Gasparini’s “A Little Bit” and large-scale numbers with Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” and Van Halen’s “Right Now” before concluding with “Finale B’ from Rent. Dress in layers, pack a picnic, indulge in some wine or food purchased from local food trucks and vintners serving on-site, then sit back and enjoy a unique north bay entertainment experience. 'Stairway to Paradise' runs Friday through Sunday through July 1 at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen. Doors open for picnicking at 5pm; the show starts at 7:30pm. For more info on this and the other three “Broadway Under the Stars” productions running this season, go to bestnightever.com

Two community theatre workhorses have galloped onto North Bay stages. Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater is presenting The Fantasticks, the 1960 musical that ran for a record 42 years Off-Broadway and then had a revival in 2006 that ran for another eleven years. It’s a modest production with a sweet score and engaging performances. It’s a simple tale of two neighboring families. Mrs. Hucklebee (Krista Wigle) and Mr. Bellomy (Michael van Why) each have a child they wish to fall in love with the other. They figure the best way to achieve that is to start a pseudo-feud between the families and make it clear to them they don’t want them to see each other. When Luisa (Carolyn Bacon) and Matt (Lucas Brandt) do fall in love, how do they end the “feud” so all may live happily ever after? Well, they hire a mysterious stranger who goes by the name “El Gallo” (Sergey Khalikulov) and some players (James Pelican, Brandon Wilson) to stage a phony abduction of Luisa to allow Matt to rescue her so all may be forgiven between the families, of course! Act One ends on a happy note as all seems rosy for the couple. Act Two makes it clear the bloom has fallen off the rose. The Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt musical can trace its roots back to Shakespeare and even further back to Greek and Roman mythology and yet if often feels more dated than that. Director Elly Lichenstein utilizes several authorized revisions to make some of the show’s more problematic elements more palatable to today’s audience and it mostly works. The music is nostalgic (“Try to Remember” opens the show), the staging is colorful, and the cast is excellent with Ms. Bacon and Mr. Khalikulov in fine voice and Messrs. Pelican and Wilson providing welcome comedy relief. 'The Fantasticks' runs through June 24 at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm; there’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to cinnabartheater.org Curtain Call Theatre in Monte Rio is presenting Bullshot Crummond, a 45-year-old parody of a 100-year-old pretty-much-forgotten British literary character. Running through June 23, it’s the type of show where you’re encouraged to boo the villain and cheer the hero as he rescues a damsel in distress. An ambitious undertaking for the small theatre company in terms of staging, its technical elements are somewhat lacking but the steampunk-style costumed cast is game and director Avi Lind puts them through their paces. There are some nice bits of physical comedy and inventive sight gags that at the very least will have you cracking a smile and shaking your head. It’s silly and it’s stupid, but that’s what it’s supposed to be. 'Bullshot Crummond' runs through June 23 at the Russian River Hall in Monte Rio. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm. For more information, go to curtaincallrussianriver.com

“Everyone’s a little bit racist” sing the puppets in the musical Avenue Q. Playwright Greg Kalleres takes that thought and runs with it in Honky, running now at Left Edge Theatre. It opens up with a commercial for Skymax 16’s, the latest craze in athletic footwear. It ends with the tag line “S’up now?” which we soon learn is the last thing said to a black teen before he’s killed for the shoes. Lights up on the office of Davis Tallison (Mike Pavone), the white president of a company that makes footwear “by black people for black people.” Thomas Hodge (Trey G. Riley) is there to unveil his latest design and is aghast to learn that sales of the 16’s have exploded in the white youth community since the shooting. Tallison announces the new 17’s will now be marketed to them. Hodge is furious that something he created for “his people” has become bastardized and seeks some sort of retribution on the creator of the commercial he thinks is responsible. Enter Peter Trammel (Mark Bradbury), whose issues about the commercial’s impact have led him to a therapist (Liz Rogers-Beckley) with her own issues. In a coincidence that only occurs to writers, she happens to be Hodge’s sister. Credulity is further strained when Hodge runs into Peter’s fiancé (Lydia Revelos) and sees a way for some payback, but credulity really shouldn’t be an issue in a play with a sublot involving a new pharmaceutical cure for racism whose side effects lead to visions of a lusty Abraham Lincoln (Nick Christenson) and a foul-mouthed Frederick Douglass (Julius Rea). Part absurdist farce and part blistering social commentary, Honky will make you laugh and uncomfortable. More about racial identity than