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North Bay theatre kicks off the new year with 6th Street Playhouse’s Honky Tonk Angels, a country music revue by Ted Swindley. Swindley, best known for the community theatre staple Always, Patsy Kline, has taken about thirty country standards and wrapped the thinnest of stories around them to create a raucous and enjoyable evening of entertainment.

It’s the tale of three would-be singers, each stuck in a rut, who decide to take a chance and follow their dreams of a singing career to Nashville. There’s Angela (played by Daniela Innocenti Beem), queen of her double wide who’s having trouble standing by her man (cue Tammy Wynette). Darlene (played by Abbey Lee), is struggling with being a coal miner’s daughter (cue Loretta Lynn) and the loss of her boyfriend Billy Joe (cue Bobbie Gentry). Finally, there’s Sue Ellen (played by Amy Webber), who’s fed up with the chauvinist boss at her 9 to 5 job (cue, of course, Dolly Parton).

Act I begins with their backstories and their individual decisions that it’s time for them to fly (cue REO Speedwagon. Wait a minute, REO SPEEDWAGON?!) and concludes with their fortuitous meeting on a Greyhound bus. A lot must happen during intermission because Act II consists of their farewell performance after a record-breaking six-week engagement at Nashville’s Honky Tonk Heaven. In addition to the songs alluded to earlier, others performed include “I Will Always Love You”, “Delta Dawn”, “Rocky Top”, “Sittin’ on the Front Porch Swing”, and “I’ll Fly Away”.

Director Michael Ross has a trio of talented ladies for angels. Ms. Beem as Angela is the unabashed leader of the trio. As the oldest and most worldly member, she grabs hold of the stage – and the audience – and never lets go. Ms. Webber gives her a run for her money as the brassy, big-haired Sue Ellen while Ms. Lee has the quieter moments as the wide-eyed, innocent Darlene.

Eye-popping costumes by Pamela Enz (think leopard skin and a lot of sequins) add to the fun, as does some playful choreography by Michella Snider. Both come together in the amusing “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial” number.

Swindley’s script – if you can call it that – doesn’t provide character depth and there’s no great message to be found beyond the pat “follow your dreams” axiom but what it does provide is the opportunity to hear some great American music performed live. Music director Robert Hazelrigg and musicians Ian Scherer, Quinten Cohen and Kassi Hampton handle the country/bluegrass songbook well. Credit the ladies for bringing the right amount of character and a quality voice to each song, particularly on some very sweet three-part harmonies.

When it comes to shows like Honky Tonk Angels, it is all about the songs. They’ve got this.

“Honky Tonk Angels” runs Thursday–Sunday through Feb. 4 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse with evening performances at 7:30 pm and matiness at 2pm.

For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Avoiding the typical “Best of…” lists that are commonplace at this time of year, last week I presented Part I of my 2017 “Special End of Year” Awards for local theatre. Here now is Part II:

The “One is the Loneliest Number” Award - I’ve been asked a couple of times “If you could open up a theatre company in Sonoma Country, what kind of shows would you do?” Getting past the issue that no one in their right mind would open another theatre company in this area, my answer is “one-person shows.” Why? Well, this year we had Patrick Varner as a Streisand employee, Libby Villari as a former Texas governor, Sheri Lee Miller as a ghost, and David Yen as a disgruntled Christmas elf. All were highly entertaining and each came down to a single performer and an audience.

The “No, I’ve Got Something in My Eye” Award – I found myself quite taken with two holiday presentations (that aren’t really holiday plays.) Main Stage West’s Daddy Long Legs and Spreckels’ Little Women, the Musical took me by surprise. Credit the performers for getting me to dust off the adjective “sweet” in my vocabulary.

The “Better Than It Had Any Right to Be” Award – The Redwood Theatre Company has impressed me in its short life for the energy and passion they bring to their productions. As one who has never succumbed to the cult of Star Wars, my expectations for their production of Brittany Law’s original musical parody The Farce Awakens were not high. I expected it to be a bunch of young folk in cheesy costumes with dime-store props saying silly things. That is EXACTLY what it was, and yet it was all delivered with such a sense of joy and fun that they won me over.

