Courtney Symes

Courtney Symes

Courtney Symes is a long-time theatre aficionado who has been writing for BroadwayWorld since 2017. She has been active in theatre and youth organizations in her community. After trying law school, she decided that a life in the arts was the way to go. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature and teaches during the day while pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. In addition to theatre, Courtney enjoys music, reading, sports, hiking, traveling, and raising San Francisco Giants fans.  




Favorite Show:

The Phantom of the Opera

Favorite Stories:



MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

Review: VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Placer Community Theater
Review: VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Placer Community Theater
March 14, 2024

Sibling rivalry, unrealized dreams, and learning to age gracefully are some themes currently on display in Placer Community Theater’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Christopher Durang’s nod to the works of Anton Chekhov premiered on Broadway in 2013 and won the Tony Award for Best Play. It incorporates Chekhov Easter eggs such as character names, locations, and situations, yet familiarity with Chekhov isn’t necessary to enjoy Durang’s play.

Review: COSMO ST. CHARLES IS DEAD AND SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM KILLED HIM Premieres at B St. Theatre
Review: COSMO ST. CHARLES IS DEAD AND SOMEONE IN THIS ROOM KILLED HIM Premieres at B St. Theatre
March 9, 2024

An interactive whodunit with comedy, intrigue, and love triangles? Yes, please! Nicole Zimmerer’s captivating new play, Cosmo St. Charles is Dead & Someone in This Room Killed Him, was a finalist at the 2022 B Street New Comedies Festival and is currently thrilling audiences with its world premiere at the B Street Theatre.

Review: AN HONEST APOLOGY Premieres at FreeFall Stage
Review: AN HONEST APOLOGY Premieres at FreeFall Stage
February 22, 2024

Being the first to review a new work is always a pleasure, particularly when that work is as engaging as James Van Eaton’s An Honest Apology. This play is a mixture of Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen, full of witticisms and satire directed towards those who are concerned with their place in high society. In addition, exaggerated affectations and hilariously shallow characters make this an intriguing period piece about learning humility and grace.

Interview: James Van Eaton Talks about His New Play, AN HONEST APOLOGY, at FreeFall Stage
Interview: James Van Eaton Talks about His New Play, AN HONEST APOLOGY, at FreeFall Stage
February 11, 2024

Sacramento is brimming with new works in theatre this month, and one play that I am particularly looking forward to is by former Sacramento-based playwright James Van Eaton. The premiere of his Oscar Wilde-inspired An Honest Apology will be performed at FreeFall Stage beginning with their annual Valentine’s Day Dessert on February 14th. BroadwayWorld spoke to James about feminism, video games, and all things Wilde.

Review: SAFE AT HOME: THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY at Valkyrie Theatre Company
Review: SAFE AT HOME: THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY at Valkyrie Theatre Company
February 9, 2024

When Black History Month coincides with the Dodgers kicking off spring training, it’s a perfect time to celebrate one of the most important names in baseball history. Safe at Home: The Jackie Robinson Story is an engaging history lesson about the man who changed the Major Leagues with his quiet strength and integrity. It was first commissioned and performed by the B Street Theatre eighteen years ago, where Artistic Director Alison Gilbreath fell in love with it. She has partnered with its playwright, Anthony D’Juan, to bring it back on stage with Valkyrie Theatre Company, a new community theatre in Fair Oaks.

Review: AMERICAN FAST Lights the Beam at Capital Stage
Review: AMERICAN FAST Lights the Beam at Capital Stage
February 3, 2024

Capital Stage is starting the new year off with a winner. American Fast. by Kareem Fahmy, is making its Sacramento premiere and running through February. Its themes of competition, self-reflection, and navigating relationships are particularly relevant, as many immigrants struggle to honor familial traditions while finding their own way in contemporary society.

Review: SIX Scores a Perfect Ten at Broadway Sacramento
Review: SIX Scores a Perfect Ten at Broadway Sacramento
February 1, 2024

Some powerful Tudor women have taken Sacramento by storm; Six of them, to be exact. The former wives of Henry VIII have come back from the dead to tell their side of the story in this powerful musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss.

