Sacramento Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 3

Review: AN HONEST APOLOGY Premieres at FreeFall Stage
by Courtney Symes - February 22, 2024

Being the first to review a new work is always a pleasure, particularly when that work is as engaging as James Van Eaton’s An Honest Apology. This play is a mixture of Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen, full of witticisms and satire directed towards those who are concerned with their place in high society...

Review: SAFE AT HOME: THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY at Valkyrie Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - February 09, 2024

When Black History Month coincides with the Dodgers kicking off spring training, it’s a perfect time to celebrate one of the most important names in baseball history. Safe at Home: The Jackie Robinson Story is an engaging history lesson about the man who changed the Major Leagues with his quiet stre...

Review: AMERICAN FAST Lights the Beam at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - February 03, 2024

Capital Stage is starting the new year off with a winner. American Fast. by Kareem Fahmy, is making its Sacramento premiere and running through February. Its themes of competition, self-reflection, and navigating relationships are particularly relevant, as many immigrants struggle to honor familial ...

Review: SIX Scores a Perfect Ten at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - February 01, 2024

Some powerful Tudor women have taken Sacramento by storm; Six of them, to be exact. The former wives of Henry VIII have come back from the dead to tell their side of the story in this powerful musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. ...

Review: RESCUE ME Debuts at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - January 26, 2024

Championing new works can be a risky undertaking, but B St. Theatre’s dedication to the cause continues to pay off. Kicking off the 2024 season is Rescue Me, a finalist in the 2022 B Street New Comedies Festival.  It is penned by two B Street fixtures, Tara Sissom-Pittaro and Peter Story, who infuse...

Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL is 'Perfect' at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - January 03, 2024

What you oughta know is that Broadway Sacramento is starting off the New Year with a bang. Raw, emotional, and energizing are the words to kick off 2024, as the National tour of Jagged Little Pill, The Musical hits Sacramento this week. It was inspired by Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same n...

Review: CINDERELLA Charmed at Sierra Rep
by Courtney Symes - January 02, 2024

While the curtain has closed on Sierra Repertory Theatre’s holiday production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, I would be remiss in not acknowledging the quality of another successful SRT show. As most probably know, Cinderella was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was made speci...

Review: HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL is Stealing Our Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - December 29, 2023

It came after Christmas, bringing with it good cheer. It even brought Whos and Max the Reindeer. A trailer it pulled, full of sets and bright dresses. Whoville, wrapped presents, and sky-high coiffed tresses. A makeup designer and green fur hairdresser, the Grinch couldn’t wait to sing out and impre...

Review: A RAISIN IN THE SUN Closes the Year at Celebration Arts
by Courtney Symes - December 29, 2023

When Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1959, she became the first African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway. Its themes of discrimination and resiliency continue to be as relevant now as they were when it was written, and it i...

Review: Experience the Magic of Christmas with GEORGIANA AND KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - December 11, 2023

Who doesn’t love a great sequel? We all do, as evidenced by the popularity of franchises such as Scream and National Lampoon’s Vacation series. Even re-imagined backstories of classics, like Wicked, have seen incredible success. When we find characters that resonate with us, we are loath to give the...

Review: Warm Up With SNOW FEVER: A KARAOKE CHRISTMAS at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - December 02, 2023

It’s back! The most wonderful time of the year (besides baseball season), which brings with it a slew of the most wonderful theatre offerings. The B Street Theatre is premiering one of them, Snow Fever: A Karaoke Christmas by Robert Caisley, as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premi...

Review: See the Explosive AFTER THE BLAST at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - November 13, 2023

It wasn’t that long ago that novels like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road would have been considered farfetched.  A post-apocalyptic wasteland, previously only imaginable, now seems not only plausible but eventually probable. Zoe Kazan takes it a bit further with her stark rendering of the future of Ameri...

