Review by Elizabeth Warnimont Special to the Herald Lucas Hnath’s “Red Speedo,” Center Repertory Company’s current production at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, delves into the inner life of a competitive swimmer in an intense format – a single, poolside setting and a short, 80-minute time slot with no break for intermission – that […]
Starbound Theatre to return to Benicia with ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Enrollment now available for ages 7-18 After a long slumber away from Benicia, Starbound Theatre will awaken with an adaptation of “Sleeping Beauty” rehearsed and performed right here in town. The Suisun City-based youth theatre-program was founded in 2003 but expanded in 2009 to start doing productions in other municipalities in Solano and Napa counties. […]
Benicia High School grad scores lead role in ‘Hamilton’
Austin Scott has had an incredible acting journey. The 2011 Benicia High School graduate has gone from starring in advertisements at the age of 8 to being cast in the title role in “Hamilton” for the smash hit musical’s national tour. “It’s a dream come true,” Scott said of his role. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning […]
BOTTG seeking auditions for spring play, ‘Coming Apart’
Benicia Old Town Theatre Group (BOTTG) is known for its madcap comedies, and another one is coming this spring: Fred Carmichael’s “Coming Apart: A Romantic Comedy in Two Acts.” Auditions will be held in January. The play is described as a romantic comedy, centered around married couple Colin and Frances Kittridge. Both are employed in […]
Review: BOTTG’s ‘Wonderful Time’ a wonderful romp
Benicia Old Town Theatre Group’s production of “Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her” debuted to a packed house that laughed at just about every joke. Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore’s 1982 zany cringe comedy is packed with those, and with them being delivered at such a fast pace, this averaged to an […]
Mrs. B’s Blather: Why am I obsessing about seeing ‘Hamilton’?
Yes, the tickets to see “Hamilton”– the on tour group, not even with Lin-Manuel Miranda starring– are upwards of $300 each. And the play won’t be back in San Francisco until 2019. The choices are to fly somewhere the play is showing, wait until 2019 or be contented with reading Ron Chernow’s “Hamilton,” and listening […]
Benicia Old Town Theatre Group promises ‘Wonderful Time’ with fall play
For 53 years, Benicia Old Town Theatre Group (BOTTG) has specialized in bringing offbeat, off-the-wall and overall less conventional plays to Benicia. That will not change Friday with the opening of its fall play “Having a Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her.” No, you wiseacres, that is not a typo. As the “Wish You Were […]
Review: Suitors shine brightest in Old Town ‘Apparel’
Benicia Old Town Theatre Group (BOTTG) marked the opening of its current production, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Intimate Apparel,” with an impressive, catered gala at the historic B.D.E.S. Hall on West J Street Friday. The play’s set, a melange of scenes from Teddy Roosevelt-era New York City, extended into the first rows of the audience, […]
Review: B8’s ‘Man’ a well-crafted biopic
B8 Theatre Company is back, and they’ve kicked off their 2017-2018 season with the world premiere of “Man of Letters: A View of Oscar Wilde,” a biographical collage of the words of the late playwright masterfully compiled into a sentimental one-act play by B8 actor and director Alan Cameron. B8 Theatre, formerly Butterfield 8, […]
‘Rocky Horror’ is back: Pinole Community Players revive the cult classic
Welcome back to Planet Transylvania, from the galaxy of Transexual. The Pinole Community Players open Richard O’Brien’s stage rendition of the cult flick classic, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Friday, Oct. 28. Peter Del Fiorentino reprises the lead role of Frank, short for Frankenfurter, a role he played once before with Missouri Street Theatre […]