Review: RESCUE ME Debuts at B Street Theatre
Review: RESCUE ME Debuts at B Street Theatre
January 26, 2024

Championing new works can be a risky undertaking, but B St. Theatre’s dedication to the cause continues to pay off. Kicking off the 2024 season is Rescue Me, a finalist in the 2022 B Street New Comedies Festival.  It is penned by two B Street fixtures, Tara Sissom-Pittaro and Peter Story, who infuse humor with introspection into two outwardly opposite individuals.

Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL is 'Perfect' at Broadway Sacramento
Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL is 'Perfect' at Broadway Sacramento
January 3, 2024

What you oughta know is that Broadway Sacramento is starting off the New Year with a bang. Raw, emotional, and energizing are the words to kick off 2024, as the National tour of Jagged Little Pill, The Musical hits Sacramento this week. It was inspired by Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name and, like the album, is a Grammy Award-winner. It also won two Tony Awards after its 2019 opening. While the musical uses songs from Morisette’s album, it is not the jukebox musical I was expecting. It features an original book by Diablo Cody that highlights the challenges facing an outwardly perfect suburban family, reminding us all to never judge a book by its cover…or a soccer mom by her minivan.

Review: CINDERELLA Charmed at Sierra Rep
Review: CINDERELLA Charmed at Sierra Rep
January 2, 2024

While the curtain has closed on Sierra Repertory Theatre’s holiday production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, I would be remiss in not acknowledging the quality of another successful SRT show. As most probably know, Cinderella was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was made specifically for television. Its 1957 debut featured Julie Andrews, the quintessential Rodgers and Hammerstein leading lady. It spurred multiple spinoffs, including the 2013 Broadway adaptation with a revised book by Douglas Carter Beane. New and improved, this isn’t your grandmother’s Cinderella. Its comedy and messages are a delight for an entirely new generation.

Review: HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL is Stealing Our Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
Review: HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL is Stealing Our Hearts at Broadway Sacramento
December 29, 2023

It came after Christmas, bringing with it good cheer. It even brought Whos and Max the Reindeer. A trailer it pulled, full of sets and bright dresses. Whoville, wrapped presents, and sky-high coiffed tresses. A makeup designer and green fur hairdresser, the Grinch couldn’t wait to sing out and impress her! In true Grinchy fashion, he didn’t take pity on any of the kiddos in our River City. He plotted and schemed and watched his greed grow, until the curtain came up on Broadway Sacramento. Yes, my friends, you’ve read that right! Tonight, and the next night, and a night after that, How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical will steal your hearts in two seconds flat.

Review: A RAISIN IN THE SUN Closes the Year at Celebration Arts
Review: A RAISIN IN THE SUN Closes the Year at Celebration Arts
December 29, 2023

When Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, debuted at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1959, she became the first African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway. Its themes of discrimination and resiliency continue to be as relevant now as they were when it was written, and it is still being taught in schools as an eye-opening account of the African American experience. Celebration Arts recently concluded its talent-filled adaptation of this classic with sold-out performances to close out their 2023 Season of “Overcoming.”

Interview: Christopher Michael of CINDERELLA At Sierra Rep Shares His Thoughts on the West Coast, WICKED, and the Wonderful World of Sonora
Interview: Christopher Michael of CINDERELLA At Sierra Rep Shares His Thoughts on the West Coast, WICKED, and the Wonderful World of Sonora
December 16, 2023

The Prince is giving a ball! Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is nearing the end of its run at Sierra Repertory Theatre (SRT) in Sonora, and you don’t want to miss the party. Slightly different than its Disney counterpart, this Cinderella is the sophisticated sister. Full of humor, social causes, and beautiful gowns, it has everything needed to entertain the whole family. BroadwayWorld spoke to Christopher Michael, who plays endearing revolutionary Jean Michel, about Cinderella, Sierra Rep, and which coast is the best coast.

