SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

Cirque du Soleil has produced a staggering number of shows in its 35-year history--there are no less than seven currently running on the Las Vegas strip alone--so one must marvel at the company's ability to ensure its quality matches its quantity. First seen in 2012, Amaluna is a breathtakingly beau...

Filmmaker Robert Townsend is a born entertainer, and his solo show a?oeLiving the Shufflea?? is perhaps more than anything about the pleasure of his company. He seems so comfortable onstage, knowing precisely how to scale his performance to the size of the room, how to punctuate a laugh line for max...

It may be an unfamiliar sport to most American audiences, but in Kate Attwell's ambitious new play Testmatch, cricket becomes a prism in which she explores the lasting legacy of British colonialism in the Commonwealth countries that regularly compete against their former rulers. Attempting to lob qu...

The first thing you notice as the lights slowly rise on Noche Flamenca's a?oeEntre Tú y Yoa?? is its astonishing lead dancer, Soledad Barrio. Not that she's doing anything to call undue attention to herself, mind you. She is just one of the company's seven dancers and singers, all seated on bistro ...

BWW Review: THE CAKE at New Conservatory Theatre Center is a smart dramatization based on the true story of a baker who refused to bake a same-sex cake....

The trials and tribulations of two thirty-something middle class Single Black Females (SBFs) is presented in a series of comedic vignettes in Lisa B. Thompson's 1999 effort that is being simultaneously being produced here and in Ft. Worth, Texas. Starting with the premise that their niche is invisib...

Ray of Light's (ROL's) production of The Rocky Horror Show filled me with hope for the youth of America. Lest that sound a bit strange, allow me to explain. Yes, ROL's a?oeRockya?? delivers in spades on the sexy entertainment value of this transgressive, go-for-broke show. But a?" it is also grounde...

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Holding court on a corner in downtown San Jose is 3Below Theaters and Lounge. It would be easier to say what they don't do but to use their own words they're 'downtown San Jose's social spot for stage, screen, music, comedy, family fun and events.' I'll just add that the complex is indeed a veritabl...

BWW Review: THE CHINESE LADY at Magic Theatre is a dramatization of the life of Afong Moy, the first Chinese Lady to set foot on American soil....

Magic Theatre kicks off its 2019-20 season with Lloyd Suh's intriguing a?oeThe Chinese Lady.a?? Suh's point of departure is one of those fascinating a?oetruth is stranger than fictiona?? tales that are so compelling it's hard to believe they aren't more widely known. His play tells the story of Afon...

Watching Richard O'Brien's a?oeThe Rocky Horror Showa?? at San Jose Stage Company, I was struck by what an odd duck the show is. There really is nothing else even remotely like it in the musical theater canon. At this point in its stage-to-screen-back-to-stage evolution, it invites you not just to e...

BWW Review: PUPPETS AND POE: DEVISED DEFIANCE at Theatre Of Yugen is a Halloween ode to Edgar Allan Poe's macabre themes....

BWW Review: MARK TWAIN'S RIVER OF SONG at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is a musical/historical ride down the mighty Mississippi guided by famed chronicler Mark Twain...

A time warp opens to a provocative dimension at The Stage in San Jose, with The Rocky Horror Show. This production is filled with juicy morsels delicious enough to whet ones uninhibited appetite.  This slice of pop culture is still succulently scintillating and fresh today as it celebrates the indi...

BWW Review: THIS SIDE OF CRAZY at New Conservatory Theatre Center is Del Shores dramatic confrontation of a narcissistic mother and her three daughters....

BWW Review: SOVEREIGNTY at Marin Theatre Company is a powerful, fact-based story of the historical and present day plight of the Cherokee Nation....

I was super excited to learn that SF Playhouse was kicking off its 19-20 season with Clare Barron's a?oeDance Nationa?? based on what I'd read and heard about its 2018 world premiere at New York's Playwrights Horizons. I was certain it was going to be right up my alley: an edgy, satirical, unsettlin...

Gilbert and Sullivan are brought into the jazz age in this charming, if uneven, production of Hot Mikado by 42nd Street Moon at the Gateway Theatre. ...

With exceptional direction, a brilliant and moving cast, and a script that is painfully relevant, this Top Girls is top-notch....

BWW Review: BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON at Custom Made Theatre Company takes an anarchic rock approach to the genocidal, land-grabbing President....

South Bay stages a sinister saga of singing and suspense. A Gentleman's guide to Love & Murder at South Bay Musical Theatre (SBMT) in Saratoga. The 2014 Tony Award winner for best musical. Sept 28-Oct 19, 2019...

BWW Review: FREE FOR ALL - A NEW 'MISS JULIE' FOR A NEW WORLD at Cutting Ball Theater is a sensational modern spin on Strinberg's 'Miss Julie' ....

BWW Review: THE GREAT WAVE at Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a riveting true-life geopolitical thriller involving abduction, brainwashing and spies....

Sunnyvale Community Players take on a Monster of a show with 'Jekyll & Hyde The Musical'.SCP open's their 51st season with an ambitious musical, a?oeJekyll & Hydea??.  The show, by Frank Wildhorn, Steve Cuden, and Leslie Bricusse spent several years on Broadway and had multiple Tony Award nominatio...