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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 th

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, S

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 se

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) w

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 marv

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

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 li

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)

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 anythi

‘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

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 m

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, espec

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

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

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 f

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.e

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.

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 hi

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 d

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 wiv