A moment that captured my appreciation for Annie is at the very end of the act one number, “N.Y.C.,” when Warbucks picks up the sleepy Annie, exhausted from her first night out in the city that never sleeps. It’s a tender moment that shows the heart of this musical: the happiness audiences share in the rescued orphan finding instant trust in two caring adults, a trust so tough that she can fall asleep in the arms of Warbucks. It's attention to moments like that where director

It’s never not impressive when a piece of theatre manages to capture a pitch-perfect production, where material matches direction matches design matches performance. The currently running Good Night, Oscar at Good Company Players’ 2nd Space Theatre is a masterly done production; helmed by J. Daniel Herring and led by Chase Stubblefield in the title role, this show, from first line to final bow, affects on every level theatre was meant to. (Chase Stubblefield (Oscar Levant) an

Kander and Ebb’s love letter to musical theatre, Curtains, has the hallmarks of a big musical comedy with a riveting murder-mystery tucked inside. Good Company Players’ production, which runs through July 19th, is in top form as it brings the laughs, love stories, and lush music to the Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater stage. (Cast of Curtains; Photo source: Good Company Players) When a not-in-the-good-way triple-threat Jessica Cranshaw is murdered during bows of a tryout performa

Playhouse Fresno, for its debut production, premieres Rodolfo Robles Cruz’s El Rayo; Or Self-Deportation Nation, a play that harnesses the human condition when it comes to acknowledging those who are alien. Whether it’s by self-identification or labeled by others, the term alien carries significant weight, and this play puts it on display through the most compelling way: relationships. Directed by Claudio Laso, this play relies heavily on human-to-human relationships, which m

Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page puts audiences in the room where the reporting happens. Essentially a living room comedy set in a reporters office, the beats and banter are what drive the completely enjoyable production currently running at Good Company Players’ 2nd Space Theater. Director Denise Graziani helms the play with an ensemble of actors that deliver the 1930s Chicago style in balance with this high-comedy script among the blackmail, scandal, and dri

One of the earliest jukebox bio-musicals in our modern era is Alan Janes’s Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a show that brings so many highlights of the era and titular singer with his band, The Crickets, to stage. The show really knows no version of “medley,” which expedites the running time in favor of the audience's attention span to hear the hits while not sitting through a full presentation of the artist’s life. However, director Mark Standriff has helmed a production that

Among the two times I’ve previously seen Dear Evan Hansen on stage–and that film we don’t talk about–I’ve never been able to crack why there’s such a hardcore love for and connection to Evan. To be fair, I was bawling when I first saw it on Broadway, but it was due to Michael Park’s (as Larry Murphy) hard-hearted softening in the finale of act one that got me. Platt nailed the role, but I didn’t walk away feeling more than entertained by a mostly great score. However, Shine!

The Spectral Raven Theatre Company is closing out Maria Coon’s four-act play, Balada de Muerte, a dramatization of La Llorona, an iconic figure in Mexican folklore. Written and directed by company owner and founder Maria Coon, Balada de Muerte is a script which reads and speaks with heart, horror, and haunting humanization while still finding its legs as a balanced production. Currently staged in the cozy, welcoming Dulce UpFront venue, Coon’s writing fully honors how Mexican

My final two days of Rogue brought me to a variety of shows including spoken word, theatre, music, and guesting in a fabulously fun Improv show with Brian's Beard as well making a flyingly fun turn as a luna moth in the prior praised Wikipedilove . Below are my final reviews of Rogue 2026! Dysfunction I had the pleasure of seeing Ke’Lea Flowers’ full-length premiere of the song cycle, Dysfunction , a few seasons back at Selma Arts Center; I found it powerfully composed, stage

Day 3 of Rogue gave me two shows and they are two shows I'm so glad I had the time and ability to see! Erika MacDonald: TeaTIME (show #936) Just from the title I was intrigued, and from MacDonald’s two-minute teaser at the Teaser event, it became a can’t-miss. I was right. Erika MacDonald’s TeaTIME is an exquisitely paced and well-suited show for rewarding patience in a world that demands more and wants it yesterday. The very nature of the show matches the beautiful process o

Friday night lights: Rogue-style brought me to three very different shows and my first guest spot for the Festival! Cassini LIVE (#933) Rogue 2026 kicked off, for me, with the newly award-winning Cassini LIVE, an operatic-cinematic theatrical piece that is sure to give you awe and pause. Led by live organist Tony Imperatice and singer Bernadette LaMontagne-Schenek, this show delivers an appreciation, if not a wholly engaging celestial lesson, on the Cassini mission to Saturn

Kicking off the 2026 Good Company Players’ 2nd Space season is David MacGregor’s Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear. This cozy, crafty mystery is helmed by Denise Graziani, who lets the comedy breathe and expositional reveals intrigue. The structure of a Sherlock Holmes tale is a time-tested source for entertainment, whether on the page, stage, or screen, and Graziani’s staging of the stellar cast fits this production perfectly. Gordon Moore takes on the tit

Oscar Wilde’s Salome is a story that adapts the story of John the Baptist with message-and-moral-driven faithfulness, but set in more urgent, contemporary language. Princess Salome utilizes the power of allure and gift for discerning Herod’s weakness allows her to achieve a most dastardly, self-serving deed, and one that seems to not pay off how she had hoped. Summer Session-Plevney has helmed a sturdy, riveting production at Fresno City College's Theatre department by settin

A vibrant, poignant, and thoroughly entertaining production of Godspell is blessing the Fresno State University Theatre stage. John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz's parables set to music invites audiences to experience Jesus’ teachings while enjoying skit-style scenes and songs which take a vibe, a verse, or a plot point and give its musical due. Director J. Daniel Herring, in choreographic collaboration with Kenneth Balint and the cast, is delivering a superb, smart, a

Good Company Players is currently running an absolutely loverly production of the Lerner and Loewe classic, My Fair Lady . The story, on paper, is nearly outdated in its acceptance of gender and class roles; specifically how it assumes the higher position of privilege at the expense and degradation of those in the lower. But, when helmed by a director with a sharp eye for when those in power can be laughed at rather than with , audiences are in for a treat as entertaining as

Bram Stoker created one of the most riveting, terrifying, and dramatically sound characters when he wrote Dracula. Gordon Greenberg and...

Disney’s Frozen is making its Central Valley premiere at Good Company Players, and this production serves as a frozen respite from the...

An article was posted earlier this week for those of us in the Central Valley community. It infuriated me. I couldn't understand exactly why, so I took my time to process. A colleague of mine, Julie Lucido (if you're Facebook friends with her, go check out her thoughts, because I agree with them), inspired me to finally focus on exactly what has me feeling how I feel. This article was ill-fated from the moment “loophole" was used to describe the salaries, instead of consisten

Just a year shy of this nation’s semi-quincentennial is a new production of 1776 playing at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater. Easier to say...

One of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, where gender roles and rivalrous dynamics are at the crux of the plot, The Taming of the Shrew...