SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

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. ...

BroadwayWorld reviews A.C.T.'s funny and moving new production of Maria Irene Fornes' multi-layered feminist classic, 'Fefu and Her Friends,' running through May 1st at the Strand Theater....

Broadway San Jose's limited run of Jonathan Larson's RENT is a glorious time of raw-energy rock, as well as a heartrending reminder to measure your life in love. Billed as the 'Farewell Tour,' supposedly being the final time the original Michael Greif staging will travel North America, the show pack...

BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's stunningly varied Program 6. This final mixed rep program of SFB's 2022 season includes 2 world premieres that show off the incredible range of this world-class company....

BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's dazzling new Program 5 running through April 16th, which includes a world premiere by Helgi Tomasson and a reprise of Yuri Possokhov's popular 'Magrittomania.'...

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 ...

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 usi...

Park your baggage at the door before experiencing Quiara Alegria Hudes' 2012 Pulitzer Prize winning drama Water by the Spoonful, because the characters presented here are plenty wounded, damaged, and extremely fragile. Not for the faint of heart, this is the tough stuff of addictions both physical a...

The Bay Area is enjoying a renaissance of black theatre, perhaps in conjunction with Black History Month: NCTC's Dot, MTC's Pass Over and now Shotgun Players' spectacular revival of Passing Strange, the Tony, Obie, and Drama Critics Circle Award winning musical. First premiered by Berkeley Rep in 20...

BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's richly-rewarding Program 4, which runs lives onstage at the War Memorial Opera House through Sunday, March 20th. The dazzling program pairs the Bournonville Romantic-era classic 'La Sylphide' with Alexei Ratmansky's 'The Seasons,' a rambunctious, contempo...

BroadwayWorld reviews Jeanna de Waal's new cabaret show at Feinstein's at the Nikko in San Francisco. The star of 'Diana, the Musical' explores life's highs and lows in an entertaining 60 minutes....

So very nice to be able to write Directed by Robert Kelley. The TheatreWorks founder retired in 2020 after being awarded a well-deserved 2019 Regional Tony award and given his long history with Paul Gordon, he's back at the helm of this sumptuous, meticulously crafted production. No stranger to Thea...

42nd Street Moon opens their 21-22 season with a tribute to one of the greatest songwriting teams in American musical theatre - Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Musical revues live and die on two factors: the choice of material and the talent of the presenters. This Tony-nominated revue, fi...

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BroadwayWorld reviews Brian Stokes Mitchell's glorious concert at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on February 25th. When Mitchell announces at the top of his show that his hope is for you to leave the theater feeling better than you did when you came in, you had better believe he means it. By the ...

BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's fizzy production of the classic 'Don Quixote' running live onstage at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House through March 6th. The whole thing feels like a big ol' party....

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is written by Jack Thorne and based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. The production at the Curran Theatre is directed by John Tiffany.  ...

Magic Theatre makes a welcome return to live performance with the world premiere of Miranda Rose Hall's 'The Kind Ones' playing thru February 20th. Hall combines gothic thrills & dark humor in her searing new play....

Two bros hanging on their street corner shooting the shit opens Antoinette Nwandu's Pass Over, their streetwise banter peppered with hundreds of n-words is a fascinating insight into their relationship, its pecking order, and their determination to move on from the fear and scarcity of their lives....

San Francisco Ballet's remarkable new Program 2 features 3 terrifically enjoyable works, including a new dance by William Forsythe set to the music of James Blake, and Jerome Robbins' rapturously romantic classic 'In the Night.' It runs through February 13th at the War Memorial Opera House in San Fr...

You won't se the likes of Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning come around that often - a rigorous, haunting didactic on the religious right seen through the eyes of four young conservatives each struggling through a dark night of spiritual turmoil. Coming on the heels of Charlottesville and T...

San Francisco Ballet fairly leaps for joy in the opening program of its 2022 season live onstage at the War Memorial Opera House. Program 1 includes George Balanchine's eternally effervescent 'Symphony in C' and the world premiere of 'Mrs. Robinson' by Cathy Marston, based on the seminal novel 'The ...

Dead man tell no tales, so three apparitions appear to their surviving shipwreck mate beseeching him to tell their stories in John Logan's brilliant World Premiere musical based on the stirring music of award winning Avett Brothers. That story, involving a tragic shipwreck, is a mesmerizing tale of ...

Not a fan of rap, improv or audience participation, three key ingredients of FLS, I have to say I was drawn in by the incredibly talented cast and the lightning speed at which they riff on random thoughts and observations. Combining sketch theater and 'freestyle rap, the 90-minute exercise in creati...

Travelling productions do not come more lauded than The Band's Visit, winner of ten Tony Awards including best musical and a 2019 Grammy for best musical theater album. This is not your typical musical with hummable showtunes and slick choreography, rather an intimate, tranquil story that unfolds be...