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

There’s a daunting thrill when sitting down for a solo show. The comfort in knowing that one actor has decided to dedicate time for immense preparation, nuance, and allure to carry a whole show, perform a whole script, take up the entire stage, is one that comes from trust in the earliest moments of the play. The first time a solo performer takes on the mannerisms, or voice, or characteristics of the next character is when that trust is either earned or broken. Thankfully, Vi

I find the stage adaptation of Mary Poppins to be an absolute delight by being one of the stronger screen-to-stage adaptations in the Disney canon. The songs and plot hold true when done right in front of you, and the added plots and tunes service the whimsy of Poppins and Bert while supporting the lessons learned for the Banks family. Good Company Players is tapping away with a marvelous production of this classic, making this the very spoonful of musical theatre sugar you’l

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

Masquerade (#926) Thanks to the graciousness of my wife, I was able to finagle a trip in time to see the closing of The Phantom of the Opera  before it left The Majestic Theatre a few years back. I was transfixed by the stage craft, engulfed in the story, and swept up by hearing the score and seeing the company deliver an iconic piece of mega commercial theatre. When I saw Masquerade , a currently running immersive iteration of … Phantom …, my guest and I had just one comment

While many Golden Age musicals are reaching the end of their mainstream relevancy, The Sound of Music  only grows in its urgency while...

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

When looking up the term Cohort, Merriam-Webster’s expert definitions provide the following:  Companion, colleague. “A few of their…...

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

My first trip to Minnesota afforded me the pleasure in seeing The Guthrie Theater’s currently running production of Cabaret , a musical...

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...

Just closed at American Conservatory Theatre was a world premiere hip-hop musical, Co-Founders; a very energetic, hometown hype of a...

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is premiering a new musical adaptation, Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical. ...

Seeing a show like Luigi: the Musical affords audience members to curb a sadistic appetite for seeing how a fastidiously written show can...

Leave it to Lauren Gunderson to bring out the romance in science. Often known for her feminine-forward storytelling, with focus given to...

It’s a bold move to trim a Shakespearean History-Tragedy down to where most of the “history” elements are removed in service of the...

"Oh, the thinks you can think!" This oft-repeated phrase in Seussical: the Musical  is a motivating, inspiring message that securely...