The “If You Build It, They Will Come” Award – Sonoma County is blessed with several excellent set designers who often do wonders with often tiny, restricted spaces. The sets for Cinnabar’s Man of La Mancha, Spreckel’s The Sugar Bean Sisters, and Main Stage West’s The Birds all grabbed your attention and transported you to another place from the moment you walked through the theatre door.

The “Just (Don’t) Do It” Award – Just because a show hasn’t been done in Sonoma County before (or in a long time), doesn’t mean it should be done. Some are chestnuts that are best left buried (The Children’s Hour), while others just aren’t very good (David Mamet’s Race.) And why do companies recycle shows that have played in the community within the past few years? You couldn’t pick one of the other 1,000 plays available?

2018 will be a challenging year for both theatre companies and audiences. The Sonoma County landscape has changed in many ways. Theatre companies that struggle even in good times face even greater difficulties now. I know our community’s support of the arts is greatly appreciated.

Again, here’s to an artistically invigorating 2018.

I’ll see you at the theatre.

It’s that time of year again for the usual “Best of…” lists where critics review their picks for the best (and sometimes worst) in music, movies, fashion, and the like and give people at holiday parties something to argue about. For the past three years my approach has been a little different as I prefer to offer a few “Special End of Year Awards” to Sonoma County theatres and artists. Here is Part I of my 2017 awards:

The “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” Award - The Santa Rosa Junior College production of It Can’t Happen Here opened on October 6 and closed on October 8. The adaptation of the 1935 Sinclair Lewis novel about the rise of a populist blow-hard to the Presidency had a lot to say about our current political climate, but not a lot of people had a chance to see it. Its run was cut short with the closure of the SRJC campus as a result of the fires.

The “Show Must Go On” Award – There were many theatre companies that understandably postponed their runs during the North Bay fires. Cinnabar Arts and Spreckels Theatre Company went on with their scheduled openings of Quartet and Monty Python’s Spamalot. While neither facility was in immediate danger, I was conflicted about the decision. I attended both productions, enjoyed them both, and was glad they decided to open. That being said, I’m still not sure they should have.

The “Yes, There IS Diversity in Sonoma County, Dammit” Award – The Santa Rosa Junior College production of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s In the Heights proved the claim that there isn’t a diverse enough talent pool from which to cast many shows is suspect. Perhaps choosing shows in a season that speak and appeal to more diverse artists and audiences would widen the pool. Maybe it’s also time to check some artistic egos at the door and go and find them.

The “Big Things Come in Small Packages” Award – The studio theatres of Sonoma County’s largest companies often offered superior work to that displayed on their main stages - 6th Street’s Visiting Mr. Green and A Masterpiece of Comic… Timing and Spreckels’ The Sugar Bean Sisters and Little Women, the Musical for example.

The “Out of Left Field” Award – Not many people are willing to venture out to Monte Rio to catch theatre. You should give it a shot. You’re not going to get the bells and whistles other production companies may provide, but Curtain Call can do a lot with a little. They put on an excellent production of The Elephant Man with local comedian James Rowan giving an incredibly touching performance as John Merrick.

Live theatre continues to struggle in Sonoma County (as it does most any place else.) Like many residents, the theatre community did not escape the fires unscathed with some companies losing their performance space and others losing equipment, props and costumes. Numerous theatre artists lost their homes. Live theatre will go on because Sonoma County supports it but, as with every other part of our community, change is inevitable.

Tune in next week for Part II of my awards.

Here’s to an artistically invigorating 2018.

I’ll see you at the theatre.

In comedy, timing is everything and the timing is so off in 6th Street Playhouse’s Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge that the fact that it still manages to extract any laughs at all from its audience is somewhat of a Christmas miracle. Plagued with pre-production challenges ranging from a change in director due to the fires to the untimely passing of its lead actor, director Jared Sakren and his cast have done their best to present local audiences an option for alternative holiday fun.

