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
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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
Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss II Original German Libretto by Karl Kaffner & Richard Ginée; English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera Everybody who is anybody of societal standing in Vienna is heading to the ball of the season at the palatial home of Prince Orlofsky. The gowned and tuxedoed guests include a man-about-town disguised as a French marquis who is … [Read more...] about Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman, The Musical Gerry Marshall & J.F. Lawton (Book); Bryan Adams & Jim Vallance (Music & Lyrics) Based on Touchstone Pictures motion picture by J.F. Lawton Broadway San Jose A billionaire New Yorker who buys at bargain prices troubled companies only to dismantle them and sell the pieces for millions in profits picks up a prostitute in a shady … [Read more...] about Pretty Woman
A Statue for Ballybunion
A Statue for Ballybunion Tom McEnery San Jose Playhouse It is January 1998; and after deadly decades of “The Troubles,” the prospects for peace in Ireland are looking better than ever, with much help coming from the Leader of the Free World, President Bill Clinton. But on the craggy, western shores of Kerry County, things are not looking so rosy for the small town of … [Read more...] about A Statue for Ballybunion
The Glass Menagerie
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
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
