Sonoma Arts Live

Covering The San Francisco Bay Area & Sacramento Valley Since 2001

Sonoma Arts Live • 276 E Napa St, Sonoma, CA 95476

Plays • Musicals • Opera • Dance

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Next Production

• FEB 6 - 22, 2026 •

Shirley Valentine / Play

For Tickets & Info:

Shirley Valentine is a one woman play written by Willy Russell, a warm and sharply funny monodrama that follows a middle aged Liverpool housewife who feels her life has quietly shrunk around her. Shirley spends her days cooking the same meals and talking to the kitchen wall because no one else seems to listen, and somewhere along the way she stopped listening to herself too. When a friend unexpectedly invites her on a trip to Greece, the offer cracks open something inside her. The sunshine, the sea, and the sudden freedom from her daily routine give Shirley room to breathe, reflect, and remember the girl she used to be before life boxed her in. Through her honest and witty conversations with the audience, she unpacks years of disappointment, small joys, forgotten dreams, and the tug of wanting something more even if she cannot quite name it yet. The story becomes a gentle but gripping search for identity and courage as Shirley slowly realizes that change is possible at any age.

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Coming Soon

• OPENS APRIL 24, 2026 • The Light in the Piazza / Musical The Light in the Piazza is a musical drama with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel and a book by Craig Lucas. Set in Florence in the summer of 1953, it follows Margaret Johnson, a graceful Southern woman traveling through Italy with her daughter Clara. Their trip is meant to be simple sightseeing, yet everything shifts when a sudden gust of wind sends Clara’s hat drifting across a sunlit piazza and into the hands of Fabrizio, a young Italian man whose sincerity and warmth immediately draw Clara in. Their connection is instant, tender, and full of possibility, but Margaret watches it grow with equal parts hope and unease. Clara’s past has left her vulnerable, and Margaret knows that love, while beautiful, can also complicate a carefully protected life. As the two families circle around each other through language barriers, cultural contrasts, and rising emotion, the story paints a vivid portrait of romance blooming in a place where art and history shape every corner. The musical leans into heartfelt themes of trust, independence, and the courage it takes to allow someone you love to step into their own future, even when that future feels uncertain.
• OPENS JUNE 5, 2026 • Home, I'm Darling / Play Home, I'm Darling is a play by British playwright Laura Wade, categorized as a comedy drama with sharp, witty edges. Judy and Johnny seem to live in a flawless 1950s world, complete with polished floors, vintage dresses, and the kind of homemaking routine that feels lifted from an old magazine ad. Judy has left her modern career to devote herself fully to this retro dream, and for a while the charm of it all feels warm and comforting. Their home runs like a time capsule, a place where the past feels safer than anything outside their pastel colored walls. But the tighter Judy clings to her ideal vision, the more the real world presses in. Bills do not care about nostalgia, friendships shift, and the definition of a perfect marriage becomes harder to pin down. As small cracks widen, the couple must face questions they never planned for, especially the cost of living inside a fantasy. The play uses humor, tension, and emotional honesty to explore the way nostalgia can shape choices and relationships, drawing the audience into a story that feels playful on the surface yet quietly powerful underneath.
• OPENS JULY 17, 2026 • Once Upon A Mattress / Musical Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy written by Mary Rodgers with lyrics by Marshall Barer and a book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. Set in a faraway medieval kingdom where marriage laws are twisted by a controlling Queen, the story follows a frustrated court that cannot wed until the timid Prince finds a bride. The Queen blocks every hopeful princess with tests that are strange, unfair, and designed to fail. Hope arrives when Princess Winnifred shows up in the least princess-like fashion imaginable. She is loud, honest, and wonderfully real, instantly winning over the castle staff and catching the Prince off guard with her sincerity. The Queen scrambles to design a new test that no one could possibly pass, yet the kingdom senses that Winnifred might be exactly what their world needs. The musical blends playful humor with a clever take on fairy tale traditions, creating a lively atmosphere filled with colorful characters, catchy songs, and a growing tension between appearances and truth. The charm of the story lies in watching a kingdom built on strict rules slowly crack open as one unconventional visitor turns everything upside down.