The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams The African-American Shakespeare Company In 1944, Tennessee Williams skyrocketed from near obscurity to wide-spread fame with the premiere of The Glass Menagerie, a play touted as a memory play both in the script and in its evident connections to the playwright and his family of an excessively attention-seeking mother, a mentally … [Read more...] about The Glass Menagerie
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Anything Goes
Anything Goes Cole Porter (Music & Lyrics) P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse (Original Book) Timothy Crouse & John Weidman (New Book) 42nd Street Moon It only takes those first, several, familiar notes of the “Overture” to send a spreading wave of swaying shoulders, nodding heads, and tapping toes throughout the 42nd Street Moon … [Read more...] about Anything Goes
Justice: A New Musical
Justice: A New Musical Lauren M. Gunderson (Book); Bree Lowdermilk (Music); Kait Kerrigan (Lyrics) Marin Theatre Company “Equal Justice for All.” For 191 years, half of the U.S. population could justifiably question if that welcoming sign above the U.S. Supreme Court entrance really applied to them because from its founding in 1789 until September 21, 1981, no woman … [Read more...] about Justice: A New Musical
SIX
SIX Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss (Music, Lyrics & Book) BroadwaySF “Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.” These six words quickly conjure up for millions of people around the globe – folks who read even a bit of history, watched a few Netflix series, and/or played a few games of trivia at a local bar – the six wives of a king well known five … [Read more...] about SIX
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Picasso at the Lapin Agile Steve Martin Los Altos Stage Company In 1905, Pablo Picasso painted Au Lapin Agile that depicts a self-portrait of himself as a harlequin, a seamstress with whom he had a brief affair (Germaine Pichot), and the owner of the famous cabaret club in Paris’ Montmartre where he liked to hang out as a young man of twenty-five with other artists of … [Read more...] about Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Three Tall Women
Three Tall Women Edward Albee Pear Theatre Imagine yourself at a younger age having a conversation with yourself at other points in your life? What would that young, probably naïve you think about how things will turn out, about whom you will love and not love, or about your successes and especially about your failures? What advice would you give and what questions … [Read more...] about Three Tall Women
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night William Shakespeare Adapted by Max Tachis Palo Alto Players In his adaptation for Palo Alto Players of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Max Tachis takes the romantic comedy’s early line – “If music be the food of love, play on” – and makes a feast of it. Even before the curtain opens, a snazzy, zippy singer with eyes that twinkle and fingers that … [Read more...] about Twelfth Night
The Pajama Game
The Pajama Game Richard Adler & Jerry Ross (Music & Lyrics); George Abbott & Richard Bissell (Book) Based on the Novel, 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell Script Updated for 42nd Street Moon by Annie Potter 42nd Street Moon Just try leaving 42nd Street Moon’s current toe-tapping, smile-producing, chuckle-a-minute production of The Pajama Game without humming … [Read more...] about The Pajama Game
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein Jacques Offenbach Original French Libretto by Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy English Translation by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera As the marching beats and sounds of the Overture are suddenly interrupted by the fanfare of a trumpet, a group of soldiers spills onto the stage, looking much like a colorful collection of toy soldiers that … [Read more...] about The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
Clue: On Stage
Clue: On Stage Sandy Rustin Based on Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, with Additional Material by Hunter Foster & Eric Price Based on Paramount Pictures film, Clue Based on Hasbro Board Game, CLUE Hillbarn Theatre Six guests arrive at a New England, country mansion in 1954; and soon each receive from the host a plain-paper-wrapped gift – either a dagger, a wrench, a … [Read more...] about Clue: On Stage
Waiting for Next
Waiting for Next Jeffrey Lo City Lights Theater Company Jeffrey Lo’s Waiting for Next is nothing short of being a heart-warming love story about friendship – a story full of charm and fun while also quite capable of drawing an occasional tear through the smiles. Much of the inherent goodness of this world premiere at City Lights Theater Company comes from the fact … [Read more...] about Waiting for Next
Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) Sam Chase Magic Theatre What possibly can a missing sister, a jobless actor, an unhappy TV writer, an impending break-up, sea coral, and sloths have in common with monuments and legacies? In Sam Chase’s Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play), the answer is actually quite a lot. Now in a rapid-paced, video-rich, completely … [Read more...] about Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
Octet
Octet Dave Malloy (Book, Lyrics, Music, Vocal Arrangements) Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Co-Production with Signature Theatre Barely acknowledging the others and each appearing a bit hesitant and even lost, eight individuals – four women, four men – arrive one by one to sit in a circle in what appears to be a church basement. With a nod by one, they begin a sliding … [Read more...] about Octet
Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses Mary Zimmerman (based David Slavitt’s translation of the myths of Ovid) Pear Theatre and Dragon Productions The element that flows and freezes, falls from the sky and evaporates into the air, sustains all life and can drown all existence – This is the medium in which multiple, life-altering transformations occur in each of a dozen-plus vignettes of … [Read more...] about Metamorphoses
Water by the Spoonful
Water by the Spoonful Quiara Alegría Hudes San Francisco Playhouse Remaining estranged from a son for ten years. Maneuvering through a messy divorce. Refusing any sort of relationship with a birth mother while caring for the dying aunt (her sister) who raised him. Being the mother now detested by your son. Wanting to find the Japanese birth parents … [Read more...] about Water by the Spoonful
