Steve Murray

There’s a giant dynamo inside the petite frame of Marilyn Maye that propels her constantly forward, now approaching her 98th birthday, and eighth decade of performances. She’s a national treasure and receives adulation befitting her status wherever she performs.

The late AIDS activist Larry Kramer meets Pete Buttigieg in John Fisher’s wild political fantasia Left Field, now occupying the full stage at Theatre Rhino. Written and directed by Fisher, Left Field follows an angry radical f****t who rises from mayor to supervisor, to VP candidate, to potential President of the US.

Arthur Miller needed after his disastrous Broadway debut with the four-performance The Man Who Had All the Luck, and an article in an Ohio newspaper would provide the basis for All My Sons which would on to win two Tony awards for Best Author and Direction of a Play.

The Paranormal Activity franchise (seven films from 2007 -21), while critically panned, proved people love to be scared, then laugh at their foolishness. Now a theatre piece, the crowd anticipated the expected thrills of supernatural goings on in a live experience.

What did our critic think of THE NOTEBOOK at Orpheum Theatre?

What did our critic think of M. BUTTERFLY at SF Playhouse?

Change is hard, we all know that. We get stuck in patterns and the comfortable, even if that inertia is destructive. Watching Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, brilliantly directed by American Conservatory Theatre Artistic Director emerita Carey Perloff and starring an all-star cast of local legends, will make to jump into action.

Heidi Schreck’s award-winning 2019 homage to the US Constitution couldn’t be timelier than at this moment of political crisis in America. Written as a remembrance of her 15-year-old self as a debater in love with the constitution, the present-day Heidi narrates the play which links her family’s backstories to the application of the 9th and 14th Amendments.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are on a high recently, with their long- running animated series South Park skewering the present administration in their inimitable profane and darkly surreal style. 2011’s The Book of Mormon brought their irreverent humor to Broadway in what at the time seemed shocking, blasphemous, and absurdly brilliant.

What did our critic think of MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at Orpheum Theatre? The appeal, based on the audience, is the acknowledgment of the song snippets – an “I know that song” reward. But the conceit grows thin and becomes one big cheat.

Mix one part All About Eve, one part Gypsy, and a healthy shot of The Bad Seed in a blender and you’ve got the recipe for Ruthless!, a delightfully dark comedy alternative to the typical holiday fare. A reboot from their 2023 production, Ruthless! is a delight for theatre and old movie references and over-the-top performances, all the while scratching out itch for absurd murder melodramas.

What did our critic think of CINDERELLA at Hillbarn Theatre?

Over two hundred and fifty years after fighting the British for independence, we’re absolutely gaga over Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s delightful Christmas at Pemberley series and its spot on depictions of Regency England.

What did our critic think of SPENCER DAY: SONMGS FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT at Feinstein's At The Nikko?

Sondheim fans rejoice! We have not one, but two sensational productions to satisfy that itch for smart lyrics and equally solid books. Shotgun Players is running their fabulous Sunday in the Park with George, and now Director Susi Damilano and SF Playhouse have outdone themselves with a stunning Into the Woods. Every component of this production is a winner; casting, technical, and musical.

The fictionalized account of pointillist painter George Seurat’s creation of his masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and his great-grandson (also named George), also a troubled artist.

Jessica Huang’s Mother of Exiles, a world premiere at Berkeley Rep, suffers under the weight of its solemn intentions, perhaps attempting too many themes that left this viewer unsatisfied in each.

Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector caused quite the stir in the 1840’s with its biting satire on political corruption in a small rural town. For Naatak theatre group’s 116th production, Harish Agastya has transposed the action to Gujarat, India and the city of Anand, where greed and bureaucratic ineptness have become an art form.

The British sure love their suspense stories. The Woman in Black, which premiered back in 1987, is the second longest-running play in the history of London’s West End, right behind Agatha Christies’ whodunnit The Mousetrap.