SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

Broadway Bares SF is coming back to the city with the highly anticipated return to stage on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at 1015 Folsom. The theme for this year’s Broadway Bares/SF Strips show is FilmStrips. Featuring 60 San Francisco dancers, this year's production, promises an unforgettable evening o...

What did our critic think of THE 39 STEPS at SF Playhouse? Director Susi Damilano and a superb cast spin comic gold out of Patrick Barlow’s parody of Hitchcock’s spy caper filled with chase scenes, female bombshells, and Nazi villains...

What did our critic think of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews the delightful production running through March 23rd at the War Memorial Opera House....

The Bar Area premier of Martyna Majok’s COST OF LIVING has landed at Oakland Theater Project. With few frills and the focus on dialogue, COST OF LIVING pulls you in and never loosens its grip. In the midst of telling a story of a marginalized community, Oakland Theater Project reminds us of the un...

What did our critic think of QUEEN at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley?...

What did our critic think of SWAN LAKE at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews the smashing production of the all-time classic running through March 3rd at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House....

For two Dominican millennials in Washington Heights, the love of their cultural Bachata music draws them together and into a whirlwind romance and marriage. Inspired by the Juan Luis Guerra song “Como Abeja Al Panal,' (“Like a Bee to the Honeycomb”), Bees & Honey is a slice of ethnic life foll...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is THE hot topic of the day, touted as the panacea for societies’ ills and capable of providing more leisure time and making life easier. The flip side is getting equal play time – we’re being overrun with technology, ostensibly losing our identity to algorithms, a...

What did our critic think of MYSTIC PIZZA at Lesher Center For The Arts?...

MANAHATTA is like a storm that washes away all pretense and excuses leaving only the truth. Using a narrative of two parallel stories, Mary Kathryn Nagle weaves a story that reveals how little we have learned from our past. Using eloquence, humor, and bravado with equal skill, the show guides the au...

What did our critic think of BRITISH ICONS at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's 'British Icons,' an immensely rewarding program running through February 15th...

ADVENTURE SERIAL combines elements of adventure stories with audience suggestions to create a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience. With a quest, a hero, a sidekick, a lovely lady, and a villain, the foundation is laid for an adventure that can take many twists and turns. The quick-thinking team at S...

Almost four years after his COVID delayed Bay Area Cabaret appearance, Broadway star Max von Essen made it to the historic Venetian Room with selections from his 2019 CD of Broadway interpretations on which he was joined by Grammy winning composer and famed musical director, Billy Stritch who backs ...

The World Premiere of Mina Lee’s At Home on the Moon is much more than a touching perspective on the love of one’s ethnic food which is handled lovingly. Lee taps the more disturbing issue of gentrification and neighborhood decimation to introduce an AI fantasy posing far more important concerns...

KIMBERLY AKIMBO at Altarena Playhouse is a show with depth and humor and heart. The production generates easy laughs, stimulates thought and reflection, but most importantly, it makes you care about the characters. With the teens and adults alike navigating complex situations, making mistakes, hidin...

Fifteen years after MJ’s sudden death and his legacy continues strong with MJ The Musical, winner of four Tony’s. A sure-fire crowd pleaser, this jukebox musical includes Jackson’s biggest hits stunningly directed and choreographed by Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon. ...

A Christmas eve family get together turns into a didactic skirmish on many fronts; religious, familial guilts, gay equality, sibling rivalries and moral choices. It’s a lot to present, but playwright Leslye Headland manages to corral her characters idiosyncrasies with a well-crafted script and dir...

What did our critic think of MERE MORTALS at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews the world premiere of 'Mere Mortals' at San Francisco Ballet, a wildly ambitious collaboration between much in-demand choreographer Aszure Barton and composer Sam Shepherd....

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the world’s premier queer chorus, heads to Hollywood and the silver screen with DRAG ME TO THE MOVIES!, a cinematic extravaganza that’s more dazzling than any Tinsel Town premiere. Featuring the 300-member San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, under the baton...

TheatreWorks opens 2024 with a super trifecta winner with August Wilson’s deeply personal and revelatory How I Learned What I Learned: a brilliant, bravura performance by Bay Area legend Steven Anthony Jones, excellent direction by Wilson interpreter Tim Bond, and of course, the profoundly poetic ...

What did our critic think of EVERY BRILLIANT THING at Center Repertory Company? Individual thoughts, moments and actions help define the lead characters evolving and ever-growing list in this poignant and uplifting one man performance piece starring  William Thomas Hodgson with direction by award-w...

What did our critic think of NUTCRACKER at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews San Francisco Ballet's magical production of the Tchaikovsky perennial running through December 30th at the War Memorial Opera House...

What did our critic think of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Golden Gate Theatre? That Harper Lee’s 1960 novel of racial prejudice and social justice is just as prescient today is a sad indictment of American culture. Academy award winner Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and Director Bret Sher (Tony Awa...

What did our critic think of RUTHLESS at New Conservatory Theatre Center?...

What did our critic think of GUYS AND DOLLS - A MUSICAL FABLE OF BROADWAY at SF Playhouse?...