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Theatre Eddys

Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

MUST SEE

A Distinct Society

April 12, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

A Distinct Society Kareem Fahmy TheatreWorks Silicon Valley An executive order on January 27, 2017, by a president barely one week in office barred citizens from seven countries – all majority Muslim – from entering the United States.  Protests, legal challenges, and suits followed; but in the meantime, border agencies began reacting and enacting, often changing … [Read more...] about A Distinct Society

The Triumph of Love

April 2, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

The Triumph of Love Pierre De Marivaux, Translated by Stephen Wadsworth Shotgun Players Gender confusions left and right that lead to infatuations built on false pretenses.  A cunning princess plotting to capture the love of a naïve prince who has been taught his whole life to hate and eventually usurp her.  Loves built on mounting lies leading to three planned … [Read more...] about The Triumph of Love

FANNIE: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

March 13, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer Cheryl L. West TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Despite having suffered polio as a child, a Mississippi sharecropper worked in the cotton fields twelve-to-eighteen-hour a day starting at the age of six in a state where 77% of the people were Black like she but where the minority whites ran 100% of everything.  But then one day … [Read more...] about FANNIE: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Perfect Arrangement

March 12, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Perfect Arrangement Topher Payne Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory The red stage light comes on, accompanied by a resounding ring; theme music fills the air; and lights come up on what could almost be a recreation of Lucy and Desi’s apartment.  Canned applause joins in ushering to the stage another episode of Perfect Arrangement.  But what starts out as a … [Read more...] about Perfect Arrangement

Cambodian Rock Band

March 2, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Cambodian Rock Band Lauren Yee, with Songs by Dengue Fever Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presenting the Signature Theatre Production in Association with Alley Theatre, ACT Theatre/5th Avenue & Center Theatre Group, A play about family displacement, trauma, and massive genocide is not a play one would normally expect often to laugh, to tap one’s foot to rock music, … [Read more...] about Cambodian Rock Band

Dear San Francisco

February 27, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Dear San Francisco Shana Carroll & Gypsy Snider, Co-Creators A Production of The 7 Fingers at Club Fugazi San Francisco’s Club Fugazi is personally for me a sacred space where many memories were created during the more than twenty-five times I attended what became the world’s longest-running cabaret show during its forty-five-year history, Beach Blanket Babylon.  … [Read more...] about Dear San Francisco

The Headlands

February 16, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

The Headlands Christopher Chen American Conservatory Theater   There are so many reasons to get your ticket today to see the West Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s The Headlands at American Conservatory Theater before the last curtain on March 5: For anyone who lives in or near San Francisco, the play is like a SF love fest, featuring some of the most … [Read more...] about The Headlands

Satchmo at the Waldorf

February 14, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Satchmo at the Waldorf Terry Teachout San Jose Stage Company Coughing and wheezing desperately for his next breath and with shoulders hunched as he stumbles toward the portable oxygen tank in the corner, the elderly man we see entering the large, backstage dressing room still is recognizable at first sight.  After all, who else always has a white handkerchief hanging … [Read more...] about Satchmo at the Waldorf

Miss You Like Hell

February 7, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Miss You Like Hell Quiara Alegría Hudes (Book & Lyrics); Erin McKeown (Music & Lyrics) City Lights Theater Company in Co-Production with Teatro Visión Many a book and movie through the years have chronicled “the great American road trip” across the continent as individuals, friends, and families have ventured into the plains, mountains, and lonely towns in … [Read more...] about Miss You Like Hell

Paradise Blue

February 3, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Paradise Blue Dominique Morisseau Aurora Theatre Company In Aurora Theatre Company’s award-winning Detroit ’67 in 2018, the sounds of Detroit’s homegrown, Motown music were the background beat of Dominique Morisseau’s funny and frightening, heart-warming and heart-stopping play, Detroit ’67, the first of a trilogy about her hometown and a story that explodes amidst … [Read more...] about Paradise Blue

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

January 30, 2023 by Eddie Reynolds

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Dave Malloy Shotgun Players Having opened November 15, 2022, Shotgun Players’ audience-immersive, modern-sounding opera set in a Russian cabaret setting of 1812 – Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy – has already received the highest of accolades from both my fellow critics and especially from … [Read more...] about Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Sanctuary City

July 15, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Sanctuary City Martyna Majok Berkeley Repertory Theatre, in Association with Arena Stage Two high school seniors each are seeking sanctuary from a life that fate and family have unfortunately gifted them.  B (as in Boy) arrived in this country ten years prior and is now here illegally because his mom overstayed her visa – a mom who now has vowed to leave him and go … [Read more...] about Sanctuary City

Hadestown

June 9, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Hadestown Anaïs Mitchell (Music, Lyrics & Book) BroadwaySF Sometimes, there simply are not enough superlatives to do justice. During the Jewish Seder, there is a section recounting all the blessings and miracles the Israelites have received; and after each is recited, those gathered around the festival table say, “Dayenu,” “It would have been enough.” If the … [Read more...] about Hadestown

Ragtime the Musical

June 7, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds

Ragtime Terrence McNally (Book); Stephen Flaherty (Music); Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics) Based on the novel Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Let me begin with an upfront confession.  In my humble opinion, if there is one musical that could be called “The Great American Musical,” it is Ragtime.  Based on E. L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel by the same name, … [Read more...] about Ragtime the Musical

A Small Fire

May 23, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds

A Small Fire Adam Block Shotgun Players If tomorrow I find myself completely without the majority of my sensory powers that only yesterday seemed perfunctory, what would be left for me in life?  No smell, no taste, no sight, no hearing?  What effects would this catastrophic shift have on my relationships – my family, my friends?  How would their lives shift?  Could … [Read more...] about A Small Fire

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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

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Good production but something is lacking or not clicking.
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Below average but had at least one interesting component.
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Waste of time.

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Theatre Eddys reviews performances throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

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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