Sacramento Theater Reviews

Review: THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO at Freefall Stage
by Courtney Symes - June 11, 2024

Long before Walt Disney, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio entertained children in a weekly Italian magazine. In 1883 it was turned into a novel and has since inspired many adaptations, including the play currently running at Freefall Stage. The True Adventures of Pinocchio, adapted by Louis Lippa, is showi...

Review: THE GOAT is Brilliant Comedy at The Stage At Burke Junction
by Courtney Symes - June 08, 2024

Edward Albee, whose odd middle-aged characters have fascinated American theatre-goers since 1962’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, explores what is perhaps his most interesting family dynamic in the 2002 Tony Award-winning play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? The play is, as you might imagine, about a ...

Review: THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM at Black Point Theatre
by Courtney Symes - May 15, 2024

Death becomes her…I think. Or maybe it becomes him. Someone might be dead. Or not. Florian Zeller’s The Height of the Storm leaves many unanswered questions at the Black Point Theatre, ones that I’m not sure I will ever understand. I suppose that’s the point, as Zeller said, “…For me the theatre is,...

Review: CRY IT OUT Delivers the Laughs at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - May 10, 2024

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Capital Stage has revealed a play that is perfect for celebrating mothers. It also happens to be my favorite of their offerings to date. Cry it Out, by Molly Smith Metzler, tackles an important conversation that often gets overlooked, and does it with insight, grace, a...

Review: COME FROM AWAY at Gallo Center For The Arts
by Courtney Symes - May 06, 2024

September 11, 2001, is a date that is seared into the consciousness of everyone old enough to remember the events of that day. While the tragedy was overwhelming, the courage and solidarity that emerged was overflowing. Come From Away shows some of the best of humanity and leaves us with hope that h...

Review: THE ODD COUPLE-FEMALE VERSION at Women's Theatre Collective
by Courtney Symes - May 02, 2024

When we hear The Odd Couple, most people imagine the 1970s television series starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney. What some might not know was that it originated as a Neil Simon play on Broadway in 1965. After the success of the film and television versions, Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feat...

Review: Student Spotlight on ALICE BY HEART at The Stage At Burke Junction
by Courtney Symes - April 27, 2024

I had a unique opportunity last weekend to experience a completely student-run production of a show that has intrigued me since I first heard of it. Alice by Heart is a musical with music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics and book by Steven Sater (with Jessie Nelson), the duo responsible for Spring Awakeni...

Review: WIPEOUT Rides a Wave of Success at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - April 26, 2024

The B Street Theatre has been riding a wave of hit after hit, continuing with Aurora Real de Asua’s surfing comedy, Wipeout. Set in one of my favorite locales, Santa Cruz, Wipeout explores the friendship between three unique women. Rolling surfboards, a hunky instructor, and the bluntness that comes...

Review: ANNIE is Earning Ovations at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - April 17, 2024

America’s most endearing, optimistic orphan is back in Sacramento and she has a powerful posse of bunkmates backing her up. Almost fifty years after her debut, Annie is as relevant as ever and still stealing hearts with her smarts and sass. After taking home seven Tony Awards in 1977, the show went ...

Review: ROBIN HOOD at the B St. Theatre is Fun for the Whole Family
by Courtney Symes - April 16, 2024

Robin Hood, that English ruffian, is back over 700 years after first appearing in Sherwood Forest. His story has undergone several transformations, including the addition of Maid Marian and Friar Tuck in the 15th century. It continues to evolve to encompass 21st century ideas in Jerry Montoya’s new ...

Review: GHOST QUARTET at Valkyrie Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - April 09, 2024

I’m still not sure what I watched on Saturday night at the Valkyrie Theatre Company, and I don’t know that I’ll ever fully figure it out. Strangely enough, I feel inclined to go back to gather more pieces of the puzzle. Apparently, such is the norm for viewers of Ghost Quartet, a theatrical song cyc...

Review: THE PENELOPIAD at Women's Theatre Collective
by Courtney Symes - March 27, 2024

Margaret Atwood’s play, The Penelopiad, is a fascinating glimpse into an oft overlooked character. The book of the same name was published in 2005 as part of the Canongate Myth Series, in which contemporary authors write their version of ancient myths. Atwood’s story concerns Penelope, wife of Odyss...

