For my seventh time and my hubby’s fifth time, we arrive tomorrow in Edinburgh for the 2026 Fringe and the 2026 International Arts Festivals. Beginning in 1947 with 8 productions performed uninvited on the ‘fringe’ of the first Edinburgh International Festival, today’s annual, 3.5 week Edinburgh Fringe is the world’s largest performing arts festival with this year 307 venues, … [Read more...] about TheatreEddys Goes to the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh International Arts Festival
Hairspray
Hairspray Marc Shaiman (Music); Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman (Lyrics); Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan (Book) San Francisco Playhouse It is only fair to open this review of San Francisco Playhouse’s Hairspray with a warning: From the opening “Good Morning Baltimore” to the finale “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” multiple worms will be implanted deep within … [Read more...] about Hairspray
Ride the Cyclone
Ride the Cyclone Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell (Book, Music & Lyrics) City Lights Theater Company Wild, weird, wacky, and most of all, wonderful are just some of the descriptors for City Lights Theatre Company's summer-time offering, sure to be a sell-out hit for the next several weeks. Ride the Cyclone is Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell's 2009 bizarre … [Read more...] about Ride the Cyclone
La Rondine
La Rondine Giacomo Puccini (Music); Giuseppe Adami (Libretto) English Translation by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera in a Co-Production with Mercury Theater Composed in 1913 as a commissioned Viennese operetta, Giacomo Puccini's La Rondine overflows with music sumptuous and mesmerizing as well as contagiously inviting with its ballroom-worthy waltzes and hints of … [Read more...] about La Rondine
The Employee Dharma Handbook
The Employee Dharma Handbook Geetha Reddy TheatreWorks Silicon Valley In the heart of a Valley where the next IPO can birth hundreds of new millionaires and where many companies are founded, run, and heavily populated by Indian immigrants and Indian Americans, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley commissions and opens a fantastically engaging, intriguing, and often funny … [Read more...] about The Employee Dharma Handbook
Iolanthe or The Peer and The Peri
Iolanthe or The Peer and the Peri Arthur Sullivan (Music); W.S. Gilbert (Libretto) Lamplighters Music Theatre While it may not seem all that unusual, fairies are on the loose on 17th Street in San Francisco; and woe be to the politician that tries to stand in their way of ensuring unlikely love prevails against all odds. But what is particularly unusual is that … [Read more...] about Iolanthe or The Peer and The Peri
SCABMUGGERS
SCABMUGGERS Yvonne Martinez The Freight Thirty labor leaders from countries and industries across the globe came together for sixteen weeks in 1994 for the prestigious, annual Harvard Trade Union Program to learn the history of the labor movement and to form global partnerships among themselves. What should have been a microcosm of union solidarity soon became a … [Read more...] about SCABMUGGERS
Absolutely Science Fiction!
Absolutely Science Fiction! Stories by Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut Word for Word and Z Space Imagine living in a home "which clothed and fed and rocked [you] to sleep" but also a home where the thoughts of your ten-year-old children could turn their nursery into Alice's wonderland, Aladdin's carpet ride, or maybe an hot African plain full of hungry lions. Now … [Read more...] about Absolutely Science Fiction!
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona William Shakespeare Silicon Valley Shakespeare Rash decisions based on love at first sight, gender-switching disguises in order to spy on a cheating lover, servants spilling puns by the dozens about their love-crazed masters, banishment to the forest where all will eventually be made right, and a totally illogical happy ending for all -- … [Read more...] about Two Gentlemen of Verona
Arab Spring
Arab Spring Denmo Ibrahim Golden Thread Productions and San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company With fireworks occasionally exploding to mark the 4th of July in a Houston sweltering in 100+ degrees, a brother and sister who have not seen each other in five years arrive to bury in Muslim tradition a father she has not seen in twenty and one with whom he only recently … [Read more...] about Arab Spring
God of Carnage
God of Carnage Yasmina Reza The Pear Theatre "Smiling faces sometimes Pretend to be your friend; Smiling faces show no traces Of the evil that lurks within." Entering The Pear Theatre's intimate setting where a comfy living room with multiple artsy touches greets us (Louis Stone-Collonge, set designer), we are serenaded by the 1971 Motown hit, "Smiling Faces … [Read more...] about God of Carnage
The Cottage
The Cottage Sandy Rustin Palo Alto Players Plop into a cocktail shaker a bit of Vaudeville, a few Carol Burnett/Lucille Ball antics, a "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" pop-up, and a "Saturday Night Live" over-the-top skit; and then add for good measure a touch of Mel Brooks' no-holds-barred, bodily-function humor. Shake together these across-the-decades masters of … [Read more...] about The Cottage
We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You Queen (Music & Lyrics); Ben Elon (Book) San Jose Stage Company Three hundred years in the future in a land once known as Earth and now known as iPlanet, life is lived online; all music is computer-generated; pop stars are avatars; and owning a musical instrument is illegal. Yet in such a dystopian landscape, a few rebels have a cause and are … [Read more...] about We Will Rock You
The Toxic Avenger
The Toxic Avenger Joe DiPietro (Book & Lyrics); David Bryan (Music & Lyrics) Los Altos Stage Company Slapstick, camp, and parody abound as an audience's constant laughter peppers the air in the Bus Barn Theater of Los Altos Stage Company. Topics like global warming, corporate greed, corrupt political leaders, and toxic pollution are generally not that … [Read more...] about The Toxic Avenger
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum (Book); Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg (Music & Lyrics); Herbert Stothart (Background Music) Mountain Play From the opening notes of the Overture, bits of familiar tunes brighten more than three thousand faces as toes tap and heart beats quicken. Young and old alike have made once again their way up Mount Tamalpais in yellow … [Read more...] about The Wizard of Oz
