Latest Second row center Podcast Episodes
Million Dollar Quartet - March 13, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - March 13, 2019 14:28 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn December 4, 1956, a legendary jam session was held at rock and roll pioneer Sam Phillips’ Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley were labeled the “Million Dollar Quartet” by a local journalist and the moniker stuck to the record...
Hello, Dolly! - March 6, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - March 06, 2019 16:50 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAnyone going to a performance of Hello, Dolly! - running now at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco through March 17 - with an appetite for an enlightened look at male/female relationships is likely to leave quite hungry. The current national tour of the 2017 revival of the 1964 Broadway...
After Miss Julie - February 27, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - February 27, 2019 17:32 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSometimes the most interesting dramas are the simplest - a single set, a few characters, a conflict. “Naturalistic” plays, as they are sometimes referred, were the result of a late 19th century movement in European theatre to enhance the realism of plays with an understanding of how heredity and ...
Forever Plaid - February 20, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - February 20, 2019 16:24 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMusical zombies rise from the dead to sing an evening of ‘50’s pop standards. Let me try that again. On February 4, 1964, The Plaids, an eastern Pennsylvania-based vocal quartet, were headed for a major gig at the Fusel-Lounge at the Harrisburg Airport Hilton when their cherry red Mercury was...
Hamlet - February 13, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - February 13, 2019 17:55 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingTo see or not to see? That is the question. Anyone with even the slightest interest in theatre has probably seen a production or two of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in their lifetime. Considered by many to be Shakespeare’s - if not the world’s - greatest play, it’s one-third ghost story, one-th...
Arsenic & Old Lace - February 6, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - February 06, 2019 20:26 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSerial killing would seem to be rather ghoulish subject matter for a comedic play, yet Arsenic and Old Lace has been a reliable audience-pleaser for over seventy-five years. Sonoma Arts Live has a production running through February 10. Joseph Kesselring’s tale of the Brewster sisters and their ...
How I Learned What I Learned - January 30, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - January 30, 2019 17:03 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingWhen playwright August Wilson passed away in 2005, he left behind a body of work that has become a staple of the American theatre. As much a documentarian as a poet and author, the ten plays (Jitney, Fences, et al.) of Wilson’s Century (or Pittsburgh) Cycle chronicle the twentieth century African...
Moon Over Buffalo - January 23, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - January 24, 2019 00:11 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingContinuing with the tradition of theatre companies producing theatre about theatre, 6th Street Playhouse is presenting Ken Ludwig’s 1995 door-slamming farce Moon Over Buffalo. The backstage comedy runs through February 3. Buffalo, New York’s Erlanger Theater is hosting the repertory company of ...
Top Torn Tickets of 2018 - Part Two, the Musicals - January 16, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - January 16, 2019 16:27 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIt’s said that musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre, so here’s a list of the North Bay productions I toasted this past year. Here are my top torn tickets of 2018: Part Two, the Musicals (in alphabetical order): Always, Patsy Cline… - Sonoma Arts Live - Danielle DeBow’s Patsy w...
Top Torn Tickets of 2018 - Part One, the Plays - January 9, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - January 09, 2019 15:30 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 rating‘Tis the time for “Best of …” lists, so in the spirit of my illustrious predecessor and with a nod to the substantial differences in mounting a musical versus a play, here are my top torn tickets of 2018 - Part One, the Plays (in alphabetical order): Blackbird - Main Stage West – As dark subject...
Love, Linda - January 2, 2019
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - January 02, 2019 15:41 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFor years, Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has closed out the year with a musical cabaret show. Past years’ productions have celebrated the work of musical artists from Edith Piaf to Mahalia Jackson to Frank Sinatra. This year, the work of classic American tunesmith Cole Porter takes center stage via...
Dear Evan Hansen - December 26, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - December 26, 2018 16:22 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingDear Evan Hansen, I attended the opening night performance of the San Francisco run of your national tour at the Curran Theatre. I’ve heard a lot about your show - the six Tonys (including Best Musical) and the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. I’ve seen the songs performed on various telev...
12 Dates of Christmas - December 19, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - December 19, 2018 01:04 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOne-person shows with a holiday theme tend to skew toward the male variety, whether it’s a show about a disgruntled department store Christmas elf (David Sedaris’s Santaland Diaries) or a single dad desperate to maintain the fiction of Santa Claus with his children (David Templeton’s Polar Bears)...
Sonoma/Napa Holiday Theater Preview - December 12, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - December 12, 2018 17:17 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFor folks looking for some respite from Christmas shopping or from becoming participants in the demolition derby that is mall parking, North Bay theatre companies are providing several seasonal entertainments to help keep you in the holiday spirit. Family-friendly musicals are the usual fare an...
Polar Bears - December 5, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - December 05, 2018 17:59 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingWhen after sixteen years David Templeton hung up his theater critic’s hat, his stated purpose was to turn his full attention to other pursuits: artistic, journalistic, theatrical and otherwise. Since then, he continues to write, has a full-time gig as the Community Editor at the Petaluma Argus-Co...
