Observations Along the Road – Page 2 – 🎭 Theatre Writeups, 🛣️ Highway Updates, 📰 Musings on the News, and other 🗯️ Rants and Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway

🚘 Headlines About California Highways – September 2026

Posted onWednesday, September 30, 2026Wednesday, September 30, 2026AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

And with the turning of a calendar page, we’ll be moving into October. The last quarter of the year. Halloween and Pumpkin Spice (yuk!). With marketing what it is, that means Christmas ads should be starting up any day now (sigh—a royal annoyance for those of us that aren’t Christian). As I wrote last month, leaves should be starting to fall, but instead we have hurricane humidity and moisture. That will likely be followed by Santa Ana winds, but who knows with the Super El Nino in play. For me, it also means the final stages of getting ready for ACSAC in December (registration is open), as well as the fall theatre season.

As always, we start with updates on the California Highways: Route by Route podcast: Season 5 is written through 5.07; I’m taking a break from writing to do the California Highways Webpage updates (those should be completed after I process this headline post). After that, I’ll do my general election ballot deep-dive, and then get back to writing. We’ve recorded the first two episodes of Season 5, and posted 5.01. Episode 5.02 was recorded last night, so I’ll be editing it later this week. Zencaster is working well for recording the podcast, and I hope we’ve solved the microphone problems. I also got some more editing tips visiting a high school friend who has worked in terrestrial and internet radio, which I’ll try when I edit Season 5. Please let us know if it sounds better.

As a reminder: You can help our listening audience grow. Please tell your friends about the podcast, “like”, “♥”, or “favorite” it, and give it a rating in your favorite podcatcher. Share the podcast on Facebook groups, and in your Bluesky and Mastodon communities. Leave a review, and tell us about it. For those that hear the early episodes, the sound quality of the episodes does get better — we were learning. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Creators, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcatching app or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Creators) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

September | CA RxR 5.01: I-15 (Part 1): South of Temecula. Welcome to Season 5. We start the season with three episodes covering Route 15. The first (this episode), covers LRN 15, Sign Route 15, and today’s Route 15 between San Diego and Temecula. LRN 15 ran from what is now Route 1 near Fort Bragg to what is today’s I-80 near Emigrant Gap; it is today’s Route 20. Sign Route 15 is what became Route 7 and later I-710, and is today’s Long Beach Freeway. We have some interesting exploration of the ends of Sign Route 15 in Pasadena and Long Beach. We then turn to the main focus of the episode: Route 15, which runs from San Diego to the Nevada border, and has a complicated history. So complicated, in fact, that this episode focuses only on the portion between San Diego and Temecula, exploring both former Route 103 and US 395, as well as the transition from US 395 to today’s I-15 routing. Episode 5.02 will cover Temecula to Devore, and explore the history of I-15, I-15E, I-215, Route 71, US 91, US 395, and Route 194. Lastly, Episode 5.03 will cover Devore to Nevada, including I-15, US 395, US 66, US 91, and US 466 (with a bit of Route 195 and US 95 thrown in). (Spotify for Creators)

As a reminder: One of the sources for the highway page updates (and the raison d’etre for for this post) are headlines about California Highways that I’ve seen over the last month. I collect them in this post, which serves as fodder for the updates to my California Highways site, and so there are also other pages and things I’ve seen that I wanted to remember for the site updates. Lastly, the post also includes some things that I think would be of peripheral interest to my ~~highway-obsessed~~ highway-interested readers.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for September 2026:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions, such as demanding your email in order to display the article. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor. Using archive.ph usually works for these sites. See this article for more tips on bypassing paywalls. ＄＄ paywalls are even more annoying. Archive.ph doesn’t work, and you may not be able to get the full details. 🎥 indicates a primarily video article. 🎩 indicates hat/tip to someone for finding this article. ✔ indicates that the article was processed as part of the recent “Updates to California Highways” cycle. ]