Christopher Durang’s musical parody of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – with detours through the worlds of Oliver Twist, The Gift of the Magi, and It’s a Wonderful Life amongst others– has not aged well since its 2002 premiere. Full of political and pop cultural references that might have seemed dated even them (Remember Enron and Kenneth Lay? Harry and Leona Helmsley? TV’s Touched by an Angel?), it follows Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Kit Grimm) on his Christmas Eve journey through his past as guided by an incompetent ghost (Debra Harvey, alternating in the role with Serena Flores). Their visit to the Cratchit household reveals an angry and bitter Mrs. Bob Cratchit (played by an appropriately crotchety Tika Moon), who’s fed up with her milquetoast husband (an earnest Conor Woods), their twenty children - most of whom live in the root cellar - and her lot in life. Soon it’s off to the pub for her where she’ll knock back a few followed by a London Bridge plunge into the Thames. Scrooge and Cratchit’s fates become intertwined, as Scrooge finds himself oddly attracted to his underling’s miserable wife and Cratchit wishes she had never been born. The show concludes with a decidedly un-Christmas-like moral – you can be poor, loving, and noble, or rich, mean, and happy. God bless us, everyone!

The play contains four original songs by Durang and Michael Friedman that offer a few chuckles, but you won’t be hearing carolers singing any of these any Christmas soon.

Dicken’s original story is ripe for parody, and Durang does manage to mine a few silly laughs out of it, but this show never really gets off the ground. There are hints at what Ms. Harvey might have been able to do with the lead role of the ghost with sufficient rehearsal time, but the necessity of her reading from a script played havoc with the show’s pacing. Without a strong, central performance, it was left to the supporting cast to veer out on their own and bring the laughs. The most successful of those were Moon’s bitingly sarcastic Mrs. Cratchit, Laura Levin’s ebullient, cherubic Mrs. Fezziwig, and Eric Weiss’s rubber-limbed not-so-Tiny Tim.

Credit to them and the entire ensemble for gamely marching on in the hopes of producing some Christmas cheer. While the punchbowl they’re serving it from is far from full, there’s at least enough in it for a couple of glasses.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge plays at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through December 23rd with evening performances at 7:30 pm and matinees at 2:00pm

For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

If you like A.R. Gurney’s popular two-person play “Love Letters”, you’re going to love “Daddy Long Legs”, a musical adaptation of the 1912 novel by Jean Webster. Set at the turn of the 20th century, it’s the story of the relationship between an orphan and her mysterious benefactor as told – well, actually, sung – through a series of letters. Elly Lichenstein, Artistic Director of Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater, transports her directorial skills from the cozy confines of Cinnabar to the even cozier confines of Sebastopol’s Main Stage West for this production.

Jerusha Abbott (Madison Genovese), the oldest orphan at the John Grier Home, is surprised to learn that a trustee who’s been impressed with her writing will provide her with a college education under a very particular set of circumstances. She must write him regularly with the knowledge that he will never respond. He will remain anonymous with her letters simply to be addressed to “Mr. Smith”. Jerusha imagines him to be a trustee whose shadow she caught a glimpse of one evening. His legs were long and spindly and as he is a trustee she imagines him to be quite old. Rather than address her benefactor with his chosen boring moniker, she titles him “Daddy Long Legs.”

Her benefactor is actually Jervis Pendleton (Tyler Costin), a young philanthropist who is at first amused but soon enchanted by Jerusha’s musings on college life and her personal growth. As he’s the uncle of one of Jerusha’s college roommates, he arranges to meet her while maintaining his anonymity. Their relationship grows over the four years of college, but Jerusha’s graduation may finally force Jervis’s hand in revealing his true identity.

