CompanyStephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics) & George Furth (Book)San Francisco PlayhouseAll Photos by Jessica Palopoli Expectations for a great evening of musical theatre immediately rise to the top of the scale walking into San Francisco Playhouse’s auditorium with the Bill English and Jacqueline Scott sophisticated, New York, multi-apartment set … [Read more...] about “Company”
San Francisco Playhouse
“Hookman”
HookmanLauren YeeEncore Theatre Company,In Association with Z SpaceThe scene opens innocently enough. Two seventeen-year-old girls, home in California for a holiday break from their respective colleges, banter back and forth driving toward the audience in a skeleton frame of a car as they head to a late-night movie. Their fast-paced, Twitter-like discourse where … [Read more...] about “Hookman”
“Trouble Cometh”
Trouble ComethRichard DresserSan Francisco PlayhouseIntense. Frenetic. Fun(ny). Eye-popping. Richard Dresser’s Trouble Cometh in its world premiere at San Francisco Playhouse delivers this and more in its wham-bam, take-no-prisoners, seventy-five minutes. A white-walled, windowless room with a plain worktable and eye-hurting bright lights is maxed … [Read more...] about “Trouble Cometh”
“In a Word”
In a WordLauren YeeSan Francisco Playhouse, Sandbox SeriesWords and the memories they struggle to recall piece themselves together like puzzles with missing and/or wrong pieces in Lauren Yee’s In a Word. Guy, a husband, struggles to persuade his wife Fiona to go out for her birthday celebration dinner. She stubbornly resists, rooting herself in tangled and tortured … [Read more...] about “In a Word”
“Stupid F**cking Bird”
Stupid F**cking BirdAaron PosnerSan Francisco PlayhousePrior to seeing Aaron Posner’s Stupid F**cking Bird, I revisited Chekhov’s The Seagull and surprisingly found myself wanting to laugh at the extreme melancholy, quickness of each character to cry over any available disappointment, and the seriousness and weight given to most every interaction. While most translations … [Read more...] about “Stupid F**cking Bird”
“Tree”
TreeJulie HebertSan Francisco PlayhouseWalking into the auditorium, all eyes immediately notice the scores of multi-sized, tied cardboard boxes that litter the entire two-level, modest home before us. We then notice a front porch with a rowboat docked in what appears to be the dry road in front. Mystery? Secrets? Revelations? What else could be in … [Read more...] about “Tree”
“Promises, Promises”
Promises, PromisesMusic by Burt Bacharach; Lyrics by Hal David; Book by Neil SimonSF PlayhouseCatching this show near the end of its 8+-week run and having seen the excellent, recent Broadway revival (2010-11) with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth (among others), I was both excited and skeptical as the show began. This 1968 musical about a ambitious insurance junior … [Read more...] about “Promises, Promises”
