Image 1: Composer John Bucchino works with actor Nanci Zoppi and Musical Director Graham Sobelman at the It's Only Life masterclass Image 2: John Bucchino explains his process of writing and composing during the It's Only Life masterclass Image 3: New Helvetia Founder and Artistic Director Connor Mickiewicz sings "Playbill", accompanied by composer John Bucchino at the It's Only Life masterclass   It's Only Life After an amazing first year, which included the critically praised productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and also Tick, Tick...BOOM (so good they had to bring it back), New Helvetia Theater hosts a unique musical event tonight at the Crest Theatre.  Tonight's one-night p

It's the "Season of Love" at the California Musical Theatre as the Broadway Musical Rent: The Broadway Tour comes to Sacramento. The musical follows a group of young artists who live in New York's East Village during the 1990s. Rent is a passionate story of friendship and love that challenges many tough subjects like AIDS, poverty, homophobia and drug addiction. Rent is a modern take on the opera La bohème, which was written by Giacomo Puccini in 1896. The show is the eighth-longest running on Broadway. Its success has been recognized multiple times, having received Tony Awards for Best Music, Best Score and Best Book, as well as Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1996.   The musical is maki

Get ready to tap your toes and remember the past. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret is celebrating Ol' Blue Eyes with My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. The show will follow Sinatra's music from his swinging beginning in the 1940's, through the 1990's, bringing jazz, big band and swing to life. It will feature such Sinatra songs as "New York, New York," "Fly Me to the Moon," "Strangers in the Night," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "My Way." My Way was co-created by David Grapes and Todd Olson, who are responsible for four musical revues, including ones about Johnny Mercer’s American Songbook and Tony Bennett. Their musical tributes have played in over 200 theaters worldwide. Chris McS

Arco Arena was turned into a musical theatre Wednesday night for Tyler Perry's "Madea's Big Happy Family." The play featured a high-tech set that revolved around the stage to create different scenes for a 15-part cast backed by a 12-part band in the orchestra pit. Beginning around 8 p.m., thousands, including former Kings players Bobby Jackson and Shareef Abdur-Rahim and current Kings player Francisco Garcia, laughed, cried and sang along to the play. Perry, who is best known for his recent work as writer, producer, director and actor in a number of Hollywood films (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Why Did I Get Married, Madea Goes To Jail), wrote this play to honor his mother who passed away

I'll be the first to admit it. I was drawn to Spring Awakening for all the wrong reasons. I was disappointed, but I won't fault anyone but myself for that. And, as much as I'd like to blame the marketing for this musical, I can't. I knew Rachel Berry was not going to grace the stage. I knew better than to think the practically perfect cast of Glee would surprise me in Sacramento with their best Duncan Shiek. Regardless, I approached Spring Awakening with a complete lack of common sense. I can honestly say I had no idea what my Spring Awakening experience would be like. Regrettably, I did very little research on the plot or protagonists. The only thing I knew was that "everyone" was doin

Sex. It's controversial today, and it has been for more than a century. That's why Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play, Spring Awakening, which has strong sexual themes and language, was not produced in the playwright's native Germany until 1906. It opened to English audiences for the first time in New York in 1917, and closed after one performance. Times have changed. The winner of eight 2007 Tony awards including "best musical" and a 2008 Grammy for "Best Musical Show Album opens Wednesday as part of California Musical Theatre's Broadway Sacramento season. Well, sort of. Spring Awakening was not offered as part of the season subscription package, because the theater's executive producer, Richar

"Star Wars" fans will be in for a treat on Oct. 9 and 10 when "Star Wars: In Concert" will make its Sacramento debut at Arco Arena. "[The show] is a fully multimedia, full-evening concert that takes two hours, which includes a 20 minute intermission," said David Barber, the North American press representative for the tour. Clips from each movie will be used to tell an abridged version of the story, effectively summing up the entire adventure in roughly one-sixth of its actual length. "Lucasfilm cut the montages to fit John Williams' cut-downs of the music made for the event especially by Williams — all custom work," said Barber. Narrating the entire show will be none other than Anthony