This entire tale is told through song with titles like “Who is this Man?”, “She Thinks I’m Old”, “Freshman Year Studies”, “The Secret of Happiness”, “Graduation Day” and the like. The show’s format demands that the music and lyrics by Paul Gordon and John Caird be heavy on exposition and there’s so much of it that it often feels repetitive and one note.

Ah, but it’s a beautifully sung note. Ms. Genovese brings pluck and charm to Jerusha and Mr. Costin’s physical lankiness is perfect for the role of Jervis. Both are in fine voice and complement each other quite well in their duets. They manage to completely avoid the trap that a closer examination of the storyline might provide.

Elizabeth Craven had designed a very utilitarian set for the small MSW stage with half of it occupied by Jervis’s study and the other half representing the orphanage, the college, a farm and a mountaintop at various times.

Musical director Dave MacNab and his three-piece orchestra give the often-sweet score its due with the cello work by Gwenyth Davis particularly emotive.

Director Lichenstein, though again limited by the show’s epistolary format and the relatively small performance space, manages to add a few nice directorial touches that when combined with two appealing performances ends with the result being a very

pleasant evening of musical theatre.

“Daddy Long Legs” plays at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West through December 10, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm, with Sunday matinees at 5pm.

For more information, go to mainstagewest.com

In 1992, a retired truck driver named Teri Horton paid five dollars for a painting from a southern California thrift store to give as a gag gift to a friend. An incomprehensible series of dots, blotches and streaks, her friend refused her gift and Horton ending up trying to unload the gangly canvas at a yard sale. It caught the eye of a local high school art teacher who let her know she just might be in possession of a genuine Jackson Pollock painting worth millions. Horton’s response is unprintable, but it was the beginning of a decades-long quest to determine the authenticity of the painting and its true value.

That’s the backstory to Bakersfield Mist, playwright Stephen Sachs’s fictionalized take on Horton’s quest running now at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre. Set in a Bakersfield trailer park, it’s a two-character comedy of desperation that imagines the meeting between ex-bartender Maude Gutman (played by Sandra Ish at her blowsy best) and art connoisseur Lionel Percy (a prickly Mike Pavone.) Gutman has scraped enough money together to hire Percy to render his professional opinion on the work in question. As dismissive of Gutman as he is of the painting, what follows is an 80-minute, bourbon-soaked battle of wits between the two that raises issues of class, culture, personal validation and authenticity that go beyond the determination of the status of a single work of art.

Sachs packs a lot into 80 minutes and falters a bit when he veers into maudlinism. At its core, the script is a neo-Neil Simon Odd Couple with Gutman’s ‘Oscar’ clashing with Percy’s ‘Felix’, albeit with a bit more depth and a lot more adult humor and language. Ish and Pavone are equally matched talents and equally matched adversaries, each seeking their own validation. For reasons greater than simply the money at stake, Gutman needs the painting to be genuine. Percy has his own issues in needing his decision to be right.

Co-directors Argo Thompson and Kimberly Kalember set Ish and Pavone loose on a nicely detailed set (also by Thompson) that perfectly captures the stock ambiance of a mobile home. From its fake wood paneling to its omnipresent collection of shot glasses to a well-worn recliner, the set almost becomes a third character in the play, and maybe even a fourth if you include the painting itself.

Bakersfield Mist uses the inhabitants of an art museum and a trailer park as a clever means of examining the classic blue collar/white collar (or, if you prefer, red state/blue state) divide and, more interestingly, the current hot-button topic of authenticity. Should a leader in a field calling something ‘fake’ overrule scientific evidence to the contrary?

Sound familiar?

“Bakersfield Mist” plays at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Studio Theatre in the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts through December 2nd with evening performances at 8pm with some additional weekend performances at 2 or 5pm.

For specific show dates and times, go to leftedgetheatre.com

The holiday season will soon be upon us and Sonoma County Theatre companies will be providing plenty of opportunities to escape the bumper-to-bumper traffic, full parking lots, and crowded stores that are all too common at this time of year. Some will be presenting traditional Christmas programs while others will be giving audiences some theatrical refuge from this often-overwhelming season.

