San Francisco
(Bay Area)

EXTREME ACTS IS EXTREMELY GOOD A performance artist recounts the greatest moments of her career, from work that got her started, to the performance that almost killed her in the exciting and emotional two-act two-hander Extreme Acts  by prolific playwright Lynne Kaufman, directed by Molly Noble. The show, which opened last night at The Marsh San…

BITCH, YOU AGING GOOD In the tradition ’80s sitcoms but with elements of telenovela melodrama, Bitch Slap! is a hilarious, over-the-top spoof comedy written and directed by San Francisco’s inaugural drag laureate D’Arcy Drollinger. Bitch Slap first opened in 2017 and is back on stage through May 18 at Oasis. D’Arcy Drollinger, Katya Smirnoff The…

YOU’LL WANT TO GET CAUGHT IN THIS LOOP A Strange Loop, a Pulitzer Prize winning, loosely autobiographical, one-act musical drama by Michael R. Jackson explores a myriad of themes related to identity, queerness, self-esteem, and religion. It first debuted off Broadway in 2019, won a Tony when it hit Broadway in 2022, and is now…

GLAD PLAID Forever Plaid, an Off-Broadway musical revue written in the late eighties by Stuart Ross, takes place in the in-between, or whatever exists between this life and the next. The Plaids, a prototypical guy group in appearance, harmonies and temperament, find themselves dead right at the top of the show. But, they have been…

New Conservatory Theatre Center is offering The Tutor, a gripping and thought-provoking three-person drama that tells a timely story of love, lies, survival, and culture. With insightful minimal staging by Sahar Assaf, the performers pile-drive Torange Yeghiazarian‘s whip-smart dialogue into a powerful intimate ride that never lets up. Debórah Eliezer, Lawrence Radecker, Maya Nazzal Debórah…

A MAJESTY OF DRAG QUEENS BECOMES A PRIDE OF LIONS Founded in 1977 The Castro District’s Theatre Rhinoceros is the longest-running queer theater in the nation. This month is the world premiere of non-binary playwright Roger Q. Mason’s boundary breaking play The Pride of Lions. 1928, New York City. Mae West’s play, The Pleasure Man,…

FREEDOM WRITER San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) is presenting a terrific production that tells the amazing true story of Bay Area icon Betty Reid Soskin, known to residents in the Bay Area as being the oldest ranger in National Park Service who retired two years ago at the age of 100 (she became…

THE STEPS TO SUCCESS They say that timing is everything. Timing certainly is everything in  The 39 Steps, the English spy spoof that occupies a delightful, often amazing, and even suspenseful two hours at the San Francisco Playhouse. A fun-filled comedy slapstick farce based on the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The 39 Steps takes place in pre-WWII…

A PIPELINE TO GREAT THEATER Theater can do more than entertain. A good drama can not only pull at your heartstrings, it has the ability to educate, influence and inform. Pipeline, now playing in San Francisco at the Taube Atrium Theater, is the story of Nya, (Leontyne Mbele-Mbong) an inner-city public school teacher, dedicated to…

Some consider A Midsummer Night’s Dream to be one of William Shakespeare’s greatest tributes to love: both romantic and platonic. “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” Veronica Renner and Jamin Jollo At Shotgun Players, there is a lot of love for humanity in all…

THE DEMONS ON ANGEL ISLAND We’ve all heard stories about coming to America through Ellis Island. We’ve read the books and seen the movies set in the early 1900s about the immigrants sailing over the Atlantic Ocean, traveling in steerage on a packed ocean liner. We’ve seen the smiling faces of hope as the ships…

UNPACKING PACKS IN TOO MUCH INFO WITHOUT PACKING ENOUGH PUNCH Set in the East Coast Summer gay mecca Provincetown in 1959, four old vaudeville friends reunite anxiously awaiting the promising 60s decade to come. “Handsome young Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy with his gorgeous wife Jackie will hopefully throw his hat in the ring to run…

SURVIVING THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO Theatres took a big hit after COVID. Many lost a third of their audience. Now, regional theatres — those that haven’t shuttered — are turning to a new audience. One that represents the burgeoning diversity across racial and sexual lines. Whether you think that the “woke” conversation has gone…

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY? BRING YOUR KLEENEX The musical masterpiece Falsettos follows Marvin (William Giammona), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, wealthy Jewish gay man who struggles to create a tight-knit family out of his eclectic array of core relationships, including his ex-wife Trina (Ariela Morgenstern); his new, handsome, muscled and somewhat snarky young boyfriend…

In the 21st century with the advancement of social media, anyone has the ability to be the star of their own reality show. Communicating with friends, expressing personal politics or even showing pictures of your dinner can be fodder for news or conversation. Several years into the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) reality can be…

SEASONS OF LOVE A PRODUCTION OF LOVE Founded in 2007, Berkeley Playhouse is known for its youth programs and summer theater camps for Bay Area youth. Classic family friendly shows such as Peter Pan, Cinderella & Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory are amongst their productions. Occasionally though they take on more “adult themed” classics….

WHAT THE PHO IS GOING ON? Pho (pronounced in 2 sounds, sliding up at the end: fo/É™, like your saying “fur” with a strong New York accent) is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, protein (usually beef, sometimes chicken) and herbs (depending on the chef, it can include spices such as ginger,…