Sacramento Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 5

Review: Visit THE LOWER ROOM at Freefall Stage
by Courtney Symes - March 05, 2023

The Passion of Christ is a story that has inspired many retellings, from major motion pictures to plays on a smaller scale. Freefall Stage brings it to life with a thoughtful and timely production of The Lower Room, which gives an original perspective not often seen in theatre. It tells the story of...

Review: THE FLYING MACHINE: THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS Soars at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - February 17, 2023

We’ve all heard of the Wright Brothers. Orville and Wilbur are introduced to us in elementary school as the first to invent the motor-operated airplane; however, there is so much more that we don’t know about these two fascinating individuals who forever changed the way that we travel. Jerry Montoya...

Review: WAIT UNTIL DARK Brings a Classic Thriller to Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - February 08, 2023

Sacramento Theatre Company continues its season of Curiosity, Intrigue, and Suspense with the curiously intriguing and suspenseful thriller, Wait Until Dark. Written by Frederick Knott, the play first opened on Broadway in 1966 and ran for 373 performances. It was then made into a successful 1967 fi...

Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is Rocking at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - February 08, 2023

Even after 50 years, Jesus Christ Superstar is still rocking. It’s now celebrating its golden anniversary tour with a surplus of energy, talent, and, fittingly, golden glitter. It first began as a concept album in 1970 when the composers, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, were unable to get financia...

Review: THE LAST WIDE OPEN Explores Fate and Love at The B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - January 29, 2023

2023 is already starting off on a great note, with the musically diverse The Last Wide Open charming audiences at the B Street Theatre. Playwright Audrey Cefaly tells the story of Lina and Roberto, coworkers who, in three different yet concurrent planes of existence, find love, heartbreak, and compa...

Review: Markiewitz Audioworks Celebrates the 180th Anniversary of THE TELL-TALE HEART
by Courtney Symes - January 24, 2023

What did our critic think of THE TELL-TALE HEART at Markiewitz Audioworks?...

Review: FROZEN Warms Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - January 07, 2023

The beauty and mystique of Arendelle have come to Sacramento in the North American tour of Frozen. Based on the award-winning 2013 film of the same name, Frozen opened on Broadway in 2018 with additional songs and a formidable creative team. Led by original screenwriter Jennifer Lee as the book writ...

Review: It's Double the Holiday Fun at the Ooley Theatre With Two Special Christmas Shows
by Courtney Symes - December 16, 2022

What did our critic think of MISSISSIPPI MOTEL AND A NAUGHTY CHRISTMAS NIGHT at Ooley Theatre?...

Review: 'TIS THE SEASON to See Live Theatre at B Street!
by Courtney Symes - December 09, 2022

Reindeer and aliens and elves, oh my! The B Street Theatre has kicked off the holiday season for the family with ‘Tis the Season, a rollicking romp of holiday cheer that is guaranteed to entertain kids and adults alike. Written by the B Street Company, this show is a collection of festive stories th...

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - December 04, 2022

As we reach the end of 2022, it’s time to pause and reflect on the past year. Have we been naughty or nice? Stingy or generous? While most of us can’t boast of being the best miser, like Scrooge, or the most innocent, like Tiny Tim, we can find solace that we are somewhere in the middle and most lik...

Review: LIFE SUCKS Doesn't Suck at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - November 29, 2022

Thanksgiving this year was a wonderful gathering at home, enjoying the riches of food and family. Ironically, the next night was spent ruminating about how Life Sucks. This work by playwright Aaron Posner is a modern adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 1898 play, Uncle Vanya. Big Idea Theatre has brought ...

Review: THE LOST CLAUS Finds Christmas Spirit at the B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - November 23, 2022

‘Tis the season to be jolly!  Unless you’re Santa, whose ancient body has compiled a laundry list of ailments. Playwright Buck Busfield has imagined a contemporary North Pole in this sweet and salty tale of Christmas hijinks at the B Street Theatre....

Review: THE LARAMIE PROJECT Sparks Dialogue at Sacramento State's Playwrights Theatre
by Courtney Symes - November 21, 2022

As I watched The Laramie Project at Sacramento State University on Saturday night, I thought to myself how far we’ve come as a society and how much progress we’ve made since 1998. That was the year Matthew Shepard was beaten and tied to a fence in rural Wyoming by two young men – left to die simply ...

