Get Eddie’s recommendations for shows on stage now that you should be sure not to miss.
A Strange Loop
In a musically, visually, and emotionally explosion of Black and queer power, American Conservatory Theater opens Michael R. Jackson’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and 2022 Tony winner for Best Musical, A Strange Loop. Aspiring musical theatre writer Usher exposes in the wildest, rawest fashion his inner thoughts and swirling memories in loops upon loops of self-inquiries, -doubts, -reprimands, and -discoveries.
The Tutor
How many secrets, deceits, and downright lies can accumulate between three people who all claim to care and love the others before all hell breaks loose? If it is time to tell one’s truth, which truth is the right one to reveal; and which secrets still should remain private? And if the truth is your own truth of who you really are, how important is it to consider the costs– to you and/or others, near and far?
These are just a few of the intriguing, oft troubling, but always provocative questions explored in Torange Yeghiazarian’s The Tutor, now in a gripping, gusty world premiere as commissioned by New Conservatory Theatre Center in partnership with Golden Threads Productions.
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord
While entertaining and enjoyable, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord is more than anything else a classroom of instruction what even the most nonessential among us can do to become essential to those around us in need.
Florencia en el Amazonas
The romantic drama of multiple loves lost, denied, and finally found intertwine with the Amazon’s alluring myths and fantasy in Opera San José’s magnificent dip into the waters of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. Under the emotionally charged and beautifully paced direction of internationally acclaimed Crystal Manich, a harmonically compelling ensemble of singers casts its spell over us for an evening truly mesmerizing and magical.
Hangmen
With a brilliant cast of Bay Area stage stars quite familiar and beloved by its audiences, The Stage now opens the West Coast premiere of McDonagh’s latest acclaimed award-winner, Hangmen, a hilarious and horrific take on capital punishment and the increasing acceptance of violence as a means to seemed justice.
Tiger Style!
With performances by a cast of five who at times seem to be in a reality TV show’s competition as to who can be more outrageously funny than the others, Tiger Style! as directed by TheatreWorks’ own Jeffrey Lo is on the surface an outlandishly hilarious romp. Underneath, Tiger Style! is also a serious statement about the both self-and-society-induced pressures and pre-conceived notions that high-achieving, successful Asian American, young adults face.