San Francisco
(Bay Area)

HOOK, LINE & SEQUINER Presidio’s Peter Pan Panto soars on camp, color, chaos, Christmas cheer, and unapologetic silliness ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ This holiday season, the Presidio Theatre brings back its beloved Panto in the Presidio for a fifth year — that joyful British pantomime tradition where audiences shout…

STILL CASTING ITS SPELL Sondheim and Lapine’s fractured fairytales find fresh magic at San Francisco Playhouse Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods may be one of the most beloved titles in the modern musical-theatre canon, but San Francisco Playhouse’s holiday-season staging makes a strong case for why it keeps earning its place. From…

MISERY LOVES COMPANY — BUT WE DIDN’T BUY TICKETS FOR THAT A solo show so full of angst it forgets to entertain. I mean, there’s baring your soul… and then there’s burying the comedy Since 1989, The Marsh has hosted hundreds of performance artists launching their personal stories, usually through spoken word. The small stages…

MOTHER OF EXILES BAFFLES AT BERKELEY REP Jessica Huang’s world premiere Mother of Exiles has posted a closing date of December 21. The lengthy run may not be a blessing for a disjointed production said to have been in re-writes up to the night before the opener. Michele Selene Ang On a simple two-level set that takes advantage…

THE RED-HEADED OPTIMIST IS BACK Just in time to nudge everyone into the holiday spirit, The Berkeley Playhouse is presenting Annie through most of December. This classic musical has been part of American pop culture for nearly half a century. Since the 1977 Broadway debut, the irrepressible redhead and her fellow orphans have marched through…

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL INTO THE WHITE HOUSE This play-within-a-play probes power, mythology, and who gets to tell the story Making its West Coast premiere at Marin Theatre Company is Sally & Tom — a return to material the same company explored in 2017 with the earlier, more controversial Thomas & Sally by Thomas Bradshaw….

A FAMILY EPIC THAT EARNS ITS MILEAGE, SPRAWL AND ALL Family dynamics are always great fodder for drama. And when there are several children coming of age together in a household, it’s hard not to grow up with unspoken competitions for approval, success and love. More often than not at least one family member has…

FAITH, FLIGHT, AND THE FIGHT TO ENDURE In our current state of political unrest — with government shutdowns and widespread uncertainty about how to make ends meet — stories about the power of the human spirit feel especially vital. Z Space and Word for Word Theatre Company present Hard Times: Appalachian Stories by Ron Rash,…

THE HILARIOUS NOISES OFF IS ON AT SF PLAYOUSE — OFF YOU GO The huge interior of an imposing English country estate by Heather Kenyon greets visitors to the San Francisco Playhouse, scene of an outlandish new production of Michael Frayn’s enduringly popular farce-within-a-farce Noises Off. The cast Seamlessly directed by Bill English, everything that…

JUST HOW I LIKE MY THEATER — HOT, SWEET, AND SAUCY Now playing at New Conservatory Theatre Center, The Hot Wing King is a spicy tale of love, friendship, and a cooking contest gone gloriously overboard. Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, directed here by ShawnJ, brings its Memphis heat to San Francisco in a production…

A SONDHEIM SPECTACLE Sonoma County’s Spreckels Performing Arts Center has launched a tremendous production of Into the Woods, the perpetually popular and nearly forty-year-old musical spoof of classic fairy tales by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and author James Lapine. The show debuted on Broadway in 1987, won multiple Tony awards, and has been a recurring item…

AN AUTHENTIC, FUNNY ACCOUNT OF SOBRIETY, STUMBLES, AND SURVIVAL Recovery from substance abuse isn’t just about putting down the drug of choice and living happily ever after. The “recovery” part then starts. It involves dealing with who you are in the world without being drunk, stoned or high. It becomes a lifelong process of self-examination….

A STUNNING INDECENT REMINDS US THAT FREE SPEECH IS ALWAYS ON TRIAL The triumphs and travails of an itinerant Yiddish theater troupe get a full examination in Paula Vogel’s acclaimed hit play Indecent. A stunning and nearly all-Equity production of the award-winner is now playing at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek….

A DROP-DEAD DELIGHT Fall is officially here. Kids are back in school and Halloween is just around the corner. Thus it feels like the perfect time for Berkeley Playhouse to open their new season with the hilarious hit musical The Addams Family, appropriate for all the ghouls in your family. Post-pandemic, Berkeley Playhouse has become…

MORE LIKE 9 TO 9, THIS MUSICAL IS AN OVERSTUFFED BUT FUN DOLLYFEST Ray of Light Theater is known for putting a spin on musicals that are big in popular culture. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Rocky Horror Show and Legally Blonde are some of their memorable hits. Now they’ve taken on 9 to…

JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for the psychedelic set), Libby Oberlin embraces the essence of Janis in Randy Johnson’s expertly-researched script, a stage version of what the film industry…

EUREKA! Private school children often grow up in a carefully protected bubble. Their privilege shields them from many of life’s cruelties, creating a world of like-minded students, parents, and teachers. The adults strive to give their children better opportunities for the future, building a space meant to foster creativity in a safe and nurturing environment….

A FEATHERBABY IN SPRECKELS’ CAP A talking, squawking parrot dispenses wit, wisdom, and wonder in Featherbaby at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. In a bright green suit and yellow bow tie, Gina Alvarado astounds as a wise-cracking high-energy Amazon parrot belonging to forensic photographer Angie (Mercedes Murphy), newly single after her lover walked…