By Odin Rasco<\/p>\n
By now, Stephen King and many of his works require no introduction\u2014between the books themselves and the many film adaptations born from his ideas, people have at least, through cultural osmosis, come to know that King is a master of the horror genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One aspect of his style common to many of his works is his impeccable pacing, setting the narrative on a slow but steady progression that builds the tension to extremes. That kind of pressure-cooker horror is on full display at The Sofia through Feb. 15 with a truly fantastic staging of King\u2019s story \u201cMisery.\u201d<\/p>\n
B Street Theatre is kicking off its 40th season with a stage adaptation of the King classic crafted by William Goldman; known for works including \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\u201d and \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The show is appropriately timed to the season, with the cold nights a perfect complement to a story that opens with severe winter weather leading to a car accident that puts acclaimed novelist Paul Sheldon, played by Jason Kuykendall, in the care of his obsessive fan Annie Wilkes, played by Elisabeth Nunziato.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two leads\u2014with a short visit from director John Lamb playing Sheriff Buster\u2014carry the story with incredible skill, working off one another\u2019s energy so seamlessly that it was little surprise to learn that the two are married in real life.<\/p>\n
Those who follow my theater coverage will know I was eager to see this show, which made it to my most-anticipated list for 2026. I can happily report that I was completely satisfied by the show\u2014the sets, sounds, performances and direction all bring impressive quality that I\u2019ve come to expect from a B Street show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before the show had even begun, and again during intermission, it was hard not to hear the multitude of comments from those seated around me remarking on how beautifully done the set is; it looks as though the outer wall and roof have been literally torn off of a house, affording the audience a view into Wilkes\u2019 home. The small touch of leaving a hint of the outer wall and hemming in the action of the play lends to the claustrophobic nature of the narrative.<\/p>\n
A surprise addition to this staging of \u201cMisery\u201d is an original score by Marjorie Gast, whose brilliant work emphasizes the ratcheting tension on stage perfectly. I loved the music so much, I had to ask the box office attendant if there was a way I could get a copy.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SolvingSac_Misery_01-1-819x1024.png\")
Novelist Paul Sheldon (Jason Kuykendall) labors over a new manuscript under the watchful eye of his savior turned captor (and number one fan) Annie Wilkes (Elisbeth Nunziato) in B Street Theatre\u2019s staging of Stephen King\u2019s \u201cMisery.\u201d (Photo courtesy of B Street Theatre)<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have the column space to fully lay out every element of the performances I loved, but both leads deserve as ample praise as can be given. Kuykendall\u2019s performance of Paul Sheldon brings the desperation and fear of a man trapped at the mercy of an unhinged keeper. Adding to that, his physicality and exclamations of pain\u2014understandable, given that Paul\u2019s legs are in terrible shape or worse throughout the story\u2014were so evocative, I found myself wincing in sympathy repeatedly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nunziato, taking on the storied role of Annie Wilkes, was faced with a challenge right out of the gate\u2014the role has been so defined by Kathy Bates in the 1990 film, it\u2019s a task to find a read on the character that feels authentic and also original. Nunziato pulls it off, finding a gleefully unhinged version of Annie that exists outside of Bates\u2019 shadow but feels just as fully-realized.<\/p>\n
Before I close this review out, there is one small piece of direction I have to applaud for how subtly it illustrated the developing dynamic between Paul and Annie. Every time Annie leaves Paul\u2019s room, she leaves the door just slightly open; this repeats, every time, until the moment they have their first fight, and Annie slams the door fully shut. It\u2019s this punctuation to the storytelling that marks the descent into terror, and I think it shows the attention that was placed on all aspects of a show that I can\u2019t recommend seeing enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cMisery\u201d runs through Feb. 15, with tickets available at bstreettheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n This story was funded by the City of Sacramento\u2019s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento<\/a>. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, CapRadio, Hmong Daily News, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Sign up for our \u201cSac Art Pulse\u201d newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Odin Rasco By now, Stephen King and many of his works require no introduction\u2014between the books themselves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15202,79226,121,123,122,24259],"class_list":{"0":"post-163662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-b-street-theatre","9":"tag-review-of-b-streets-misery","10":"tag-sacramento","11":"tag-sacramento-headlines","12":"tag-sacramento-news","13":"tag-stephen-king"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}