Highway Headlines

Richmond-San Rafael Bridge turns 70 (The Bay Link Blog) The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge opened to the public 70 years ago this week. It was on Aug. 31, 1956, when Gov. Goodwin Knight dedicated the bridge. The next day, Sept. 1, the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge – as it has been officially known since 1981 – opened for traffic. McCarthy was a state senator from Marin between 1950 and 1970 and a former Republican Senate majority leader who sponsored the bill authorizing the construction. There had long been talk of a bridge linking Marin and the East Bay, but the real impetus for the span came after a two-month ferry strike in 1947, followed by a second five-month walkout in 1949.
California Invests 2.7 Billion Dollars to Improve Highway Safety, Enhance Transit Options and Prepare for a Changing Climate (Caltrans) The California Transportation Commission (CTC) has approved $2.7 billion in funding for more than 150 new projects designed to improve travel times, increase multimodal options and strengthen the state’s transportation assets against severe weather and other climate-related threats. These investments align with Governor Gavin Newsom’s build more, faster agenda, delivering critical infrastructure upgrades and creating thousands of jobs across the state. Of the combined total, nearly $1.6 billion is funded by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) and another $542 million from California’s Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. […] This month’s list of approved projects includes:
Security Paving Begins Caltrans SR 91 Sign Rehab Work (Construction Equipment Guide | 🎩 Plutonic Panda) Following several months of site preparation and preconstruction activity, including the placement of protective K-rail barriers, Security Paving Co. Inc. has begun active operations on the California Department of Transportation’s $34 million State Route 91 Sign Rehabilitation Project. The three-year asset-management initiative spans a 14.7-mi. corridor of SR 91 in Los Angeles County, stretching from Vermont Avenue in Gardena east to postmile 20.7 at the Orange County line in Cerritos. The highway segment, constructed between 1970 and 1985, features five traffic lanes in each direction and carries up to 284,000 vehicles daily, according to 2024 Caltrans traffic census data.
＄ A $276 million project will be Caldecott Tunnel’s biggest upgrade since 2013. Here’s what it will do. (The Mercury News | 🎩 gonealookin) The Caldecott Tunnel, a major thoroughfare between Contra Costa and Alameda counties, is poised for a major renovation backed by $267 million in federal and state funding, state officials recently announced. The project will be the most extensive investment in the tunnel since the addition of the fourth bore, completed in 2013, which exposed just how much of an upgrade the other three tunnels needed, said former Orinda Mayor Amy Worth, who served as chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and was a key player in getting the fourth tunnel built in the early 2000s. Locator map of the Caldecott Tunnel“The Caldecott Tunnel has always been a very critical, vital transportation link between Contra Costa County and the rest of the Bay Area,” Worth said. “I am really grateful for Caltrans. We’ve been talking about the need to upgrade the tunnels and it is joyous news that this is in the budget and will be moving forward.” (Archived)
Pine Valley Creek Bridge (FB/San Diego Uncovered) Thousands of people cross a national engineering first every day on the way to Yuma and have no idea. 🌉 The Pine Valley Creek Bridge carries Interstate 8 across a canyon in the Cleveland National Forest, about 450 feet above the creek bed. Its twin spans run roughly 1,700 feet each. Opened in 1974, it was the first bridge in the United States built using the cast-in-place segmental balanced cantilever method — concrete segments poured in place and extended outward from each pier, arm by arm, until the arms met in the middle over empty air. No falsework rising from the canyon floor. No scaffolding in a watershed nobody wanted to disturb.

🎭 Chasing Nostalgia | “Catch Me If You Can” @ Colony Theatre

Posted onTuesday, September 29, 2026AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

Catch Me If You Can (Colony Theatre) I have a fond spot in my heart for The Colony Theatre. We were subscribers there after the Pasadena Playhouse had their bankruptcy in 2010. I have fond memories of Barbara Beckley introducing each show, reminding people to turn off their phones—not just because of the noise, but because the lights disturbed not only the actors on stage, but the other audience members. She reminded people not to leave early, because the actors see that. I remember the lobby with all the displays of former scenic layouts, and some of the former props. When I go to the Colony Theatre these days, however, I see what is missing. The lobby is devoid of its charm; the announcements are devoid of their personality. It’s hard to go back to the past.

