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

“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

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