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
Archives for March 2022
Circle Mirror Transformation
Circle Mirror Transformation Annie Baker Custom Made Theatre Co. Sometimes it takes the youngest among us to ask the most obvious question (e.g., the child in The Emperor’s Clothes). By the time sixteen-year-old Lauren asks in Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation, “Why are we doing this?” I personally wanted to stand up and applaud that finally … [Read more...] about Circle Mirror Transformation
Water by the Spoonful
Water by the Spoonful Quiara Alegría Hudes San Francisco Playhouse Remaining estranged from a son for ten years. Maneuvering through a messy divorce. Refusing any sort of relationship with a birth mother while caring for the dying aunt (her sister) who raised him. Being the mother now detested by your son. Wanting to find the Japanese birth parents … [Read more...] about Water by the Spoonful
Escape from the Asylum
Escape from the Asylum Patricia Milton Central Works When in June 2019 I reviewed Central Works’ world premiere of Patricia Milton’s The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective, I ended my glowing review of the gripping, yet humorous murder mystery with a hope “the playwright decides that – just like Holmes and Watson – Fortescue, Hunter, and Smalls might deserve … [Read more...] about Escape from the Asylum
Ain’t Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show
Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show Richard Maltby, Jr. & Murray Horwitz (Book) Luther Henderson (Musical Adaptations, Orchestrations & Arrangements) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory Maybe we do not get musical confirmation until the last and fifteenth song of Act One that “this joint is jumping;” but there is no doubt as the … [Read more...] about Ain’t Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show
Dot
Dot Colman Domingo New Conservatory Theatre Center Family gatherings during the December holidays are often a time of maneuvering about carefully on rather thin ice, with members skating gingerly around issues in order not to reopen past and often persistent cracks in relationships. For the Shealy family, skirting away from the one fact most want to ignore as they … [Read more...] about Dot
Passing Strange
Passing Strange Stew (Book & Lyrics); Stew & Heidi Rodewald (Music) Created in Collaboration with Annie Dorsey Shotgun Players A young, wide-eyed teenager – identified only as “Youth” – is searching for his real self, something beyond his life as a middle-class, black kid in Los Angeles living with his big-hearted, Jesus-loving mom. His multi-year … [Read more...] about Passing Strange
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility Paul Gordon (Book, Music & Lyrics) Based on the Novel by Jane Austin TheatreWorks Silicon Valley For those who have experienced even a few of the 175 plays and musicals that Robert Kelley directed during the first fifty years of the Tony Award winning company he founded – Theatreworks Silicon Valley – there are much … [Read more...] about Sense and Sensibility
Talk to Your People
Talk to Your People Dan Hoyle The Marsh Celebrated creator and performer of solo shows about such topics as Nigerian oil scandals (Tings Dey Happen), Red States folks telling their side of the story (The Real Americans), and heart-wrenching yet funny portrayals of men and women from minority races and cultures (The Border People), Oakland … [Read more...] about Talk to Your People
Roe
Roe Lisa Loomer Los Altos Stage Company Almost fifty years after Justice Blackmun announced the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision and as a new set of justices are staged in 2022 to announce new decisions that could all but reverse that landmark decision, nothing still divides this country more than Roe vs. Wade. With many people predicting a June 2022 demise … [Read more...] about Roe
