Sacramento Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 6

BWW Review: Transcendence Theatre's 'Let's Dance' Celebrates Diversity Through Dance
by Christina Mancuso - June 20, 2022

California Wine Country's award-winning Transcendence Theatre Company returned once again to the incomparable Jack London State Historic Park to celebrate its 11th season. And what better way to celebrate than through dance. Directed by acclaimed international director and choreographer Luis Salgado...

BWW Review: KINKY BOOTS Kicks Off Summer at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - June 15, 2022

After being dark for two years, Broadway at Music Circus opened its 2022 season with Kinky Boots, the glittery hit from Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein and 80s icon Cyndi Lauper.  After opening on Broadway in 2013, it surprised everyone by surpassing its competition and securing a season-high 13 To...

BWW Review: TOOTSIE Closes the Season at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - May 18, 2022

Broadway Sacramento is closing out their 2022 Broadway on Tour season with the first national tour of Tootsie.  Based on the 1982 film of the same name, Tootsie features music and lyrics by David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and a Tony Award-winning book by Robert Horn.  Rollin...

BWW Review: WICKED is Decidedly 'Popular' at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - April 03, 2022

It’s been almost 19 years since Wicked debuted on Broadway, but you would never know it by the reception Sacramento gave the national tour this week.  Read our critic's review of the show 'Wicked has lost none of its salability and the energy was palpable in the room in anticipation of the show that...

BWW Review: August Wilson's FENCES Enchants at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - March 03, 2022

Fence (fens) n. 1. A structure that functions as a boundary or barrier, usually constructed of posts, boards, wire, or rails.  Or, as in August Wilson’s Fences, it can also be an allegory to keep the things out that you fear the most while locking all that is precious within its confines.  Is it eve...

BWW Review: ANASTASIA Holds the Key to our Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - February 03, 2022

Broadway Sacramento has hit it out of the park again with Anastasia-The New Broadway Musical.  The 2022 Broadway on Tour season opened on Tuesday, satiating those who were eager for more after December’s hit run of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. ...

BWW Review: Enter a World of Pure Imagination with CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - December 30, 2021

That crazy, crafty confectioner is at it again.  This time in the new musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, playing through January 2 at the newly revamped Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center.  That’s right, Willy Wonka is back with his national tour that was put on pause, and he’s ready t...

BWW Review: AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN Lifts Us Up at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - November 04, 2021

Broadway Sacramento continues its phenomenal comeback season in the newly renovated SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center with An Officer and a Gentleman. Based on the Academy Award-winning 1982 film starring Richard Gere, the musical boasts an impressive 1980’s arrangement including the hit “Up ...

BWW Review: GLORIA: A LIFE Kicks Off a New Season at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - October 14, 2021

After what Executive Director Michael Laun calls “the longest theatrical intermission ever on record,” Sacramento Theatre Company is back with its 77th season, which is aptly entitled WHO, WHAT & WHERE.  Really, do any of us know who, what, or where we are anymore?  I do know where you should be, th...

BWW Review: HAMILTON Brings Theatre Back to Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - September 19, 2021

After a year and a half hiatus, Broadway Sacramento is back in a big way!  Their 2021 season opened on Wednesday in the newly renovated SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center with the most revered piece of theatre in recent memory-Hamilton. Patrons were treated to a beautifully redesigned venue th...

BWW Review: Transcendence Theatre's 'Broadway Under the Stars' Celebrates 10 Years with a 'Road-Trip!'
by Christina Mancuso - August 11, 2021

There’s something truly extraordinary that happens when you step onto the grounds of Jack London State Historic Park.  It’s not just any park.  You are whisked away into a magical land of beauty, passion, exuberance -- and immersed in spellbinding talent that is known as the Transcendence Theatre fa...

BWW Review: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Streaming from the Ooley Theatre
by Courtney Symes - March 27, 2021

When I started writing for BroadwayWorld, never did I think that I would be an audience of one.  Then 2020 happened and here I am, the lone spectator, reviewing a one-act play-the first live performance I've seen in over a year.  Maybe fittingly, it is a play about death.  More specifically, it's ab...

BWW Review: The First National Tour of A BRONX TALE Comes to Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - March 04, 2020

Growing up unscathed in the Bronx in the 1960s was not easy. Young men had to deal with racial tensions as well as violent crime. Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri somehow made it out successfully and, in 1989, wrote a one-man play chronicling his experiences. It did so well that Robert...

