Review: Crowded Fire's latest shows that not everything needs to become a play
The breakup play "The Last of the Love Letters" by Ngozi Anyanwu is indulgent, repetitive and trite.Â
The breakup play "The Last of the Love Letters" by Ngozi Anyanwu is indulgent, repetitive and trite.Â
The U.S. premiere of the courtroom drama blends historical testimony, modern elements and feminist themes of revenge with mixed success.
The show reimagining Henry VIII's six wives makes clear that the boundary between pop concert and musical theater is increasingly blurring, to salutary effect.
Magic Theatre's world premiere about birdwatching and a disease carrier is gentle to the point of nonevent.
The comedian, actor and trans activist's approach to Shakespeare's tragedy is that of a speeding steamroller.
Stephen Sondheim and David Henry Hwang mark two highlights in San Francisco Playhouse's 23rd lineup.
The playwright's drama masterfully intertwines Homeric myth and personal memory in a poignant solo performance.
Shakespeare's "Hamlet"Â is reimagined in this production, directed by Margo Hall, as a vibrant comedy exploring the complexities of modern manhood.
In Yasmina Reza's 1994 play, an exorbitant purchase of an all-white painting turns men into beasts.Â
The boardroom drama seizes an opportunity many established local theaters have been slow to act on: the chance to delve into the current events dividing the tech world in its own backyard.
In American Conservatory Theater's "Nobody Loves You," a skepticism about the show's own mechanisms lends it an agreeable edge.
If TheatreWorks and Center Rep's world premiere more galumphs than fizzes, failing to root for it anyway would be like cheering against true love.Â
The Berkeley City Club is always an up-close-and-personal venue, but it's a special thrill when actors' necks are bulging and steaming to lift giant weights.Â
American Conservatory Theater's musical, written by Berkeley natives Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter, explores whether authentic, old-fashioned love is possible in the age of "The Bachelor" and …
For more than a decade starting in the early 1980s, author and critic Misha Berson led Theatre Bay Area as one of its earliest executive directors.
"Cuckoo Edible Magic," inspired by gaming and anime, suffers from typical early-career shortcomings, but playwright Reed Flores proves himself a rising star.
Center Repertory Company's world premiere is a one-of-a-kind construction, complete with GoPros and foley sound effects.
The remake at BroadwaySF's Orpheum Theatre recalls a theme park in both joyous and infelicitous ways.
Marin Theatre's production of "Waste" delves into English Parliamentary power struggles, captivating with its enduring societal truths.
Reed Flores' world premiere seeks to represent CHamorro cuisine, language and culture onstage as part of a tapestry of AAPI identities.
"An Enemy of the People" has rarely felt as true-to-life as it does in San Jose Stage Company's trenchant production.
San Francisco Playhouse's production is "inject this into my veins" funny but shambolic, as if a ouija board is in charge.Â
In Geoff Sobelle's "Food," in a four-day Stanford Live run, our appetites write history itself.
Center Repertory Company's world premiere of "Froggy" is a departure on multiple fronts.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre's "Uncle Vanya" marks its first play from the theatrical canon since Johanna Pfaelzer became artistic director in 2019.
Cirque du Soleil returns to Oracle Park with "Echo," featuring a unique cube set and running Nov. 20 to Dec. 21.
Lance Gardner, Marin Theatre's artistic director, rediscovers his passion for acting in new collaboration with Carey Perloff.Â
Ali Benjamin tells the Chronicle about writing her bestselling novel about a griefstruck girl, and what's exciting about its theater adaptation.Â
'Exotic Deadly' at San Francisco Playhouse was inspired partly by playwright Keiko Green's experience as the granddaughter of a MSG food scientist.
You start to wish Daphne's story could take life as its own new musical instead of being shoehorned into preexisting intellectual property.
Monét X Change shares her process of building her show, the comeback of classical art songs and why she thinks her teen years would be the next great sitcom.
The Tony Award-winning musical expands Billy Wilder's 1959 drag film to include a nonbinary character.Â
Shotgun Players, SFBATCO, Berkeley Rep and others offer shows to organize your calendar around.
Despite its indulgences, Marcus Gardley's world premiere stands as an example of how Oakland Theater Project is the most ambitious little theater company in the region.
Oakland Theater Project, Theatre Lunatico and American Conservatory Theater made Bay Area theater sparkle this year.
Director Pam MacKinnon and playwright Craig Lucas don't establish enough ground rules for their story to cohere into something more than a string of random events.
'Peter Pan' aspires to, and often achieves, smooth-mind, sparkly escape from worldly cares.
TheatreWorks' production of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's "Pride and Prejudice" sequel combines holiday confection, spicy debate and sumptuous visuals.
For all of Susi Damilano's compassionate, imaginative direction, this production of Jessie Nelson and Sara Bareilles' 2015 musical suffers from a near-fatal flaw.
Leah Nanako Winkler's world premiere, inspired by a New York Times article, capitalizes on how theater is, at its core, bodies in the same space as you.
When Lucas Hinds Babcock performs at BroadwaySF's Orpheum Theatre, he'll be returning to the venue where he saw tours as a boy.
In Word for Word's "The Strange Library," self-rearranging walls submerge you in a dreamlike state.
The cast members of Actors' Reading Collective's "The Antipodes" don't just chow down on rich material; they're connoisseurs.
In a country that just elected a xenophobe president, Jocelyn Bioh's West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep is a necessary corrective.
American Conservatory Theater's world premiere of "AÂ Whynot Christmas Carol" demands introspection alongside its magic and laughs.
Oakland Theater Project's "Ghost Quartet" is so gossamery, so there-yet-not-there, that you might feel as if you merely got haunted by a narrative's shadow.
The Tony Award-winning musical at BroadwaySF's Curran Theatre takes a different path from other shows about high schoolers.
Bay Area actors who trod the boards at the Bruns Amphitheater share their memories of the quirky outdoor venue as Cal Shakes' closure looms.Â
Noël Coward's famed repartee " "I love you when you're offended" " occasionally lubricates the proceedings.
The legacy theater, under the leadership of Sean San José, continues to buck trends by producing exclusively world premieres next year.