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
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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
Roe
Roe Lisa Loomer Los Altos Stage Company Almost fifty years after Justice Blackmun announced the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision and as a new set of justices are staged in 2022 to announce new decisions that could all but reverse that landmark decision, nothing still divides this country more than Roe vs. Wade. With many people predicting a June 2022 demise … [Read more...] about Roe
Heroes of the Fourth Turning
As birds chirp from every direction, a backwoods cabin sits against a backdrop of giant pines, lined up like sentry soldiers guarding under a Wyoming sky whose stars begin to peak through their needles. Intermittent chords resembling a distant foghorn are heard as we settle into our seats; but there is something ominous in their low, haunting sounds. As the play progresses, … [Read more...] about Heroes of the Fourth Turning
Toni Stone
To a Bay Area that has two baseball teams long esteemed by tens of thousands comes the largely unknown story of a baseball pioneer and hero with local connections, a story of the first woman to play professional baseball on an all-male team. Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone is a baseball lover’s dream while also unmasking the nightmarish sexism and racism the title character had … [Read more...] about Toni Stone
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
The 2014, multi-Tony-Award-winning musical with its music-hall-sounding score and oft-rhyming-and-rapid-firing lyrics receives a fast-moving, laugh-out-loud rendering under the jocular direction of Daren A. C. Carollo. His directorial tongue never leaves his cheeks as he has conceived innumerable, over-the-top ways to tickle our innards while watching the demises of the … [Read more...] about A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Macbeth
Woodwinds creep together in soft, low measures before intertwining in higher registers and giving way to announcing brass that awaken spirits from the underworld. Those dark figures manipulate wood puppets to tell the agonized history of a royal, childless marriage. From foggy mists, faceless sisters of the night emerge in every sort of torn and draped rag, roving about while … [Read more...] about Macbeth