Perhaps Tom Paxton says it best. When he talks about nostalgia, he says it’s OK to look back, as long as you don’t stare.

I mention all of this because our second show of the last weekend was Catch Me If You Can at the Colony Theatre. Catch Me If You Can is a fun show: Lots of singing and dancing by pretty girls and guys, telling the con-man story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., which was made famous in the movie of the same name. We last saw the show when it was on tour at the Pantages in 2013, and as I noted then “The musical simplifies the story somewhat (especially in the latter parts of the story). It also presents it in an odd fashion — as if it was a 1960s variety show (think Dean Martin) with loads of leggy dance girls, combined with a film-noir detective story.”

One advantage of having seen a show before is that I don’t have to rewrite the synopsis. Here’s what I wrote back in 2013:

The basic story itself concerns Frank Abagnale, Jr., the son of a con-man married to a French beauty he met during World War II. The families motto is, essentially, survive however you can, and that people look at the package and the impression, not the truth. As his father’s life crumbles around him, Frank learns to use this to his advantage, impersonating teachers and other leaders. When his parents divorce, he runs off to New York City and starts a life forging checks. He morphs from this life to a forged identity as a Pan Am pilot. This brings him to the attention of the FBI, particularly Agent Carl Hanratty, who start to chase him. They come close a few times, but Frank impersonates his way out of the encounters. Frank continues to morph, impersonating a doctor in Atlanta. Here he falls in love with a nurse, and to her family, pretends to be a lawyer. It is here that the FBI catches up to him… but his skills are such that the FBI ends up hiring him to advise on the very crimes he committed.

Back in 2013, I wrote a lot about the disconnect between the professional critics, who didn’t like the show, and the audiences, which really enjoyed the show. I think those comments still apply, and they are what made me start out this writeup with the discussion of nostalgia:

The reaction of critics to this piece has been mostly negative. The LA Times critic felt that the story was really asking the question, “How awesome would it be if the Rockettes dressed up in stewardess outfits? And, less fetishistically, perhaps, how cool would it be if Don Draper sang and danced?”. They essentially trash the show: “The show is structured so awkwardly — within a wincingly gag-filled book credited, incredibly, to Terrence McNally — that the songwriters can’t catch too much blame: There’s not a tune in the show that advances the story rather than just reiterating what we’ve heard in dialogue moments before.” They deplore its sexism: “We could reasonably say there is real sexism— not just a spoof of period sexism — in the way stewardesses are portrayed as pilot-hungry nymphs, and nurses as doctor devourers. Yet you hesitate to look a gift chorus line in the mouth, when these are the production numbers that jolt the enterprise to the life to which it constantly and frenetically aspires.” It’s not just the Times that is raking the show over the coals. Neon Tommy states: “The show itself is pretty mediocre. The score, by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray,” “Smash”) is mostly uninspired and bland, though there are a few gems, such as “Live In Living Color,” “Jet Set,” and “Goodbye.” Terrence McNally’s book is full of cringe-inducing bad jokes, and barely propels the story along. Further hampering the show are the distractingly garish projections and the show’s objectionable treatment of every single one of its female characters.” Examiner.com states: “Narratively and construction-wise, “Catch Me” is enough of a wet noodle that a powder keg of a central performance – any powder keg would do – might help distract viewers from realizing that this is 2.5 hours of not much there there. Besides the dancing and the leggy girls, that is.” The Hollywood Reporter states: “This impersonation of a Broadway musical initially convinces but eventually, inevitably, is revealed as ersatz. ”

In the article I mentioned last week, Peter Finlayson stated “But a true critic offers us insights that prompt us to come to a personal reflective choice, which is the fundamental core of theatre.” He stated that a good critic “will create a conversation about the play”, noting that they will “give us insight into whether the creative energies of a show were effective in presenting the final product.”. In many ways, this is like a judge at a Drum Corps competition. They focus on the technical aspects of a show: the construction, the nuances of performance. But this isn’t what the audience cares about: the audience cares about the General Effect caption, with performance and selection of material often taking a second position. They go to the theatre to escape, not to think. This is why many vapid movies succeed at the box office.

