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All stories by Lily Janiak on BroadwayStars

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Friday, July 7, 2023

At S.F. Playhouse, ‘A Chorus Line’ becomes a pandemic-recovery triumph by Lily Janiak

In Bill English’s hands, the 1975 musical reads as a chronicle of our own time.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Maybe the Mime Troupe isn’t political satire after all? by Lily Janiak

A more precise genre for “Breakdown,” and for much of the San Francisco troupe’s work in recent years, might be the medieval morality play.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:02PM

Monday, July 3, 2023

Review: ‘Citizen Brain’ at the Marsh Berkeley is an insult to your intelligence by Lily Janiak

Josh Kornbluth’s piece doesn’t feel like a solo show so much as an endless pitch for a solo show.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Review: Marin Shakes’ ‘Hamlet’ offers so much more than ‘because Shakespeare said so’ by Lily Janiak

Director Jon Tracy casts scenes in fresh light that laypeople like you and me never would have thought of.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:50PM

Friday, June 30, 2023

Review: ‘How We Spend Our Days’ at CounterPulse is for S.F.’s odd ducks and overgrown kids by Lily Janiak

Weird for the sake of weird, or playground for imagination? Bring your own attitude to this performance art by Klanghaus.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:32PM

Thursday, June 29, 2023

“Out of Character” at Berkeley Rep exemplifies the virtues and drawbacks of identity narratives by Lily Janiak

Tony winner and Berkeley native Ari’el Stachel is half-Yemeni Israeli, half-Ashkenazi and 1000% sweat.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:38PM

Monday, June 12, 2023

As reparations for Black Californians gain traction, this S.F. drag show is already paying them by Lily Janiak

At Nicki Jizz’s monthly all-Black drag show at Oasis, if you don’t tip, you’re racist.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Review: At ‘Steel Magnolias’ cross-racial understanding begins in the salon chair by Lily Janiak

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s production is fertile comedic ground where six whip-smart female actors make hay.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:12PM

Friday, June 9, 2023

Review: Slow-burn ‘Road to Mecca’ becomes drama inferno at S.F.’s Z Below by Lily Janiak

Athol Fugard’s 1984 drama feels ripe for our own moment of increasing life expectancy amid a fraying social safety net.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:04PM

Thursday, June 8, 2023

ACT’s delirious and daffy ‘Wizard of Oz’ is the rainbow S.F. needs right now by Lily Janiak

Attending Sam Pinkleton’s production is like getting to see a beloved relative who hasn’t been around since your childhood.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:36PM

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Where do ‘Steel Magnolias’ actors go to get into character? A Black-owned hair salon in San Carlos by Lily Janiak

TheatreWorks actors took a field trip to a family-owned beauty shop to learn how professionals style textured and fine hair.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Even without Cal Shakes productions, Bay Area summer theater is a bounty by Lily Janiak

Season highlights include San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘Let the Right One In’ shows that theater needs more vampires by Lily Janiak

Blood spills like a curtain, dribbles like egg yolk and curdles like a swamp thing in Jack Thorne’s adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:07PM

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

‘Supportive,’ ‘loving,’ ‘unhinged’: ACT’s refreshing casting choices poised to make ‘Wizard of Oz’ sparkle by Lily Janiak

Director Sam Pinkleton’s cast list reveals Bay Area actors anew, but for potential they’ve always had.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Friday, May 19, 2023

Marin Theatre Company, still without artistic director, unveils four shows for 2023-24 by Lily Janiak

Sara Porkalob, Lisa Peterson and Harvey Fierstein are part of the Mill Valley company’s next lineup.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Bay Area Children’s Theatre has closed, ending 19 years of joyous theater for families by Lily Janiak

Bay Area Children’s Theatre's abrupt shuttering is only the latest blow to local theater’s struggle to recover from the pandemic.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 06:36PM

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Review: Gender-expansive ‘1776’ at Broadway San Jose indicts Congress in 2023 by Lily Janiak

Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus’ production dispels the old boys’ club with multiracial female, nonbinary and trans performers.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:33PM

Bay Area Theatre Week is back. Here’s where to score $20 tickets by Lily Janiak

TodayTix and Theatre Bay Area’s promotion offers discounts to Ray of Light, BroadwaySF and many more.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 12:00PM

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Review: S.F. Playhouse’s ‘Chinglish’ is plump to bursting with jokes about what gets lost in translation by Lily Janiak

David Henry Hwang’s play is comedy’s equivalent of being in Davies Symphony Hall.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:10PM

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Review: Quintuple-threat performer partly rescues rote ‘Where Did We Sit on the Bus?’ by Lily Janiak

In Marin Theatre Company’s West Coast premiere, you might wish Satya Chávez had a script to match their talent and craft.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:55PM

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Playwriting is an inhospitable career. Here’s how one Bay Area company is helping address that by Lily Janiak

Playwrights Foundation, which has fostered Christopher Chen and Lauren Gunderson, announces structural changes to meet theater’s new reality.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:50PM

How S.F.-bound ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ and anti-drag legislation prop each other up by Lily Janiak

The musical based on the Robin Williams film, with its onslaught of “man-in-a-dress” gags, helps make possible and justify oppressive laws.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Sunday, May 7, 2023

As other theaters play it safe, Magic’s ‘The N— Lovers’ in S.F. is real art by Lily Janiak

Marc Anthony Thompson’s world premiere about escaping slavery is satire that doesn’t say, “Eat your vegetables.”

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:38PM

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Review: S.F.’s Oasis now hosts immersive theater, with all its pleasures and pitfalls by Lily Janiak

Detour Dance’s “We Build Houses Here,” about castaways, inspires in audiences a perpetual feeling of FOMO.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:11PM

Friday, May 5, 2023

Embattled leader Nataki Garrett resigns from Oregon Shakespeare Festival by Lily Janiak

The move marks an about-face from the attitude the Oakland native displayed in a February interview with The Chronicle.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:25PM

Thursday, May 4, 2023

This Bay Area theater started an emergency fundraising campaign, but not because of low attendance by Lily Janiak

The irony of Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s campaign is that demand for its work — in both performance venues and school classrooms — is as high as ever.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:02PM

Friday, April 28, 2023

Review: ‘Adventures with Alice’ is theater as wonderful as its Golden Gate Park setting by Lily Janiak

We Players’ site-specific, immersive walk-through show adapting Lewis Carroll polishes an San Francisco jewel to a fresh gleam.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:20PM

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Review: BroadwaySF’s ‘Pretty Woman’ is the musical no one asked for by Lily Janiak

Book writers J. F. Lawton and Garry Marshall make some small updates to the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere film, but they can’t paper over the story’s core ickiness.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:19PM

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

New experiment in preventing theater industry toxicity: Term limits by Lily Janiak

“We don’t want to bleed for our art; we want to make art, and we want to be happy and compensated,” said Cutting Ball Theater Community and Education Director Cathryn Cooper.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Review: We talk a lot about theater for the marginalized, but ‘Exhaustion Arroyo’ in S.F. is the real deal by Lily Janiak

Cutting Ball Theater and In the Margin’s world premiere is set partly in a late-capitalist pizza chain, partly during a shrooms trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM

Saturday, April 22, 2023