SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are on a high recently, with their long- running animated series South Park skewering the present administration in their inimitable profane and darkly surreal style. 2011’s The Book of Mormon brought their irreverent humor to Broadway in what at the time seemed shocking...

Dog Man: The Musical fetches laughs, heart, and legit Broadway-level craft in a show that never talks down to its audience. Read our review here!...

What did our critic think of THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL A BEAUTIFUL NOISE at Broadway San Jose?...

What did our critic think of MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at Orpheum Theatre? The appeal, based on the audience, is the acknowledgment of the song snippets – an “I know that song” reward. But the conceit grows thin and becomes one big cheat....

Mix one part All About Eve, one part Gypsy, and a healthy shot of The Bad Seed in a blender and you’ve got the recipe for Ruthless!, a delightfully dark comedy alternative to the typical holiday fare. A reboot from their 2023 production, Ruthless! is a delight for theatre and old movie references ...

What did our critic think of CINDERELLA at Hillbarn Theatre?...

Over two hundred and fifty years after fighting the British for independence, we’re absolutely gaga over Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s delightful Christmas at Pemberley series and its spot on depictions of Regency England....

What did our critic think of SPENCER DAY: SONMGS FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT at Feinstein's At The Nikko?...

What did our critic think of KINKY BOOTS at Broadway San Jose?...

CABARET at Oakland Theater Project is not just a show that sticks with you, it haunts you. The images, the melodies, the emotions will follow you for days. You find yourself not just thinking about the show, but yearning for it, wanting all your friends to see it, and hoping the chase for this feeli...

Sondheim fans rejoice! We have not one, but two sensational productions to satisfy that itch for smart lyrics and equally solid books. Shotgun Players is running their fabulous Sunday in the Park with George, and now Director Susi Damilano and SF Playhouse have outdone themselves with a stunning Int...

The fictionalized account of pointillist painter George Seurat’s creation of his masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and his great-grandson (also named George), also a troubled artist....

Jessica Huang’s Mother of Exiles, a world premiere at Berkeley Rep, suffers under the weight of its solemn intentions, perhaps attempting too many themes that left this viewer unsatisfied in each....

Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector caused quite the stir in the 1840’s with its biting satire on political corruption in a small rural town. For Naatak theatre group’s 116th production, Harish Agastya has transposed the action to Gujarat, India and the city of Anand, ...

The British sure love their suspense stories. The Woman in Black, which premiered back in 1987, is the second longest-running play in the history of London’s West End, right behind Agatha Christies’ whodunnit The Mousetrap. ...

Jez Butterworth’s acclaimed West End and Broadway drama opens with a tried-and-true trope of a family reunion over a deathbed scenario or funeral, here, four sisters congregate as their domineering, show biz lies dying of cancer....

Back in 2017, Marin Theatre Company staged Thomas Bradshaw’s historical fiction Thomas and Sally to a firestorm of criticism, with critics damning the production for its hypersexualized view of Sally Hemings and downplaying her position as Thomas Jefferson’s slave....

What did our critic think of A DRIVING BEAT at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley?...

I had the pleasure of seeing the original Broadway production of Stereophonic that ruled the 2023 awards season becoming most Tony Award-nominated play of all time, winner of five. My thoughts then were brilliant concept excellently executed, and this touring production, making its San Francisco deb...

THE WISDOM OF EVE blends the magic of the stage with the shadows behind to expose the full world of theater. Here you find the blood, sweat, and tears that can take people to the top as well take people down as they climb. Altarena Playhouse’s THE WISDOM OF EVE takes you on a wild ride through the...

Eight-year-old Marga Gomez should’ve paid more attention when her Latino parents tried to teach her how to cook. For the father, it’s a matter of cultural pride, the mother, a means to catch a man. Fast forward to 1976 when she desperately needs the recipe to Caldo Gallego (Spanish stew) to secu...

The national touring company of Tony winner for Best Book and Best Score Suffs rolls into San Francisco with a production that is just as powerful and relevant as its 2022 Broadway debut. With its major theme of perseverance to a cause, the story of the suffragists movement can be seen as a precurso...

San Jose is turning up the heat with SOME LIKE IT HOT! It bursts onto the stage in a blaze of jazz, joy and unapologetic flair. With dazzling choreography, comedy, and a story that balances the 1930s Prohibition era with 21st-century heart, this Broadway tour redefines what musical comedy can be....

Three tender stories of human relationships, presented through the lens of Appalachian culture, are beautifully captured in Ron Rash’s Hard Times now at Z Below. We first get a comedy, then a touching tale about sadness, to the amazingly hyperreal story of deprivation and hopelessness....

What did our critic think of MURDER FOR TWO at Hillbarn Theatre?...