racism, the feelings of being “too white” or “not black enough” are deftly combined with swipes at our consumerist society where discrimination is masked as “marketing” and stereotypes are just “demographics.” Director Argo Thompson has a terrific cast with California-newcomer Riley outstanding as the conflicted Hodge. The opening scene with veteran Pavone crackles and sets the tone for the duration. Excellent work is done by all with an extra shout out to Julius Rea and Jim Kaskey for their work as a variety of ‘urban’ youth the other characters encounter. Funny, infuriating, profane and profound, shows like Honky don’t play on wine country stages that often. Catch it while you can. ‘Honky’ runs through July 1 at Left Edge Theatre located in the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 8pm. There’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to leftedgetheatre.com

Ten down-on-their-luck Texans gather on a car lot to compete for a cherry red Nissan pickup. They must lay their gloved hands upon the truck and, except for scheduled breaks every six hours, never let go. The last person standing wins. That’s the premise behind Hands on a Hardbody, a 2012 musical now in its Bay Area premiere run at Napa’s Lucky Penny Community Arts Center. Based on a 1997 documentary that followed 24 contestants in an actual endurance competition, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright trimmed the number of contestants to ten and Trey Anastasio (Phish) and Amanda Green composed a Tony-nominated score to tell their backstories. For those who don’t think there’s enough here for a full-length musical, Benny Perkins (Brian Watson) makes it clear to the audience that it’s a “Human Kind of Thing”, and then each contestant explains what they’d do “If I Had This Truck”. Benny’s won the contest before but since lost the truck and his wife. Ronald (Michael David Smith) thinks his all-Snickers diet is the ticket to victory (he’s mistaken.) J. D. (Barry Martin) sees the truck as a way to regain his virility. Greg (Ryan Hook) and Kelli (Kirstin Pieschke) meet cute and then make plans to drive away to Hollywood together. Janis (Lucinda Hitchcok Cone) is doing it for her kids. Jesus (Alex Gomez) could use some help putting himself through veterinary school. Chris (Michael Scott Wells) is a military vet who’s looking to make his son proud. Heather (Jenny Angell) may have the inside track, but Norma (Daniela Innocenti Beem) has God on her side. Benny is the ostensible lead, but it’s a true ensemble piece with each character, including the non-contestants involved (spouses, the car dealers, a radio DJ) having their moments. Credit to director Taylor Bartolucci for assembling a talented, diverse cast to explore the themes beneath the surface and to choreographer Staci Arriaga for figuring out how to make the cast move with one hand attached to a truck at all times (well, mostly.) By the way, the truck is on rollers and is frequently spun by the cast, so no one section of the audience spends the bulk of the show staring at the back end of a truck (or cast member.) Musical director Craig Burdette leads a four-piece band in the heavily country and western-influenced score whose musical highlight is the raucous gospel number “Joy of the Lord”. Basically, it’s A Chorus Line with a truck and at two and a half hours it runs a bit long, but by the end you’ll be giving a hand to this Hardbody. ‘Hands on a Hardbody' plays Thursdays through Sundays through June 17 at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center in Napa. Thursday performances are at 7pm; Fridays and Saturdays are at 8pm; the Sunday matinee is at 2pm. For more information, go to www.luckypennynapa.com

High atop Mount Tamalpais, at about the 2,000 foot level, sits the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre where the “great outdoor theatre adventure” known as The Mountain Play has been produced for the past 105 years. Your all-day adventure includes a slow, winding ride up the mountain, a hike to the 4,000 seat amphitheatre and a trek down to your seat lugging coolers full of food and ‘adult’ beverages (they’re allowed.) You get your umbrella and seat cushions arranged, unpack your goodie basket and just as you start to enjoy a pleasant afternoon picnic, a show breaks out. Ah, yes. There is a show. This year’s production is Mamma Mia!, the 1999 jukebox musical that uses the slightest of stories as an excuse to perform the catalogue of pop super group ABBA. Set at a Greek island taverna run by Donna Sheridan (played by Dyan McBride), the story centers on the circumstances of her daughter’s upcoming wedding. Sophie (a very charming Carrie Brandon) is about to get married to a slab of British beefcake (Jake Gale) and wants to invite her father to her nuptials. The problem is, she doesn’t know who it is! A quick trip through her mother’s diary leads her to three possibilities – Harry (played by Sean O’Brien) is an uptight British banker, Bill (played by David Schiller) is a travel writer and adventurer, and Sam (played by Tyler McKenna) is an architect and, the other two possibilities notwithstanding, her mother’s one true love. Sophie decides, in proper musical theatre tradition, to invite them all