Guido Contini is turning fifty. His last three films were flops. His producer expects a new film script in four days that he has not started. His leading star and oft-lover is refusing to do another film with him. His wife is telling him she wants a divorce, and his young mistress is threatening to divorce her husband so she and Guido can marry – something he definitely … [Read more...] about Nine the Musical
Othello
Othello William Shakespeare African-American Shakespeare Company While there are no American flags flying and no “U.S. Army” or “U.S. Navy” stitching on the military uniforms worn, the intentions of Director Carl Jordan could hardly be clearer. There is no way for him to camouflage that this opening production of the African-American Shakespeare Company’s … [Read more...] about Othello
Nabucco
How relevant can a near one-hundred-eighty-year opera be to modern audiences when there is an autocratic, egotistic ruler who subjugates people of a different ethnicity and nationality to imprisonment and relocation from their homeland and who begins to act and think of himself as a god? Unfortunately in 2019, a story that originates in biblical times and is the subject of … [Read more...] about Nabucco
The Chinese Lady
“What is happening is a performance. For my entire life is a performance. These words that you hear are not my own. These clothes I wear are not my own. This body that I occupy is not my own.” In 1834, two traders of Far East Oriental imports to New York arranged for a Chinese girl of fourteen and of the wealthy class to come to the United States for two years in order to … [Read more...] about The Chinese Lady
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
If there is anyone who is curious why President Trump has a picture of Andrew Jackson watching over him in the Oval Office, that person need only sit through a production of Alex Timbers’ (book) and Michael Friedman’s (music and lyrics) Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, now playing at Custom Made Theatre Company. Lyrics like the following make that pretty clear, as Jackson at one … [Read more...] about Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
This Side of Crazy
They were once known as “the little superstars for Jesus.” Now the grown Blaylock Sisters are an atheist former stripper, a mental institution patient who once strangled her ex-lover, and a Vlogger who gives scripture-based advice on her “Good Christian Women” show after making love to her comatose husband upstairs. How they each got from Point A to Point B has much to do … [Read more...] about This Side of Crazy
White Noise
By his own admission, thirty-something Leo has done “everything right” his entire life: good grades, followed all the rules, established himself as a career artist, and has even won a ton of trophies as a bowling champion. But then during one of his habitually sleepless nights when his mid-of-night walk takes him into an upper-class, white neighborhood, the young African … [Read more...] about White Noise
Mark Twain’s River of Song
Part a nineteenth-century cabaret show, part a travelogue of the past, and part a famed writer’s recollections of his life on and around the river, Mark Twain’s River of Song is a journey so worth taking in this TheatreWorks Silicon Valley celebration of the human spirit and its quest for freedom, individuality, and harmony with one of nature’s most beautiful of gifts – the … [Read more...] about Mark Twain’s River of Song
“Sovereignty”
Sovereignty Mary Kathryn Nagle Marin Theatre Company Elizabeth Frances, Adam Magill, Kholan Studi, Scott Coopwood, Andrew Roa, Robert I. Mesa Beginning in the 1830s, Native Peoples were forced to leave their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States and walk thousands of miles to resettle on barren lands in the West, with many thousands dying along the way. … [Read more...] about “Sovereignty”
“Dance Nation”
Dance Nation Clare Barron San Francisco Playhouse The Cast of Dance Nation Thirteen. Oh, God, when I remember thirteen, I get this strange knot in my stomach and a wave of brief nausea. I was already six-foot, two-inches, and stuck out like a sore thumb in the school hallway. I was awkward and stumbled over my size-twelve feet; my voice squeaked; my thick glasses … [Read more...] about “Dance Nation”
“Top Girls”
Top Girls Caryl Churchill American Conservatory Theater Rosie Hallett, Summer Brown, Michelle Beck, Monica Lin & Julia McNeal It is 1982; and search-firm interviewer Marlene admires Britain’s Margaret Thatcher: “She’s a tough lady, Maggie; I’d give her a job.” Marlene has toughed it out herself in the man’s world where she works and has just been named the new … [Read more...] about “Top Girls”
“Free for All: A New “Miss Julie” for a New World”
Free for All: A New “Miss Julie” for a New World Megan Cohen Cutting Ball Theater Charlie Gray, Stacy Ross & Miyaka P. Cochrane The setting is “Soon, San Francisco.” The great frost’s snows are once again falling, and all the City’s hills are glistening in fresh snow. Julie has stepped out of her home at the top of Nob Hill and is going for one last run down … [Read more...] about “Free for All: A New “Miss Julie” for a New World”
“Gandhi”
Gandhi Sujit Saraf Naatak Natraj Kumar & Dancers October 2, 2019 is the 150th birth anniversary of the man born with the first name Mohandas but whom the world now remembers as Mahatma (“venerable”) Gandhi. To honor this occasion, the nation’s largest Indian theatre company, Naatak, is producing a world-premiere play, Gandhi, written and directed by the company’s … [Read more...] about “Gandhi”
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge Word for Word Performing Arts Company & Z Space Charles Shaw Robinson The longest, probably best-known poem by the late-eighteenth, early-nineteenth-century founder of the English Romantic Movement, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is the latest theatrical undertaking by San Francisco’s Word for Word Performing Arts … [Read more...] about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
“The Great Wave”
The Great WaveFrancis TurnlyBerkeley Repertory TheatreSharon OmiAlmost every stormy winter, we natives of the San Francisco Bay Area read the tragic news that along the city’s Great Beach or nearby coastal areas someone has been swept to sea by a sudden-appearing “rogue wave,” never to be seen again. In 1979 off the west coast of Japan, two teenage sisters venture out … [Read more...] about “The Great Wave”