Perhaps the most traditional will be 6th Street Playhouse’s production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, a stage musical based on the popular 1954 film starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. It’s the story of a couple of song-and-dance men who come to the rescue of their old Army commander who’s now the proprietor of a failing Vermont lodge. Looks like they’re gonna put on a show to save the lodge, and do it while singing a bunch of classic Irving Berlin songs like “Happy Holidays”, “Blue Skies” and, of course, the title tune. The show opens on the GK Hardt stage December 1st and runs through December 23rd.

In their smaller Studio Theatre, 6th Street will be presenting the somewhat less traditional Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, playwright Christopher Durang’s manic mash-up of A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, It’s a Wonderful Life and some other stories. It’s a very funny show and runs from December 8th to December 23rd.

Out in Sonoma, the folks at Sonoma Arts Live will be presenting Inspecting Carol, a comedy about a flailing theatre company trying to get through a disastrous production of A Christmas Carol with the hopes of receiving a financial grant dangling over their heads like mistletoe. The Carl Jordan-directed show opens on November 29th and runs through December 10th.

For a wine country take on a couple of holiday classics, you might check out the Raven Players’ A Vintage Christmas. It’s a world premiere production written by Tony Sciullo that’s described as a cross between A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life set in wine country. It’s a Raven on the Road production that plays at the Trione Vineyards and Winery in Geyserville from December 1st through December 10th.

Travel a little further north and you’ll find The Nutcracker Musical being presented by the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center. It is not the ballet based on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (though there should be about one hundred productions of that produced in the next two months.) It’s a musical play based on the original E. T. A. Hoffman story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and has a two-weekend run starting on December 1st.

For those seeking a respite from holiday-themed shows, you have a few choices. Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre opens Bakersfield Mist on November 17th. It’s a comedy based on the true story of a Southern California trailer park resident who’s convinced the five-dollar painting she bought at a thrift store is a Jackson Pollack original worth millions. Sebastopol’s Main Stage West is presenting the two-person musical Daddy Long Legs. A turn of the century story most famously turned into a Fred Astaire/Leslie Caron film, it’s a May-December romance set to music. The Spreckels Theatre Company in Rohnert Park is reprising its production of Little Women: the Musical, albeit with a new director and an almost entirely new cast. It opens in Rohnert Park on November 24th. Monte Rio’s Curtain Call Theatre presents Rapture, Blister, Burn, a drama that presents a generational debate over the question “Can today’s woman really have it all?”

Finally, for those looking to ring-a-ding-ding in the New Year with the Chairman of the Board, Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater is presenting My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. It opens December 15th and runs through mid-January.

Sonoma County Theatres are serving up a nice variety of shows for the holiday season. Consider checking one out or make a present of live theatre to a friend or family member. Season tickets to one of your local theatres would make a great gift.