Your “peer reviewers” — the blog critics called “hacks” by Mr. Finlayson — provide an assessment of that General Effect caption first and foremost. In terms of General Effect, “Catch Me If You Can” succeeds. It has a strong brassy score that is fun, lots of dancing by performers who are enjoying what they are doing, with an orchestra that it top-notch. The performances of the actors are making the best of the material they are given. You walk out of this show humming the music, having enjoyed the past couple of hours. General Effective-wise, this is a win.

Yet the comments of the critics hold as well. There is a lot of sexism on the stage, but that’s viewing a presentation of an historical period through modern sensibilities. I was born in the 1960s, and the 1960s were sexist. If you watched Dean Martin or similar variety shows, you had equally leggy sexism, although not quite as integrated in the casting. I had no problems with the presentation through the eyes of a variety show. It reflected how the lead character, Frank Abagnale Jr, saw his life: a series of skits, where he assumed a variety of characters while doing a glamorous song and dance. Where the story-telling broke down was in the second half, where there tone abruptly changed to noir, and the focus of the story-telling voice switched from Frank to Agent Hanratty. We went from strong and brassy to ballads. Perhaps this paralleled the breakdown of Frank’s life, but it was jarring. These, in my opinion, are valid criticisms of Terrence McNally‘s book. As for the music (by Marc Shaiman) and lyrics (by Shaiman and Scott Wittman), I found it very enjoyable with a nice variety of styles. But then again, I’m enjoying the music they are writing for Smash as well.

Boy, does that comment about Smash date things. When Smash finally hit Broadway, it crashed and burned. But I enjoyed the music.

When The Colony Theatre announced Catch Me If You Can, I wanted to get tickets. I didn’t remember the sexism at all: I remembered I enjoyed the music. I wanted to see how this “larger than life” show would work on the smaller thrust stage at the Colony (it’s not at the intimate theatre level, but it’s also not a proscenium with wings that one finds at the Pasadena Playhouse or the Geffen). Re-reading my review of the past, I see the sexism in the show (although I wonder if I’m allowed it now, having reached the “dirty old man” stage, but I think not). But we’re also in a very different era. When the show hit Broadway and was on tour, we were squarely in the Obama era. We cared about #metoo and sexism. Today, we’re squarely in the Trump era. With a sexist letch as President, who seemingly longs for racism and sexism of the 1950s and 1960s, is the sexism portrayed in Catch Me If You Can acceptable?

Further, we’re now 10 years further removed from the crimes of Abagnale. The type and extent of check fraud that he did has changed. He changed MICR numbers in an era where everyone cashed checks with minimal ID. Today, cashing checks is much harder, and the crime is more checkwashing (contrast the type of check fraud that Abagnale did with the type of check fraud in Kimberly Akimbo). Forging IDs by printing badges doesn’t work in the era of RFID badges, and validation is more than uniforms and forged credentials. Would kids these days even understand the crimes Abagnale committed? The business of identity fraud has really changed.

But that all disappears in the magical world of the theatre, where song and dance can often (but not always) erase problems—at least while the show is in progress. When you leave the theatre into the real world, you realize the problems. Carousel is about violence against women; Mrs. Doubtfire is making fun of a man in a dress.

Ah, but what singing and dancing.

The Colony Theatre is an interesting space. It is a thrust stage in a large black industrial box. No fly space. The scenic designers built a curvilinear two-story stage with lots of storage in the stage. They then used projections onto the stage to establish locales and for scenic effects (no large monitors), and brought out lots of props and scenic pieces from within the doors of the stage. It worked well for the space, but there was still lots of dependence on projections.