Marin Theater Holiday Preview - November 28, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - November 28, 2018 16:37 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIf you’re trying to avoid attending the umpteenth production of The Nutcracker in your lifetime, Marin theatre companies are providing several other entertainment options for this holiday season. Last year, the Marin Theatre Company (marintheatre.org) was one of the participants in the rolling ...
The New Century - November 21, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - November 21, 2018 18:09 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingFor an area with as large a gay population and as much theatre as Sonoma County, it’s surprising how little gay-themed theatre is produced in the region. Oh sure, the larger companies will produce the more mainstream musicals like Cabaret or La Cage aux Folles every few years, and Halloween usual...
Uncle Vanya - November 14, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - November 14, 2018 17:41 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingI don’t know anyone who attends theatre to reinforce their belief that life is simply a series of travails to be endured until the sweet release of death, but if you’re out there, have I got show for you. Birdbath Theatres is presenting Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a new adaptation by Jesse Bro...
God of Carnage - November 7, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - November 07, 2018 17:17 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIn the past month, North Bay stages have been occupied by vampires, ghosts, a Thing, and Transylvanian transvestites. The Novato Community Playhouse now finds itself overrun with the most ghastly, heinous, and horrifying creatures ever to set foot on a theatrical stage. I am referring, of course,...
Blithe Spirit - October 31, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - October 31, 2018 15:49 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIf you’re wary of attending the latest splatter fest at your local multiplex and seeking a kinder, gentler Halloween season entertainment, Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions brings you Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, running through November 4. It’s an old-fashioned ghost story laden with Coward’s acerb...
Oslo - October 24, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - October 25, 2018 15:35 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingAt a time when the language of diplomacy has been reduced to a 140-character tweet transmitted at 3 am, it’s good to be reminded of the men and women for whom the quest for peace demanded actual thought and personal interaction. J. T. Rogers’ Oslo, now running in its West Coast premiere at the ...
The Addams Family, Count Dracula - October 17, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - October 25, 2018 15:32 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThe credits for the Spreckels Theater Company production of The Addams Family, running now through October 28, notes that the musical is “based on characters created by Charles Addams.” It is not a recreation of the beloved 1960’s sitcom. It is not an adaptation of the visually inventive films of...
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - October 10, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - October 25, 2018 15:26 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingThere’s an interesting style of theatre in which a piece of dramatic prose, usually a short story or selected chapters from a longer piece, is fully staged and performed. Usually referred to as a “word-for-word” or “page-to-stage” dramatization, it takes some getting used to as literally every wo...
Guys and Dolls - October 3, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - October 03, 2018 14:58 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingIf you’ve missed having Summer Repertory Theatre around this year, 6th Street Playhouse’s production of “Guys and Dolls” may hold you until SRT’s return in 2019. SRT Artistic Director James Newman helms this production of the 1950 musical about colorful New York gamblers trying to avoid the poli...
Church & State, Time Stands Still - September 26, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - September 27, 2018 05:21 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingLast year, Healdsburg’s Raven Players surprised this critic with a very interesting production of Quiara Alegría Hudes “Water by the Spoonful”. The play, which tells parallel stories of the tribulations of a returning Iraq war vet trying to assimilate back into civilian life and a group of recove...
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Naked Truth - September 19, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - September 19, 2018 16:12 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSpreckels Theatre Company opens their season with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel about a boy with ‘behavioral difficulties’ took England and Broadway by storm and earned multiple awards on both continents. Christopher (...
The Comedy of Errors, Henry IV Part 1 - August 29, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - September 12, 2018 14:18 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingLike an Elizabethan game of whack-a-mole, as soon as North Bay theatre companies knock out one outdoor summer Shakespeare production, another one seems to pop up. Marin Shakespeare brought us Pericles at Dominican University’s Forest Meadows amphitheater, the Raven did A Midsummer Night’s Dream ...
North Bay Theatre Season Preview - September 5, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - September 12, 2018 14:18 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingWith September come football games that actually matter, open season on California tree squirrels (daily limit of four) and the opening of the new artistic season for many North Bay theatre companies. Here’s some of what they have in store for local audiences: Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater (c...
Cabaret, Savage Wealth - September 12, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - September 12, 2018 14:17 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingTheatregoers hankering for a classic or the desire to see something new have two productions running now that fit the bill. Cinnabar Theater presents the 50-year-old classic Cabaret. The Kander and Ebb musical, which has gone through significant changes via numerous revivals since its 1966 debu...
The Trial of John Brown - August 22, 2018
KRCB-FM: Second Row Center - August 22, 2018 14:14 - 4 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingSo, what’s former Spreckels Performing Arts Center Manager Gene Abravaya been doing since his retirement to the Arizona desert? “Well”, he told me in a recent interview, “I’ve been enjoying my retirement and developing style and techniques for the abstract sculptures I am interested in designin...
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