At last count, Sonoma County had over twenty active theatre companies, ranging from the nomadic Pegasus Theatre Company to the theatre departments of the two local institutions of higher learning. From Petaluma to Cloverdale, from Monte Rio to Sonoma, the options available for those interested in live theatre in this county are plentiful. Two years ago, four Sonoma County based theatre critics – including your host - gathered to discuss the possibility of celebrating the best of local theatre through an awards process. All were members of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, an organization that has for the past 41 years recognized excellence in theatre produced in the nine bay area counties with an annual awards ceremony. Theatre Bay Area, the largest regional theatre service organization in North America, started their own awards program four years ago, also for productions throughout the Bay Area. While Sonoma County has made a respectable showing in these awards over the past few years – including two wins for Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre at the recent TBA Awards - the local critics thought there was enough theatre produced in this county to warrant their own honors. Thus was born the Marquee Theater Journalists Association and the MTJA Awards, named for the legendary Marquee Theatre of Santa Rosa where many local artists began their theatrical careers. Awards are given in fifteen categories that recognize outstanding work in Sonoma County productions that opened from September of the previous year to August of the current year. One major difference with the MTJA Awards is that the performance categories are non-gender specific. There are awards for outstanding lead performances and awards for outstanding supporting performances – all performers are considered for each award. The terms “actor” and “actress” are nowhere to be found on the Award certificates. The awards are separated by genre, with categories recognizing the differences between dramas, comedies, and musicals. Nominations for the 2nd Annual MTJA Awards were announced in mid-September with the awards ceremony scheduled for mid-October. Wellllll, that didn’t happen but this past Monday the Sonoma County theatre community had the opportunity to gather at the Confluence Taproom & Lounge in Santa Rosa and celebrate the past year in theatre. Here are the recipients of this year’s MTJA Awards: Outstanding Poster/Program Design Pagliacci (Victoria Von Thal, Cinnabar Theater) Outstanding Set Design Peter Crompton (In the Heights, SRJC) Outstanding Costume Design Maci Cae Hosler (Fairyworlds!, 6th Street Playhouse) Outstanding Light Design Eddy Hansen (The Sugar Bean Sisters, Spreckels Theatre Company) Outstanding Sound Design Doug Faxon (The Birds, Main Stage West) Outstanding Choreography Sam Browne, Casandra Hillman, Anakarina Swanson (In the Heights, SRJC) Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Drama Rose Roberts (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Main Stage West) Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Musical Erik Weiss (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, 6th Street Playhouse) Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Comedy Heather Gordon (The Money Shot, Left Edge Theater) Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical Daniela Innocenti-Beem (Gypsy, Sonoma Arts Live) Outstanding Lead Performance in a Comedy Melissa Claire (Becky’s New Car, Sonoma Arts Live) Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama Alan Kaplan (Visiting Mr. Green, 6th Street Playhouse) Outstanding Musical Production In the Heights (John Shillington, director; Janis Wilson, musical director; SRJC) Outstanding Comedy Production Becky’s New Car (Carl Jordan, director; Sonoma Arts Live) Outstanding Drama Production Visiting Mr. Green (David L. Yen, director; 6th Street Playhouse) Congratulations to these artists and the entire Sonoma County theatre community.

The unique bonds of female friendship are at the heart of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias, now in the middle of its run at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse. Based on the life of Harling’s sister, the show debuted off-Broadway in 1987 and shortly thereafter was adapted into the successful film starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine and Julia Roberts in an early Academy Award-nominated role.

Set in a Louisiana hair salon, it’s the tale of a group of small-town Southern “belles” of all ages and statuses who gather to gossip, share recipes, and occasionally get their hair done. There’s Truvy (Jennifer Peck), the bubbly proprietor and chief conduit of all local information, Annelle (Crystal Carpenter Wilson), the new girl in town who hires on at the salon as the show begins, Shelby (Ellen Rawley), an independent young woman about to be married, M’Lynn (Jill K. Wagoner), Shelby’s lovingly-controlling mother, Ouiser (mollie boice), the town “character”, and Clairee (Kate Brickley), widow of the mayor and town sage.

The play opens on Shelby’s wedding day and progresses through the next couple of years. We see changes in all of their lives, from Shelby’s desire for a family to Annelle’s maturation from an insecure lost lamb to true believer. M’Lynn struggles with letting her daughter live her own life, while Ousier, who really isn’t crazy (she’s “just been in a very bad mood for 40 years”), reconnects with an old flame. Clairee starts to step out of her late husband’s shadow and expand her horizons. It’s a tear-jerker, so someone’s gonna get sick and… well, you know.

Director Beulah Vega’s got a top-notch cast at work here with each actor providing a fully-formed character that while steeped in cliché is wholly believable. Kate Brickley’s Clairee is the heart of the show, overseeing things from a waiting chair and tossing out a quip every now and then. She’s the town mother, which is not meant to take anything away from Jill Wagoner’s M’Lynn, who is excellent as Shelby’s mother, torn between her daughter’s desire to be happy and what may be truly best for her. mollie boice follows up her role from earlier this year as a cantankerous Southern senior in Spreckel’s The Sugar Bean Sisters with her work here as a cantankerous Southern senior. Madame boice would seem to have a lock on this type of role and delivers the goods.

