Dear San Francisco Shana Carroll & Gypsy Snider, Co-Creators A Production of The 7 Fingers at Club Fugazi San Francisco’s Club Fugazi is personally for me a sacred space where many memories were created during the more than twenty-five times I attended what became the world’s longest-running cabaret show during its forty-five-year history, Beach Blanket Babylon. … [Read more...] about Dear San Francisco
MUST SEE
The Headlands
The Headlands Christopher Chen American Conservatory Theater There are so many reasons to get your ticket today to see the West Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s The Headlands at American Conservatory Theater before the last curtain on March 5: For anyone who lives in or near San Francisco, the play is like a SF love fest, featuring some of the most … [Read more...] about The Headlands
Satchmo at the Waldorf
Satchmo at the Waldorf Terry Teachout San Jose Stage Company Coughing and wheezing desperately for his next breath and with shoulders hunched as he stumbles toward the portable oxygen tank in the corner, the elderly man we see entering the large, backstage dressing room still is recognizable at first sight. After all, who else always has a white handkerchief hanging … [Read more...] about Satchmo at the Waldorf
Miss You Like Hell
Miss You Like Hell Quiara Alegría Hudes (Book & Lyrics); Erin McKeown (Music & Lyrics) City Lights Theater Company in Co-Production with Teatro Visión Many a book and movie through the years have chronicled “the great American road trip” across the continent as individuals, friends, and families have ventured into the plains, mountains, and lonely towns in … [Read more...] about Miss You Like Hell
Paradise Blue
Paradise Blue Dominique Morisseau Aurora Theatre Company In Aurora Theatre Company’s award-winning Detroit ’67 in 2018, the sounds of Detroit’s homegrown, Motown music were the background beat of Dominique Morisseau’s funny and frightening, heart-warming and heart-stopping play, Detroit ’67, the first of a trilogy about her hometown and a story that explodes amidst … [Read more...] about Paradise Blue
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Dave Malloy Shotgun Players Having opened November 15, 2022, Shotgun Players’ audience-immersive, modern-sounding opera set in a Russian cabaret setting of 1812 – Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy – has already received the highest of accolades from both my fellow critics and especially from … [Read more...] about Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Sanctuary City
Sanctuary City Martyna Majok Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in Association with Arena Stage Two high school seniors each are seeking sanctuary from a life that fate and family have unfortunately gifted them. B (as in Boy) arrived in this country ten years prior and is now here illegally because his mom overstayed her visa – a mom who now has vowed to leave him and go … [Read more...] about Sanctuary City
Hadestown
Hadestown Anaïs Mitchell (Music, Lyrics & Book) BroadwaySF Sometimes, there simply are not enough superlatives to do justice. During the Jewish Seder, there is a section recounting all the blessings and miracles the Israelites have received; and after each is recited, those gathered around the festival table say, “Dayenu,” “It would have been enough.” If the … [Read more...] about Hadestown
Ragtime the Musical
Ragtime Terrence McNally (Book); Stephen Flaherty (Music); Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics) Based on the novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Let me begin with an upfront confession. In my humble opinion, if there is one musical that could be called “The Great American Musical,” it is Ragtime. Based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel by the same name, … [Read more...] about Ragtime the Musical
A Small Fire
A Small Fire Adam Block Shotgun Players If tomorrow I find myself completely without the majority of my sensory powers that only yesterday seemed perfunctory, what would be left for me in life? No smell, no taste, no sight, no hearing? What effects would this catastrophic shift have on my relationships – my family, my friends? How would their lives shift? Could … [Read more...] about A Small Fire
Allegiance
Allegiance Marc Acito, Jay Kuo & Lorenzo Thione (Book); Jay Kuo (Music & Lyrics) Palo Alto Players With only the clothes on their backs and one tightly clutched suitcase each, shock-faced people stand shoulder-to-shoulder while riding in a cattle car to a location unknown – a destination surrounded by barbed wire in a desolate area reeking of dust and lacking … [Read more...] about Allegiance
Gem of the Ocean
Gem of the Ocean August Wilson TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Arriving amidst a COVID shut-down to assume his position as only the second Artistic Director of the Tony-Award-winning, fifty-two-year-old company TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, nationally known director Tim Bond has had to wait almost two years to bring his vast experience and unique insight as a director … [Read more...] about Gem of the Ocean
August: Osage County
August: Osage County Tracy Letts San Jose Stage Company Why do we return time and again to the muck and mirk, the venom and vile of such time-honored works as Macbeth or Who Killed Virginia Woolf? In many ways, these are not pleasant outings at the theatre; but a great production of either can be exhilarating and entertaining just the same, given great … [Read more...] about August: Osage County
Fefu and Her Friends
Fefu and Her Friends María Irene Fornés American Conservatory Theater It is New England in the mid 1930s; flowers are blooming, birds are singing; and Fefu has invited seven of her female, educator friends to come to her lovely countryside estate to practice their talks for an upcoming event – a reunion of former classmates, some of whom have not seen each other in … [Read more...] about Fefu and Her Friends
Vietgone
Vietgone Qui Nguyen (with Original Music by Shane Rettig) City Lights Theater Company On the surface, a story detailing the journey of some Vietnamese immigrants as they escape the fall of Saigon in 1975 and land in a refugee camp in Arkansas, Vietgone is actually an irreverent, topsy-turvy, wild ride of a moving and engaging love story – in this case, a … [Read more...] about Vietgone