Review: Sacramento Says Hello! And Welcome Back To THE BOOK OF MORMON
by Courtney Symes - November 03, 2022

Our favorite doorbell-ringing devotional devotees are back in Sacramento with a new and improved version of the Tony Award-winning hit, The Book of Mormon.  It’s been four years since they brought the good word of the creators of South Park (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) and Avenue Q (Robert Lopez), a...

Review: Come Aboard for MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - October 14, 2022

It’s the dawn of a titillating new season at Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) and this one may be the best yet!  The 2022-2023 Season of Curiosity, Intrigue, and Suspense kicked off with previews of the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famous whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express.  Published in 1934...

Review: LOVE AND BASEBALL is a Grand Slam at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - October 05, 2022

Two of my guilty pleasures-romantic comedies and baseball-are married in a hilarious one-act play showing now at the B Street Theatre.  Love and Baseball is the latest success by B Street Theatre playwright Jerry Montoya.  This clever take on gender stereotypes has also recently been made into a mov...

Review: COME FROM AWAY Comes To Broadway On Tour at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center
by Courtney Symes - September 21, 2022

Once in a while, an event occurs that is so viscerally powerful that you will always remember exactly what you were doing when it happened.  Most people over 70 will remember what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  People my age remember the Challenger disaster vividly (I was in...

Review: Come Join the CHARADE at The B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - September 11, 2022

A beautiful woman, international espionage, a mysterious stranger, and so many twists that you’ll be dizzy-that’s what’s happening at the B Street Theatre this week.  Based on the 1963 film starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, Charade has been adapted for the stage by Dave Pierini, who is also a ...

Review: Say 'Hell Yes!' to THE COLOR PURPLE at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 24, 2022

For me, the end of summer in Sacramento is signaled by the same event every year-the last show of the Broadway at Music Circus season.  This summer’s end is particularly bittersweet, as it marks the finale of a return to the round after two years of being in the dark.  Fittingly, this show is the mo...

Review: IN THE HEIGHTS Dazzles at Woodland Opera House
by Courtney Symes - August 21, 2022

My first foray to the historical Woodland Opera House occurred this weekend to take a trip back to Washington Heights, the neighborhood that Lin-Manuel Miranda memorialized in In the Heights, his successful precursor to Hamilton.  It was written as an homage to the community that shaped him and the ...

Review: Come and Enter THE SECRET GARDEN at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 10, 2022

Broadway at Music Circus is taking us back to England again, not to a shoe factory or the Globe Theatre, but to a gloomy moor in Yorkshire.  Based upon the 1911 Frances Hodgson Burnett novel of the same name, The Secret Garden premiered on Broadway in 1991 and earned three Tony Awards, including Bes...

Review: CIRQUE DU SOLEIL Brings the Magic of ALEGRIA to Sutter Health Park
by Courtney Symes - July 29, 2022

Cirque du Soleil is back in Sacramento, this time under the big top at Sutter Health Park.  It brings to us its reimagined classic, Alegria, which features updated costumes, characters, and music.  Boasting a multi-cultural cast from over 20 countries, Alegria takes the best the world has to offer a...

Review: Nostradamus Predicts a Hit With SOMETHING ROTTEN! at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - July 27, 2022

Broadway at Music Circus welcomes you to the Renaissance with its newest resounding success, Something Rotten!  This is the first time the Tony Award-nominated musical is being performed at Music Circus and the round lends a special intimacy to the production that, I’ll admit, made it better than th...

Review: It's Another Op'nin, Another Show With KISS ME, KATE at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - July 15, 2022

Another classic from the 1940s is gracing the stage at Broadway at Music Circus.  This time, it’s Kiss Me, Kate, the musical-within-a-musical that cemented Cole Porter’s return to Broadway as a successful lyricist and composer.  It ended up being Porter’s longest-running Broadway show and won the ve...

Review: CAROUSEL Has June Bustin' Out All Over at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - June 30, 2022

The world has changed a lot since 1945, when Carousel opened on Broadway.  The Tony Awards hadn’t been established yet.  Interracial marriage was not yet legal.  Its score speaks of a bygone era when people comported themselves with a certain modesty and societal rules were very different.  One woul...