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Theatre Eddys

Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

5 E

Big Data

February 23, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Big Data Kate Attwell American Conservatory Theater A stranger shows up at the door, and you let him in, not knowing quite why.  He settles in as if he knows the place and begins asking mundane but also personal questions and taking some notes.  Somehow, he seems already to know a lot about you and describes aspects of yourself, your inner desires, and even dreams for … [Read more...] about Big Data

Rigoletto

February 18, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

Rigoletto Giuseppe Verdi Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave Opera San José Little wonder it is that from its Vienna premiere in 1851 until the twenty-first century, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is one of the world’s most-beloved, most-performed operas.  Soaring in music that includes famous, widely recognized arias that are difficult for an audience member not to … [Read more...] about Rigoletto

Manahatta

February 16, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

Manahatta Mary Kathryn Nagle Aurora Theatre Company Two American stories, four centuries apart, interlock in their telling, with characters, events, motives, triumphs, and tragedies strikingly similar in Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahatta, which premiered in 2018 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  Now in an intimately engrossing and enlightening production at Aurora … [Read more...] about Manahatta

Rent

February 12, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

Rent Jonathan Larson (Book, Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory In January 1996, onto a Broadway stage burst a sexy, soaring musical daring to bestow unforgettable faces and personalities to seven artists struggling to survive not only their 1989, East Village poverty, but also the plague of AIDS/HIV that appeared ready to wipe out an entire … [Read more...] about Rent

How I Learned What I Learned

January 22, 2024 by Eddie Reynolds

How I Learned What I Learned August Wilson (Co-Conceived with Todd Kreidler) TheatreWorks Silicon Valley As an elderly, Black man emerges from the theatre’s exit door with aged limp but also with a dignified and sure stature, he intently and silently watches projected, vintage black-and-white film clips of the neighborhoods and their peoples of Black America’s … [Read more...] about How I Learned What I Learned

A Chorus Line

June 30, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

A Chorus Line James Kirkwood and Nicolas Dante (Book): Marvin Hamlisch (Music); Edward Kleban (Lyrics) Originally Conceived by Michael Bennett San Francisco Playhouse What is immediately striking as the twenty-four dancing hopefuls both sprint and shuffle onto the stage is the wide variety of shapes, sizes, races, and ages among them.  At first glance, many of them is … [Read more...] about A Chorus Line

Out of Character

June 29, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Out of Character Ari’el Stachel Berkeley Repertory Company One of the most remarkable aspects of Berkeley Rep’s latest world premiere show, Out of Character, is the vast array of characters on the stage – unique, interesting people of so many races, places of origin, and family backgrounds with accents, personalities, and personal stories so rich, authentic, and … [Read more...] about Out of Character

Sunday in the Park with George

June 16, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Sunday in the Park with George Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book) Los Altos Stage Company   “Order.” “Design.” “Tension.” “Composition.” “Balance.” “Light.” As each word is announced by the artist whose science of painting is guided by these exacting principles, the members of his most famous composition move into place, aided by his … [Read more...] about Sunday in the Park with George

Othello

June 13, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Othello William Shakespeare San Jose Stage Company The more Iago’s seeds of deceit begin to take root and wind their deadly vines around the too-receptive Othello, the more brilliant becomes Director Kenneth Kelleher’s decision to place San Jose Stage Company’s production of the Bard’s tragedy in a barely lit, black-walled jazz club of the 1950’s.  With the background, … [Read more...] about Othello

The Wizard of Oz

June 8, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

The Wizard of Oz Frank Baum (Book); Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg (Music & Lyrics); Herbert Stothart (Background Music) American Conservatory Theater Let’s be clear: Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, in the current American Conservatory Theater production, we are also definitely not in the same version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz that we read in … [Read more...] about The Wizard of Oz

Into the Woods

May 23, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Into the Woods Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book) The Mountain Play What better way to get in the mood to enjoy an afternoon of Into the Woods than to walk on a path through a forest of mighty trees after traveling by bus, car, or even foot halfway up a mighty mountain?  Now far away from the Bay and a City that can be seen through a gap in the … [Read more...] about Into the Woods

The Scottsboro Boys

May 13, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

The Scottsboro Boys John Kander & Fred Ebb (Music & Lyrics); David Thompson (Book) 42nd Street Moon Eleven Black men walk onto the stage with spirited steps carrying wooden boxes that become their seats.  In the middle of their quarter-moon arc enters a tall, white man in white suit and with white hair and beard.  After first announcing, “Gentleman, be seated,” … [Read more...] about The Scottsboro Boys

Chinglish

May 11, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Chinglish David Henry Hwang San Francisco Playhouse With a congenial big smile behind the center-stage lectern, American businessman Daniel Cavanaugh punctuates his talk on “Doing Business in China” with examples how Chinese interpreters often massacre common English phrases in commercial signage, with “Chief Financial Officer” becoming “Financial Affairs Is Everywhere … [Read more...] about Chinglish

The NI¿¿ER LOVERS

May 7, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

The NI¿¿ER LOVERS: An Amerikkan Musical Marc Anthony Thompson, Writer & Composer Magic Theatre In 1848, a young, married couple devised and successfully executed in eight days a daring, dangerous plan to escape the horrific bondage of slavery in Macon, Georgia to find freedom in Boston – the light-skinned wife disguised as a man and her darker-skinned husband, as … [Read more...] about The NI¿¿ER LOVERS

Tosca

April 22, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Tosca Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa Opera San José Immensely impressive, profoundly passionate, and musically masterful from first notes to closing plunge off the parapet describe Opera San José’s triumphant production of Giacomo Puccini’s timelessly popular Tosca.  Within the setting of San José’s beautifully majestic California … [Read more...] about Tosca

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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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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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