Review: Experience the Magic of Christmas with GEORGIANA AND KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Capital Stage
Review: Experience the Magic of Christmas with GEORGIANA AND KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Capital Stage
December 11, 2023

Who doesn’t love a great sequel? We all do, as evidenced by the popularity of franchises such as Scream and National Lampoon’s Vacation series. Even re-imagined backstories of classics, like Wicked, have seen incredible success. When we find characters that resonate with us, we are loath to give them up. This is why you’ll need to hurry to get tickets for Capital Stage’s holiday offering, Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. Georgiana and Kitty is the third in a trilogy of works by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon that imagine the lives of the Bennet sisters after Pride and Prejudice.

Review: Warm Up With SNOW FEVER: A KARAOKE CHRISTMAS at B Street Theatre
Review: Warm Up With SNOW FEVER: A KARAOKE CHRISTMAS at B Street Theatre
December 2, 2023

It’s back! The most wonderful time of the year (besides baseball season), which brings with it a slew of the most wonderful theatre offerings. The B Street Theatre is premiering one of them, Snow Fever: A Karaoke Christmas by Robert Caisley, as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. In the true spirit of Christmas, Caisley adheres to the unspoken rule that a holiday is not a holiday without a steaming hot mess.

Review: See the Explosive AFTER THE BLAST at Big Idea Theatre
Review: See the Explosive AFTER THE BLAST at Big Idea Theatre
November 13, 2023

It wasn’t that long ago that novels like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road would have been considered farfetched.  A post-apocalyptic wasteland, previously only imaginable, now seems not only plausible but eventually probable. Zoe Kazan takes it a bit further with her stark rendering of the future of America in the smartly written After the Blast, where survivors don’t have the luxury of wandering a barren and dangerous landscape like McCarthy’s boy and his father. Instead, they are miles beneath the surface of the Earth and, generations later, have no first-hand memory of the world above.

Review: Get Ready for AIN'T TOO PROUD at Broadway Sacramento
Review: Get Ready for AIN'T TOO PROUD at Broadway Sacramento
November 10, 2023

One of the most recognizable names in recording history has been immortalized in another jukebox musical. What makes this one different, however, is the infectious energy of the cast, the widespread appeal of the music, and the unparalleled enthusiasm of an insatiable audience. Ain’t Too Proud, The Life and Times of The Temptations, is the Tony Award-winning story of The Temptations as told through the eyes of its founding member, Otis Williams.

Review: LES MISERABLES is Revolutionary at Broadway Sacramento
Review: LES MISERABLES is Revolutionary at Broadway Sacramento
October 26, 2023

As Les Misérables turns thirty-eight this year, it shows no signs of aging. Performances in Sacramento have almost sold out, and it makes one wonder how a show whose content is serious and dark can have such staying power. When it opened in London in 1985, critical reviews were mixed. What it had on its side was public support. Audiences loved the themes of revolution, hope, and redemption; so much so that a Broadway production was launched in 1987. This won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and cemented its status as a legend in theatre.

Review: THE GRADUATE is an Affair to Celebrate at Sierra Rep
Review: THE GRADUATE is an Affair to Celebrate at Sierra Rep
October 24, 2023

A delicious confection of nostalgia and excess awaits you at the historic Fallon House Theatre in Columbia. Sierra Repertory Theatre (SRT) has staged a titillating throwback to a time when societal norms were being questioned and the country was on the precipice of change. The Graduate is perhaps known best as a 1967 film, with Dustin Hoffman as young college graduate Benjamin Braddock, and Anne Bancroft as the original cougar, Mrs. Robinson. You’ll love the stage version even more, as SRT boasts a new and improved version with beautiful costumes, danceable tracks, and much better acting.

Review: ARCHDUKE Reigns at Capital Stage
Review: ARCHDUKE Reigns at Capital Stage
October 21, 2023

Tuberculosis and assassination may seem like an odd combination, but they pair surprisingly well in Rajiv Joseph’s Archduke, a historical re-imagining of the pivotal event that helped to ignite World War I.



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