San Francisco Playhouse Announces 20th Season

San Francisco Playhouse announced today the six plays that will comprise its 2022/23 Season. This marks the company's 20th season since its founding in 2003 and celebrates the company's commitment to producing bold, challenging, and uplifting plays and musicals for the Bay Area community. The season will begin in September 2022.

"Twenty years ago, we opened our doors and stated our purpose, 'to create a warm and nurturing environment for the sharing of dreams, secrets, fears, hopes, grief, and joy because it's safe to bring all of ourselves to this playground,'" said Bill English, Artistic Director. "Over the years, these noble goals morphed into our signature: The Empathy Gym. For this, our 20th Anniversary season, we share our joy and gratitude to be pursuing our calling to promote empathy and compassion through theatre. This season is dedicated to the resilience and relevance of the Empathy Gym, the performing arts, and the human spirit."

Mainstage

The San Francisco Playhouse 2022/23 Season will begin with Indecent by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, followed by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's musical adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The new year will begin with the world premiere of Cashed Out by Claude Jackson, Jr., a San Francisco Playhouse commission that had its inception in the company's popular streaming Zoomlet play development series, followed by the beloved cult classic Clue, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn and written by Sandy Rustin. Next, the Playhouse will stage Chinglish by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, a hilarious comedy about the challenges of underlying cultural assumptions. The season will close with A Chorus Line, the legendary musical by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood, and Nicholas Dante, a production that was originally planned for the Playhouse's 2020/21 Season.

INDECENT

By Paula Vogel
September 22 - November 6, 2022
Press Opening: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Indecent is based on the real-life events surrounding the 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch's The God of Vengeance, considered to be a seminal work of Jewish culture by some, and a piece of traitorous libel by others. Written by Pulitzer winner Paula Vogel and peppered with popular songs of the era, this play charts the history of that incendiary work, the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it, and the evolving identity of the culturally rich community that inspired its creation.

AS YOU LIKE IT

A musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It
Adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery
Music and lyrics by Shaina Taub
November 17, 2022 - January 14, 2023
Press Opening: Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's rollicking and poignant musical adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It is a dream-like tale of faithful friends, feuding families and lovers in disguise, featuring an original folk-pop score. Forced from their homes, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind, and niece Celia escape to the Forest of Arden, a fantastical place of transformation, where all are welcomed and embraced. Lost amidst the trees, the refugees find community and acceptance under the stars.

CASHED OUT

By Claude Jackson, Jr.
January 26 - February 25, 2023
Press Opening: Wednesday, February 1, 2023

On the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Arizona, Rocky and her family try to hold together through the ups and down of her gambling addiction. A world premiere play by Claude Jackson, Jr., the director of his tribe's public defender's office, Cashed Out was the 2019 winner of the Native Voices at the Autry short play festival.

CLUE

Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn
Written by Sandy Rustin
Additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price
Original music composed by Michael Holland
Based on the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture based on the Hasbro board game CLUE
March 9 - April 22, 2023
Press Opening: Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Based on the iconic 1985 film - which was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game - Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. At a remote mansion, six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. As the body count rises, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard, and Wadsworth, the butler, race to find the killer. Clue is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult-fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out WHO did it, WHERE, and with WHAT?

CHINGLISH

By David Henry Hwang
May 4 - June 10, 2023
Press Opening: Wednesday, May 10, 2023

In an effort to drum up business for his family's company, Ohio sign manufacturer Daniel Cavanaugh travels to China hoping to secure a lucrative contract. He soon discovers that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs, and manners. In Chinglish, Tony Winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) shows with humor and heart that some things aren't so easily translated.

A CHORUS LINE

Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics by Edward Kleban
Book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante
June 22 - September 9, 2023
Press Opening: Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Seventeen Broadway dancers are auditioning for eight spots on a chorus line. Exploring the inner lives and bittersweet ambitions of performers, A Chorus Line captures the spirit, tension, and hope of an audition. Winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Winner of nine Tony Awards, four Drama Desk awards, three Obie Awards in 1976, and a Special Gold Tony Award in 1984 in honor of becoming Broadway's longest-running musical. A Chorus Line was originally scheduled to be produced in the Playhouse's 2020/21 Season and was cancelled due to Covid-19.

New Works Program

San Francisco Playhouse's live streaming Zoomlet series will continue in 2022/23. The series, which was a smash hit with audiences during and after the COVID-19 lockdown, spotlights director-driven short plays read by professional actors, giving live stream viewers a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to attend a first rehearsal. San Francisco Playhouse is planning for a continuation of its Fall Zoomlet Series in 2022 and Winter Zoomlet Series in 2023. The Playhouse's award-winning Sandbox Series of World Premieres will remain on intermission and return in a future season.

San Francisco Playhouse

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described by the New York Times as "a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around, and deemed "ever adventurous" by the Bay Area News Group. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award, as well as three consecutive Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Entire Production in the Bay Area (2016-2018). KQED/NPR recently described the company: "San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English's commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage." San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.

Ticket Information

Season Subscriptions are available immediately online at www.sfplayhouse.org, or by calling the box office at 415-677-9596. Packages range from $175 to $450 for Premium Orchestra seating, with savings averaging over 40% off single ticket rates. Single Tickets will go on sale to the public on June 16, 2022.

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