Red VelvetLolita ChakrabartiSan Francisco PlayhouseThe Cast of "Red Velvet"A play a decade in the writing about a story of a Shakespeare actor nine score years in the telling bursts onto the stage with fever, fervor, and fury that the Bard himself would surely admire. That this classical actor is a black American, son of a straw-farming preacher and a floor-scrubbing … [Read more...] about “Red Velvet”
San Francisco Playhouse
“On Clover Road”
On Clover RoadSteven DietzSan Francisco Playhouse Sally Dana as KateThe cloak of the film noir genre drapes over everything. The motel room is cheap, barren, and covered in carpet that looks dirty. She enters in a brown trench coat clutching a purse for dear life; he is in a scuffed-up leather coat with a black bag, latched and secretive-looking. The lighting … [Read more...] about “On Clover Road”
“Colossal”
ColossalAndrew HinderakerSan Francisco PlayhouseThe Players PrepareA tail-gate picnic table full of all the wrong, but good things to eat (chips, dip, Cheetos, etc.) along side a full bar of tempting drink specials gives the now-crowded theatre lobby a whole new feel from normal. Reverberating beats and crashes of drums and cymbals from an awaiting auditorium begin to draw in … [Read more...] about “Colossal”
“The Nether”
The NetherJennifer HaleySan Francisco PlayhouseThe Cast of "The Nether"Already we live in a world where increasingly people are more apt to converse with a colleague in the next-door cube or the date across the dining table online versus in person. Millions escape to imaginary lands to fight battles and kill invaders as well as to plant farms, sell goods, or solve world … [Read more...] about “The Nether”
“Stage Kiss”
Stage KissSarah RuhlSan Francisco PlayhouseGabriel Marin as He & Carrie Paff as SheHarry Potter snogs; teens suck face; others peck, smack, make out, or tongue wrestle. In Sarah Ruhl’s hilarious Stage Kiss, the meeting of two sets of lips and the co-tangling of tongues becomes the central and most-repeated action of the play, from quick brush-by’s to seriously long … [Read more...] about “Stage Kiss”
“Dogfight”
DogfightBenj Pasek & Justin Paul (Music & Lyrics); Peter Duchan (Book)San Francisco PlayhouseThe Marines of "Dogfight"Take an ugly contest and an uglier war; add a soldier, a waitress, music, and a moon over the Golden Gate; and the result is a moving, compelling, sometimes disturbing, and often funny love story at San Francisco Playhouse. With music and lyrics by … [Read more...] about “Dogfight”
“Company”
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”
“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”
