Each year in December, the Bay Area is awash with annual holiday productions that have often been running for decades: The Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theatre), The Nutcracker (San Francisco Ballet); Home for the Holidays (The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus); Kung Pao Kosher Comedy; The Golden Girls Live: The Christmas Episodes, to name a few. After its … [Read more...] about Scrooge in Love
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Bull in a China Shop
Mary Emma Woolley (1863-1947) was the first female to attend Brown University, a women’s suffrage advocate, a peace activist, and the president of Mount Holyoke College (MHC) from 1900 to 1937. She was also in a secret relationship with a former student who became an English professor at MHC during the years Woolley was there, Jeanette Marks. Recently, MHC hosted a digital … [Read more...] about Bull in a China Shop
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Coming off recently winning four Theatre Bay Area Awards for this past year’s Twelfth Night, the Arabian Shakespeare Festival opens A Midsummer Night’s Dream that should also be a top prospect for both production and acting awards in the coming year. Shakespeare’s oft-performed, much-loved comedy of love spats and mishaps; fairy shenanigans; and a hilarious play within the … [Read more...] about A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Cake
“If cake were free for everybody, there would be a lot less problems in the world.” In fact, or at least so goes Della’s thinking, invite the leaders of ISIS into her cakery – Della’s Sweets in Winston, North Carolina – and a few bites of her butter cream icing might just improve their dispositions for good! As soon as we meet Della in Bekah Brunstetter’s play, The Cake, it … [Read more...] about The Cake
Elevada
He is a self-proclaimed “online agitator” with four-to-five million followers who rarely leaves his apartment or takes a shower and has never been on a blind date. She is on her eighth, online-generated, first-date in the past three weeks (alas, no second dates yet). He has signed a contract with a megacorporation to sell his identity and cease to exist as a person for the … [Read more...] about Elevada
Urinetown the Musical
When Mark Hollmann’s (music and lyrics) and Greg Kotis’ (book and lyrics) Urinetown the Musicalpremiered in 2001, critics and audiences alike immediately could list a plethora of targets for its biting, yet hilarious satire: corporate greed, political bribery, liberal naivite, mismanaged bureaucracies of all types. Experiencing in 2019 the highly entertaining, laugh-out-loud, … [Read more...] about Urinetown the Musical
The Daughters
In 1955 their meeting in a San Francisco apartment could have resulted in all of them being arrested, losing their jobs, and being shunned by family and friends. In 2015, their having a special place in the City by the Bay to meet was deemed as no longer needed (or financially viable). In a matter of sixty years, was it time to declare triumphantly, “Face it, we won!” as … [Read more...] about The Daughters
Othello
Othello William Shakespeare African-American Shakespeare Company While there are no American flags flying and no “U.S. Army” or “U.S. Navy” stitching on the military uniforms worn, the intentions of Director Carl Jordan could hardly be clearer. There is no way for him to camouflage that this opening production of the African-American Shakespeare Company’s … [Read more...] about Othello
Mark Twain’s River of Song
Part a nineteenth-century cabaret show, part a travelogue of the past, and part a famed writer’s recollections of his life on and around the river, Mark Twain’s River of Song is a journey so worth taking in this TheatreWorks Silicon Valley celebration of the human spirit and its quest for freedom, individuality, and harmony with one of nature’s most beautiful of gifts – the … [Read more...] about Mark Twain’s River of Song
“Sovereignty”
Sovereignty Mary Kathryn Nagle Marin Theatre Company Elizabeth Frances, Adam Magill, Kholan Studi, Scott Coopwood, Andrew Roa, Robert I. Mesa Beginning in the 1830s, Native Peoples were forced to leave their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States and walk thousands of miles to resettle on barren lands in the West, with many thousands dying along the way. … [Read more...] about “Sovereignty”
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge Word for Word Performing Arts Company & Z Space Charles Shaw Robinson The longest, probably best-known poem by the late-eighteenth, early-nineteenth-century founder of the English Romantic Movement, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is the latest theatrical undertaking by San Francisco’s Word for Word Performing Arts … [Read more...] about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
“Bright Star”
Bright StarSteve Martin (Music, Book, Story) & Edie Brickell (Music, Lyrics, Story)Palo Alto PlayersElizabeth SantanaWhen Alice rotates from the rear to step away from a stage full of townspeople to face us, she opens the show singing, “If you knew my story, you’d have a hard time believing me. ” Immediately we know that Elizabeth Santana is going to make this an evening to … [Read more...] about “Bright Star”
“Caroline, Or Change”
Caroline, Or ChangeJeanine Tesori (Music); Tony Kushner (Book & Lyrics)Ray of Light TheatreElizabeth Jones, Cadarious Mayberry, Majesty Scott, Jasmyne Brice, Antone Jackson & Leslie IvyIt is November 1963; and after a relatively stable 1950s, change is in the air everywhere – some good, some scary, some revolutionary, and in one case, an event tragic for a nation and … [Read more...] about “Caroline, Or Change”
“Exit Strategy”
Exit StrategyIke HolterAurora Theatre CompanyAdam Niemann & Margo HallIt’s 6 p.m. in early August a couple of weeks before school is scheduled to open. A thirty-year-old, boyish-looking, white Vice-Principal is trying his best to make friendly small talk about the chocolate cake he left today in the teacher’s lounge to a stone-faced, African American veteran teacher … [Read more...] about “Exit Strategy”
“Anastasia”
AnastasiaTerrence McNally (Book); Stephen Flaherty (Music); Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics)SHNLila Coogan & Stephen BrowerSoon after a group of Bolsheviks brutally murdered Tsar Nicolas II and his entire family on July 17, 1918, rumors spread faster than the Revolutionary Guard could extinguish them that Grand Duchess Anastasia had somehow escaped and was living in hiding. … [Read more...] about “Anastasia”
