‘Cabaret,’ one of the hottest musicals of all time, hits Cabrillo Stage
Since American Musical Theatre of San Jose closed its doors in 2008, Cabrillo Stage has had some large shoes to fill. But with a brand new performance space at Crocker Theater and a young company of actors that is determined to bring Broadway to Santa Cruz, they are more than up to the task.

And so are the 25-year-old leads of this summer’s “Cabaret” at Cabrillo Stage. Aptos High School graduate Briana Michaud and Big Apple veteran Roddy Kennedy are prepared to wow even the least musically inclined theatergoer come July 23 when “Cabaret” opens.

Shakespeare Santa Cruz delivers ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ Adler_Marion
People always say you should never mix business with pleasure. But Shakespeare Santa Cruz director Scott Wentworth and his leading lady onstage and in life, actress Marion Adler, could not disagree more.

After nearly 24 years of marriage, the Stratford, Ontario natives will head up the production of “Love’s Labor’s Lost,” opening July 24 at UC Santa Cruz’ Festival Glen. While theatergoers will recognize Wentworth for his role as Nick Bottom in last season’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or Brutus in “Julius Caesar,” this year he will work solely behind the scenes as director, giving Adler her chance in the spotlight as the Princess of France.

Known as Shakespeare’s most modern comedy, the play centers on King Ferdinand of Navarre and his three noble lords who have sworn off women in favor of their studies. As you can imagine, that plan flies out the door as soon as the Princess of France arrives with her entourage of beautiful young women, and the drooling men fall head over heels in love.

Cabrillo Stage gets in the groove with exuberant 'Swing'
Movie musicals of the 1930s liked to advertise themselves as “All Singing! All Dancing!” to let Depression-weary audiences know they were in for a good time. In much the same spirit we get “Swing,” the second offering in this year's expanded Cabrillo Stage summer musical theater season. All singing, all dancing, “Swing” is a lively, uptempo production without dialogue, plot or story, whose energetic ensemble sings and dances its way through more than two dozen classic big-band numbers from the ’30s and ’40s.

Round two of Cabrillo’s hit still sizzles
It is no wonder that audience popular demand brings this uplifting glance at the human "relationship" back to the Cabrillo Stage for a second season. “I Love you, You're Perfect ... Now Change,” sparked mirth from curtain to close on opening night, June 18. The dynamic cast of four—Max Bennett-Parker, Nicolas Ceglio, Sarah Stein and Ariel Buck— carried out roles that ranged radically in age and complexity. The small cast tackled more than 40 different parts altogether in the two-hour outing, ranging from awkward twentysomething daters, to an elderly couple that meets at a funeral. So, it’s official—this show is still a hit.

Cabrillo Stage launches its summer season with the return of ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’
Last summer it debuted to sold-out performances and audiences couldn’t get enough. So what better way to satiate theatergoers than to bring it back? That’s what Cabrillo Stage is doing this summer with its return performance of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!” The comedic musical centers around four different actors who take on a multitude of roles and personalities in a display of various relationships that cover an enormous age span. For any actor it’d be a tough challenge to tackle such a script, but for the four actors who starred in last year’s production, they’re getting a second chance to mix things up, try new approaches, and perform in the play all over again.

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New local theater company debuts popular play
A group of young thespians brings death, disease, poverty, and sexual taboo to Santa Cruz at the end of April via their debut performance of the film and Broadway sensation, “RENT.”

“RENT” flutters into town on the wings of Phoenix Rising, a nascent theater group branching off of the local Kids on Broadway children’s theater group. The group was created to give young adults a space to perform that was attached to Kids on Broadway but branched away from the label of “children’s theater.” “RENT,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning rock opera written by Jonathan Larson and based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” is littered with inarguably deep, heavy, adult, and mature content. The plot outlines one year in the life of a group of young bohemians struggling with love, loss, and AIDS in modern day New York.

Christopher Durang’s witty work hits the Actors’ Theatre

Theater director Gerry Gerringer sits in a tiny office, and we talk, like therapist to patient, which is ironic, since he’s directing a play about such things, with Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy,” opening up at the Actors’ Theatre on Feb. 25 and running through March 19.

“It's really a clever, funny script,” Gerringer says. “It was kind of a play for its time, and now as time has elapsed since the ’80s when it was written, it becomes kind of a satire that’s relevant today. Though all of the characters in some ways have their strangeness, the two therapists who are in this play are so out there and eccentric that it's almost going beyond therapy to think that they can help these people. Comedy is very therapeutic. I think humor connects people and provides access to dialogue about different political issues. Laughter is one of the best things you can do on a regular basis.”

Cirque du Soleil's delicious new "eggs"stravangza is a winner

Hold the fly swatter! "Ovo," Cirque du Soleil's fascinating new outing, is more than a headturner. It's simply outstanding.

A memorable, often spellbinding frolic from beginning to end, the show, which opened in The City last fall, has settled into its San Jose digs. But in a fun turn, the outing takes audiences inside the inner workings of the ecosystem. More specifically, a place where a bountiful universe of  bugs—all kinds—engage in great mysteries. Here, Cirque's clever creatures fret over the arrival of a mysterious egg--by a neurotic fly (fittingly)--which forces everyone to question the egg's existence and perhaps their own. In other words: This is the best eye-candy of the season!