Tag: review
Two unique takes on Christmas Carol
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist This time of the year often delivers fond memories for us of stories that we have read and plays that we have seen that bring us messages of love, compassion, redemption and goodwill. This year we have two unique and considerably different takes on Charles Dickens’ 1843 story, A […]
Top-notch Bay Area holiday productions
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist Once again, I’m excited to share with you my reviews of two totally different but completely satisfying theater productions for your entertainment over the holidays. First, the Town Hall Theater in Lafayette has delivered an engaging spoof of a classic Brothers Grimm fairytale, entitled Cinderella: A Fairytale. The second […]
Harry Potter is a must-see production
By CHARLIE JARETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist Today, I am indeed fortunate to be able to share with you the incredible West Coast official world premiere opening of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, her eighth story, written and envisioned as a theatrical production by Jack Thorne, and subsequently directed by John Tiffany, as […]
Two great shows this week; one for the kids, and one for the grown-ups
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist Two great shows this week; one primarily for children or the young at heart the California theater in Pittsburgh, and the other entirely for adults located at the Strand theater on Market St. in San Francisco, directly across the street from Civic Center Bart station. In Pittsburg, universal hope […]
Curtain call for Danville theater; road trip to Oregon
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist This week’s reviews are unique indeed in that you only have to drive 9.7 miles to the first show reviewed (in Danville) or 300 miles and spend one or two nights in Ashland, Oregon to see them. You might ask, why is this guy suggesting that we travel to […]
‘Insignificance’ at the Campbell Theater is an elegant, thoughtful piece of historical fiction
By SCOTT BABA Art and Entertainment Editor It’s always an interesting thought experiment to consider what it would have been like if historical figures from different spheres of influence met each other. What would they think of each other? What would they have to say? That’s the premise of “Insignificance,” the new play currently running […]
Witty and thought-provoking production shines at Campbell
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist This week’s promise of double billed theatrical events has turned out to be two excellent productions being reviewed. However, only one will be available over the next two weekends. The Eugene O’Neill foundation’s premier production of Eugene O’Neill’s Nobel prize-winning play, Long Day’s Journey into Night, opened this past […]
‘Camping With Henry and Tom’ a tightly crafted character study at the Campbell Theater
By SCOTT BABA Art and Entertainment Editor In television there is a narrative device called the “bottle episode.” Originally conceived of as a way to cut costs, a bottle episode usually involves finding a way to keep the characters in a single location and giving them little to do besides bounce off of one another. […]
Two top-notch community theater productions
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist First this week, the very intriguing murder mystery play in Orinda, “The Woman in White”, extracted from the 500-page book written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, and recently adapted into a theatrical play by local author Malcolm Cowler. Next, in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh community Theater presents the upbeat musical […]
Two productions take on classic plays
By CHARLIE JARRETT Martinez News-Gazette Columnist In his first hit play, The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams wrote a heartfelt story based on his own life and that of his domineering mother, still living her colorful life as a southern belle, and created a fragile-as-glass sister, reflecting the emotions imprisoned in her painfully shy, somewhat erratic […]
