What do you get when you combine an unfinished Charles Dickens novel, a music hall of the 1890s, a play within a play, broad (very broad) humor, a number of rather bland songs and a “myste…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 10:27AMThere’s a whole lot of testosterone on stage in Los Altos Stage Company’s production of “Oslo,” which runs through Feb. 16 at Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos. Despite the fact that thi…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 01:38AMAfter such a standout production of “Newsies” in December, it’s unfortunate that Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City has come up with what is, essentially, a somewhat lackluster version of…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:26PMBritish playwright Alan Ayckbourn has written more than 70 plays, most of them comedies and quite a number of which could rightly be called farces. “Taking Steps” is one of those, though…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 01:15AMIn the rather other-worldly place of “The Nether,” a somewhat disturbing play by Jennifer Haley now at Dragon Productions Theatre in Redwood City, the world – at least the world in the…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 02:37AMPalo Alto Players is currently offering “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” a bit of a hard sell in this day and age when it’s likely not everyone is familiar with Henrik Ibsen’s original cl…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 02:29AM“You/Emma” running through Sunday, Dec. 15 at Pear Theatre in Mountain View appears, at first glance, to be a trifling play. It’s a one-woman show that’s written by a woman and is ab…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 12:44AMThe first “Miracle on 34th Street” told the story of a little girl who didn’t believe in Santa Claus and the man who came into her life and helped her believe. That’s the plot of the…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 12:38AMThere’s so much squeaky-clean goodness, corny juvenile fun and quite a few excellent performances in the Palo Alto Players’ production of “A Christmas Story, the Musical” that it’s…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 09:23PMStrong vocal and acting performances make the current Broadway by the Bay production of the Stephen Sondheim- James Levine musical of reconstructed fairy tales, “Into the Woods,” pleasur…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 05:44PMKing Henry VIII of England, who had six wives and way more than that many mistresses, apparently only spent 1,000 days with one of them, Anne Boleyn. Then he had her beheaded. British histor…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 10:39AMA scrappy little play called “Sweat” – which just happened to win the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for drama for its playwright, Lynn Nottage, is getting a pretty decent, rough-and-tumble produ…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 09:23AMThe big question is why Hillbarn Theatre would want to squander its hard-earned dollars on such an outdated (despite its updates), unfunny, mostly uninteresting play as “It’s Only a Play…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 02:01AMLyrical, enigmatic, lively, maudlin, affecting and, ultimately heart-tugging. That’s a capsule description of Palo Alto Players’ beautifully conceived production of “Bright Star,” th…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 04:13PMIt’s all about time – or the lack of it – in Marisa Wegrzyn’s quirky surrealist comedy “Hickorydickory” that runs through September 29 at Dragon Productions Theatre in Redwood Ci…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 03:28PMHillbarn Theatre’s current production of “Anything Goes” is rather like a bowl of Rice Krispies: Sometimes it snaps, sometimes it crackles, sometimes it pops. And sometimes it fizzles.…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 04:55PMIt’s rare to feel you’ve been present at the illustrious beginning of an actor’s theatrical career, but that is indeed what audiences will feel watching young Quincy Shaindlin in the L…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 04:35PMBroadway by the Bay’s production, which has only six more performances, is a perfect way to spend a summer evening.
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 02:18PMDouglas Carter Beane’s modernized version of the beloved children’s story “Cinderella” is an eye-opening experience as visualized by director Milissa Carey, now dashing along through…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMThe etymology of language in all its forms and meanings is the crux of “The Language Archive,” running through Aug. 4 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. This TheatreWorks Silicon V…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMSarah Treem’s multilayered play, “The How and the Why,” pits two ferocious female biologists, both of whom have studied the field of women’s menstrual cycles and aren’t sure what t…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMSay this out loud: “Go see ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ at Palo Alto Players now!” Now: Repeat it 10 more times. That tells you not only how good this production is — it makes the point …
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMIt was a hot weekend in Redwood City last week, and the jukebox musical “Grease” rolled into town to sputter along weekends at the Fox Theatre under the auspices of Broadway by the Bay. …
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMWho knew that the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria — the event that reputedly triggered the start of World War I — could be so ridiculously witty? Apparently playwright Raji…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMWho doesn’t love a heady dose of Noel Coward — especially one of his frothy, sophisticated comedies about the foibles of love in all its guises? There is much to like, as well as much th…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AM“Next to Normal,” now playing at Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos through June 22, has a distinctive rhythm and cadence. And: it’s a musical about mental illness. Considered a “rock” …
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMFoothill College’s Theatre Arts Department came up with a novel approach to producing a play: An all-male and an all-female version of “12 Angry Men” running in repertoire through June…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMLeapin’ lizards!! Shazam! Sock – pow – kazam! That’s what you’ll be saying when all of your senses are assaulted by the remarkably excellent production called “Shoggoths on the V…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMIt’s ABBAsolutely true: The ABBA-inspired musical “Mamma Mia” is ‘pop’-ping up everywhere in the Bay Area these days. Right now it’s Hillbarn Theatre’s turn, and it’s a trip.…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMYou probably won’t enter Pear Theatre laughing, but after seeing “Pear Slices 2019,” it’s almost a sure bet you’ll exit that way.
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AMThe role of Ma Joad in the John Steinbeck-Frank Galati play, “The Grapes of Wrath,” is central — in fact, enormously crucial — to the understanding of this Pulitzer Prize-winning sto…
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News at 06:01AM
