Images by Kelly Christofferson   New exclusive SacPress images by Barry Wisdom The Sacramento Theatre Company is ending its 2011-2012 season of “Mystery, Music, and Mayhem" with the return of a huge hit for STC 20-some odd years ago, the highly successful Howard Ashman-Alan Menken collaboration, “Little Shop of Horrors." It won’t be a mystery if this new STC production turns out to be its own smash hit. As for the music, Ashman’s lyrics and Menken’s music are equally infectious and the cast and band gave a wonderful performance. The two went on to do several successful and award-winning collaborations with Disney. There is lots of mayhem, mostly of the human-eating plant variety. Ashman

photographs by Barry Wisdom / Sacramento Theatre Company closes its 2011-12 season with a blast from the past, staging an all-new production of "Little Shop of Horrors," a huge hit during its 1986-87 season, that is set to play April 28 to May 20, 2012. The show, which originated more than 50 years ago as a Roger Corman film about a milquetoast florist's assistant and his blood-craving spore from outer space, has enjoyed several incarnations, from film to stage, then back to film, before last landing on television as an animated children's series. Undoubtedly influenced by the cinematic seeds planted in his subconcious by such sci-fi classics as "The Thing from Another World" (1951) and

Ah, the child actor. So much competition, so much drive, so many stage mothers and many others, as we shall see, pushing. Oh, and then having to survive the bad reviews. But when a child actor makes it big, there is lots of money and other perks to go around. They say for a child actor to succeed, they and everyone supporting them need to be ruthless. But ruthless to the point of killing a rival? For the lead role in the third-grade play? The center of attention in “Ruthless! The Musical” which is just ending its first week of sold-out and nearly sold-out shows at the Sacramento Theatre Company’s Pollock Stage is Tina Denmark. Right behind Tina is Sylvia St. Croix, child talent represent

“Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” by Richard Alfieri opened Saturday in Sacramento Theatre Company’s smaller Pollock Theatre. Lily Harrison, a senior retiree living in a high rise view condo in St. Petersburg, Florida books a series of dance lessons from the Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks company. Very quickly, Lily demonstrates how uptight and rigid she has become. Enter Michael Minetti, the young man that the dance lesson company has sent to give Lily lessons at her condo. Michael’s problem is that he is extremely poor at self-censoring and blurts out whatever he is thinking. Naturally, Lily and Michael start off on the wrong foot (pun intended) at the first dance lesson and succeeding

Sacramento Theatre Company opened its 2011-2012 season this weekend with one of the most classic horror stories ever told, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. While Shelley’s work is well known and countless screen and stage adaptations have been made of the story the one being told here is from little different angle. The play is by a prolific playwright Tim Kelly who wrote dramatizations to several Mary Shelley stories as well as stories of other writers. All the basic elements are here. The brilliant young scientist who literally stitches together a creature out of graveyard spare parts. The creature who then escapes and wreaks havoc all over the countryside. There is the doctor’s best friend

There are certain characteristics that most everyone identifies with Sherlock Holmes from the original books by Arthur Conan Doyle, film portrayal or countless theatrical productions for over a century. After all the character has been around for a long time. Doyle first created the character in 1881 along with Dr. Watson. The first play featuring the characters was written by Doyle and a popular American actor William Gillette. The play premiered in 1899. Gillette introduced several things identified with Sherlock Holmes including the bent briar pipe, magnifying glass and syringe. The film carer of the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is nearly as long as cinema itself. The

In the 1980s, even though he had written numerous highly successful plays (“The Odd Couple,” “The Sunshine Boys”), Neil Simon’s career and his own satisfaction with his work was at a low point. By looking back on his own life as source material, Simon was able to go from seriously funny to a funny and serious play. The result was “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” a fictional look at his childhood in the seaside neighborhood of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York. It is the fall of 1937. The world is in the worst depression ever and on the brink of the World War II. The Jerome family is typical of the many Jewish families that settled in Brighton Beach. They are trying to live as normal a life as p

All Photos: Barry Wisdom Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is possibly the most popular Christmas story ever written, with the exception of the Nativity story itself. Long before radio, television and the multimedia assault we have today, live theatres – from professional to the smallest community – were producing adaptations of Dickens’ novel. For decades the theatre-going public has continued to embrace “A Christmas Carol,” giving the theatres producing it a nearly surefire hit. Many theatre companies depend on their holiday classics the way retail stores depend on the holiday shopping season.  Sacramento Theatre Company now alternates “A Christmas Carol” with its other popular ho

Hands are busy inside the costume shop at Sacramento Theatre Company. Six women are making new costumes and altering dozens of others for the upcoming production of “A Christmas Carol.” The musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens story is returning to the theater's Mainstage for the first time in three years. On a recent morning, a sewing machine whirred noisily as stitchers Nila Coats, Kathy Grimes, Joan Kelly and Brandy DeAguero quietly pinned fabric and finished seams. Nearby, draper Eleanor Fluharty snipped skirt and bodice sections as she stood at a cutting table. The theater has experienced tough financial times the last two years. But that's had a gilded lining: Instead of usin

The 2010-2011 Season of the Sacramento Theatre Company Cabaret Season opened with “You’re the Top: A Tribute to Cole Porter.” STC producing director Michael Laun, who created and directed the show, opened with “Let’s Misbehave” from an early Cole Porter show.” After welcoming the near capacity audience Laun explained that the first half of the show would consist of Cole Porter tunes from the 1920s and 30s. This was a period before Porter became well known and met major success. This is surprising to a contemporary audience since all but a couple of the songs are well known to most adult listeners and were hits for various singers over the years. Laun also promised the show would be “a l

Two shows opened for two different Sacramento theaters this weekend, set 40 years apart in very different locations and while each has its own unique cast and director, both plays have surprising underlying similarities. Both are essentially two-character plays. Both have a hysterical, unreasonable and totally self-centered female character. And both women become entwined with unsuspecting, clueless men. The Sacramento Theatre Company’s “Owl and the Pussycat” opened Saturday night on their small, intimate Pollock stage. As soon as the curtain rises, the audience finds itself in 1964 San Francisco. When is the last time you heard the word rat fink? “The Owl and the Pussycat” was writer

 Louise puts the fanatic in fan.  She is a single mother of two working in an electronics manufacturing job in Houston.  From the first moment she first hears Patsy Cline singing on the Arthur Godfrey Show, she is totally enthralled.  She calls the local DJ every day begging him to play her favorite Patsy Cline songs.  During one of these calls Louise learns that Patsy is coming to Houston the next weekend.  Dragging her boyfriend and boss along, she arrives hours early at the honky tonk venue to get a good seat.  The place is still empty, save for Louise’s party, when Cline arrives to check out the venue.  Louise works up the nerve to introduce herself.  Over the evening, the two develop