by Terrance Mc Arthur

The Valley does theatre like no other agriculture-centric region. 2024 saw a bumper crop of productions. Here are a few highlights that I saw.

Good Company Players had a solid line-up at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater, with Beautiful, the Carole King Musical leading off the season. Meg Clark wowed the crowds as the singer-songwriter—so good, GCP has brought the show back to start the 2025 season. The unstoppable Dan Pessano again showed his might as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, its own GCP tradition. The season closed with a lively production of Legally Blonde.

At GCP’s 2nd Space Theatre, On Golden Pond offered a tender vision of an aging couple with Patrick Tromborg and Jayne Day trading kindness and laughter. Thornton Wilder’s Our Town brought vignettes of small-town America, with Dan Pessano introducing it all with a sure hand as the Stage Manager of a near-bare stage. The season ended with a sumptuous adaptation of Louisa May Alcott: Little Women: A Victorian Christmas Card, a holiday treat for the community.

Centerstage Clovis Community Theater unleashed a joyous, mirthful Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat that rocked the Clovis Veterans Memorial District auditorium with the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber romp through the story of Joseph and his brothers. Melinda Salcido’s knowing Narrator led children through the tale, with Diego Sosa an energetic Joseph, Yzabella Huerta Moultrie jaw-dropping in her dance solos, and Dan Adalpe an Elvis/Pharoah to remember—and he even made tech magic with birds flying across moving scenery!

Off in Reedley, the River City Theatre Company rock-and-rolled through the Mencken/Ashman musical version of Little Shop of Horrors, and let the wild teens loose on “The Lightning” in the Percy Jackson Musical The Lightning Thief, loaded with Greek myths, monsters, and action.

Down in Visalia, the Visalia Players chilled The Ice House with a tense production of Wait Until Dark directed by Joseph Ham.

The annual Rogue Performance Festival brought local and imported talent to Fresno’s Tower District with shows to thrill, delight, and disturb you. Marty’s Turn parlayed the closing of a toy store into a character study of kindness and family. 99 Dreams was Kate McKnight and Sarah McKnight Serafimidis’ study of band dynamics and family. The Latehomecomer was Jasmine Vang in an adaptation of a memoir of the Hmong journey to America…and family. How to Be Wicked was Jaguar Bennett doing his usual trick of mocking societal norms and replacing them with self-centered success…and no family. Confessions of a Women’s Prison Guard put a journalist (tony sanders) into the unfamiliar world of detention as characters challenged his preconceptions (Are they a family?)

What a year…and that’s maybe half of what I saw!

Editor’s Note from Lorie Lewis Ham

I only reviewed a couple of shows myself last year, but they were both ones that deserve a mention. Evil Dead the Musical at the Selma Arts Center was a lot of fun, and if you were lucky/unlucky you even got fake blood sprayed on you in the audience. Evil Dead The Musical is a rock musical based on the Evil Dead horror movie franchise. The Valley premiere of Jerseys Boys also hit the stage at the Selma Arts Center last year and it was absolutely amazing! I was already a fan of the show and this cast did a professional-level job! Thomas Hayes (Frankie Valli), Jonathan Wheeler (Tommy DeVito), Tristan Beck (Nick Massi), and Sean Hopper (Bob Gaudio) were all incredible, and the rest of the cast was great too. Special kudos to Sean, who knocked it out of the park with one of my favorite songs of the show “Oh What A Night.”

If you love local theatre, be sure to check out Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, which features mysteries read by local actors. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and also on podbean.

Check out more theatre reviews & other local entertainment articles in our Arts & Entertainment section. You can also find more theatre coming up on KRL’s Local Theatre event page.

Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.