The Comedy of Errors William Shakespeare, with Modern Verse Translation by Christina Anderson American Conservatory Theater, A Touring Production by the Acting Company What a difference a week can make! A week ago, New York's touring Acting Company opened at American Conservatory Theatre a must-see, poetic play of powerful prose about a turbulent, turning point … [Read more...] about The Comedy of Errors
Touring Company
Two Trains Running
Two Trains Running August Wilson American Conservatory Theater, A Touring Production by the Acting Company Many duo-tracks run in parallel, crisscross, and sometimes collide in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, the 1960s contribution to his ten-play, 20th Century American Cycle. Death and life, white and Black, love and loneliness, older generation and younger … [Read more...] about Two Trains Running
The Cher Show
The Cher Show Rick Elice (Book); Various Artists (Music & Lyrics) Broadway San Jose Born in El Centro, California of an Armenian-American truck driver father with drug and gambling problems and a mixed-European-heritage, actress and model mother (parents who divorced when she was ten months old), Cheryl Sarkisian was mocked at school in the 1950s as a … [Read more...] about The Cher Show
The Best of The Second City
The Best of The Second City The Second City Berkeley Repertory Theatre For sixty-four years emanating from its Chicago birthplace has come generation after generation of some of the world’s greatest comedian superstars, all getting their start doing improv and ensemble acts at The Second City. The likes of Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Tina Fay, Chris … [Read more...] about The Best of The Second City
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy Stefano Massini Adapted by Ben Power American Conservatory Theater It is a story whose ending we already too well know. The world’s fourth largest investment bank files for the biggest bankruptcy in American history, sending Wall Street into panic and initiating the 2008-09 global financial crisis and the collapse of numerous, other banking … [Read more...] about The Lehman Trilogy
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner Adapted by Matthew Spangler, Based on the Novel by Khaled Hosseini Hammer Theatre and EnActe Arts “I became what I am today at the age of twelve; I remember the precise moment … It’s wrong what they say about the past, about how you can bury it because the past claws its way out.” And so near three decades later, on the west coast of a continent an … [Read more...] about The Kite Runner
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord Kristina Wong American Conservatory Theatre With the hard rock and blues beats of J Roddy Watson and the Business blasting out, “I’ve been pulling threads, doing all kinds of evil,” a woman sits at her sewing machine and quickly whirls a piece of cloth through the machine’s needles, pulling out a mask – the kind we were all desperately … [Read more...] about Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord
1776
1776 Sherman Edwards (Music & Lyrics); Peter Stone (Book) Broadway San Jose How familiar does this sound? A Congress that seems to get nothing done. A Congress that is divided into two factions that can barely tolerate each other. Committees upon committees where members of Congress meet to debate ad nauseum and decide little. Members of Congress debating who … [Read more...] about 1776
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof Joseph Stein (Book); Jerry Bock (Music); Sheldon Harnick (Lyrics) BroadwaySF After its record-setting, award-winning initial run on Broadway in 1964; its five Broadway revivals since; countless openings on local and touring stages globally and in towns and cities from coast to coast in America – not to mention the 1971 film whose scenes are now … [Read more...] about Fiddler on the Roof
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman, The Musical Gerry Marshall & J.F. Lawton (Book); Bryan Adams & Jim Vallance (Music & Lyrics) Based on Touchstone Pictures motion picture by J.F. Lawton Broadway San Jose A billionaire New Yorker who buys at bargain prices troubled companies only to dismantle them and sell the pieces for millions in profits picks up a prostitute in a shady … [Read more...] about Pretty Woman
SIX
SIX Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss (Music, Lyrics & Book) BroadwaySF “Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.” These six words quickly conjure up for millions of people around the globe – folks who read even a bit of history, watched a few Netflix series, and/or played a few games of trivia at a local bar – the six wives of a king well known five … [Read more...] about SIX
The Prom
The Prom Bob Martin & Chad Beguelin (Book); Matthew Sklar (Music); Chad Beguelin (Lyrics) BroadwaySF Oops! Eleanor (the musical) is an opening night flop for long-time Broadway stars, Dee Dee and Barry. Uh-oh! The only show available for Julliard-trained Trent is a non-equity tour of Godspell. Damn! Twenty years in the chorus of Chicago, and Angie has had … [Read more...] about The Prom
Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen Steven Levenson (Book); Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (Music & Lyrics) Broadway San Jose After yet another frustrating breakfast with sons who refuse to engage, two mothers of high school seniors each sing in desperation, “Does anybody have a map? Anybody maybe happened to know how the hell to do this?” Heidi’s son, Evan, is reclusive and stumbles … [Read more...] about Dear Evan Hansen
The SpongeBob Musical
Goofy but cute? Check. Nutty-and-fruity but timely in theme? Check. Sappy but good-hearted? Check. For kids and adults alike? Check. Ignore the title and just go see it? Check. For anyone like myself that somehow – in my case, even with six kids – never tuned in even once to Stephen Hillenburg’s award-winning, Nickelodeon hit, SpongeBob … [Read more...] about The SpongeBob Musical
Miss Saigon
The story originating from Puccini’s much-beloved opera Madame Butterfly is well enough known that most audience members arrive – as they might for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – anticipating the tragic ending to its ill-fated love story. Decade-long runs both in London and New York in the 1990s as well as continual, packed-house tours worldwide these past twenty years also … [Read more...] about Miss Saigon
