Cari Lynn Pace

CON ME IF YOU CAN: SCOUNDRELS STEAL THE SHOW IN SONOMA I was a bit reluctant to review this musical based on that hilarious 1988 film with Steve Martin and Michael Caine as Lothario con men in the south coast of France. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has had success from Broadway to Brisbane. Can a small…

RAUNCHY AND RIDDLED Marin Theatre carries a torch for unusual and challenging productions at its Mill Valley location. This past season has seen a collection of shows, each producing a controversial “loved it/hated it” response from critics and audiences alike. The final show of their season, Do You Feel Anger? is in the same league….

BROADWAY ON A BASEBALL FIELD: TRANSCENDENCE THEATRE HITS IT OUTTA THE PARK Transcendence Theatre Company has opened a triple-hitter “stars under the stars” summer season with their song-and-dance revue spectacular Broadway’s Best Night Ever. This veteran production company has been inviting the best and the beautiful talents from Broadway and international touring companies to perform…

A PEG OF PIRATES, A NUTTY NURSE, AND A BRIG OF BOBBIES ALL IN A PITCH-PERFECT PARODY This beloved operetta by the legendary British duo W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan first launched in 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City (the only collaboration of the pair to premiere on Broadway, and not…

THROCKMORTON ROCKS THE UNDERWORLD If this world is going to hell, as some claim, there can be no better guides than the characters in this musical written by Anais Mitchell. Director Reba Gilbert’s double-cast performances of twenty-six young actors are mesmerizing as they sing and dance and drum out a train route to the underworld….

MAYHEM MIXED WITH MAGIC Novato Theatre Company considered a daunting task of shepherding thirty young actors ages 10 to 13 to stage Matilda the Musical, the Broadway hit by Dennis Kelly (book) and Tim Minchin (music and lyrics) based on the book written by Roald Dahl, the much-beloved children’s author. Those familiar with Dahl recognize him as the…

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A BOOK Where do playwrights get their inspiration? Brava to Lauren Gunderson, who took hers from actual historical events and created a believable backstory with characters to support it. Malcolm Rodgers (John Hemminges) and Fred Pitts (Henry Condell) Three years after William Shakespeare’s passing in 1616, the Globe Theatre had…

FALSE WITNESS HAS NOT CHANGED An ear-splitting blast from a punk-rock band opens this thought-provoking glimpse into an ancient event. Playwrights Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett pieced together actual court manuscripts from a 1612 Roman trial of rape, adding contemporary dialogue and raucous music to intensify the content. Maggie Mason, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Alicia M….

A RIOTOUS ROMP Audiences are often drawn to a theatre by curiosity when an unknown play opens, particularly when the description is “The sacred, the profane, and side-splitting hilarity unite mother and daughter.” What on earth does that mean? Gianna Digregorio Inspired by Guy de Maupassant’s 1880 short story “Boule de Suif” (which translates into…

CELEBRATING KANDER & EBB: WHAT A LARK! In the heart of southern Marin County, Larkspur’s Lark Theater is a 1936 art deco movie house with a single screen. It required hard work, dedicated volunteers and plenty of donations from 2004 to 2007 to transform it into a state-of-the-art film and cultural center. Today, this historic…

WHEN THE GRIM PAST WAS A PARTY Willkommen to the intimate 99-seat NTC Playhouse in Novato, transformed into the seedy Kit Kat Klub in pre-war Berlin. While poverty, unemployment, and a sense of doom fill the streets, free-wheeling sex, drugs, and jazz entertain inside the club. Unpleasant political developments are willingly pushed aside by these…

FEEL-GOOD SHOW SPICES UP MARIN THEATRE Marin Theatre takes a flying leap into immersive culture with Mrs. Krishnan’s Party—which opened tonight in the intimate Boyer Main Stage. The interactive comedy is a short, frenetic and very funny helping of what goes on in back-of-the-store India, transported to Mill Valley. The audience slowly enters a backstage…

CHICAGO: IT’S A RAZZLE DAZZLE HELLUVA SHOW How did Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley get such a stunning production of Chicago? This isn’t Broadway, or is it? With the flash of a giant overhead marquee, a mute trumpet oozing honeyed notes, and a stageful of beautiful bodies in racy outfits, Chicago is one helluva…

WHAT—OR WHOM—SHALL BE DISCARDED? Marin Theatre Company has never shied away from provocative material, and its current production, Waste, is no exception. Waste tells the story of politically ambitious and idealistic Henry Trebell (Lance Gardner) and the loss of his political dreams when his affair with Mrs. O’Connell (Liz Sklar), a married woman, becomes public…

THERE’S A HOT HIT COOKING IN ROSS In ancient biblical texts, Gilead is not only a place of final peace, but also invokes healing and hope. How appropriate that playwrights James Valcq and Fred Alley chose this name as the location of The Spitfire Grill, a café in a down-on-its-luck small town, grown smaller by…

A PRESENT LAUGHTER THAT UPENDS THE PAST Britain’s beloved playwright Sir Noël Coward crafted this lighthearted, autobiographical comedy as a showcase for his own flamboyant celebrity. A renowned bon vivant, Coward dazzled as a writer, singer, and performer, with friends and admirers orbiting his stardom. Adapting this blithe farce, director Carl Jordan brings a radical…

CLASSIC STORY ENCHANTS Sonoma Arts Live captures the challenges of four sisters growing up in the late 1800s in this adaptation by Allan Knee, based on the classic novel written by Louisa May Alcott. Nate Mercer, Joanna “Lynn” Burt, Dani Innocenti Beem, Hannah Passinisi, and Emma Sutherland Sandra Ish skillfully directs a cast of eleven…