I asked my wife about the costumes and such. She said they got most of it right, except for the nurses. Notably, the hats were wrong. In that era, nurses’ hats without stripes were student nurses (who wouldn’t be in an ER); when they graduated, they got hats with stripes that showed the school. Other things they could be forgiven about: the skirts were too short, and the shoes were wrong for nurses. She also said the dancing was pretty period for the 1960s; someone did their homework.

There were some sound problems: at times the amplification went out. Luckily, we were in the second row and could hear well.

As for the performances: This is an area where the Colony got it right. Blake Jenner was great as Frank Abagnale Jr., and Joe Abraham was strong as Carl Hanratty. They sang well, they danced well, and they portrayed the characters well. The ensemble was very strong and fun to watch. In terms of the minor characters, I really enjoyed Kevin Bailey as Frank Sr. and Gabbie Adner as Brenda Strong.

Now for the real question: Should you see it? If you’re sensitive to the sexism of the 1960s, that might be a problem. If you can set that aside and just enjoy the singing and dancing, you’ll be fine. For us, the larger problem was the price. Out the door, the tickets were pricy (even with the senior discount). They were less than Orchestra at the Pantages, but much more than we pay for side orchestra at the Pantages, or mezzanine at the Ahmanson. We were able to get tickets on the Labor Day sale, which helped (alas, gone are the days of Goldstar). If you are price sensitive, my suggestion is to get on the mailing list for the Colony, or follow them on Facebook, so that you can get announcements of special sales. They would rather fill the seats than have them empty, so they do have sales.

Assuming you can afford the tickets, it is quite the enjoyable show (and one that is rarely done, which means that (as he gets ready to duck and run), you should Catch It If You Can. The show continues through October 18, 2026. Tickets are available through the Colony Website.

Credits

Catch Me If You Can: The Musical. Based on the Dreamworks Motion Picture. Book by Terrance McNally. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. Directed by Michael Donovan. Choreography by Natalie Iscovich. [As an aside: I know Natalie—she’s the daughter of someone I went to camp with!]

Cast [^æ indicates members of Actors Equity]: Blake Jenner^æ Frank Abagnale Jr; Joe Abraham^æ Agent Carl Hanratty; Kevin Bailey^æ Frank Abagnale Sr.; Leslie Stevens^æ Paula Abagnale; Gabbie Adner Brenda Strong; Brad Griffith^æ Roger Strong, Ensemble; Whitney Kathleen Vigil Carol Strong, Cheryl Ann, Ensemble; Luc Clopton Agent Cod, Ensemble; Jesse Graham Agent Branton, Ensemble; Spencer Del Carmen Agent Dollar; Leonel Ayala Ensemble; Samantha Lawrence-Mata Ensemble; Lucy Schene Ensemble; Matthew Mason Baker Ensemble, Dance Captain; Almand Martin Jr. Ensemble; Sophie Liu David Ensemble; Anne Hart Ensemble; Bella Bilandzlia Ensemble.

Music Department: Brent Crayon Conductor / Music Director / Keyboard 1; John Ballinger Guitar; Chris Rolontz Bass; Emiliano Almeida Drums; Serafin Aguilar Trumpet; Adrienne Geffen Woodwinds; Andrew Lederman Keyboard 2.

Production and Creative: Michael Donovan Director, Casting Director; Natalie Iscovich Choreographer; Molly Cornell Scenic Designer; Luke Moyer Lighting Design; Gabrieal Griego Projection Design; Jennifer Lynn Deck Costume Design; Leland Stephens Wig Design; Robert Arturo Ramirez Sound Design; John M. McElveney Properties Design; Richie Ferris CSA Casting Director; Coby Rogers Asst Director; Cassy Sottile^æ Production Stage Manager; Corey Near-Ansari Asst Stage Manager; Stephanie Sandler Technical Director; Matthew Herrman General Manager; Ken Werther Publicity Press Representative; Christiam “Gama” Franco Assoc Sound Design; The Colony Theatre (TCT) Sound Engineer; Ashley Erikson TCT Digital Marketing; Katie Woerner TCT Artistic Coordinator, TCT Box Office Manager; Brenda Ramirez-Kalcoff TCT Director of Operations; Heather Provost TCT Producing Artistic Director.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a retired cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre, and 5-Star Theatricals.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; OnStage 411 (use the “shows” drop down); and Theatermania. If you are looking for discount tickets, TodayTix (unlike their predecessor Goldstar Events) doesn’t handle the small theatres in LA. Luckily, Theatre Source LA has a new initiative: StageRushLA for discount tickets.

