When you "Dial M for Murder" you dial a hit. What great fun! Yes, a murder mystery can have suspense and still have laughs. The Sacramento Theatre Company has brought back a well-made play from the 1950s, later to be a Hitchcock film, and one of his best. The big star of this evening of fun and mayhem is Matt K. Miller as an aging tennis player afraid of losing his meal ticket wife. On stage Miller looks nothing like his all-American lobby photo so it’s a surprise to see him as a charming Englishman who is so manipulative and villainous. The overly naive wife, Mrs. Wendice, is played by Jackie Vanderbeck. Poor Jackie is stuck with the simpering, helpless female of the time, but makes the

William Selby remembers well when he first heard about a little cabaret show that was generating buzz among New York theater fans. “I was a full-time actor at the time, and I had a roommate who was a waiter at this place – Palsson’s (Supper Club) on West 72nd Street,” Selby said. “He came home one night raving about something called ‘Forbidden Broadway’ and did a number for me. “I fell off the bed laughing – I knew I loved it right then and there.” Selby wasn’t the only one who embraced Gerard Alessandrini’s concept of a satiric revue that both celebrated and skewered musical theater. Since its opening 30 years ago this month, “Forbidden Broadway” played almost continuously in New Yor

Add The Sacramento Theatre Company to your list of holiday activities this year: “A Christmas Carol,” which runs through Dec. 24 at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, captures the magic and joy of Christmas. The Dickens classic, adapted by Richard Hellesen, is the most consistently produced Christmas show that STC runs and has been a part of the holiday programs on and off for the last 24 years. For more than150 years Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” has been a classically loved and widely acclaimed story of the evolution of a Ebenezer Scrooge from a selfish and sour man to a generous and hospitable fellow. This heart-warming tale of redemption is a Christmas production that has reminded audie

photographs by Barry Wisdom   Got funny? When B Street Theatre producing artistic director Buck Busfield needs funny, he’s got himself a deep bench of tried-and-tested company members to call to the plate for a grand-slam guffaw.     Of those accomplished actors, perhaps none have a higher LOL average than David Pierini, whose insane lack of vanity, underplayed delivery and awesome arsenal of expressions and gestures can just as easily evoke yuks from post-modern yuppies catching a B Street Mainstage or B3 show, as bring about uncontrollable bouts of milk-squirting nose giggles while playing to Fantasy Theatre’s grade-school audiences.    But in his current role, as Mr. Scary in the Fami

photographs by Barry Wisdom The lobby full of faux fir trees laying in wait for candy canes and garland is a sure sign that B Street Theatre artistic director and co-founder Buck Busfield is once again playing Kris Kringle for Sacramento-area theatergoers. For 14 of the past 17 years, Busfield the playwright has muffled Marley, scratched Scrooge, kicked the crutch out from under Tiny Tim and canceled Christmas for the children in Wales in favor of stuffing audiences’ stockings with an original holiday-themed play of his own device. Busfield said what has since become something of a yuletide tradition for him and his company – which continues this year with Sunday’s main-stage opening of