and sort everything out later. Chaos, hilarity, singing, and dancing ensue. Folks don’t go to shows like Mamma Mia! for their complex storylines or deep psychological subtext, they go for the songs. Put no thought into why the story leads to a particular song being sung, just enjoy the 20 + ABBA tunes including “Chiquitita”, “Dancing Queen”, “S. O. S.” and the title tune. Director Jay Manley gets generally solid performances from the large cast, but it took a couple of songs for the vocals to really hit their stride culminating in a very powerful delivery of “The Winner Takes It All” by McBride. There’s colorful and clever scenic work by Andrea Bechert, some nice energetic choreography (including a chorus line of swim-finned dancers) by Nicole Helfer and Zoë Swenson-Graham, and the ABBA songbook is well played by Musical Director Jon Gallo and a nine-piece band. The Mountain Play provides a unique Bay Area theatrical experience. Where else can you catch a pleasant Broadway musical that comes with a pre-show warning about ticks and rattlesnakes? ‘Mamma Mia!’ runs Sundays through June 17 (and there’s one Sing-Along Saturday performance on June 9), at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre in Mount Tamalpais State Park. All shows are at 2pm. Be sure and pack the sunscreen. For more information, go to mountainplay.org

That the name ‘Jeeves’ immediately conjures up the image of a staid British manservant is a tribute to the staying power of author P. G. Wodehouse’s character. Since his first appearance in 1915, he’s been featured in films, television, and even an internet search engine. There was but a single theatrical venture until playwright Margaret Raether began writing a series of plays beginning with Jeeves Intervenes, running now at Sonoma Arts Live. Jeeves (Randy St. Jean) is the unflappable valet to Bertie Wooster (Delaney Brummé), an upper-class twit who Jeeves is constantly rescuing from troubles of his own making. Under pressure from his imperious Aunt Agatha (Jennie Brick), Bertie finds himself engaged to Gertrude Winklesworth-Bode with whom Bertie’s ne’er-do-well friend Eustace Bassington-Bassington has fallen hopelessly in love. Other complications arise, but leave it to Jeeves to sort it all out. It’s a snazzy production with nice costume and set design work. Director James Jandak Wood has cast it well with St. Jean perfect as the imperturbable Jeeves. There’s good work from the supporting players, especially Nick Moore as Eustace and Libby Oberlin as Gertrude, but Jandak erred in having Brummé play Bertie with a voice that can best be described as “annoying”. How annoying? Well, he had me envisioning a sequel entitled Jeeves Drowns Bertie in the Thames. “Jeeves Intervenes” runs through May 27 on the Rotary Stage in the Sonoma Community center in Sonoma. Thursday through Saturday evening performances at 7:30pm; there’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to sonomaartslive .com Wodehouse published a collection of essays under the title Louder and Funnier, which is the stage direction Jared Sakren must have given the cast of the 6th Street Playhouse production of The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged). Significant energy is expended by the hard-working and talented Nick Mandracchia, Zac Schuman and Erik Weiss in comically presenting 38 Shakespeare plays in two hours, but it needn’t be delivered almost entirely at a decibel level that rivals the nearby SMART train. The show is a fast paced series of jokes, bad puns, quick changes, and audience interactions. Some things worked, others (like the attempts at topical humor) didn’t. What comedy there was to be found was often drowned out by the vociferous cast. C’mon, guys. If I wanted to spend two hours being yelled at, I can just go visit my mother. “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)” runs through June 3 at the 6th Street Playhouse Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm; there are Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 pm. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Female protagonists in peril are the focus of one very silly and one very melancholy production running now in the North Bay. Left Edge Theatre’s “Women in Jeopardy!” is a laugh-out-loud look at the changing dynamic among a group of single friends once one of them begins a relationship. That the friends are middle-aged women makes for a nice change of pace. Mary (Shannon Rider) and Jo (Sandra Ish) are having a tough time adjusting to a new addition to their circle of friends. Their friend Liz (Angela Squire) has a new man in her life and Jackson (Richard Pallaziol) is not quite their cup of tea. He’s a dentist who makes Little Shop of Horrors’ Orin Scrivello, DDS look like a pussycat. His hygienist has gone missing and it doesn’t take long for Mary and Liz to leap to the conclusion that he’s the responsible party. What’s worse, he’s about to take Liz’s daughter off on a camping trip. What do you do when your best friend is dating a serial killer? All three wine-swilling ladies have their comedic moments, with Ish’s frequently flabbergasted second-banana Jo garnering a lot of laughs with just a look. Pallaziol is hilariously creepy as Jackson and