Sadly, we recently lost one of my favorite theatrical venues due to fire: the historical building housing Newhall Refinery, Care/Tucker Design, The Main, and El Troc was destroyed by a 3-alarm fire. Luckily, Canyon Theatre Guild next door was spared. I’ve been attending “The Main”, and it’s previous incarnation, Rep East Playhouse, since all the way back in 2006. Twenty years. Let’s pour a glass for the art and artists of Rep East/The Main, and hope that small and vital venues like The Main return to Santa Clarita soon. While you’re at it, contribute to support the artists of The Main who lost all their gear (they were in the middle of a show run). Do what you can to support theatre in Santa Clarita. I am: Our outing next weekend for Come From Away is to the Olive Branch Theatricals production, in the Valencia Town Center. The leaders there got their start through REP and CTG.

Upcoming

Key: Theatre / Music / Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days ( indicates ticketing is pending).

October: The Outsiders at BIH/Pantages; Come From Away at Olive Branch Theatricals; Branford Marsalis & Dianne Reeves Celebrate John Coltrane at The Soraya; Les Miserables at 5-Star Theatricals; Gershwin and the Golden Age (feat. Michael Feinstein) at The Soraya; The Who’s Tommy at BIH/Pantages.
November: Things are Looking Up at the Binge Festival of Free Theatre/Santa Monica Playhouse (Livestream); Passing Strange at Pasadena Playhouse; Oh Mary at CTG/Ahmanson; Dance Theatre of Harlem at The Soraya; Road Show at Chromolume Theatre; Destiny of Desire at CTG/Taper.
December: Candide at LA Opera; Big Fish at Conundrum; Spanish Harlem Orchestra at The Soraya; Christmas Carol Goes Wrong at CTG/Ahmanson.

🎭 What Would You Do For Money? | “The Visit” @ Pas Playhouse

Posted onMonday, September 28, 2026AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

The Visit (Pasadena Playhouse) What would you do for money? What would you do for the right amount of money? To what extent does the reason behind the action allow you to justify the action you choose to take?

Let’s make it more concrete:

In this environment where there is hatred toward the government of Israel and those running Gaza: If someone offered you a billion to kill Netanyahu or the Hamas leadership, would you do it?
If someone offered you a billion to off the leader of a nation that clearly was corrupt and dishonest, and could arguably be argued to be leading that that nation into ruin, would you do it?
If you were living in a city that was on the manufacturing downturn, would you accept a billion to kill a civic leader who had committed a crime in his or her past?

This, at its heart, is the question in the play The Visit, currently running at the Pasadena Playhouse (for about one more week). We saw the show Saturday night, but it was a busy weekend and I’m just getting to the writeup.

The play, written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, premiered in 1956. A musical version was written in 2001 for Angela Lansbury, but it didn’t make it Broadway until 2015 (where it didn’t do so hot, as is often the case with Kander-Ebb musicals that are ahead of their time in term of subject matter—Chicago being a primary case-in-point). Pasadena Playhouse is doing the 1956 original play. I do hope someone does the musical version in Southern California some day.

The play tells the story of the fictional impoverished Swiss town of Güllen. The towns main industries have dried up, and everyone is living moment to moment on the government dole. The town has pinned its hopes on Claire Zachanassian. Claire, formerly Clara, left town when she was 17, and through a succession of husbands, acquired enormous wealth and has been very generous with it. Learning she is coming to town, the town leaders pull out all the stop. They even enlist a former paramour of Clara’s, Anton Schill, to take her around town. Although initially things are cordial, she soon relates the reason for her visit: She will give the town a billion—500 million for the town itself, and 500 million to be divided among the citizens of the town—if they kill Anton Schill. The reason? A simple case of “he done her wrong and used male privilege to come out smelling like a rose, while she left in disgrace”. I’ll leave the details to the show.

