Get Eddie’s recommendations for shows on stage now that you should be sure not to miss.
Co-Founders
Created over several years here in the Bay Area in conjunction with A.C.T. by Ryan Nicole Austin, Beau Lewis, and Adesha Adefela, Co-Founders is a visual and musical celebration of young coder Esata’s raw ingenuity and gutsy boldness with original music by Victoria Theodore (music team leader) spanning the genres of hip-hop, soul, R&B, rock, funk, jazz, and more.
Sweet Charity
Sometimes there are so many aspects of a spectacular production that it is almost impossible to know where to begin. That is especially true for San Jose Stage Company’s current summer hit-in-the-making, “Sweet Charity.” Any way you look at it, The Stage’s Sweet Charity under the inspired and creative direction of Kenneth Kelleher is San Jose’s must-see of the summer.
Sweat
We leave Sweat wondering how has the Democratic Party — the one these union members and their parents and grandparents probably supported for decades — failed for much too long to listen to people like these much in the same way that Lynn Nottage (and maybe Trump) did. The collage of stories she displays before us on Palo Alto Players’ stage do not offer definitive answers of who is right or wrong in the great, current divide of our country. However, they do provide much fodder for self-reflection and for a search for needed empathy for those on the other side from us of that now, hardened divide.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
With a touch that has proven time and again in past productions to be as golden as Midas’, Susi Damilano has reached yet another peak in her career directing an electrically charged, beautifully conceived, and thoroughly heartwarming The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. With a cast that is to a person incredibly talented and a creative team that soars with their ingenuous and skilled touches galore, San Francisco Playhouse once again has a hit on its hands that probably will see weeks of sold-out performances as word spreads from the run’s initial, standing ovation audiences.
Next to Normal
As the company has done with such musicals as Carrie, Hedwig and the Angry Itch, Silence the Musical, and Lizzie the Musical, Ray of Light stages a Next to Normal that boldly and unabashedly presents some of life’s darkest moments in a musical guaranteed to leave its audiences leaving with a sense of renewal and a smile amid their tears.