BWW Review: Nothing is Rotten in Sacramento Theatre Company's HAMLET
by Courtney Symes - March 02, 2020

It is said that Shakespeare's Hamlet is being performed every minute somewhere in the world. Now, you can see it at the Sacramento Theatre Company (STC). BroadwayWorld Award-winning director Casey McClellan teams up with Greg Foro to create a modern-day version of the play that focuses on the intric...

BWW Review: DEAR EVAN HANSEN Will Be Found at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - January 18, 2020

Once in a while, you're lucky enough to witness something so special that you are forever changed. I've stared at this computer screen for hours trying to verbalize what is still swirling around in my head, impressions that are seemingly impossible to solidify into communicable thoughts. Last night'...

BWW Review: PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES Serves Up High Octane Fun at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - January 15, 2020

In a place somewhere between Frog Level and Smyrna, NC, lies the Double Cupp Diner and Pump Boys Filling Station. Go on in and grab yourself a piece of pie! Rhetta and Prudie will take good care of you while Jim, L.M., Jackson, and Eddie top off your car. If you're lucky, you may even bear witness t...

BWW Review: IRISH CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA Brings the Christmas Spirit and the Jameson to The Sofia
by Courtney Symes - December 26, 2019

Now that Christmas is over, we have only 364 days to wait until next year's festivities! Even less than that to begin thinking about attending all of the holiday activities that contribute to making the season so special. I will definitely be starting a new tradition of seeing the show, Irish Christ...

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL Brings the Magic of the Season to Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - December 11, 2019

One of my favorite holiday traditions is going to the theatre to see shows that celebrate the magic of the season. For the past three years, I've been fortunate enough to experience that with the Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) and their unique production of A Christmas Carol. This adaptation was w...

BWW Review: DEATHTRAP Brings Thrills and Chills to Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - November 12, 2019

Deathtrap, the longest-running comedy/thriller on Broadway, brings tantalizing twists and shocking turns to Sacramento Theatre Company (STC) this month. This 1978 play-within-a-play by Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives) was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play. Directed b...

BWW Review: Ralphie Rides to the Rescue in A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL at Broadway On Tour
by Courtney Symes - November 10, 2019

a?oeYou'll shoot your eye out, kid!a?? can mean one thing and one thing only. A Christmas Story, the Musical is on the first stop of its holiday tour here in Sacramento. Based on the 1983 movie, the musical boasts songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the duo responsible for Dear Evan Hansen and La L...

BWW Review: Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY Opens the 75th Season at Sacramento Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - October 08, 2019

What better way to kick off the fall season and Sacramento Theatre Company's (STC) 75th season than with a satirical homage to Gothic romance? Jane Austen's first completed novel, Northanger Abbey, is the much-anticipated opener of this season of Decades, Divas, and Diamonds. Local playwright and ac...

BWW Review: COMEDY OF ERRORS Closes the Season at Davis Shakespeare Festival
by Courtney Symes - September 25, 2019

Davis Shakespeare Festival (DSF) is closing out their 2019 season with Comedy of Errors, one of Shakespeare's earliest and shortest works. This adaptation was born of a project by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival called Play On Shakespeare in which playwrights are challenged with making the Bard's wo...

BWW Review: IN THE HEIGHTS Ends the Summer on a High at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - August 22, 2019

In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda's love letter to the New York neighborhood in which he grew up, is finally at Broadway at Music Circus after a summer of anticipation. The first draft was written in 1999, when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan University. After being accepted by the student theatre c...

BWW Review: Ease On Down the Road to See THE WIZ at Broadway at Music Circus!
by Courtney Symes - August 07, 2019

Wizard of Oz lovers can rejoice, for The Wiz has arrived! Take the original, add soul and catchy dance numbers, pepper it with one-liners, and you have a version that makes the whole family happy. The Wiz was created to give a voice to the urban African-American and the song styles reflect that with...

BWW Review: GUYS AND DOLLS is a Winner at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - July 24, 2019

The classics are my favorite, and Broadway at Music Circus' fresh take on Guys and Dolls is no exception. When it opened on Broadway in 1950, it won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. With three more Broadway revivals, it has cemented itself as a staple of American musicals. It is based on th...