Playmate’s Playhouse
It seems like I’m seeing a lot of self-produced musicals lately. I saw two just this weekend, in fact: Tanya Shaffer’s The Fourth Messenger at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley and Nicholas Weinbach’s Made in China at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco. The latter show is produced by Sir Windsorbach Productions, made up of Clinton Winder, DL Soares and Nicholas Weinbach, all three of whom worked on the show. Weinbach, in fact, wrote all the songs and orchestrations, cowrote the script with his brother Brent, and stars in the show as the protagonist, Max. That’s not to be confused with his twin brother Max, who leads the live six-piece orchestra and also appears in the play in an uncredited role.
