Runaway Stage Productions

Just saw Little Shop of Horrors for a birthday celebration. Great Sacramento little theater production. Check out Gold Events for Half Priced tickets. $ 2 water and candy but all for a good cause.

The Addams Family — A Musical Comedy!
SITREP
«The Addams Family» — A Musical Comedy!” proved to be a Dark, Fun, Twisted Comedy «Inspired By» the old 60s Television Show.
THE SETUP
The story arc features young Wednesday Addams falling in love with Lucas, a young bro from perennially Midwestern «Wholesome”-values roots, and the hijinks revolve around these two families — and especially both sets of parents — being forced upon one another.
THE CAST
The actors comprising the characters are all top notch. And most all were represented from the TV series (but unfortunately, no «Cousin It» nor «Thing» (*le sigh*). But be that as it may, the cast was amazing. And yet it should be no surprise that I had a few favorites that popped out:
* Mark Ettensohn as «Gomez» is hands down in my book the anchor of this show and delivers the most astounding performance. Through Gomez we see the Spanish roots of this family fully developed, sometimes to diabolical & hysterical effect as family scions names are thrown out. Even got a shot of Mark with my lovely friends Bambi & Fabi after the show!:
* However, a VERY close second is Karissa Lee Carleton as «Wednesday Addams» — at once waif like and reminiscent of a young adolescent girl, and yet — she’s ENGAGED and so can’t be younger in fact than at least 18, right? — and hence some of the delightful confusion at just how old is this kid?
* And Chad Marquis as «Uncle Fester» was just brilliant! And a complete acid-​trip in his antics! His romance with the «The Moon» (and yes, I’m talking about the Lunar body in orbit around the Earth) is hysterical and you think is totally unrequited. Well… just wait… :D
* A special shout out to «The Addams Ancestors» — this is like in the old Greek Tragedies, «The Chorus» — a group of actors who combine in their actions to reveal profound moments of exploration of issues or help the individual actors reach epiphanies as they are developed throughout the show. In this regard, they are also Uncle Fester’s «co-​conspirators» to diabolical funny effect!
THE SCENE OF SPECIAL NOTE
…and speaking of which, there is the one particular scene that is just remarkable in it’s whimsy and totally reminiscent of a 60s psychedelic experience, where Uncle Fester is dancing with the moon as the female Addams ancestors — attired in the white outfits of their various eras of history — and all dancing with white parasols — and are all completely bathed in black light to a very beautiful glowing effect.
This for me was the scene that reached a pinnacle of marvelousness that really demonstrated the creativity of this cast, the musicians and these writers of this production!
THE LOWDOWN
The Addams Family is a musical comedy that will leave you in hysterics!

Saw the Producers… great fun, talented cast and the live orchestra was AMAZING! Cant say enough about the production. Fantastic that we have such a great group in our area. Check them out!

This is THE theatre for decently-​priced Broadway musicals. Yeah, Music Circus is better, but the prices are way up there. I’ve never gotten Season Tickets because I never want to see every show. For example, this season has Young Frankenstein and The Producers, two shows where once was enough. But in the past I have seen The Drowsy Chaperone (excellent), The Full Monty (very good), Avenue Q (wow!), Little Shop of Horrors (very fun), Sweeney Todd (good production of a musical that isn’t my favorite). In fact, the only thing I didn’t like here was Kiss Me Kate, not due to the production or cast or music but due to the fact that the book is atrocious. Oh, her butt is sore from spousal abuse! Har-​de-​har-​har!
There are definitely issues with the 24^th St Theatre itself. The seats are atrocious and I’ve broken one more than once. Seeing Avenue Q at the Black Box Theatre in West Sac was nice but I can’t imagine it would be a permanent alternative as it’s too far from most of Sac and kitchen chairs aren’t really that much better than what’s going on over on 24^th.

My five year old daughter and I just came here this past Saturday to see the Winnie the Pooh musical. I had never been here before and could not have been happier with the experience. The venue is cool and we really enjoyed the show. They were fantastic about involving the audience and my daughter got to go up on stage during the production. She got to fall into the «Baxson» trap with Pooh and the rest of the cast. I can’t explain how cool that was for her and for me. This is definitely a place that we will add to our list of things to do.

This is the kind of Company that produces Big Broadway shows on a small, Community Theatre budget. But, surprisingly, it’s not exactly what you might think. While the sets may, indeed, seem low budget, and the theatre itself sort of feels like a cross between High School and Church, the talent is anything but low-​budget. I recently saw Spamalot there. I was, as expected, unimpressed by the sets (the same castle used about fifteen times), but I was very surprised at how amazing the lead cast members were, particularly the Diva/​Lady of the Lake (Andrea Thorpe– worth looking up). I also though the Patsy character, Josh Smith, was particularly well-​cast and a phenomenal singer. Though this was my first time at a Runaway Production, I imagine the cast members work from show to show, so I know that if I see something else by them, I can expect to see the same level of acting and singing.
I think they are definitely the epitome of community theatre, but for what they are, it is definitely something worth checking out and supporting. The parking situation was really easy, there are a few restaurants in walking distance and, surprisingly, despite it’s proximity to a less-​than-​affluent area, very safe-​feeling location just far enough away from the bustle of Broadway down the street. Hmm, that’s kind of funny actually!

