Our San Francisco / Bay Area Critics
View All »
BWW Review: FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME at A.C.T. Geary Theatre
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...
BWW Review: THE BAND'S VISIT at Golden Gate Theatre
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...
BWW Review: WOMAN IN BLACK at ACT Strand
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...
BWW Review: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Offers a Gorgeous New Take on the Holiday Classic
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....
BWW Review: GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM at New Conservatory Theatre Center
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 ...
BWW Review: NUTCRACKER at San Francisco Ballet Returns with an Extra Dollop of Enchantment & Delight
BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's enchanting production of the classic 'Nutcracker' ballet, now running at the SF Opera House through December 30th....
BWW Review: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at Lucie Stern Theatre
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...
BWW Review: RENT at Golden Gate Theatre
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...
BWW Review: RENT Dazzles at BroadwaySF: Here's to Jonathan Larson's Vision and the Artists that Bring It to Life!
For twenty-five years, Jonathan Larson’s RENT has inspired audiences to choose love over fear and to live without regret. But perhaps just as importantly, this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning phenomenon celebrates artists and the raw courage and commitment they evince in daring to pursue the...
BWW Review: TWELFTH NIGHT at SF Playhouse
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...
BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Golden Gate Theatre
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...
BWW Review: HAIRSPRAY SINGS AT BROADWAY SAN JOSE at Broadway San Jose
It’s 1962 and perky, pretty and plump teen Tracy Turnblad has dance moves that will never be seen unless she can find a way to get on the local teen dance show, “The Corny Collins Show.” Niki Metcalf shines as the effervescent, strong and kind Tracy Turnblad who dares to cross boundaries (she...
BWW Review: WINTERTIME at Berkeley Rep
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...
BWW Review: AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON WITH RAEHANN BRYCE-DAVIS at Home Computer Screens
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...
BWW Review: MY FAIR LADY at Orpheum Theatre
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...
BWW Review: THE GREAT KHAN at SF Playhouse
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...
BWW Review: THE CLAIM at Shotgun Players
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...
BWW Review: Mask UP! HAMILTON Lights Up the Stage as Live Theatre Returns to Broadway San Jose
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s HAMILTON triumphantly took the stage at Broadway San Jose, returning to a changed world - as the masked patrons showing proof of vaccination at the door attested to.
But more than that, in the intervening years since Miranda and his intrepid band of brothers (Alex Lacamoire...
BWW Review: INTERLUDE at New Conservatory Theatre Center
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. ...
BWW Review: SAN FRANCISCO OPERA'S FIDELIO ONLINE at War Memorial Opera House
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...
BWW Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Golden Gate Theatre
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...
BWW Review: LIZARD BOY at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
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....
BWW Review: BRATPACK at Feinstein's At The Nikko
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...
Videos
|
Anastasia the Musical Douglas Morrisson Theatre (5/22-5/31) |
|
Macbeth Santa Cruz Shakespeare (7/12-8/30) |
|
Comedy Oakland at Quinn's Lighthouse Sat June 13 8pm Quinn's Lighthouse (6/13-6/13) |
|
C.S. Lewis On Stage: Further Up and Further In Irvine Barclay Theatre (7/09-7/10) |
|
An Evening with a Mentalist: Jay Alexander's Mind Tricks Live San Francisco Magic Theater (w/Jay Alexander) at the Marrakech (6/19-6/21) |
|
Golden Gate Park Band Golden Gate Bandshell (4/26-9/27) |
|
An Evening with a Mentalist: Jay Alexander's Mind Tricks Live San Francisco Magic Theater (w/Jay Alexander) at the Marrakech (6/12-6/14) |
|
Romeo and Juliet Outdoor Forest Theater (6/11-6/28) PHOTOS |
|
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD ORINDA STARLIGHT VILLAGE PLAYERS (6/05-7/03) |
|
JAD Experience presents LUNAE Tara Firma Farms (7/17-7/26) |
| VIEW ALL SHOWS ADD A SHOW | |
Get San Francisco's #1 Theatre Newsletter
Get the best news & discounts for San Francisco Shows & beyond.
