Rachmaninoff and the Tsar Hershey Felder (Book); Sergei Rachmaninoff (Music) TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Little doubt but that there is a very real love affair between the San Francisco Bay Area and Hershey Felder. This is particularly true for the audiences of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley who have reveled in so many of his past musical biographies of famed composers … [Read more...] about Rachmaninoff and the Tsar
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Waitress
Waitress Jessie Nelson (Book): Sara Bareilles (Music & Lyrics) San Francisco Playhouse Every day she bakes twenty-seven pies, including one each day that she creates as a new recipe on the spot – pies with names like Big Guy Strawberry, Polka Dot Peach, Lost Shepard’s, and Deep (Shit) Blueberry. At Joe’s Pie Diner where everyone wants once again to know “What’s … [Read more...] about Waitress
Mother Road
Mother Road Octavio Solis Berkeley Repertory Theatre Seventy-plus years have passed since the Joad family of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath joined a parade of desperate migrant farmers, all leaving their starving lives in Dust-Bowl-ravaged Oklahoma of the 1930s while looking for the lush life they saw painted on fruit crates from California. Two Joads – a mother and … [Read more...] about Mother Road
Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration
When he was just fourteen and called by Robert Kelley to come and play the piano for a local theatre’s rehearsal session, could then young William Liberatore ever imagine that nearly five decades later in 2024 he would be opening his fiftieth show as music director with that same company, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley – a show he and Kelley, the company’s founder and now- … [Read more...] about Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration
Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan (Book); Mel Brooks (Music & Lyrics) Los Altos Stage Company When it comes to parody and farce, who does it better than Mel Brooks? Whether garnering tear-producing laughs by satirizing Star Wars movies (Spaceballs), Alfred Hitchcock thrillers (Anxiety), westerns (Blazing Saddles), Broadway (Producers), and so much … [Read more...] about Young Frankenstein
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie Dan Gillespie Sells (Score) & Tom MacRae (Book & Lyrics) Based Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Directed by Jenny Popplewell Ray of Light Theatre What better way for a San Francisco audience to celebrate Pride Month than enjoying to the hilt a joyous, upbeat, and totally inspiring coming out story of a sixteen-year-old whose only dream … [Read more...] about Everybody’s Talking about Jamie
Dear San Francisco
Dear San Francisco Shana Carroll & Gypsy Snider, Co-Creators A Production of The 7 Fingers at Club Fugazi Co-created by choreographic superstars Shana Carroll and Gypsy Snider, Dear San Francisco is ninety-minutes of breath-taking, heart-pumping acrobatics; aerial exhibitions; vaulting bodies; juggling of hats and umbrellas; hoop diving; and so much more. But what … [Read more...] about Dear San Francisco
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy Stefano Massini Adapted by Ben Power American Conservatory Theater It is a story whose ending we already too well know. The world’s fourth largest investment bank files for the biggest bankruptcy in American history, sending Wall Street into panic and initiating the 2008-09 global financial crisis and the collapse of numerous, other banking … [Read more...] about The Lehman Trilogy
Galileo
Galileo Danny Strong (Book); Michael Weiner & Zoe Sarnack (Music & Lyrics) Berkeley Repertory Theatre From one side we hear, “Science asks the questions; the Bible has the answers;” from the opposing view, “The Scriptures is a book about going to heaven; it is not a book about how the heavens go.” Sounds like countering arguments made in some current, state … [Read more...] about Galileo
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams San Francisco Playhouse As we enter the theatre, we immediately notice at the stage’s corner a young man intently smoking, looking one moment longingly into a non-descript distance and writing the next with much intent into a small notebook clasped tightly in his hand. In between, he rummages through a collection of records, … [Read more...] about The Glass Menagerie
The Chinese Lady
The Chinese Lady Lloyd Suh The Pear Theatre A young girl barely fourteen dressed and in make-up of her traditional, royal Chinese background sits in a small room surrounded by reminders of her Chinese heritage. With sparkling personality and sweet smile, she tells us that while her lips are moving, she is not speaking; that the words we hear are not hers; and that the … [Read more...] about The Chinese Lady
Love Letters
Love Letters A.R. Gurney The Pear Theatre A.R. Gurney’s 1989-premiering Love Letters has been performed hundreds of times by theatres on-and-off-Broadway, coast-to-coast, and internationally, featuring thousands of couples – often the biggest names in show biz – who generally star in the two-hander show only one night. By design of the playwright, actors do not see a … [Read more...] about Love Letters
Something Rotten
Something Rotten Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell (Book); Wayne & Karey Kirkpatrick (Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory With eyes sparkling their excitement and a spry body moving almost like a stringed puppet, the Minstrel sings, “Welcome to the Renaissance, where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance ... where everything is new.” Touting … [Read more...] about Something Rotten
A Strange Loop
A Strange Loop Michael R. Jackson (Book, Music & Lyrics) American Conservatory Theater, in Co-Production with Central Theatre Group Two minutes until the intermission of The Lion King ends. The usher – who just happens to be named Usher – dings the ‘bing-bong-bing’ warning to scurry folks back to their seats. Recurring thoughts begin swarming in his head – often … [Read more...] about A Strange Loop
The Tutor
The Tutor Torange Yeghiazarian New Conservatory Theatre Center, In Partnership with Golden Threads Productions “Everyone knows that everyone is lying … Eventually you learn what you can get away with publicly, and the rest, you manage privately … It may seem like a lot to juggle; but practice, daily practice makes perfect," declares the young Baran, soon after … [Read more...] about The Tutor