Support local theater! This is my second time watching a show put on by Runaway Productions and it was great. I watched «How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying» and the cast was fabulous and oh so talented. I love how after the show, the cast is outside thanking everyone who attended. It is really nice and thoughtful of them. The only downside I would say is that the theater is very old so the seats aren’t as comfortable so make sure you get out of your seat for a bit during intermission. Other than that, I had a wonderful time and enjoy watching shows put on by Runaway Productions.

what a great asset to the community! great productions. great opportunities to kids and adults alike. my kids were in winnie the pooh and it has changed their life!

I saw Avenue Q and this is the first time I saw a show for this theatre company. So glad I finally did! You see, I’m a theatre fanatic and have traveled many places (throughout the state plus NYC, DC, and London) to see a good (and not so good) show. At one time I had FIVE theatre subscriptions in Sacramento, but I have a family life now, so it’s hard to attend a theatre at night. Therefore, if a local theatre group offers a weekend matinée show, that’s when I can go.
I’ve seen Avenue Q by the national tour before, and I’m familiar with the OBC CD. So I was very pleased to find out the quality of the show was pretty good for a community theatre, especially the level of the cast was excellent. The black box theatre setting worked well for this show too.
The reason why I didn’t give 5 stars is that this was my first show and I have to see a couple more to decide if this theatre company is truly worthy of five stars. But if the rest of the shows will be as good as Avenue Q, it’ll be very promising!

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I came to see the production of Annie. It is his favorite show and I had never seen it, so we were both pretty excited.
The Show:
Neither of us were impressed AT ALL! Miss Hannigan and the Annie were decent, but overall, the show was terrible. The sound messed up A LOT and we could barely make out what the actors were saying several times
The Theater:
This is a rather large theater with cool chandeliers and a HUGE stage!
The seating:
Old metal theater seating is NOT comfortable if you are a larger person. Thankfully, we sat in a row that they had just added for over flow.
Concessions:
They had the regular concessions that were very reasonable. Seemed like everything was $ 1

Great theater! My favorite show here was «Hairspray»… then there’s «Legally Blonde» and «The Wedding Singer». I’ve also seen a few of the shows that are more catered towards kids. Always fun, always great show!

I am always looking for an opportunity to support local, so the Runaway Stage Productions fit my sensibility. I’m good with seeing a local production in a funky old space at Sierra 2 Center Theater with a little LIVE orchestra and budget sets. I love this stuff. The actors visit with everyone in the lobby afterward… fun.
The house seats about 250 and its always full, so they do something right. Just saw Legally Blonde… tells the story of being who you and true to yourself no matter what other people think. It is a timeless tale that continues. The lead was perfectly cast and was great, while supporting roles ranged good to great as typical in a smaller community production.
My season tickets are a charming low cost treat that sports local theater and gets me out of the house for six shows through the season.
Go some time, you will leave with a smile and most likely become a fan.

We have been here several times. This time we saw «The Wedding Singer» — not my favorite show, but I think the actors and production are better than the material they selected. I will definately go again.

It’s great to support local theater and this place has great show selections. Saw «The Wedding Singer» which was fun and a pretty good production, though not the big hit Broadway kind of show. It’s at the 24^th street theatre, which is a small theater and thus no bad seat in the house. The sound system occasionally had some problems but overall good show.

I love the 24^th Street Theater! I’ve come here several times, often through winning tickets through the Bee. But even without winning tickets, the theater is very affordable. Especially the children’s theater. It is a great place to bring your family on a Saturday afternoon. Make a day of it!

Cinderella gets assertive; a little bit. She tells her stepmother and stepsisters off a few times. I waited 30 years for that moment. Cinderella’s voice was angelic. She captured, and recaptured the spotlight after several successful scene steals by stepsisters, Joy (airhead) and Grace (bumbling) who’s hilarious antics both repulsed and entertained. I wanted to hate the stepsisters like I always have, but I smiled each time they stepped onstage. Played by men in hideous drag they danced, fumbled and sang their way into my heart.
Solos by the prince and Fairy Godmother were awesome, as was the duet that Cinderella and her prince sang. «Do I love you because you’re beautiful or are you beautiful because I love you? Do I want you because you’re wonderful or are you wonderful because I want you?» The original music and lyrics were wonderful, indeed. I especially enjoyed when the search for the owner of the glass slipper ensued; the cast came out into the audience and chose four members to try the slipper on. For those few minutes we weren’t just watching, but part of the performance. The marionette mice were pleasantly played by cast members in black. This time, the stepsister’s awful cat, Lucifer, (also a marionette) was a friend to Cinderella.
Toward the end, Grace got quite hot, as in «she» started melting. A slight glisten above the rest of the cast, when the curtain closed momentarily I expected her to reappear blotted down. When the curtain opened it was a full blown mascara and eye shadow run. Yikes! It only added to her crazed demeanor. As we left the lovely little theater, the cast was waiting for us on the steps. Many wanted their photo taken with Cinderella and her prince, but I went straight for Grace.
Cinderella is playing through May 23 at the 24^th Street Theater.