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Theatre Eddys

Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

Archives for November 2019

Cloud Nine

November 22, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds

1880, South Africa:  The Queen’s flag flies high and proudly; Victorian roles of men and women are clearly defined; classes are correctly divided; whites rule and those of color serve; social norms are clear, and proper manners are strictly followed.  Well, that is at least true until Caryl Churchill paints a bit different picture of what that supposedly blissful life is … [Read more...] about Cloud Nine

Mother of the Maid

November 21, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

A girl in her late teens announces to her Ma, “Saint Catherine bin’ appearin’ to me,” to which her mother glances up from cleaning burrs from sheep wool and says sweetly, “Oh, she’s a lovely saint; that’s lovely, Joanie.”  When the girl describes how the Saint “fills me up … slays me … takes me apart” and that she can feel Saint Catherine “here and here” (her hands cupping her … [Read more...] about Mother of the Maid

Bull in a China Shop

November 18, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Mary Emma Woolley (1863-1947) was the first female to attend Brown University, a women’s suffrage advocate, a peace activist, and the president of Mount Holyoke College (MHC) from 1900 to 1937.  She was also in a secret relationship with a former student who became an English professor at MHC during the years Woolley was there, Jeanette Marks.  Recently, MHC hosted a digital … [Read more...] about Bull in a China Shop

Miss Saigon

November 14, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

The story originating from Puccini’s much-beloved opera Madame Butterfly is well enough known that most audience members arrive – as they might for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – anticipating the tragic ending to its ill-fated love story.  Decade-long runs both in London and New York in the 1990s as well as continual, packed-house tours worldwide these past twenty years also … [Read more...] about Miss Saigon

Gypsy: A Musical Fable

November 11, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

The show that New York Times revered and feared theatre critic Ben Brantley has referred to as “what may be the greatest of all American musicals” and Times essayist/columnist Frank Hart Rich Jr. once called “Broadway’s own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear, Gypsy: A Musical Fable in the end is nothing without a Rose who can join a long line of divas of a certain age to try … [Read more...] about Gypsy: A Musical Fable

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

November 9, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Coming off recently winning four Theatre Bay Area Awards for this past year’s Twelfth Night, the Arabian Shakespeare Festival opens A Midsummer Night’s Dream that should also be a top prospect for both production and acting awards in the coming year.  Shakespeare’s oft-performed, much-loved comedy of love spats and mishaps; fairy shenanigans; and a hilarious play within the … [Read more...] about A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Amaluna

November 8, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

With seventy per cent of the forty-eight-member cast and all of the musicians and singers being women, Cirque du Soleil’s nineteenth and latest show touring the world – Amaluna – is a tour de force of female power and prowess.  In an evening where the reverberating voices, the gasp-producing athleticism, and the eye-popping pageantry of women reigns supreme, no better segment … [Read more...] about Amaluna

Testmatch

November 8, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Cricket – a sport created by England and played today mostly by the mother country and countries of her former Empire – becomes the backdrop for Kate Attwell’s Testmatch, now in its time-traveling, gender-bending, hard-reality-and-parody-prolific world premiere at American Conservatory Theater. A Pandora’s Box of issues bursts open in the course of the ninety-minutes, including … [Read more...] about Testmatch

Anne of the Thousand Days

November 4, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

To produce Anne of the Thousand Days on the stage is a huge undertaking, given the breadth of events and the number of players with names familiar both to history and Shakespeare buffs.  Dragon Productions has taken up the challenge of presenting on its intimate stage with a cast of eight this sweeping drama involving twenty named characters and a number of other servants and … [Read more...] about Anne of the Thousand Days

The Cake

November 4, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

“If cake were free for everybody, there would be a lot less problems in the world.”  In fact, or at least so goes Della’s thinking, invite the leaders of ISIS into her cakery – Della’s Sweets in Winston, North Carolina – and a few bites of her butter cream icing might just improve their dispositions for good! As soon as we meet Della in Bekah Brunstetter’s play, The Cake, it … [Read more...] about The Cake

Elevada

November 4, 2019 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

He is a self-proclaimed “online agitator” with four-to-five million followers who rarely leaves his apartment or takes a shower and has never been on a blind date.  She is on her eighth, online-generated, first-date in the past three weeks (alas, no second dates yet).  He has signed a contract with a megacorporation to sell his identity and cease to exist as a person for the … [Read more...] about Elevada

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Eddie is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

Theatre Eddys Ratings Legend

5 E's - Loved It
A classic, would see it a second time.
4 E's - Really Liked It
Excellent, strong production.
3 E's - Liked It
Good production but something is lacking or not clicking.
2 E's - Just OK
Below average but had at least one interesting component.
1 E - Did Not Like It
Waste of time.

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About Eddie

Theatre Critic for the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, writing 150+ reviews annually for Theatre Eddys and Talkin' Broadway (San Jose/Silicon Valley). Read More

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