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Theatre Eddys

Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

5 E

A Grand Night for Singing — An American Songfest

June 27, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

A Grand Night for Singing -- An American Songfest Ronny Michael Greenberg, Curator Merola Opera Program From 1300 initial applicants and 650 in-person auditions, twenty-eight singers, pianists, and directors have been selected in 2025 for the nation's preeminent opera training program whose annual participants arrive from all over the world.  In addition to their … [Read more...] about A Grand Night for Singing — An American Songfest

Annunciation

June 26, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Annunciation  Lauren Groff Word for Word and Z Space "It is only now when I know myself to be good and bad in equal measures."  That announcement of sorts -- or "annunciation" -- comes after our unnamed narrator has recalled a year much earlier in her life post college graduation when she headed across the country to land initially in San Francisco, California with … [Read more...] about Annunciation

Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical

June 24, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical Ashley Robinson (Book); Dan Gillespie Sells (Music); Shakina (Lyrics) Based on the Play by Ed Graczyk  It's hot and dusty in McCarthy, Texas where it has not rained in three years.  But in the summer of 1975, the loyal "Disciples of James Dean" are mopping the sweat from their brows as they gather … [Read more...] about Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical

Sweet Charity

June 10, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Sweet Charity Neil Simon (Book); Cy Coleman (Music); Dorothy Fields (Music) San Jose Stage Company (The Stage) Sometimes there are so many aspects of a spectacular production that it is almost impossible to know where to begin.  That is especially true for San Jose Stage Company's current summer hit-in-the-making, Sweet Charity.  First, the 1967-premiering musical … [Read more...] about Sweet Charity

Next to Normal

June 6, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Next to Normal Brian Yorkey (Book & Lyrics); Tom Kitt (Music) Ray of Light Theatre Lifelong mental disease, paralyzing grief, severe depression, feelings by a child of a parent's abandonment, drug abuse, the questionable practices of modern psychiatry, suicide.  While not the subjects normally associated with the Great American Musical, Brian Yorkey (book and … [Read more...] about Next to Normal

Brigadoon

May 26, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Brigadoon Alan Jay Lerner (Book & Lyrics); Frederick Lowe (Music) South Bay Musical Theatre "When you love someone deeply, anything is possible ... even miracles." In times such as we are now experiencing where more and more people are either deeply losing hope, becoming daily more cynical, or just checking out, the idea of miracles probably for most seems a … [Read more...] about Brigadoon

Otello

May 24, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Otello Giuseppi Verdi (Music); Arigo Boito (Libretto) West Bay Opera After his successful Aida premiered in 1871, the great Giuseppi Verdi decided with firm finality to retire from opera composition; but the librettist Arigo Boito had other ideas.  Boito's persistent temptations for Verdi to tackle one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, Othello, finally led to a … [Read more...] about Otello

Parade

May 23, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Parade Alfred Uhry (Book); Jason Robert Brown (Music & Lyrics);  Hal Prince (Co-conceived); Daniel Felsenfeld (Orchestrations) BroadwaySF It is 1913 in Atlanta, not quite fifty years after the city lay in total ashes at the end of the Civil War.  An annual, Memorial Day parade is in progress; but in this parade, there are no signs of American flags -- only … [Read more...] about Parade

Yellow Face

May 19, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Yellow Face David Henry Hwang Shotgun Players Following a decade in the 1990s when Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson railed against the growing influence of Chinese Americans and questioned where their loyalties really lay (going famously after nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee as a traitor), David Henry Hwang opened in 2007 his play, Yellow Face, a brilliantly scripted … [Read more...] about Yellow Face

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

May 9, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Simon Stephens, Based on the Novel by Mark Haddon San Francisco Playhouse A boy of fifteen years, three months, three days can count from a fast moving train the exact number of trees on a hillside, of clouds in the sky, and of hues of green in the meadows passing by.  He notes without hesitation that his neighbor … [Read more...] about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Henry V

April 28, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Henry V William Shakespeare  The Pear Theatre “Therefore take heed how you impawn one person, How you awake our sleeping sword of war. We charge you in the name of God, take heed; For never two such kingdoms did contend Without much fall of blood.” The King who looks squarely, calmly, and bluntly into the eyes of the Archbishop of Canterbury – a man … [Read more...] about Henry V

Shameless Hussy

April 28, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds 1 Comment

Shameless Hussy Lynne Kaufman The Marsh Surrounded by the sounds of fog horn, crashing waves and terrifying thunder, a trembling eleven-year-old girl cries to her mother as the two leave her native France, bound for the U.S, "I am losing my country, my language, and my father".  Her mother hands her a notebook and suggests she write in it letters to the father left … [Read more...] about Shameless Hussy

Jersey Boys

April 27, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Jersey Boys Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice (Book) Bob Gaudio (Music); Bob Crewe (Lyrics) Palo Alto Players Let it be known by anyone and everyone who has seen once, twice, or a dozen times Jersey Boys in New York, London, or on touring stages throughout the country and abroad that seeing the 2005, multi-Tony-award-winning juke-box hit one more time in a … [Read more...] about Jersey Boys

Writing Fragments Home

April 22, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Writing Fragments Home Jeffrey Lo Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory Forty-year-old Jay awaits anxiously with luggage in hand for his mom to get home from work, nervously practicing various ways of saying, "Hi, Mom, it's good to see you/How was work?/I'm sorry ... can I move back home?"  When Mary Beth walks in, her first reaction?  "What's wrong?... What are you … [Read more...] about Writing Fragments Home

Zorro

April 20, 2025 by Eddie Reynolds 1 Comment

Zorro Héctor Armienta (Music & Libretto) Opera San José A pulp fiction novel written in 1919 by John McCulley was so popular that he wrote dozens more short stories for decades about its hero.  Within a year of McCulley's publication, Douglas Fairbanks starred in a swashbuckling silent film whose popularity helped spawn to-date more than 40 more films, ten TV … [Read more...] about Zorro

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Eddie is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

Theatre Eddys Ratings Legend

5 E's - Loved It
A classic, would see it a second time.
4 E's - Really Liked It
Excellent, strong production.
3 E's - Liked It
Good production but something is lacking or not clicking.
2 E's - Just OK
Below average but had at least one interesting component.
1 E - Did Not Like It
Waste of time.

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Musical5 Eworld premiereMUST SEE4 ETheatreWorks Silicon ValleySan Francisco PlayhouseNew Conservatory Theatre CenterPear TheatreBerkeley Repertory Company4.5 EMarin Theatre CompanyPalo Alto PlayersAmerican Conservatory TheatreShotgun PlayersAurora Theatre CompanyThe MarshHillbarn Theatre3.5 ECity Lights Theater Company

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About Eddie

Theatre Critic for the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, writing 150+ reviews annually for Theatre Eddys and Talkin' Broadway (San Jose/Silicon Valley). Read More

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