equally amusing as a Dudley Do-Right-ish police sergeant. Victoria Saitz as Mary’s daughter and Zane Walters as her cougar-hunting on again/off again boyfriend also contribute to the fun. The show is a lot of fun with Wendy MacLeod’s script full of witty lines and amusing bits. What the show doesn’t have is an ending as things just sort of conclude with an abrupt wind-up that you shouldn’t think too hard about. You really don’t have to expend many brain cells at all as there’s no great message to be found in “Women in Jeopardy!”, just a lot of laughs. “Women in Jeopardy!” runs through May 27th at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 8pm; there’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to leftedgethreatre.com If Greek mythology is more to your taste, then Main Stage West has a production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” running through June 2. Ruhl has flipped the focus of the classic tale of Orpheus (Taylor Diffenderfer) and his quest to bring his wife Eurydice (Brianna Rene Dinges) back from the dead to Eurydice’s time in the Underworld and her relationship with her father (John Craven). Director Chris Ginesi flips it even further with the non-traditional casting of Orpheus that while seeming to fit Ruhl’s alternative world of raining elevators, a tricycle-riding Lord of the Underworld (Neil Thollander), and a Greek Chorus of Talking Stones (mollie boice, Nick Christenson, Samantha Bolke-Slater), actually detracts from it. It’s a visually arresting piece with inventive design elements that complement the script’s other-worldliness and the performances are good, but there’s a hole in the heart of this production. “Eurydice’' runs through June 2 at Main Stage West in Sebastopol. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 8pm; their Sunday matinee is at 5pm. For more information, go to mainstagewest.com

J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan has been seen on stage in one form or another for well over 100 years. It’s survived being Disney-fied and even Christopher Walken-ized in a disastrous live television spectacle. The most popular adaptation is the 1954 musical starring Mary Martin. It’s that version that takes flight in a well-mounted production running at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center through May 20. Peter Pan (a winsome Sarah Wintermeyer) has lost his shadow while eavesdropping on story time at the Darling household. While retrieving it late one night, he awakens eldest child Wendy Darling (Lucy London) and after a quick flight demonstration, Peter convinces Wendy and her brothers to join him in Neverland. They’ll soon cross paths with some warriors and the dastardly Captain Hook (David Yen) and his scurvy pirate crew. Director Sheri Lee Miller and her team get almost everything right here, from casting to costumes and sets, from choreography to musical direction. Wintermeyer is so good as Peter that she almost gets me to put aside my bucket list wish to see a production cast with a male in the role. This is actually the first production I’ve attended where I haven’t been surrounded by little tykes asking “Why is Peter a girl?” David Yen must be on a low-fiber diet as he doesn’t really chew up the scenery as much as one would expect with such a role. Still terrifically entertaining, his decision to go ‘small’ with some things puts the bits in danger of being lost on the large Spreckels stage. Nice supporting work is done by Craig Bainbridge as Hook’s right-hand man Smee, Morgan Harrington as Mrs. Darling and the entire cast as Wendy’s siblings, various warriors, pirates and Lost Boys. Honorable mention goes to the backstage “flight crew” and to Andy Templeton who spends the show costumed as either Nana the dog or a tick-tocking crocodile but manages to get some of the biggest audience reactions. Miller handles the problematic parts of Barrie’s script - its depiction of Native Americans - by transmogrifying them from an “Indian” tribe to non-specific “warriors” and costuming them in a patchwork of styles and designs. It helps, but dialogue (“Let’s smoke a peace pipe!”) and lyrics are still a bit cringe-worthy. The show is in three acts and runs about two hours and forty minutes, which seems long, but the first and third acts only run for a peppy 35 minutes. Act II runs about an hour and does get a bit sluggish. There are intermissions between the acts to give the kiddies a restroom break. In toto, Peter Pan makes for a great evening of family entertainment. Peter Pan runs Friday through Sunday through May 20 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 1pm. There’s a Thursday, May 17 performance at 7pm. For more information, go to spreckelsonline.com