The Six Women actresses proclaim, "You have to laugh and scream and blow off steam so you don't expire," and that is exactly what the audience did at Friday's showing of the revival of Sacramento's cult classic Six Women with Brain Death (or Expiring Minds Want to Know). As the show begins, six frazzled, women parade across the stage in a grocery check-out line, reading the outrageous headlines of The Expirerer, a spoof of today's tabloid magazines. The women quickly transition from their comedic sketch into a full-energy musical number introducing the audience to the "World of Expiring Minds." The first act consists of a series of life and pop culture scenarios from the viewpoint of ove

“Grease is the word” was heard throughout the Crest Theatre Sunday during the first Grease sing-a-long put on by Outword Magazine. Nearly 400 people filled the Crest Theatre, singing and dancing to all of the classics, such as “Grease Lightning,” “Summer Love” and “You’re the One That I Want.” For me the highlight of the event was the participation of attendees including myself who went all out dressing up as their favorite characters while dancing, singing and even strutting across the stage in costume. “This was a great idea," said Allison Reyes, who attended the event. "I came because my 3-year-old daughter hasn’t ever seen Grease, so it kind of brought all the generations together:

This Friday, Sacramento will welcome back its longest running musical in Sacramento theater history, Six Women with Brain Death (or Expiring Minds Want to Know), as a special tribute to former Studio Theatre director, producer and actor Jackie Schultz. Schultz opened the Studio Theatre in 1994 with a mission to promote theater from the female perspective. She opened Six Women in 1996 and it immediately sold out three months in advance. The show continued to run until 2006, when Schultz's battle with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) along with opportunities to explore other ventures required her to end the show. Six Women is a fast-paced, musical satire of life and

For one night only, Artistic Differences Theatre Company is bringing back the critically acclaimed musical, Bare in concert, this Thursday to Downtown Sacramento. The show will take place at Harlow’s restaurant at 2907 J St. at 7 p.m. Bare tells the story of two homosexual high school students learning to cope with their environment at a Catholic boarding school and the personal struggles that ensue.   Introduced to Sacramento last summer, Bare originally debuted at the Hudson Theater in Los Angeles in October of 2000. It has since spread to other locations and theatre departments, eventually making its way to Sacramento through Artistic Differences in 2008. Daniells, Executive Produce

The spirit of the '60s was alive Thursday night as the Artistic Differences theater company staged a dizzying performance of the musical Hair to a sold-out crowd. Second in a series of three summer concerts entitled "Summer of Rock," Hair incorporated the entire Harlow's audience. A six-piece rock band backed a cast of 17 singers who danced through a standing-room-only crowd of more than 250 people. The "tribal rock concert" opened with a live Jimi Hendrix-like performance of the "Star Spangled Banner" reminiscent of the Woodstock version. It flowed seamlessly into "Aquarius," a hit song in 1969. Hair's plot revolves around Claude (multiple actors), an East Village New Yorker who receiv

The longest-running play in Sacramento theater history is back after a three-year hiatus and is seeking talented singers to fill six roles in the comedic musical revue. Auditions for "Six Women with Brain Death, or Expiring Minds Want to Know" were held Monday and Tuesday night at the Lambda Players Studio Theatre, and hopefuls were asked to bring 32 bars of uptempo comedic song with sheet music and one comedic monologue one to two minutes long. A call went out to experienced actors in their 30s to 50s with backgrounds in the music industry and a strong sense of humor. Callback dates have yet to be determined but will be within the next few weeks, as rehearsals begin in July. The musica

Although many of the events this weekend do not really reflect the true meaning of the foundation of this holiday, there are still some great things to do! Whatever your plan is this weekend, do take a moment to reflect on what Memorial Day is about and be thankful for our fellow Americans who put their lives on the line for the sake of our country. Just in case you aren't sure as to what Memorial Day is all about and why it is a National Holiday, here is the definition from Wikipedia: "Formerly known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near

Courtney Glass and Connor Mickiewicz perform in Graham-A-Rama III: "Not the Marrying KInd" on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at the Geery Theater - video and screen capture by Mike Yee   With little fanfare or exposure, one of the best and least known shows in town opened a few weeks ago, on Sundays at the Geery Theater on the corner of 22nd and L Streets. Featuring local stage actors and singers, the Graham-A-Rama cabaret series is a perfect fit for the Geery’s intimate space, giving the feeling of having been invited to a private party of some kind – like the ultimate insider experience, even for outsiders! I asked the man behind Graham-A-Rama (and behind the piano) Graham Sobelman, a