The town initially says “No way.” It’s immoral and unethical, after all. But then, people start buying things on credit. New shoes. Fine food. Cars. But when that bill comes due, what do they do? Town leaders go so far as to plead with Claire to not impose the condition. But she ends up revealing that it was she who bought the factories and closed them down, and that (in fact) she owns almost all the land in the town. She set up the condition that would force the town to accept her condition, and let human nature do the rest.

That, in essence, is the show. It is very much a tragicomedy: A comedy (with many laugh-out-loud moments), but with a really dark undertone. The play was originally written as an allegory for the Marshall Plan. In the aftermath of WWII, the Marshall Plan offered the nations of Western Europe almost $14 billion dollars, but with conditions. Instead of the Federal government granting money directly to Europe, American businesses would provide technology, expertise, and materials to Europe as a strategic partner, and in exchange, the Federal government would purchase stock in the US businesses to reimburse them. In this way, Europe would receive the aid it needed, American businesses would receive capital investment, and the federal government would make a profit when the stock was sold. For the nations of Europe, was it ultimately a good deal? Did they sell their soul for the money?

Today, that allegory is far in the past. Yet the corrupting power of money, and the corrupting power of the desire for revenge, remains. We need only look at the Trump administration, which is bent on using its money and power to get revenge on those whom it thinks has harmed it. It withholds or promises money to institutions to get them to behave the way it wants, and to take revenge on those it doesn’t like. Is it moral? Is it right? Does the end justify the means? These are questions that this play raises.

If you walk out of the play asking yourself those questions, then arguably the play has done its job.

The original play was adapted Maurice Valency; his adaptation also was the basis for the musical (he also did the adaptation of The Madwoman of Chaillot that became Dear World). The play has been updated to somewhat modern times: they start with landlines and train travel; by the end, they have cellphones and 24-hour news cycles with laptops and flatscreens. It is unclear if these updates are due to Valency or the director, Darko Tresnjak. They are a bit jarring, but this is a fantasy world and so belief is suspended.

The staging was interesting. There was primarily a shabby train station, which opened up to provide three settings on a turntable. These settings served as the Shill store, the local tavern, and an office that served various purposes. Costumes were of varying periods: they started out old, and evolved into the very modern. My wife noted that the costumes used for Claire were very expensive (she noted something about a pump with red bottoms, the cheapest of which is over $1,000).

Performances were very strong, notably Jefferson Mays as Anton Schill and Melinda Page Hamilton as Claire Zachanassian. But I also liked Jennifer Chang as the Shopkeeper, Mark Jacobson as the Station Master, and John Lavelle as the Burgomeister.

One additional thought: As I’m writing this up, I’m listening to the 2025 revival of Bat Boy: The Musical. Both Bat Boy and The Visit are interesting explorations of the humanity of a town (or the lack thereof), against something that mob beliefs want you to believe is evil. Is Anton Schill evil? When he was younger, he did vile things to Claire; but in his subsequent life, he was more exemplary. Does his later life absolve him of his earlier behavior? To what extent does early behavior taint us for life? [and this is certainly relevant: Think about the whole #metoo and cancel attitudes]. In the case of Bat Boy: Does the mere fact that someone is different doom them? Can culture and subsequent education overcome origin and difference?

This is what theatre is supposed to do: Raise questions like this that make one think. Through settings and story, create situations that parallel today’s life, forcing us to look at our behavior. What makes someone evil? What makes them worth saving? What is the power of money in the equation? Can money make a morally reprehensible act acceptable?

And with this, we come to the key question of any writeup: Should you see this show? I think the answer is obvious now: Yes. This show is a reflection of today’s society. It will make you think about the question of whether a bargain with the devil is worth it, and where is the evil in the world.

The Visit continues at the Pasadena Playhouse through October 4. Tickets are available through the Playhouse website.