Cavalleria Rustica and Pagliacci Pietro Mascagni (Music); Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti & Guido Menasci (Libretto): Cavalleria Rustica Ruggero Leoncavallo (Music & Libretto): Pagliacci San Jose Opera Infidelity that leads to fatal revenge is the subject of a musically invigorating and visually lush double-billing by San Jose Opera of two, … [Read more...] about Cavalleria Rusticana | Pagliacci
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy Stefano Massini Adapted by Ben Power San Jose Stage Company It is a story whose ending we already too well know. The world’s fourth largest investment bank with $639 billion in assets and 25,000 employees files for the biggest bankruptcy in American history, sending Wall Street into panic and initiating the 2008-09 global financial crisis and … [Read more...] about The Lehman Trilogy
Salome
Salome Richard Strauss (composer); Hedwig Lachmann (libretto) Based on French language play by Oscar Wilde West Bay Opera Among a number of Biblical women such as Jezebel and Delilah whose names to this day connote evil, betrayal, and manipulation, Salome has always engendered much distain, but also much fascination. After all, as recorded twice in … [Read more...] about Salome
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang San Francisco Playhouse From his small, sparse cell in a Paris prison, a former French diplomat to China -- one who is serving time for treasonous passing of secret information to a planted spy posing as his lover -- replays in his racing mind their twenty-year relationship. Telling himself "I have known and have been loved by a … [Read more...] about M. Butterfly
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov; Translated by Paul Schmidt Marin Theatre Put Anton Chekhov's globally popular, much-adapted play, The Cherry Orchard, in the bold, directorial hands of the much-accomplished Carey Perloff and provide her with a Bay Area, all-star cast, and it is an easy-money bet that Marin Theater has a sure-fire hit in the making. Such is … [Read more...] about The Cherry Orchard
Running After Shadows
Running After Shadows Vincent Terrell Durham City Lights Theater Company In the middle of his latest Instagram, live-stream "unboxing" as he practically is making love to his just-arrived garlic press and doing a one-man, conga line wearing his new, authentic, red, "America's Test Kitchen" apron, recent culinary convert Morgan Collins opens one more, unexpected … [Read more...] about Running After Shadows
What the Constitution Means to Me
What the Constitution Means to Me Heidi Schreck Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory At the age of fifteen, Heidi Schreck remembers “in addition to being terrifyingly turned on all the time" and obsessed with Salem witch trials, theatre, and “most importantly” Patrick Swayze,” “I was a zealot” of the Constitution. As then a high school sophomore in Wenatchee, … [Read more...] about What the Constitution Means to Me
Spanish Stew
Spanish Stew Marga Gomez The Marsh Berkeley Theater With ample heart and over-flowing humor, GLAAD Award winning writer and performer known nationally and beloved locally -- Marga Gomez -- presents her latest of fifteen solo shows at The Marsh Berkeley Theater, Spanish Stew. Adapted for the Marsh after a successful world premiere in the autumn of 2025 at the New … [Read more...] about Spanish Stew
How Shakespeare Saved My Life
How Shakespeare Saved My Life Jacob Ming-Trent Berkeley Repertory Theatre (in co-production with Folger Theatre and Red Bull Theater In her introductory remarks to the opening night's packed audience in Berkeley Rep's Peet's Theatre, Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer told us that given all the horrific things occurring currently in our country and world, being … [Read more...] about How Shakespeare Saved My Life
Little Women
Little Women Jason Howland (Music), Mindi Dickstein (Lyrics), Allan Knee (Book) Based on the Novel by Louisa May Alcott South Bay Musical Theatre A beloved novel written over 150 years ago about a family of four sisters during the last two years of the Civil War has since been adapted seven times to film; multiple times to television; four, to the stage; twice, … [Read more...] about Little Women
Yoga Play
Yoga Play Dipika Guha Los Altos Stage Company Newly hired CEO, Joan, is more than ready to steer the luxury, athletic-wear, mega-company, Jojoman, into new heights after its former CEO was quoted (and then fired) while claiming, "it was the size of women's thighs" that was causing one of their $200 pants to appear transparent, "not the fabric itself." All she must … [Read more...] about Yoga Play
Hershey Felder: The Piano and Me
Hershey Felder: The Piano and Me Hershey Felder, Book Music by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Bartók, Gershwin & More TheatreWorks Silicon Valley After creating and performing the past thirty years in some six thousand live performances and eighteen films the musical biographies of sixteen famed composers (Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven, … [Read more...] about Hershey Felder: The Piano and Me
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code Adapted by Rachel Wagstaff & Duncan Abel Based on the Novel by Dan Brown Palo Alto Players When the mystery thriller movie, The Da Vinci Code, opened in 2006, it was largely panned by most critics, laughed at during its Cannes Festival premiere, and landed on many "Worst Of" lists for movies of that year. Yet its opening weekend saw … [Read more...] about The Da Vinci Code
Sunday in the Park with George
Sunday in the Park with George Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book) Shotgun Players Birds happily chirping, tall trees climbing on all sides with hints of limbs hanging from above, a glimpsing view of a lake and its graceful boats, and everywhere from the ground up, rich and varied greens filling in the scene. As we enter what we expect to be … [Read more...] about Sunday in the Park with George
Into the Woods
Into the Woods Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book) San Francisco Playhouse In many respects and for many reasons, the following is a meaningless review. At least a score -- and probably many more -- reviewers have already raved about the continued proven genius of Susi Damilano's directorial abilities, about a stage-filling cast that to a … [Read more...] about Into the Woods
