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THERE’S A HOT HIT COOKING IN ROSS In ancient biblical texts, Gilead is not only a place of final peace, but also invokes healing and hope. How appropriate that playwrights James Valcq and Fred Alley chose this name as the location of The Spitfire Grill, a café in a down-on-its-luck small town, grown smaller by…

SIX DEGREES SPOOFS UPPER-CLASS PRETENTIONS Sonoma Arts Live (SAL) has launched an ambitious production of Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare’s now-classic tale of belief and deception among New York City socialites. Purportedly based on a real story, Six Degrees played on Broadway before becoming a 1993 film starring Donald Sutherland and, from the Lincoln…

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…

A PRESENT LAUGHTER THAT UPENDS THE PAST Britain’s beloved playwright Sir Noël Coward crafted this lighthearted, autobiographical comedy as a showcase for his own flamboyant celebrity. A renowned bon vivant, Coward dazzled as a writer, singer, and performer, with friends and admirers orbiting his stardom. Adapting this blithe farce, director Carl Jordan brings a radical…

A SPONTANEOUS MOCKERY OF JUSTICE, INDEED Now on for a short run through January 26 at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Theater, Synergy Theater brings an improvised spoof of the iconic TV series Law & Order. Complete with the signature “Chung Chung” between scenes, this show offers a hilarious and unpredictable take on the long-running crime drama….

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…

THIS TRULY IS HOLIDAY JOY Now playing this holiday season through January 5, 2025, down by The Embarcadero: The circus is in town. But not just any circus. Circus Bella, in a colorful Big Top tent at Beale & Howard, puts the circus in your lap with Kaleidoscope. Certainly what is achieved in this one-ring…

CLASSIC STORY ENCHANTS Sonoma Arts Live captures the challenges of four sisters growing up in the late 1800s in this adaptation by Allan Knee, based on the classic novel written by Louisa May Alcott. Nate Mercer, Joanna “Lynn” Burt, Dani Innocenti Beem, Hannah Passinisi, and Emma Sutherland Sandra Ish skillfully directs a cast of eleven…

HOLIDAY CHEESE The Transcendence Theatre Company is based out of Sonoma County and is known for putting on live theater productions usually in the summer, often in actual wineries. They have combined their efforts with Marin Theatre out of Mill Valley for this production of holiday music featuring performers from various Broadway productions. But instead…

THERE’S A LESSON HERE: EVEN WITHOUT THE BIG PARTY, THE MESSAGE RINGS CLEAR Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol is among the holiday season’s most welcome recurring theater productions. Center REP’s sumptuous show has returned to the capacious Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek through December 22. With A.C.T.’s…

A.C.T. ASKS US TO PONDER “WHY NOT” – BUT AFTER THIS UPDATED CAROL YOU’LL BE SCREAMING “WHY?!” Last holiday season, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced that, after over 40 years, they were ending their annual run of their popular holiday classic showing of A Christmas Carol. The original sets were to be struck and all…

WITH ROTIMI AGBABIAKA KILLING IT AS PIRATE CAPTAIN HOOK, IT’S NO WONDER WHY THIS PETER PAN IS SUCH A TREASURE This holiday season, The Presidio Theater presents the fourth incarnation of Panto in the Presidio with the world premiere of Peter Pan, written by Stephanie Brown and Richard Ciccarone, inspired by Peter and Wendy by…

A CABARET IN THE HEART OF THE CASTRO Cabaret is a masterpiece of American musical theater that has been presented in a vast variety of musical and physical shapes and sizes since its premiere on Broadway in 1966. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s score and Joe Masteroff’s book has been cut, added to, and shifted…

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….

This perennial favorite is back for its 19th year. This “drag” version of classic holiday-themed Golden Girls episodes seems to grow in popularity every year. Since its inception in 2005 when it was originally performed to a select crowd of friends informed by email, it has outgrown the living room and 2 subsequent South of…

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…