SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

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...

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?...

What did our critic think of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW at SF Oasis? D’Arcy Drollinger, artistic director and owner of SF Oasis, plays her swan song appropriately as Frank-N-Furter, the mad transvestite scientist in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Show....

Billy Stricht made his Feinstein’s at the Nikko solo debut an auspicious evening, stepping into center stage, commanding the Yamaha keys, and mesmerizing his fans with a nearly two-hour set of two dozen musical gems....

What did our critic think of NOISES OFF at SF Playhouse?...

It was family night at the intimate Feinstein’s as Broadway stage star Norm Lewis asked us to think of his show as a cozy living room affair with friends. The sold-out audience certainly acted like friends, singing along when required and eating up his often-humorous anecdotes about his storied ca...

Theatreworks Silicon Valley opens its 55th season in spectacular fashion with some familiarity and something quite new and extraordinary....

What did our critic think of KIM'S CONVENIENCE at American Conservatory Theatre? A.C.T. launches its 2025/26 season with the charming 2011 dramedy Kim’s Convenience written and performed by Ins Choi as the title character and a solid supporting cast....

Travel back in time to the days of Georgian England with the Orinda Starlight Village Players’ production of Jane Eyre. With bonnets and corsets and riding boots, the audience is swept into an era where propriety and etiquette ruled, and women had few choices. Jane Eyre reminds us of the power of ...

Emma, the well-intentioned matchmaker from Jane Austen’s first published novel is brought to life on the stage as the closing show for the 2025 Summer Repertory Sanborn Park Series. Kate Hamill’s fresh adaptation retains all the classic features of the story while using humor and physical comedy...

GOOD PEOPLE is a good story with good acting. Class struggle, opportunities and societal constraints are all on display. Ultimately, it all comes down to choices, the ones you make and ones you allow others to make for you. What makes a good person good? How does a good person react when faced with...

It’s no coincidence that Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite opens Hillbarn’s historic 85th season, for it was 85 years ago that the comedy opened on Broadway. Since 1968, Hillbarn and Simon have created an artistic bond, being the most produced playwright in their history....

What did our critic think of CHAIN OF LOVE (A BROADWAY ALBUM) ALBUM RELEASE PARTY AND CONCERT WITH CARLY OZARD AND FR at GRNHS Gallery + Studio?...

Hend is an adorable Palestinian five-year old giddy about attending her Jewish best friend’s Purim party. Dressed as a pretty princess, she can’t wait for the poppyseed hamantaschen, the ubiquitous pastry of the holiday....

A Black queer teen longs to be touched, to be held and squeezed tight. His expression of love is hampered by generations of stoic, toxic masculinity unable to express tenderness or self-expression. ...

Liberace & Liza: Pier Pressure (A Tribute), which rolls back into Feinstein’s for a return engagement, is one of the finest acts of this genre, featuring two extraordinary performers combining their talents to bring Liberace and Liza Minelli to life. ...

There’s a strong history of outrageous drag performance art in San Francisco. Born of necessity as a weapon against homophobia, discrimination and vile hatred, the gay community developed an all-inclusive, often comic, in-your-face style of theatre that includes nudity, sexual innuendo, and social...

Who doesn’t love a good transformation story? Dowdy bookkeeper Loretta Castorini morphing into Cher in Moonstruck or the streetwise prostitute becoming the elegant Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman are contemporary examples. ...

Michael Gene Sullivan and his troupe may be secretly saying to us all- “See I told ya so.” For 66 years they have been to sole voice of the left in the Bay Area scene, and their continuous commitment to socially relevant, in-your-face politically resistant theatre in proudly realized in this yea...