Take a handful of William Shakespeare’s plays like Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, sauce them with two dozen Elvis Presley songs, and what do you get? All Shook Up, an effervescent jukebox musical now playing in a Good Company Players production at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater through July 9.
The Bad Seed is a phrase, title, or story that has been seared into society’s awareness since 1954—almost 80 years. If you really want to understand it, see the play by that name at the Good Company Players’ 2nd Space Theatre through June 11.
I really enjoy finding new places to share with our readers, especially coffee shops! During the Rogue Festival in March, I discovered that a new coffee shop had opened up in a familiar location in the Tower District. Alchemist Coffee Lab has taken over the location where Hi-Top coffee used to be, just down the street from Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater on Wishon. After trying their delicious hot mocha, I decided to reach out to learn more and recently chatted with owner Hamzeh Mahmoud.
The 2023 Fresno Rogue Performance Festival has come and gone, but the memories remain. For The Great Food Search, some of the best memories are of food. As I went from venue to venue, reviewing strange and amazing shows, one thing became obvious: even reviewers need to eat! Since the venues for the Rogue were in the Tower District, restaurants in that area were the obvious choice for the hungry reviewer. Therefore, here is a selection of where I went and what I got for Rogue ’23.
The deputy mayor of New York City is bleeding in the upstairs bedroom. His wife and the kitchen staff are missing, the dinner is not prepared, and the guests for their tenth-anniversary party are sharing gossip and trying to cover over the facts in Rumors, a madcap farce by the late great Neil Simon, now playing in a Good Company Players’ production at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater through May 7.
A romantic comedy about Golden-Agers embarking on the rough seas of 21st-century online dating...and everything that follows? You’d better fill its two-person cast with solid, dependable performers...and that’s what the Good Company Players did with Amelia Ryan and Noel Adams in Kalamazoo, playing at the 2nd Space Theatre through April 16.
Blood Harmony—A performance by The Murray Girls, who create amazing vocal combinations that enhance everything from folk murder ballads to Sixties pop.
Who Is Janice Noga? is a tour through the life of a performer who has gone far, a tour divided between descriptions and songs.
Dorian Follansbee’s Rogue show, Other People’s Showers, begins just there – in a shower. Speaking from behind a shower curtain over the sound of running water, Dorian offers musings on showers in a lengthy, charming monologue. But when she emerges, in her fuzzy bathrobe and hair in ponytails, the atmosphere changes.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I would pay to watch Martin Dockery read a phone book—he is just that good! (for those who don’t know what a phone book is, it was a book where you could find people’s names and phone numbers back before the internet) When I saw he was going to be at this year’s Rogue Festival I knew I had to be there. During the pandemic, Martin performed many stories on YouTube and I caught as many of them as I could—now I was finally going to be able to see him again in person.
