San Francisco
(Bay Area)

GET ME TO SF PLAYHOUSE ON TIME: MY FAIR LADY CHARMS UNION SQUARE Every summer, San Francisco Playhouse puts on a classic blockbuster musical that runs from early July into September. It’s an unbeatable gambit   taking advantage of the tourist traffic in the Union Square district. Jillian A. Smith This year’s offering is a stunning…

It’s been 25 years since the debut of the tour de force play known as The Laramie Project. It’s based on the 1998 brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old student at the University of Laramie Wyoming. The entire nation was shocked to hear how this young gay man was brutally beaten, tied…

FROM CUBICLES TO CLARITY: A THEATRICAL GEM IN FOG CITY San Francisco’s Word for Word Theatre Company, known for its singular mission of staging short stories word-for-word—narration and all—returns with Annunciation, a semi-autobiographical tale by Lauren Groff. Presented in collaboration with Z Space, the story is a slow-burning meditation on reinvention, loneliness, and quiet transformation,…

I DON’T FEEL YOUR PAIN Corporate life—or working in an office—has a very specific subculture that goes along with it. Sharing confined spaces with others in a 9-to-5 structure can be chaotic, or at least confusing, especially now, post-COVID. People are having to readjust to “playing well with others” all over again. The Bay Area’s tech culture in…

RAUNCHY AND RIDDLED Marin Theatre carries a torch for unusual and challenging productions at its Mill Valley location. This past season has seen a collection of shows, each producing a controversial “loved it/hated it” response from critics and audiences alike. The final show of their season, Do You Feel Anger? is in the same league….

BROADWAY ON A BASEBALL FIELD: TRANSCENDENCE THEATRE HITS IT OUTTA THE PARK Transcendence Theatre Company has opened a triple-hitter “stars under the stars” summer season with their song-and-dance revue spectacular Broadway’s Best Night Ever. This veteran production company has been inviting the best and the beautiful talents from Broadway and international touring companies to perform…

THE SOUND OF FAMILY Berkeley Playhouse has a reputation for doing family-friendly musicals right, and their latest production, The Sound of Music, hits that sweet spot again. With a cast that blends seasoned pros and impressively talented young performers, this production serves up all the charm and heart you remember—minus the commercial breaks. The true…

A PRESCRIPTION FOR GREAT THEATER Ray of Light Theatre has once again delivered a production that hits hard and sings even harder. With 25 years of tackling socially relevant musicals—whether a classic, a pop culture hit, or something in the current zeitgeist— the 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal is a perfect fit for the…

MUSICAL SATIRE SUPREME Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions closes out its 2024-25 season with a screamingly funny spoof of an inexplicably popular TV franchise, in which five rich boozy women can’t stop bickering when their reality show is threatened with cancellation. A reboot – and rewrite – of a show that debuted last year, The Real…

THE RUMOR THAT RUMORS IS A SCREAM IS NO RUMOR The late playwright/screenwriter Neil Simon remains one of America’s most beloved creators of comedy. His plays often hinge on ludicrous setups, as in his classic Rumors, directed by Larry Williams at Sonoma Arts Live. Covering up evidence of poor judgment is a foolproof gambit that…

A PEG OF PIRATES, A NUTTY NURSE, AND A BRIG OF BOBBIES ALL IN A PITCH-PERFECT PARODY This beloved operetta by the legendary British duo W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan first launched in 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City (the only collaboration of the pair to premiere on Broadway, and not…

STYLIZED, STIRRING, AND SELDOM SEEN Pacific Overtures isn’t your typical Sondheim musical, nor is it often staged—which is precisely why this rare revival by Kunoichi Productions at Brava Theater feels like such a significant event. First premiering on Broadway in 1976, this haunting, intellectually ambitious piece–with a book by John Weidman–examines the Western “opening” of…

THROCKMORTON ROCKS THE UNDERWORLD If this world is going to hell, as some claim, there can be no better guides than the characters in this musical written by Anais Mitchell. Director Reba Gilbert’s double-cast performances of twenty-six young actors are mesmerizing as they sing and dance and drum out a train route to the underworld….

MAYHEM MIXED WITH MAGIC Novato Theatre Company considered a daunting task of shepherding thirty young actors ages 10 to 13 to stage Matilda the Musical, the Broadway hit by Dennis Kelly (book) and Tim Minchin (music and lyrics) based on the book written by Roald Dahl, the much-beloved children’s author. Those familiar with Dahl recognize him as the…

THE WAITING GAME HAS WRINKLES As Bette Davis’s sampler cushion said, “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” We start to lose our memories. Our bodies start to ache as our strength and endurance fade. People that we love and care about die or move away. Bill Buell In the aves, now premiering at Berkeley…

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A BOOK Where do playwrights get their inspiration? Brava to Lauren Gunderson, who took hers from actual historical events and created a believable backstory with characters to support it. Malcolm Rodgers (John Hemminges) and Fred Pitts (Henry Condell) Three years after William Shakespeare’s passing in 1616, the Globe Theatre had…

ANOTHER WORTHY WAY TO WONDER AT THE WORLD On rare occasions even the most seasoned reviewers are confounded by the inadequacy of language to describe a production so beautiful and transcendent that words fail to do it justice. Such a production is multiple award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which opened May…

SURVIVAL, STRUGGLE AND SMALL JOYS Young girls coming of age always makes for a good story usually filled with life-changing moments and lessons to be learned. In Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs from the Table of Joy, now playing at Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, our protagonist and narrator is Ernestine Crump (Anna Marie Sharpe), a 17-year-old senior…