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 […]
Jessi Shieman
Posted inArts + Scene
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. […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Dispelling the Princess Myth
As a child, I wasn’t much for princesses and happy-ever-after fairytales, and most Disney interpretations of princessdom passed me by, so I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to relate to this musical reinterpretation of multiple Disney princess stories. Fortunately, Redwood Curtain Theatre’s production of Disenchanted provides just enough of the saccharine background for […]