SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

If you haven't had enough of ghosts, spooks and specters this season, run to A.C.T. Strand's captivating production of Dame Susan Hill's 1983 gothic horror story Woman in Black. Adapted to the stage by Stephen Mallatratt, the haunting of a small English town is the second longest-running play in the...

BroadwayWorld reviews TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's gorgeous new production of 'It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play' running thru December 26th at the Lucie Stern Theatre, with streaming available thru Jan 2nd....

What could have been a cute, bittersweet May-December romcom is transformed into a transcendent homage to the lost art of oral history by the thoughtful script of Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony nominee Martin Sherman and an exceptionally moving performance by Donald Currie. Gently Down the Stream ...

BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's enchanting production of the classic 'Nutcracker' ballet, now running at the SF Opera House through December 30th....

It might be hard to find someone unfamiliar with Frank Capra's 1946 versions of A Christmas Carol, Christmas family fantasy that populates every best film poll. It appealed to post WWII audiences with its themes of family, loss and second chances and has remained a popular holiday favorite ever sinc...

Jonathan Larson's small off-Broadway show about love and fear during the AIDS pandemic and has had a phenomenal life- Tony and Pulitzer Awards, running on Broadway for twelve years and seen worldwide in successive tours. Loosely based on Pucinni's La Bohème, the play touches a strong cord among you...

This Bay Area premiere of Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub's musical adaptation of Twelfth Night is both the first Shakespeare play in nineteen seasons at SF Playhouse and director Susi Damilano's first attempt at the bard. Given those possibly daunting circumstances, this production is an exhilarat...

Charles Dicken's beloved holiday chestnut is the ultimate feel-good vehicle beautifully staged in this 5-time Tony Award winning production sure to pack em in at the Golden Gate Theatre. The feel-good theme of second chances in life that lead to happy endings resonates strongly in the timeless story...

Who doesn't enjoy a good farce? The genre's been around since recorded history, and playwright Charles L. Mee is a whiz at incorporating his influences throughout Wintertime, his comedy of the heart that sparkles with wit, charm and superb ensemble acting opening Berkeley Rep's first in-person perfo...

Bryce Davis and Cilliers opened their recital program with Richard Strauss' and John Henry Mackay's uplifting 'Heimliche Aufforderung' ('The Secret Invitation'). This joyous, celebratory composition was the composer's gift to his bride on their wedding day. Bryce-Davis sang it with exquisite vocal c...

...

There's a brief appearance by a group of protest sign carrying suffragettes during a street scene in this Lincoln Center 2018 revival of Lerner and Loewe's classic musical My Fair Lady, and it may be the only bridge between this distinctly old-fashioned early 20th century Edwardian perspective and t...

A traumatized black teen works his way through buffoonish white liberalism, racist oppression, a protective mother, and his desire to fight the good fight against his repressors in Michael Gene Sullivan's well-crafted, fully realized fantasia. Opening their 19th season with this collaboration with t...

After an almost two-year Covid shutdown, Shotgun Players open their 30th season with Tim Cowbury's dark, absurdist comedy The Claim, a smash hit at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In a nod to Kafka's The Trial, Cowbury shines his searing focus on Serge, an asylum seeker trapped in a bureaucratic...

Harrison David Rivers continues his characterization of Jesse Howard, first introduced four years ago in This Bitter Earth, who has now returned home to conservative Manhattan, Kansas, and his childhood home full of unresolved memories and a welcome chance at redemption and closure. ...

On October 14, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, in a well-thought-out production with an outstanding cast. Matthew Ozawa directed the action in a prison of the current era. There, Leonore, a prisoner’s wife disguises herself as a male worker and rescues her hu...

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic rock opera celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a spectacular re-staging of the 2017 Olivier Award-winning Best Musical Revival production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Re-imagined through the eyes of director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and...

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley opens its much-anticipated 51st season with a sensational production of Lizard Boy, first time playwright-actor-composer Justin Huertas' quirky mythological hero journey that is both a universal and deeply individual story of accepting oneself....

Those of us too young to have identified with the Rat Pack of the 50's and 60's, a group of Hollywood A-listers including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, can easily resonate with the themes of the 1980's teen-oriented coming of age films whose soundtrack d...

'Spanking Machine' at The Marsh is Marga Gomez' latest theatrical memoir, a funny-scary tale of growing up brown and queer in Washington Heights....

....

Re-starting theatre after the pandemic shutdown is a bit of a challenge; theatregoers are still wary of live performances and seating is limited. Not a sustainable outlook, but it is encouraging that companies are proceeding and hopefully the outlook will improve. SF Playhouse's choice of presenting...

There’s something truly extraordinary that happens when you step onto the grounds of Jack London State Historic Park.  It’s not just any park.  You are whisked away into a magical land of beauty, passion, exuberance -- and immersed in spellbinding talent that is known as the Transcendence Thea...

As I reported last year, SF Mime Troupe has revived the good old days of episodic radio serials, a perfect genre for shelter in place entertainment. In the comfort of your home, you can listen to these funny, left-leaning, provocative broadcasts that allow your imaginations to soar....