Urinetown is a silly, overacted, melodramatic, musical political satire that is pure excessive hilarity. The talented cast of North Coast Repertory Theatre’s incarnation of the show understands the assignment and creates an entirely entertaining evening of must-see theater. The surface of this production is stupid, stereotypical theater complete with puns, gags, terrible writing and an onslaught of […]
Alex Blouin
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Patrons in the Arts
As Leo Tolstoy once said, “All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Every member of the MacTwatt Clan’s 10-year family reunion reveals unique unhappiness as they meet again after years apart in the Logger Legends, Liars and Lookers, the third in the Logger Bar-located series of plays written and directed […]
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A New Brain‘s Snappy Synapses
Director, actor, choreographer and wicked talent Alex Blouin let the new Redwood Curtain production of A New Brain marinate for years. Her persistence and ambition in getting this charming musical produced by Redwood Curtain Theatre finally comes to fruition in a spectacular way at 5th and D Street Theater. With star-studded local theater familiars, beautiful stage […]
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NCRT’s Tiny Beautiful Things
Be honest. You read the advice columns. Even if it’s just to be snarky about other people’s problems. Or perhaps you’re secretly hoping the solution to a problem you’ve been sitting on will magically appear under someone else’s name? On that admittedly broad assumption, I’d be surprised if Tiny Beautiful Things, now playing at North […]
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Noises Off! Hits the Mark
For the first show since shuttering its doors two years ago due to COVID-19, Ferndale Repertory has staged playwright Michael Frayn’s popular farce Noise Off. It’s an ambitious choice — the plot is complicated, the dialogue is demanding; missed lines or uneven timing could easily derail the comedy of errors. Fortunately, the cast, under the […]
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Space Force
As a Brit, I’m a sucker for a good pantomime and this year’s offering at the Arcata Playhouse is up there with the best. Robin Hood – Knight of the Stars: A Space-Capade is a space-capade of the highest comedic order. It has everything a good panto should — a ludicrously over-costumed and over-made up […]
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Word Play
As a young boy, I lost a classwide spelling bee on the word “broccoli.” My teacher said I spelled it with two ‘l’s (I didn’t, and I will die on that hill if I must). So when Chip Tolentino (Evan Needham) was eliminated on “tittup” in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I empathized. […]