Review: Get Ready for AIN'T TOO PROUD at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - November 10, 2023

One of the most recognizable names in recording history has been immortalized in another jukebox musical. What makes this one different, however, is the infectious energy of the cast, the widespread appeal of the music, and the unparalleled enthusiasm of an insatiable audience. Ain’t Too Proud, The ...

Review: LES MISERABLES is Revolutionary at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - October 26, 2023

As Les Misérables turns thirty-eight this year, it shows no signs of aging. Performances in Sacramento have almost sold out, and it makes one wonder how a show whose content is serious and dark can have such staying power. When it opened in London in 1985, critical reviews were mixed. What it had on...

Review: THE GRADUATE is an Affair to Celebrate at Sierra Rep
by Courtney Symes - October 24, 2023

A delicious confection of nostalgia and excess awaits you at the historic Fallon House Theatre in Columbia. Sierra Repertory Theatre (SRT) has staged a titillating throwback to a time when societal norms were being questioned and the country was on the precipice of change. The Graduate is perhaps kn...

Review: ARCHDUKE Reigns at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - October 21, 2023

Tuberculosis and assassination may seem like an odd combination, but they pair surprisingly well in Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, a historical re-imagining of the pivotal event that helped to ignite World War I....

Review: JUMP to See this Relevant New Work at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - October 06, 2023

Following in the wake of a play like The Play That Goes Wrong is no easy feat. It would be easy to fall into the shadows and be overlooked, and B Street Theatre’s Executive Director, Lyndsay Burch, took a calculated risk in choosing a drama filled with some loaded content. After seeing the new work,...

Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY Plays at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - September 22, 2023

One thing that stands out about Sacramento is its prolific and varied arts community. There is truly something for everyone and, if you’re eclectically inclined, Big Idea Theatre is the place for you. Their performance selections vary, but each is unique, quirky, and thought-provoking. The current o...

Review: Get on Down to HADESTOWN at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - September 21, 2023

The ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice has been retold in many ways. In literature, music, art, and film, their doomed love story is among the most well-known Greek myths. Really, who can resist a Greek tragedy? Its most recent reimagination, in the form of Hadestown, began as a concept albu...

Review: FreeFall Stage Captures the Essence of Austen With PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
by Courtney Symes - September 15, 2023

Austenites can rejoice -- FreeFall Stage, a local community theatre known for its period pieces, has staged a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The 1813 work is a commentary on the trappings of the Regency era social caste wrapped in a beautiful romance novel. It has been adapted ...

Review: CLYDE'S Nourishes Our Souls at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - August 30, 2023

Capital Stage begins its 2023/2024 season theme of True Identity with socially relevant and thought-provoking theatre in the form of Lynn Nottage’s Tony Award-nominated play, Clyde’s. This 2022 hit is fresh, funny, and full of questions. Do your past choices define who you are, or can you reinvent y...

Review: RENT Soars at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 23, 2023

A lot can happen in 525,600 minutes. Love is found, dreams are lost, and lives are irrevocably altered. Such is the premise of Jonathan Larson’s rock musical, Rent, which is loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera, La Bohème. Larson wanted to tell the stories of his friends who were afflicted ...

Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG Does Everything Right at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - August 16, 2023

You may have heard that back in the 20th century a guy by the name of Edward Murphy famously said, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Pessimistic? Maybe. Accurate? Definitely, as proven in B Street Theatre’s side-splitting rendition of The Play That Goes Wrong. This award-winning comedy wri...

Review: RAGTIME Sets the Standard at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 09, 2023

A question that’s often posed is, “What constitutes good art?” For me, it’s a piece that stretches my knowledge while dispelling assumptions. It’s something that might make me uncomfortable, even if I’m not sure why. It’s a work that evokes such strong emotions that I am left thinking about it for d...

Review: ASSASSINS Hits the Mark at Rise Up Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - August 09, 2023

Rise Up Theatre Company is moving on to a bigger and better theatre space in Rancho Cordova but, before they do, they are gracing the MACC with a nail-biting production of Assassins. This Sondheim work lives in the shadow of his more popular pieces like Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods, but it stands...