The 30 percent increase in sewage rates that was approved last month will raise rents and make owning income properties more difficult, according to some in the industry. The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District approved the 30 percent increase over three years on June 23 in a 9-2 vote in response to a December decision by the state to set new guidelines for clean water in the Sacramento-San Juaquin Delta. The new guidelines require tightening controls on sewage discharge that will cause the local providers to overhaul their systems. To read more about the decision, click here. “It’s troubling in this very down economic climate to see any increases of that magnitude,” said Ji

I don't care much for RENT.  I know I know, everybody loves that show.. I don't.  There are many reasons I don't like the show, but I'm not here to hop on my soap box and tell you them.  I would instead like to tell you about a truly nice honest theatre experience that I recently had. The performance was a fundraiser for cancer research and having only one performance didn't require the actors to be completely off book.  In the footsteps of reader's theatre, the actor's carried scripts on stage! Though most scripts were used very little.  I heard that they had less than 10 rehearsals and for that- they sounded great!  Well except for the house speaker being blown and tinny (the fault of t

Q: I am writing about the home I rent. I think the landlord has not paid the mortgage and people keep stopping by the house. I don’t think I should have to pay the rent, but don’t know what to do. Can you tell me what my rights are?   A: This is a fairly common problem today, especially in Sacramento. We have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Unfortunately, the Legislature has not done enough to slow the tide of foreclosures and has done nothing to protect tenants.   The first part of this is fairly easy. You must continue paying your rent to your landlord until you are told that the property is owned by someone else. There are many landlords who fall behind in payme

With the national tour of the smash Broadway musical Rent making its last stop in Sacramento, fans from all over the world are flocking to Sacramento's Community Center Theater to experience it one last time. The tour features a multitude of original cast members, including Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. Some fans wait all day for the $23 rush tickets, which go on sale at 6 p.m. the day of the show, and provide the opportunity to see the musical from the first two rows. Morgan Macri, Beth Furmoff and Kayla Guminiak had been waiting in line together since 9:30 a.m. Friday morning. They were visiting California for the first time, and had paid more than $500 to visit Sacramento and see Ren

"Rent: The Broadway Tour" stopped in Sacramento Wednesday night, bringing a slice of New York to the Community Center Theatre. An audience of over 2,000 sang along, hollered and gave a standing ovation to the play, which featured the male leads from the original Broadway cast, Adam Pascal (as Roger Davis) and Anthony Rapp (as Mark Cohen). Led by poignant performances by Pascal and Rapp, the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama featured powerful acting, dancing and singing. Watching the play was like viewing a prototypical hip-hop song come to life, describing characters in an urban New York City neighborhood dealing with a mosaic of issues including AIDS, drugs and homelessness.

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

Jonathan Larson died the night before his masterpiece, the rock musical "Rent," opened. He didn't live to experience the 1996 show, for which he'd written the music and lyrics, in front of an audience, and he had little inkling that it would go on to enjoy one of Broadway's longest runs, become a film, and win multiple Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize. That's information that many playgoers will bring to New Helvetia Theatre's run of Larson's "tick, tick...BOOM!," which opened Saturday at the Artisan Theatre on Del Paso Boulevard in North Sacramento. And if one has seen "Rent," it is impossible to experience this 90-minute one-act musical without seeing it in light of Larson's masterwor

Rehearsal photos by Paul Le and Tony Sheppard – taken at the Artisan, 1901 Del Paso Blvd.   “Tick, Tick…BOOM” Book, Music, and Lyrics: Jonathan Larson Script Consultant: David Auburn Directed by Connor Mickiewicz and Erin island New Helvetia Theatre officially opens its second full production on Saturday, with previews starting Wednesday, of “Tick, Tick…BOOM.” The show is by Jonathan Larson, who won three posthumous Tony awards and a Pulitzer for “RENT.” I had the opportunity to sit in on a recent rehearsal and it literally had me both laughing and crying uncontrollably (not at the same time). The timing was also interesting after the recent movie release of Jane Campion’s beautiful “