It’s been thirty-five years since La Cage aux Folles took Broadway by storm. What began in 1973 as a French stage farce followed by a series of films, the Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman musical was considered daring for its time with its portrayal of a happily domesticated male couple thrown for a loop by a request from their son. With marriage equality the law of the land and RuPaul’s Drag Race a crossover hit, it seems less daring today but its message of self-acceptance still packs a punch. Anthony Martinez plays Geirges, the proprietor of La Cage aux Folles, a French Riviera nightclub that features drag entertainment. The headliner is “Zaza”, otherwise known as Albin, Georges’s partner of twenty years as played by Michael Conte. Together they have raised their a son who’s come home to announce his engagement to a girl whose politician father happens to be the leader of the right-wing “Tradition, Family, and Morality” Party. He wants his fiancé’s father and mother to have dinner with his father and mother - that is, his biological mother. Albin is not to be included. It’s going to be quite some dinner party. Herman’s Tony Award-winning score runs from the romantic (his “Song on the Sand”) to the comedic (the funny “Masculinity”) to the joyous (the popular “The Best of Times”) and hits its apex with “I Am What I Am”, a defiant ode to individuality. Musical conductor Ginger Beavers and a six-piece band handle the jaunty Herman score well. There are two terrific lead performances in this Russell Kaltschmidt-directed production, both delivered by Michael Conte. As bombastic as he is as diva-deluxe Zaza, he’s even better as Albin. Conte brings real emotional depth to his character as he deals with his son’s rejection. It’s a depth that’s lacking from Martinez’s rather bland Georges. Nice comedic support is provided by Joseph Favalora as their butler/maid Jacob and Michael Fontaine as the stuffed-shirt politician. His twelve-syllable delivery of a five-syllable word had me laughing out loud. Lorenzo Alviso also does well as the turncoat son who soon sees the error of his ways. The design budget must have gone almost entirely to the costumes as there’s almost no set to speak of, but Zaza’s and Les Cagelles’ couture almost makes up for it. Social progress may have dimmed some of the ‘novelty’ from La Cage, but it still has plenty of heart. 'La Cage aux Folles' runs Friday through Sunday through May 20 at the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30pm, there are Saturday and Sunday matiness at 2pm. There’s also a Thursday, May 3rd performance at 7:30pm. For specific show dates and times, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

The Santa Rosa Junior College theatre season ends with their production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. It’s a fairy tale mash-up with elements of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood set to a classic Sondheim score. As in the original tales - and not like most adaptations - things do not end well for the characters. A childless baker (Brett Mollard) and his wife (Katie Smith) make a bargain with a witch (Alanna Weatherby) to lift a family curse and grant their wish for a child. They are tasked with acquiring four items – a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold. Their search leads them to cross paths in the woods with the characters from the aforementioned fairy tales, all seeking fulfillment of their own wishes. The first act ends on a happy note as everyone seems to have their wishes granted but Act II gets very dark as the consequences of the characters’ actions play out. In other words, be careful what you wish for… With the JC’s Burbank Auditorium undergoing renovations, the limitations of the high school auditorium utilized for this production led director Laura Downing-Lee and her design team to get even more inventive than usual. They’ve reached back to the source material and set the show in a library. Scenic designer Peter Crompton loads the stage with oversized books that work as doors and steps. Other library materials are ingeniously worked into scenes – flapping books as birds, library carts as horses, etc. Under the vocal direction of Jody Benecke and musical direction of Justin Pyne and a nine-piece offstage orchestra, the creatively-costumed cast did well with the often-challenging Sondheim score. Mollard, Smith, and Weatherby lead the talented ensemble which includes Levi Sterling as Jack, Serena Poggi as Little Red Riding Hood, Ella Park as Cinderella, Shayla Nordby as Rapunzel and Cooper Bennet and Roberto Perez Kempton as Princes who were “raised to be charming, not sincere”. Unfortunately, the opening night performance was marred by numerous technical difficulties. Erratic microphone work and a failing projection system really distracted from the fine work being done onstage. My wish is that they get it all fixed so that audiences can fully enjoy this very entertaining production. 'Into the Woods' runs through May 6 at the Maria Carrillo High School Theatre in Santa Rosa. It’s recommended for ages 12 and above. Performances run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30pm. For more information, go to theatrearts.santarosa.edu

