A crazy-eyed landlord struts around his apartment, plotting the death of whichever of his emotionally unstable tenants mistook his artistic masterpiece for common garbage, when a loud screech pierces the intimate theater. The audience jumps. The landlord rears in apparent surprise. The screech lasts for over five seconds. Finally, it stops. The landlord peers over his shoulder, toward the door and proclaims, "The doorbell!" The audiences erupts in laughter. This is just one of several hilarious moments in the Sacramento Theatre Company's production of “The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!” Written by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart, “The Musical of Musicals” takes a single plot and appl

Midtown might be missing the MARRS ice skating rink from last year, but it will catch a bargain with Winter Rollerland starting Friday night at the Midtown Bazaar's indoor location. Three weeks ago realtor Sabrina Berhane and her associates decided to put together a roller skating rink where the community can enjoy the nostalgia of skating to 80's pop and the glint of a disco ball. So they threw a couple dozen hay bails in a circle, wrapped some faux-snow and tinsel around the parking garage columns, and are hoping for at least 10,000 people to skate through by New Years weekend. Berhane organizes the Midtown Bazaar and is hoping the roller rink will provide some entertainment in the co

Kirk Blackinton and Liz Tachella Bowman gave hilariously snide performances Friday night in Big Idea Theatre's rendition of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." The story revolves around two pairs of lovers whose paths toward and away from love run into unforeseen circumstances. The puppy love of Claudio and Hero hits a tragic roadblock, while the love-hate relationship of Benedick (Blackinton) and Beatrice (Bowman), by the design of their conniving friends, becomes more loving and less hateful. Directed by BIT company member Katie Chapman, the production has been a project of hers for the past decade. Set in the years between the World Wars, giant propaganda posters sit in th

Midtown residents and business owners gathered at the Ethel MacLeod Hart Senior Center Saturday morning to meet with city officials and representatives from the police department to discuss what can be done about the rise in violence and rowdiness following Second Saturday. For the first 30 minutes, more than 100 community members wrote on comment cards expressing concerns and proposing solutions. These were collected and sifted through for a seven-member "Safety Team" panel to address. Though Councilman Steve Cohn was adamant that the shooting death of Victor Hugo Perez Zavala was not inherently a Second Saturday problem, it was the obvious impetus for the gathering. In his introductory

Thousands converged on Discovery Park Saturday afternoon for the 16th annual California Brewers Festival to taste the ales, lagers, porters and craft brews from over 60 brewers. The festival was organized by Sacramento's Rotary Club of Point West to benefit the Assistance League of Sacramento. All festival proceeds will be donated to the league’s Operation School Bell — a program providing underprivileged youth with adequate clothing for school. Velvet Tongue and Utz! and the Shuttlecocks provided live music as festival-goers sampled beer with 4-ounce glasses and sought refuge in the shade from the summer sun. The participating brewers were mostly local, though there were some from as