Review: FADE is in Focus at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - March 26, 2024

Capital Stage’s season of “True Identity” continues with Tanya Saracho’s social commentary, Fade. The semi-autobiographical piece explores the inner turmoil that comes with feeling adrift in one’s culture and the struggle to reconcile that with class disparities and unrelenting ambition. Like last m...

Review: THE BOOK OF WILL at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - March 24, 2024

John Heminges and Henry Condell aren’t names that are immediately recognizable, but they should be. Without them, some of our favorite titles would be lost to history. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet wouldn’t exist today. No one would know the name William Shakespear...

Review: VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Placer Community Theater
by Courtney Symes - March 14, 2024

Sibling rivalry, unrealized dreams, and learning to age gracefully are some themes currently on display in Placer Community Theater’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Christopher Durang’s nod to the works of Anton Chekhov premiered on Broadway in 2013 and won the Tony Award for Bes...

Review: COSMO ST. CHARLES IS DEAD AND SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM KILLED HIM Premieres at B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - March 09, 2024

An interactive whodunit with comedy, intrigue, and love triangles? Yes, please! Nicole Zimmerer’s captivating new play, Cosmo St. Charles is Dead & Someone in This Room Killed Him, was a finalist at the 2022 B Street New Comedies Festival and is currently thrilling audiences with its world premiere ...

Review: AN HONEST APOLOGY Premieres at FreeFall Stage
by Courtney Symes - February 22, 2024

Being the first to review a new work is always a pleasure, particularly when that work is as engaging as James Van Eaton’s An Honest Apology. This play is a mixture of Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen, full of witticisms and satire directed towards those who are concerned with their place in high society...

Review: SAFE AT HOME: THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY at Valkyrie Theatre Company
by Courtney Symes - February 09, 2024

When Black History Month coincides with the Dodgers kicking off spring training, it’s a perfect time to celebrate one of the most important names in baseball history. Safe at Home: The Jackie Robinson Story is an engaging history lesson about the man who changed the Major Leagues with his quiet stre...

Review: AMERICAN FAST Lights the Beam at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - February 03, 2024

Capital Stage is starting the new year off with a winner. American Fast. by Kareem Fahmy, is making its Sacramento premiere and running through February. Its themes of competition, self-reflection, and navigating relationships are particularly relevant, as many immigrants struggle to honor familial ...

Review: SIX Scores a Perfect Ten at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - February 01, 2024

Some powerful Tudor women have taken Sacramento by storm; Six of them, to be exact. The former wives of Henry VIII have come back from the dead to tell their side of the story in this powerful musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. ...

Review: RESCUE ME Debuts at B Street Theatre
by Courtney Symes - January 26, 2024

Championing new works can be a risky undertaking, but B St. Theatre’s dedication to the cause continues to pay off. Kicking off the 2024 season is Rescue Me, a finalist in the 2022 B Street New Comedies Festival.  It is penned by two B Street fixtures, Tara Sissom-Pittaro and Peter Story, who infuse...

Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL is 'Perfect' at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - January 03, 2024

What you oughta know is that Broadway Sacramento is starting off the New Year with a bang. Raw, emotional, and energizing are the words to kick off 2024, as the National tour of Jagged Little Pill, The Musical hits Sacramento this week. It was inspired by Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same n...

Review: CINDERELLA Charmed at Sierra Rep
by Courtney Symes - January 02, 2024

While the curtain has closed on Sierra Repertory Theatre’s holiday production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, I would be remiss in not acknowledging the quality of another successful SRT show. As most probably know, Cinderella was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was made speci...

Review: HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL is Stealing Our Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
by Courtney Symes - December 29, 2023

It came after Christmas, bringing with it good cheer. It even brought Whos and Max the Reindeer. A trailer it pulled, full of sets and bright dresses. Whoville, wrapped presents, and sky-high coiffed tresses. A makeup designer and green fur hairdresser, the Grinch couldn’t wait to sing out and impre...

Review: A RAISIN IN THE SUN Closes the Year at Celebration Arts
by Courtney Symes - December 29, 2023

When Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1959, she became the first African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway. Its themes of discrimination and resiliency continue to be as relevant now as they were when it was written, and it i...