Sacramento Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: KIMBERLY AKIMBO Kicks Off the New Year at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - January 01, 2025

Broadway Sacramento is kicking off the new year with a bang with the much-anticipated, multi-Tony Award-winning phenomenon, Kimberly Akimbo. David Lindsay-Abaire’s book and lyrics, based on his 2001 play, are accompanied by Jeanine Tesori’s beautiful score in this hilariously dazzling take on love a...

Review: GEORGIANA AND KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY Makes its Anticipated Return to Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - December 21, 2024

Jane Austen and Christmas go hand-in-hand, like ornaments and trees or Santa and Rudolph. Luckily for us, Capital Stage has brought back one of my favorite Austen-inspired works, Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. It is the third in a trilogy of plays by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon ...

Review: EVERYBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE at Valkyrie Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - December 15, 2024

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie…and for good reason. The Valkyrie Theatre Company is putting on this inspirational show based on real-life British drag queen, Jamie Campbell. Its feel-good, energetic score by Dan Gillespie Sells and book by Tom MacRae tell the coming-of-age story of Jamie New, whose...

Review: ELF Brings Christmas Cheer to Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - December 09, 2024

It’s a miracle on H Street! Finally, the magic of Broadway at Music Circus can be experienced outside of the summer months. In its first show since expanding its season to go almost year-round, the Music Circus team is offering a dazzling display of holiday splendor with a family favorite, Elf....

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL: THE ROCK & ROLL PANTO at City Theatre
by Courtney Symes - December 05, 2024

Another week, another version of A Christmas Carol! Is this one ever tons of fun, though. A Christmas Carol: the Rock & Roll Panto, written by Christine Nicholson and Luther Hanson, plays at City Theatre at Sacramento City College in the Art Court Theatre. It features silly antics, a ghost in drag, ...

Review: 'TIS THE SEASON: FOLKTALES & FABLES Spreads Holiday Cheer at B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - December 02, 2024

The B St. Theatre is solidifying its reputation of excellent holiday entertainment with its newest Family Series offering, ‘Tis the Season: Folktales & Fables. Like previous years, this show consists of vignettes, written by multiple playwrights, that feature different traditions throughout the worl...

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at B St. Theatre Brings Contemporary Fun to a Classic
by Courtney Symes - November 26, 2024

It’s time again for a favorite holiday tradition – seeing the various Christmas shows that Sacramento has to offer. At the top of my list every year is A Christmas Carol. Dickens’s classic tale of avarice is one of the most produced works during the holidays, but few are like the version that is bei...

Review: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE at FreeFall Stage
by Courtney Symes - November 07, 2024

Over seventy years after its initial publishing, C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe continues to entertain children of all ages. FreeFall Stage is bringing the classic story to life on stage with an adaptation by Joseph Robinette. Director DeeDee Eldridge is at the helm of this proje...

Review: CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY Plays at Celebration Arts
by Courtney Symes - November 02, 2024

When I heard that Celebration Arts was performing a Lynn Nottage play, I knew I had to be there. My first experience with her work was last year seeing Clyde’s at Capital Stage. I was struck by the characters and how they interacted with each other. They were all multi-faceted and so human, filled w...

Review: ROGUES Premieres at The Stage At Burke Junction
by Courtney Symes - October 30, 2024

The numbers vary by source, but over fifty million Americans care for an elderly or disabled family member. Many do so while holding other jobs and receiving no respite. It’s a topic that all of us can relate to in some way. Local playwright Charlotte Higgins, nationally recognized for her other wor...

Review: POTUS Gets My Vote at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - October 28, 2024

When a show opens with what is widely considered one of the most offensive words in the English language, I’m hooked. Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive does just that. This Tony Award-nominated work is a genius feminist farce brought to...

Review: THE HEART SELLERS at Capital Stage is a Poignant Look at Friendship and Courage
by Courtney Symes - October 23, 2024

Admittedly, I have a soft spot for stories about the Asian-American experience. Korea, in particular, has always fascinated me. When I was growing up, I heard my mother’s stories about her life in Korea and the challenges she encountered as an immigrant to the United States. My grandmother’s hardshi...

Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME Highlights Our Imperfect Union at B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - October 12, 2024

Going into this election season is a perfect time to reflect upon what our country means to us. What are our values and how have we changed over the past four years? Our democracy has been, in the past, a utopian ideal that was modeled by others. More recently, it seems that we are the ones catching...

Review: MRS. DOUBTFIRE is Sure to Deliver the Laughs at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - October 10, 2024

I’ve just found the new definition of fun, and it’s Mrs. Doubtfire. Broadway Sacramento continues its season of excellence with director Jerry Zaks’s comedy based on the 1993 film that starred Robin Williams. It had a limited run on Broadway immediately before and following the pandemic, but enjoyed...

Review: Celebrate the Revival of COMPANY at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - September 18, 2024

Broadway Sacramento’s 2024 season is here and is opening up with Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 hit, Company. Following several Tony Award wins for its 2021 Broadway revival, Company is stopping in Sacramento this week as it closes its national tour. The book by George Furth has undergone some changes, whi...

Review: THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE is the Hit of the Season at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - September 18, 2024

What can I say? Big Idea Theatre has some of the best picks in town. Constantly evolving and pushing through what feels comfortable and even sane, they’ve upped the ante with their latest offering. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a deliciously dark and suspenseful tale by Martin McDonagh....

Review: FAIRVIEW Opens the 20th Anniversary Season at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - September 17, 2024

Capital Stage is embarking on an exciting 20th anniversary season. Kicking it off is Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fairview. It’s a timely discussion about race, society, and expectations that leaves one asking questions long after the last bo...

Review: PICKLEBALL Is A Hard Hitter At B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - August 26, 2024

Pickleball is the fastest growing game in the country, and you can experience it now, out of the heat and inside the B St. Theatre, with the aptly titled Pickleball. Jeff Daniels’s play is an amusing farce about the dangers of middle-aged competition and a reminder to not take life too seriously – j...

Review: Working Our Way Back to See JERSEY BOYS at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 21, 2024

Oh, what a night at Broadway at Music Circus! Their final show of the season is the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, which tells the rags to riches story of the original New Jersey boy band, The Four Seasons. Director Glenn Casale has helmed another must...

Review: WAITRESS Serves the Entertainment at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 07, 2024

Waitress, the Tony-nominated musical with an all-female creative team, is heating up the round at Broadway at Music Circus. It boasts an incredible score by Grammy winner Sara Bareilles and a book by screenwriter Jessie Nelson. It was adapted from the independent film of the same name by screenwrite...

Review: HELP ME Plays at Freefall Stage
by Courtney Symes - August 04, 2024

Help Me is inspired by real-life scenarios shared on Tumblr and the #MeToo movement. Director Emma Eldridge of Freefall Stage has crafted this latest production as a labor of love sparked by righteous anger at the inequalities and danger women face every day....

Review: BLOOD OF THE LAMB Brings Rave Reviews to B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - August 01, 2024

There are few issues as polarizing as that of women’s reproductive rights in the United States. In the wake of the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, several states have enacted laws making abortion illegal, while many others have bans in place or are currently considering them. This is the crux ...

Review: You'll Go Crazy for ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE at Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
by Courtney Symes - July 30, 2024

Patsy Cline made it past the cursed musicians’ age of twenty-seven, but not by much. She was killed in a plane crash at the age of thirty, leaving thousands of fans to mourn her memory and music. She is known for inspiring the next generation of women in country music and was the first solo female a...

Review: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR is Beauty and Mirth at Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival
by Courtney Symes - July 27, 2024

Tucked into the beauty of Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park is a stage set against what is, arguably, one of the most exquisite views in the country. The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival calls this stage home, and I was fortunate to experience the wonder of their offerings last weekend....

Review: Let SUNSET BLVD Lead You to Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - July 24, 2024

The best part of summer is Broadway at Music Circus and, as we pass the halfway mark in the season, we are treated to the Tony Award-winning noir piece from Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Blvd. It transports us back in time to a forgotten world of silent films, glamour, and a certain elegance that has ...