Joanne Engelhardt

CYRANO GETS A CONFUSING NOSE JOB Why anyone involved in Los Altos Stage Company’s current production of Cyrano thought it would be a good idea to make Cyrano a woman—and without the trademark large proboscis at that—is a bit of a mystery. Cyrano de Bergerac remains a beloved staple of the stage, loosely based on…

Palo Alto Players’ Jersey Boys Finds the Beat, Even When the Staging Stumbles Opening night at Palo Alto Players’ Jersey Boys had the Lucie Stern audience itching to jump out of their seats and dance. And who could blame them? The hits keep coming in this crowd-pleasing jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four…

COUCH SURFING AND CULTURAL BAGGAGE It makes sense that Jeffrey Lo—a Filipino artist who writes, directs, and knows the Peninsula theater scene inside and out—could write a play like Writing Fragments Home. It’s personal without being sentimental, funny without trying too hard, and it lands exactly where it needs to. I was at the near-sold-out…

With just two actors onstage for 90 minutes, The Heart Sellers relies entirely on the chemistry, charisma, and emotional intelligence of its performers—and in TheatreWorks’s production, Nicole Javier as Luna and Narea Kang as Jane more than rise to the occasion. Under the fluid direction of Jennifer Chang, their performances are vivid, honest, and remarkably…

WILD ROMP IN SENIOR LIVING TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has launched an uproarious spoof of senior living with Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical. It’s an all-encompassing effort by Min Kahng. He knows his stuff: he’s definitely of an age to qualify for Medicare, but Kahng wrote book, music and lyrics, and…

A MUSICAL THAT CURVES IN CONCENTRIC CIRCLES Fly by Night, an affecting chamber musical which premiered in 2014 at Playwrights Horizon, has been described as a “darkly comic rock-fable,” and that’s about as accurate as any attempt to define this quirky show. With a book, music, and lyrics by Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael…

WHO ARE YOU ASKING TO THE PROM? It may not be high school or college prom season just yet, but in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least three theatre companies have decided it’s time to dust off their corsages and take The Prom for a spin. And given the recent American political events that…

NOSTALGIA NEVER GETS OLD When The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams premiered on Broadway in 1945, it became his first major success. Nearly 80 years later, the play remains relevant, touching on themes of family conflict, personal failure, and the power of memory. At the heart of the story is a fractured family: an angry…

THE MINUTE THAT CHANGED POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING FOREVER On September 7, 1964, a 60-second TV ad transformed American politics. Known as “Daisy Girl,” it featured a young girl counting daisy petals, followed by a countdown and a nuclear explosion. The ad became iconic for its emotional, innovative approach to negative political advertising. It’s even better known…

LAUGH-A-MINUTE FUN When English playwright Michael Frayn wrote his slapstick farce in 1982, it bore little resemblance to the production that opened Saturday night at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto.  It started out as a one-act play called Exits, but was later expanded into the production Palo Alto Players is offering theatergoers. Noises…

AN AMUSING ROMANTIC ROMP ALL ‘SPRUCED’ UP With Christmas just around the corner, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley offers up a light-hearted, romantic comedy Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley through Dec. 29 at Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. Mary (Elissa Beth Stebbins) and Arthur (David Toshiro Crane) Written by two local playwrights, Lauren Gunderson and Margot…

ANASTHESIA A sold-out opening night audience Dec. 6 was likely entranced with the lovely costumes, fine acting, solid choreography and strong vocal performances in Anastasia at Hillbarn Theater in Foster City. But younger members of the audience who were expecting the play to more closely follow the 1997 animated film might have also felt disappointment….

NOSTALGIC, SAPPY FUN If you’re in the mood for a night of campy humor with a Christmas-y theme, head to Bus Barn Theatre in Los Altos for its production of A Christmas Story: The Musical. This old chestnut of a story is based on the motion picture of the same name that came out in…