San Francisco
(Bay Area)

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…

A RIOTOUS ROMP Audiences are often drawn to a theatre by curiosity when an unknown play opens, particularly when the description is “The sacred, the profane, and side-splitting hilarity unite mother and daughter.” What on earth does that mean? Gianna Digregorio Inspired by Guy de Maupassant’s 1880 short story “Boule de Suif” (which translates into…

A rare and exhilarating theatrical event is unfolding at American Conservatory Theater’s Strand Theater: Suzy Eddie Izzard’s one-person performance of Hamlet. This is no ordinary production. It’s a singular encounter with Shakespeare’s masterpiece, filtered through the mind, wit, and boundless energy of a celebrated British comedian, actor, and self-described “action transvestite” who now goes by…

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…

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE…AND FUNNY Now playing at San Francisco Playhouse, Fat Ham is James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated riff on Hamlet—but this is no brooding royal revenge tale. Instead, it’s a vibrant, funny, and deeply human family drama set in a Southern backyard, where barbecue smoke and family secrets hang thick…

CELEBRATING KANDER & EBB: WHAT A LARK! In the heart of southern Marin County, Larkspur’s Lark Theater is a 1936 art deco movie house with a single screen. It required hard work, dedicated volunteers and plenty of donations from 2004 to 2007 to transform it into a state-of-the-art film and cultural center. Today, this historic…

WHEN THE GRIM PAST WAS A PARTY Willkommen to the intimate 99-seat NTC Playhouse in Novato, transformed into the seedy Kit Kat Klub in pre-war Berlin. While poverty, unemployment, and a sense of doom fill the streets, free-wheeling sex, drugs, and jazz entertain inside the club. Unpleasant political developments are willingly pushed aside by these…

ASHES TO ASHES, PIXIE DUST TO PIXIE DUST Academy Award-nominated actor, playwright, and former Bay Area resident Colman Domingo‘s semi-autobiographical dramedy, Wild With Happy, is having its San Francisco debut this month at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. The title itself is a contradiction, perfectly capturing the show’s blend of humor and heartfelt emotion. The…

FEEL-GOOD SHOW SPICES UP MARIN THEATRE Marin Theatre takes a flying leap into immersive culture with Mrs. Krishnan’s Party—which opened tonight in the intimate Boyer Main Stage. The interactive comedy is a short, frenetic and very funny helping of what goes on in back-of-the-store India, transported to Mill Valley. The audience slowly enters a backstage…

THE ART OF MAKING ART An extravagant art purchase causes a major upheaval among three old friends in Yasmina Reza’s Art, at Berkeley’s Ashby Stage through April 9. David Sinaiko and Benoît Monin The setup: former college buddies Serge, Marc, and Yvan meet regularly for dinner, drinks, and discussion. One day Serge (Benoît Monin) announces…

AUDACIOUS AND FUN MUSICAL TAKES ON REALITY TV Last Wednesday, A.C.T. opened an extremely likeable, engaging and entertaining musical telling one of the tried-and-true stories of the 21st century. It’s boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy goes on girl’s favorite reality dating show to win girl back! In an era where technology dominates communication…

NAPA’S LUCK PENNY GOES TO POT– IN A GOOD WAY A hokey 1930s propaganda film runs headlong into Beach Blanket Babylon in Reefer Madness at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through March 23. A musical spoof by Dan Studney and Kevin Murphy, the show opens with a swarm of zombies lifted right out of Michael Jackson’s…

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…

CABS, COKE AND COMING OUT: PEARL ONG’S JOYRIDE THROUGH SF At The Marsh Theater, Pearl Ong—who describes herself as a “former Hong Kong Princess, pot-smoking and coke-snorting lesbian—is performing her one-woman show, Night Driver—and it’s a perfect fit for San Francisco. After moving here from Hong Kong with her mother in the 1970s, as many…

CHICAGO: IT’S A RAZZLE DAZZLE HELLUVA SHOW How did Throckmorton Theatre in downtown Mill Valley get such a stunning production of Chicago? This isn’t Broadway, or is it? With the flash of a giant overhead marquee, a mute trumpet oozing honeyed notes, and a stageful of beautiful bodies in racy outfits, Chicago is one helluva…