If Clairee is the heart of the show, then surely Ellen Rawley’s Shelby is the soul. To steal a line from another show currently running, she’s always looking on the bright side of life and Rawley is charming in the role. Crystal Carpenter Wilson’s Annelle has the greatest character arc and by the play’s conclusion has come into her own as a strong woman. The glue that holds this group together is Jennifer Peck’s Truvy. Her beauty shop is their refuge and Peck plays her with a heart of gold and a great deal of humor. The affection she holds for others and that others hold for her really comes through.

That beauty shop is well represented on the GK Hardt stage with a nicely appointed scenic design by Sam Transleau. Props for making it a functional shop, where hair is actually shampooed (not mimed) and props to the cast for taking on the challenge of setting curlers while performing. Set in the 80’s, the time is well represented in the costume choices of designer Gail Reine.

Full of humor, pathos and delivered via excellent character work by the entire cast, the 6th Street Playhouse production of Steel Magnolias delivers a heaping helping of southern comfort to its audience, and not just a female audience. Consider making an appointment.

Steel Magnolias plays at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse through November 5 with evening performances at 7:30pm and matinees at 2pm.

For more information, go to 6thsteetplayhouse.com

“Am I supposed to be retelling my creature’s story or confessing my own?” – so asks Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, author of Frankenstein and the protagonist in Petaluma playwright (and former Second Row Center Host) David Templeton’s latest theatrical piece Mary Shelley’s Body, now in its premiere engagement at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West. Templeton, whose previous plays are autobiographical, ventures into historical fiction with this stage adaptation of his same-named novella published last year in Worde Horde’s anthology “Eternal Frankenstein”.

The play opens, as most good ghost stories do, in a graveyard where we find Mary Shelley (Sheri Lee Miller) atop her tomb and coming to grips with the realization that she is dead. She finds herself trapped by an invisible force and begins to review her life with the hope of revealing the reason for her purgatorial existence. Her upbringing by a stern father, her romance with the married Percy Shelley, their eventual marriage after the suicide of Shelley’s wife, and the loss of three of her children are all relayed, as well as the fateful summer evening spent in the company of Lord Byron and others where she conceived the idea for her classic horror tale.

Interspersed with the biographical information is Templeton’s original take on the Frankenstein story, focusing on the “construction” of the monster. Four tales are told of the various parts collected by Victor Frankenstein – the hands of an ox man, the brain of a judge, the heart of a stallion, and the blood of a washwoman. Each tale is a horror story unto its own and they provide the play with its strongest, creepiest moments.

The play concludes with Shelley’s horrific realization as to how she met her demise but to reveal more may reduce the jolt audience members deserve to receive for themselves. I’ll just say that in Templeton’s world, Shelley’s tale of Frankenstein may be more autobiography than fiction.

Miller gives a tour-de-force performance as Mary Shelley, one moment exuding the charm of her character and in the next relating a bone-chilling tale of murder and body snatching. There is also a surprising amount of humor in the piece which Miller slyly delivers. She commands the stage from beginning to end of the play’s one hour and forty-five-minute run (with a fifteen-minute intermission.) The show could stand to be trimmed a bit, particularly with the sometimes-clunky exposition at the show’s start. There were also a few moments that left some members of the audience confused (including myself) that should be clarified.

Templeton writes a good horror story, and Miller as Shelley is a great story teller. Both are aided by a simple but effective set design by stage director Elizabeth Craven and the omnipresent flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder that surround the audience courtesy of designers Missy Weaver and Doug Faxon.

Current events may make some shy away from a tale in this genre but the Main Stage West production of Mary Shelley’s Body really will transport you to another time and place.

Mary Shelley’s Body plays at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday and a 5pm matinee on Sunday.

For more information, go to mainstagewest.com