Ruddygore Or, The Bruja’s Curse W.S. Gilbert (Libretto) & Arthur Sullivan (Score) Adapted by David Euresti Lamplighters Musical Theatre The Company that for seventy-one years has entertained Bay Area audiences with its Gilbert and Sullivan fare has taken one of the pair’s Victorian parodies of the English, nineteenth-century melodrama, Ruddygore, and married it … [Read more...] about Ruddygorre Or, The Bruja’s Curse
4 E
Corpus Evita
Corpus Evita Carlos Franzetti Libretto by José Luis Moscovich; Concept by Lorenz Russo How much responsibility must a person in power assume for acts against humanity that occur because the untested, unprepared leader is either unaware, naïve, or completely incompetent? Is it possible for such a leader ever to seek and receive atonement – especially if the crimes … [Read more...] about Corpus Evita
Misery – The Play
Misery William Goldman Based on the Novel by Stephen King Palo Alto Players I feel compelled to make an upfront confession: I have never read a Stephen King novel; and while I do enjoy the suspense and thriller aspects of Alfred Hitchcock or Rod Sterling, I have never been a fan of the ever-popular genre of horror. It was thus with slight trepidation that I stepped … [Read more...] about Misery – The Play
Nora: A Doll’s House
Nora: A Doll’s House Stef Smith, after Henrik Ibsen City Lights Theater Company When Henrik Ibsen premiered A Doll’s House in 1879, controversy immediately erupted when Nora, banker’s wife and mother of three, challenges the society’s definition of marriage and walks defiantly away from hers, seeking to discover who she really is beyond those two, domestic titles. … [Read more...] about Nora: A Doll’s House
Tosca
Tosca Giacomo Puccini Original Italian Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera, in a Co-Production with Cinnabar Theatre When Giacomo Puccini’s universally popular, 1900-premiering Tosca is transformed from its usual position on grand opera stages with scores of cast members to an intimate setting where a few … [Read more...] about Tosca
The Kinsey Sicks: Drag Queen Storytime Gone Wild
Drag Queen Storytime Gone Wild! Benjamin Schatz (Book), with Spencer Brown, Jeff Manabat & Nathan Marken Benjamin Schatz (Lyrics); Jeff Manabat (Vocal Arrangements) New Conservatory Theatre Center The masters of brilliantly delivering both corn and porn in glorious, a cappella harmonies brimming with biting political and social satire are back in what they call … [Read more...] about The Kinsey Sicks: Drag Queen Storytime Gone Wild
Hurricane Diane
Hurricane Diane Madeleine George Aurora Theatre Company Climate, comedy, and catastrophe are the unlikely combination in Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane, now in its Bay Area premiere at Aurora Theatre Company. The laugh-out-loud, in-your-face warnings about our potentially disastrous future features in its stormy center a lesbian, permaculture gardener who just … [Read more...] about Hurricane Diane
The Dignity Circle
The Dignity Circle Lauren Smerkanich Central Works “Hi, y’all. I’m Angela. I work in real estate. I live in Westlake, Sacramento, California. … I have a question for you. What would you do if right now I handed you forty thousand dollars? In cash. No strings attached?” Maybe “a trip, a new car, a new guest bathroom, a new forehead?” Or how about just “a way to … [Read more...] about The Dignity Circle
Steel Magnolias
Steel Magnolias Robert Harling TheatreWorks Silicon Valley It’s the ‘80s in the little, rural town of Chinquapin, Louisiana; and the regulars are coming into Truvy’s Salon for their Saturday morning snipping, ratting, and spraying to get their do’s touched up to perfection, to hear the latest in town gossip, and most importantly, to be together in a place where no … [Read more...] about Steel Magnolias
The Riverbride
The River Bride Marisela Treviño Orta City Lights Theater Company A fairy tale is supposed to have an air of magic, a sense of mystery, and a promise of “happily ever after.” Certainly Marisela Trevino Orta’s The River Bride, as directed by John R. Lewis and presented by City Lights Theater Company, meets these criteria and more. From the opening moments of this … [Read more...] about The Riverbride
Where Did We Sit on the Bus?
Where Did We Sit on the Bus? Brian Quijada (Book and Music); Satya Chávez (Additional Compositions) Marin Theatre Company When he was in the third grade, Brian Quijada sat in a classroom during a lesson about Rosa Parks contemplating the bus where she took her seat. In the front, he heard, was where the whites normally sat; in the back were the Blacks. Brown-skinned, … [Read more...] about Where Did We Sit on the Bus?
By Georges! A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier de Saint-Georges
By Georges! A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier de Saint-Georges James D Sasser (Book & Lyrics); Charles Vincent Burwell (Music & Lyrics) Lamplighters Music Theatre As with so many accomplished people of color, the incredible life, achievements, and legacy of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, has largely been forgotten since his 1799 death … [Read more...] about By Georges! A Day in the Life of the Legendary Chevalier de Saint-Georges
The Producers
The Producers Mel Brooks (Book, Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre and Conservatory Perspective #1: Raunchy, crass, insulting, insensitive. Horrible stereotypes that in 2023 seem particularly out of place in light of Me-Too, Don’t Say Gay, dramatic increase in antisemitism, and attacks in state after state aimed at transgender people. Perspective #2: Riotous, … [Read more...] about The Producers
Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2
Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2 Qui Nguyen American Conservatory Theater Qui Nguyen refuses to write a play that can be easily described by any conventional terms. His highly inventive, irreverent, wild ride of a love story, Vietgone, that pulled up in 2018 on a motorcycle onto the intimate Strand stage of A.C.T. was a topsy-turvy combination of romantic comedy; … [Read more...] about Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2
English
English Sanaz Toossi Berkeley Repertory Theatre As an adult who is attempting to learn another language later in life, I know firsthand how the experience can be both exciting and tormenting, with my altering within minutes between feeling proud of all I know and stupid for all that I still do not. But like most Americans born here, I am not learning another language … [Read more...] about English