Dramas old and new dominate North Bay stages with two good ones continuing their runs. Film, television, and theatre veteran Charles Siebert headlines the 6th Street Playhouse production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller’s Pulitzer Prize and multi-Tony Award winning treatise on the elusiveness of the American Dream is considered by many to be the greatest American play ever written. While almost seventy-years-old, in the hands of the right artistic team it can seem as fresh as ever. Director Craig Miller has assembled that team to surround Siebert’s towering central performance as Willy Loman, a traveling salesman whose days on the road are rapidly coming to an end. Frustrated at still living paycheck-to-paycheck at his late age, Willy is coming unraveled to the consternation of his wife Linda (Sheila Lichirie) and son Happy (Ariel Zuckerman). Things aren’t helped by the return of semi-prodigal son Biff (Edward McCloud). The action glides between the present and the past and between fantasy and reality as we see why Willy’s dreams for his boys and himself have come to naught. The Studio theatre setting brings a level of intimacy to the show that makes Willy’s downfall, Linda’s helplessness, and Biff’s acknowledgement of his own failures even more gut-wrenching. In a very strong ensemble of North Bay regulars, take note of Bay Area newcomer Zuckerman’s performance as the son most like his father. Attention should be paid to this excellent production of an American classic. ‘Death of a Salesman’ runs Thursday–Sunday through April 28 at the 6th Street Playhouse Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday performances at 7:30pm; Sunday matinees at 2pm. For specific show information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com If political drama is more to your liking, then the scrappy Redwood Theatre Company is presenting Farragut North by Beau Willimon (who’s responsible for Netflix’s House of Cards). Willimon turned his time as a press aide during Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 Presidential run into this tale of the inner-workings of a similar campaign. Set in Iowa over two days before their caucuses, Press Secretary Stephen Bellamy (Kot Takahashi) is a 25-year-old political hot shot working on what everyone thinks is a winning campaign. Clandestine meetings and questionable decisions lead to double-crosses, triple crosses and unemployment before the first votes are cast. RTC’s no-budget productions are always interesting and director Ron Smith uses the energetic young troupe to good advantage here. What they lack in production value, they make up for in talent and heart. 'Farragut North' runs Friday through Sunday through April 22 at the Redwood Theatre Company Studio Theatre in Healdsburg. Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:00pm; Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to redwoodtheatrecompany.com

Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas hit North Bay stages, first with the Raven Players production of Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers. Simon, whose best-known works are comedies tinged with a little melancholy (The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys) won the 1991 Pulitzer for Yonkers, which is a melancholy family drama tinged with comedy. With their mother deceased and their father off to work to pay off a loan shark he owes for covering his late wife’s medical bills, Jay (Ari Votzaitis) and Arty (Logan Warren) find themselves living for ten months in 1942 with their tyrannical grandmother (Trish DeBaun) and their mentally-challenged Aunt Bella (Priscilla Locke) in Yonkers, New York. Grandma Kurnitz is cold, demanding, and unable to express affection of any kind. She does not want the children there, but Bella does. The battle is on, first between Kurnitz and her grandchildren, but ultimately between mother and daughter. Director Joe Gellura has a strong ensemble at work in this piece with laughs generated by Warren as Simon’s alter ego. The key performance is delivered by Locke, excellent as the daughter simply looking for a little happiness in her life. It’s a sensitive performance that grounds this show and gives it more heart than one expects from a typical Simon play. ‘Lost in Yonkers ' runs Friday through Sunday through April 15 at the Raven Performing Arts Center. 115 North St., in Healdsburg. Friday & Saturday evenings at 8pm; Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to raventheater.org There may be no more “community theatre” in our area than the folks at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center. A glance through the bios in their programs shows a mix of trained veterans, community actors, and a fair number of newcomers. This willingness to cast from the community, while commendable, often leads to a variance in the quality of their productions. Their current presentation of William Saroyan’s prize-winning-but-severely-dated The Time of Your Life is a good example. The show, a sort of pre-WWII Cheers, has a cast of sixteen with various levels of experience playing the denizens of a San Francisco dive bar circa 1939. There’s no real plot, just a variety of human flotsam and jetsam floating through the tavern. In an early scene, one character asks another if a performance they’re watching is any good. The response – “It’s awful, but it’s honest and ambitious...” I can’t improve on Saroyan. 'The Time of Your Life' runs Friday through Sunday through April 15 at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center, 209 N. Cloverdale Blvd., in Cloverdale. Friday & Saturday evening at 7:30pm; Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to cloverdaleperformingarts.com.

In Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Count Franz Orsini-Rosenberg assesses Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with the criticism that it has “too many notes.” Cinnabar Theater’s current production suffers from the opposite - it’s missing a few. Amadeus is actually the story of Antonio Salieri (Richard Pallaziol), the most celebrated composer of his time and a man who’s dedicated his life to God and mankind as thanks for God’s granting him the gift of musical talent. Enter Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Aaron Wilton), a crude, boorish reprobate for whom reasons Salieri cannot fathom has been gifted by God with musical genius. Salieri, feeling mocked by God and unhinged by what he sees as a betrayal, seeks revenge on Him by destroying His vessel. He will bring about Mozart’s ruin while seeming to be his friend but destroy himself in the process. Shaffer’s historical fiction won the 1981 Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play (Ian McKellen) and the film adaptation matched that with its 1985 Oscar wins for Best Picture and Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham). Both Pallaziol and Wilton have their moments as Salieri and Mozart with Pallaziol at his best when Salieri is at his most duplicitous. While Wilton succeeds in bringing a high level of obnoxiousness to his Mozart, there’s little chemistry displayed in scenes he shares with Rose Roberts as Mozart’s wife Constanza. Chad Yarish leads an uneven supporting cast as the amusingly befuddled Austrian emperor Joseph II with Tim Setzer also effective as the pompous Count Johann Kilian von Strack. Where this Jennifer King-directed production really falters is in its design elements. Scenographer Peter Parrish brings little more than a few platforms and some haphazardly hung drapes to a play whose settings include an 18th century Viennese palace. A large center scrim used occasionally for shadow projections went curiously unused for most of the production. Parrish’s lighting design was also lacking, really only effective in a scene where Salieri collapses in frustration after he reads page after page of Mozart’s compositions and finally succumbs to his genius. Skipper Skeoch’s period costume design had to do double-duty in providing a sense of time and place with wigs and makeup by Jolie O’Dell also providing nice atmospheric support. The show concludes with Salieri, speaking for all “mediocrities” in the word, absolving them. Sadly, that’s not in my power here. “Amadeus” runs Friday through Sunday through April 15th at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma. Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. For specific dates and times, go to cinnabartheater.org

One wouldn’t think that a play that deals with the wreckage left behind by a natural disaster would be particularly attractive to North Bay residents right now, but Sharyn Rothstein’s By the Water speaks to what our community is going through. While it’s set in 1992 on New York’s Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy, the human and material devastation portrayed might just as well be set in Coffey Park today. The show opens with Marty and Mary Murphy (Mike Pavone and Mary Gannon Graham) returning to what’s left of their storm-ravaged home to begin the process of rebuilding. Word comes that the government may be offering buyouts to the residents as long as 80% of the neighborhood is willing to sell. The Murphy’s son Sal (Mark Bradbury) and their best friends Philip and Andrea Carter (Clark Miller and Madeleine Ashe) are all for getting out, but Marty is resistant. Actually, he’s more than resistant as he recruits his other son Brian (Jared Wright) to actively campaign against the buyout. He speaks of family and community and history, but there’s another reason for his intransigence. That reason just may do the job that Hurricane Sandy couldn’t and finish off the family. Rothstein’s script is Arthur Miller-esque in its examination of a middle-class American family in economic crisis. The shadow of Death of a Salesman hangs over this production with its floundering patriarch, long-suffering-but-loyal wife, sons whose lives took different paths, a financially supportive friend, family secrets, etc. but Rothstein has effectively updated the story and added a few layers, though some like a subplot involving Brian’s rekindling of an old flame (Katie Kelly) feel superfluous. Director Carl Jordan has an impressive cast with leads Graham and Pavone terrific as spouses whose relationship is put to the test, not by the disaster but by what it reveals about the family. Bradbury and Wright do well as the siblings who have their own issues but whose love for each other is clear. Madeleine Ashe delivers the most devastating line in the play – a single line that speaks of the desperation and frustration that many in this community now feel. Speaking to Marty she tries to explain why her and her husband are so inclined to accept the buyout. She looks directly at Marty and says, “I’m 60, and I have nothing.” The pain in that line was palpable, and yet it was also cathartic. By the Water is not a story of natural disaster but of human resilience. It’s our story. **** ‘By the Water’ runs Friday through Sunday through April 8 at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. Friday and Saturday evening performances at 8pm; Sunday matinees are at 2pm. There’s a Thursday, April 5 performance at 7:30pm. For more information, go to spreckelsonline.com