In 1960, it was a little musical that broke many molds, especially from the beloved musicals by big Broadway composers/writers like Rogers and Hammerstein, George Abbott, and Lerner and Loewe. It had little plot and became one of several of the earliest so-called ‘concept’ musicals that would later lead to dozens of others such as A Chorus Line, Assassins, and Avenue Q. There … [Read more...] about The Fantasticks
Princess Ida
An operetta from the conservative Victorian Age that satirizes feminism and women’s education and sets up a battle between the sexes that the men are destined to win is not exactly a winning formula for most 2020 audiences. But the operetta is by the perennially loved W.S. Gilbert (libretto) and Albert Sullivan (music); and there are many, modern aficionados of the famed pair … [Read more...] about Princess Ida
Wakey, Wakey
A half-dressed man lying flat on the stage seems surprised when the stage lights suddenly come up and he turns to see hundreds of audience eyes looking at him. “Is it now? I thought I had more time,” he says with some regret, anxiety, but also excitement of what is to come next. An immediate black-out and a few moments later, he appears now in pajama bottoms, slippers, and … [Read more...] about Wakey, Wakey
She Loves Me
A single violin roams playfully through its scales, soon followed by a twittering trumpet with a speech all its own. Winds trip over each other before more instruments start a game of leapfrog as their well-played notes and phrases seem to jump and skip all around us. One of my favorite overtures has just been played beautifully with spunk and spirit by the fourteen-person … [Read more...] about She Loves Me
You’ll Catch Flies
The phrase “you’ll catch flies” begs for a few more words. One common saying is “Close your mouth, or you’ll catch flies.” Another one some of us may have also heard from the likes of a grandmother or an aunt, “You’ll catch flies more with honey than with vinegar.” In either case, there is a warning implied – the first to keep your mouth shut a bit more (or something bad may … [Read more...] about You’ll Catch Flies
A Doll’s House: Part 2
There is nothing more magical than a night at live theatre when a brilliant script, inspired direction, and a perfectly cast set of actors combine with setting, lighting, sound, and costumes such that each makes its own unique contribution to produce as near a perfect evening as possible. Such is how I felt as I exited Lucy Stern Theater after thoroughly enjoying every minute … [Read more...] about A Doll’s House: Part 2
Stage Kiss
Tonsil hockey, pecking, sucking face, tongue wrestling, snogging (in Harry Potter terms), or just good ol’ making out – whatever the nickname, the meeting of two sets of human lips is the central and most-repeated action of Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss. Sometimes barely touching a cheek, sometimes a thwarted attempt embarrassingly missing target, but most often involving long … [Read more...] about Stage Kiss
The Pianist of Willesden Lane
“The most important hour of my week is my piano lesson … I always dress up for my piano lesson … I have to look divine.” And with that, a fourteen-year-old girl who dreams someday of her concert debut at Vienna’s famed Musikverein Concert Hall sits down at the Steinway to play her favorite piece, Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16, fingers flying effortlessly across … [Read more...] about The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Taking Steps
A three-story, crumbling mansion that was once a notorious, London brothel and is said still to be haunted by its former mistress, “Scarlet Lucy,” is the setting of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1979 farce, Taking Steps. The house that is described as “drafty, leaky, and it smells” by its current mistress, Elizabeth Crabbe, is up for sale, becoming a major character and source of much … [Read more...] about Taking Steps
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage
Somewhere in the suburbs of New Jersey, the lives are about to be upended of two married couples who are also long-term best friends in ways none of them could have ever predicted – all because of a woman named Pip who hunts to kill all the meat she eats and who happens also to live with and love two men. Somehow as they sip their Malbec, the topic comes up in the conversation … [Read more...] about How to Transcend a Happy Marriage
Noura
“I don’t want to forget. I’m trying desperately to remember who the hell I am.” Forced by a life-threatening siege to leave her home in Mosul as a member of the Iraqi Christian community, immigrant and now American citizen Noura wants this Christmas Eve to be perfect in every respect, recalling the foods and family times of those Christmases spent in her homeland – a … [Read more...] about Noura
Theatre Eddys Recalls Ten Bay Area Theatre Highlights, 2010-2019
Looking back over ten years of seeing nearly 1500 theatrical performances (plays, musicals, and solo shows) in the San Francisco Bay Area (and another near 500 globally), I am both pleased and surprised what productions/events are now remembered most vividly – ones that I find myself returning in order to relish the productions’ creative accomplishments. The following are what … [Read more...] about Theatre Eddys Recalls Ten Bay Area Theatre Highlights, 2010-2019
Theatre Eddys’ Top Bay Area Productions for 2019
This year, Theatre Eddys attended and reviewed 129 shows locally along with nine shows in Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and forty-two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Of the 129 local productions that were plays, musicals, and solo performances, a top “5 E” rating was awarded to productions of 25 different companies. The most “5 E” ratings for … [Read more...] about Theatre Eddys’ Top Bay Area Productions for 2019
Head Over Heels
What happens when a Renaissance tale of royal romance written in iambic pentameter collides head-on with the jukebox music of the 1980s all-female group, the Go-Go’s? And what if twists and turns of the story inspired by Sir Philip Sidney’s The Arcadia (1580s) now include same-sex love, gender-bending left and right, and a “non-binary, plural” Oracle of Delphi? New … [Read more...] about Head Over Heels
Becky Nurse of Salem
“Before there was this Dunkin’ Donuts, they killed women here they called witches. Before that, they killed Indians. Before that, they had Thanksgiving.” Standing in front of her shopping cart with a mannequin of her great, great, great, great grandmother that she has stolen from the Salem Witches Museum, Becky Nurse gives her first tour at $20 an hour, telling her version … [Read more...] about Becky Nurse of Salem
