Steve Murray - Page 6

It's March 4, 1848, and the TheatreWorks audience are all students who paid 20 francs for a piano lesson from none other than the doyenne of Paris society, piano virtuoso Frédéric Chopin.

What did our critic think of OKLAHOMA! at Golden Gate Theatre?

What did our critic think of DREAM HOU$E at Shotgun Players?

What did our critic think of FOLLIES at SF Playhouse? Director Bill English and his troupe of collaborators have waited three long years to present San Francisco's first fully staged, professional production of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's seven-time Tony Award winning musical.

What did our critic think of NAN AND THE LOWER BODY at Lucie Stern Theatre? A crowd favorite at the 2019 New Works Festival, Jessica Dickey's very personal homage to her grandmother, an early pioneer in female reproductive rights, couldn't have its World Premiere at a more opportune time with SCOTUS tampering with Roe v Wade. With great humor and touching pathos, the story of Nan Day and her work with groundbreaking Pap Smear developer Dr. George Papanicolaou (aka Dr. Pap) springs to life with vivid detail and fine acting.

What did our critic think of SANCTUARY CITY at Berkeley Repertory? 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living) paints a bleak, gritty and totally authentic portrayal of the effects of immigration inequalities on two young Dreamers fighting to establish a life for themselves in Berkeley Rep's new production of Sanctuary City. Fresh off a critically hailed run in NYC, Sanctuary City is set in 2006, a tense time post 9/11 when America war on terrorism had tragic effects on illegal aliens trapped in a web of inaction, helplessness, and fear.

What did our critic think of COME FROM AWAY at San Jose Center For The Perfoming Arts? Without a single showtune you'll be humming long after, this national touring production of Come From Away is moving, triumphant, engaging and endearing. Too bad this stunningly staged run is so surprisingly short. The remarkable assembled cast, each performing multiple roles, bring to life the anxious airline passengers grounded by 9/11 and the townspeople of Gander, Newfoundland who magnanimously come to their aid.

What did our critic think of DANA H. at Berkeley Repertory?

What did our critic think of HADESTOWN at Orpheum Theatre?

Three years in the making due to the COVID pandemic, Stephanie Block got her opportunity to showcase her considerable talent and share her congenial and personal anecdotes through a repertoire that bridged her meteoric career and personal mentors.

Two loners meet, bond, and become integrally entangled in Adam Rapp's beautiful tribute to authors and the spoken word in Marin Theatre Company's season closer The Sound Inside. This introspective two-hander, a West Coast premiere of Rapp's six-time 2020 Tony nominated drama, excels through director Jaason Minadakis' concentrated, minimal staging and stellar performances by Denmo Ibrahim as Professor Bella Lee Baird and Tyler Miclean as her student Christopher Dunn.

Adam Bock's fifth production at Shotgun Players involves a poignant story of a powerful woman losing control and the effects on her immediate family. Its tough stuff and will appeal to almost every audience member. Notwithstanding a stellar performance by Desiree Rogers, the play as presented here is so slowly paced, with too many scene changes, that is loses its emotional punches.

How can the historic Club Fugazi follow up on Beach Blanket Babylon, the world's longest-running musical revue, which played for more than 17,200 performances and to over 6.5 million? With yet another crowd-pleasing San Francisco specific immersive experience currently packing em in and likely to run for quite some time.

Award-winning entertainer Mark Nadler (2015 Broadway World Editor's Choice Award for Entertainer of the Year) blew into town for a brief 4-performance run of his new show Hart's Desire, a very gay imagined collaboration between Moss Hart and Lorenz Hart had they not been closeted in the 1930's and 40's. Utilizing Moss' dialogue and Larry's lyrics, what's truly unique here is that Nadler assumes every role, a nimble quick change presentation.

Award-winning playwright Jessica Huang's powerful story of the repercussions of the Chinese Exclusion Act is superbly realized by Director Jeffrey Lo (The Language Archive, The Santaland Diaries, Vietgone) and a stellar cast including my local fave Jomar Tagatac in another outstanding performance. Merging the sad history of people forced to change their identities with the mystical spirit world of Chinese fables, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin is must-see theatre at its finest.

Built in 1925, the revived 500-seat Great Star Theater is the only remaining theater in San Francisco's Chinatown and now has the hottest show in town with AirOtic Soiree, a sensationally seductive evening of aerial circus artistry and burlesque cabaret at its finest.

August Wilson's powerful drama of racial unrest in Pittsburgh circa 1905 seems exceptionally prescient these days, confirming that the struggle for equality and freedom are a constant for African Americans that shapes their everyday lives in ways both subtle and overt.

Betty Buckley is in a league all by herself, perhaps the greatest interpreter of a lyric performing today. Fresh off her smash eight-night engagement at Joe's Pub in NYC, Betty transfixed her fans at Feinstein's with an eclectic selection of tunes each becoming indelibly her own. Backed only by the lyrical soft touch of arranger Christian Jacob on piano, Buckley wove a captivating spell with tender songs of love found, lost, or desired.

Annie Baker said she wanted to explore her characters through artificial acting exercises in a dull, windowless little space involving excruciating silences. Through the vehicle of a 6-week Adult Creative Drama class the students become trees, inanimate objects, perform modern dance and vocalize using only the words goulash and ak-mak. Director Ciera Eis tries to add some life to this piece through the actors' movements, but the main problem are those excruciating silence and awkward moments of inaction that kill any momentum and sap the viewers' attention.