All stories by Lily Janiak on BroadwayStars

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Review: In Oakland Theater Project’s breathtaking ‘Cost of Living,’ caregiving is a lens for vulnerability by Lily Janiak

Martyna Majok’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play writes characters with disabilities who aren’t defined by their physical limitations.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:26PM
Friday, March 15, 2024

Review: ‘The 39 Steps’ demonstrates the peril of conservative programming by Lily Janiak

Though some moments shine, San Francisco Playhouse’s production is mostly a joyless sprawl of unmade choices.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:53PM
Thursday, March 14, 2024

Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘The Far Country,’ set on Angel Island, probes the promise and lie of immigration by Lily Janiak

Lloyd Suh’s Pulitzer Prize finalist insists on the dignity of those who came to San Francisco during the Chinese Exclusion Act.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:28PM
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Bay Area theater: Spring brings shattering dramas, queer romps, immersive experiences by Lily Janiak

This season’s highlights include Klanghaus, African-American Shakespeare Company and Killing My Lobster, among many others. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, March 3, 2024

Review: In ‘Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad,’ an S.F. native tries to take her city back by Lily Janiak

Ashley Smiley’s Magic Theatre world premiere is SOS alert and valentine, high-tech heist and keenly observed family portrait.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:14PM
Saturday, March 2, 2024

Review: Buckley and Baldwin once had a public debate about race. Today, it’s stirring theater by Lily Janiak

Elevator Repair Service’s “Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge” at Cal Performances permits no self-congratulation about racial progress.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:37PM
Saturday, February 24, 2024

Review: In ‘Bark of Millions’ Taylor Mac reveals theater as queer church by Lily Janiak

“Our goal this evening is to make you queer,” or queerer still, Taylor Mac said near the top of the sweeping, 55-song show at Cal Performances.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM
Thursday, February 22, 2024

Review: ‘Big Data’ shows S.F.’s theater can be just as revolutionary as its tech by Lily Janiak

Kate Attwell’s frame-splitting, acute yet expansive script is about how complicit we are in tech’s takeover of both our interactions and consciousnesses.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:26PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Review: ‘Bees & Honey’ might’ve worked better as TV by Lily Janiak

Marin Theatre Company’s actors have a muffled quality, as if they’re hoping to believe, rather than actually believing, what they’re saying.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:57PM
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

If the social media algorithm were a play character, what would he be like? by Lily Janiak

ACT’s “Big Data” by Kate Attwell says that when we give up our digital privacy, our homes, family, love and sex lives feel the cost.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

BroadwaySF’s 2024-25 season is full of fan favorites and new hits. Here are the titles by Lily Janiak

“Kimberly Akimbo” and “& Juliet” are among the highlights of next year’s offerings from the owner of the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran theaters.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:30PM
Thursday, February 1, 2024

Review: Tasty phở, terrifying AI in SF Playhouse’s ‘My Home on the Moon’ by Lily Janiak

Minna Lee’s play asks: In a simulation where all your existential crises are gone and everything’s hunky-dory, why even bother doing anything?

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:29PM
Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Misbehaving audiences want to go viral. Here’s how theater could take the mic back by Lily Janiak

Any play or musical must compete with all the “para-theater” in rows of audience seats, or at least the possibility that some might happen.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, January 21, 2024

Review: At Shotgun’s ‘Babes in Ho-lland,’ the audience was a fourth character by Lily Janiak

At the opening night of Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s world premiere about Black college students, the crowd layered on their own soundtrack, to glorious effect.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:16PM
Friday, January 12, 2024

Acting titan Steven Anthony Jones to give final Bay Area performance before leaving by Lily Janiak

The ACT regular stars in TheatreWorks’ “How I Learned What I Learned,” his fourth airing in August Wilson’s one-man show since 2019.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

What should a Shakespeare company be in 2024? by Lily Janiak

“His visions often seem impossible to me,” said Michael Torres of new Marin Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Jon Tracy.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, January 8, 2024

New Ruth Bader Ginsburg play ‘All Things Equal’ to make S.F. stop. Here’s when by Lily Janiak

The one-woman play by Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes delves into the justice’s brilliant legal strategy on sex discrimination.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:54PM
Friday, December 29, 2023

Alexis Soloski’s ‘Here in the Dark’ comes at dark time for theater criticism by Lily Janiak

The novel, about an ambitious mid-30s theater critic, made me reflect on the joy, terror and harsh reality of writing about theater.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Bay Area theater is ready to experiment again in 2024 by Lily Janiak

Titles at Shotgun Players, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company and Cutting Ball Theater point to a new era in the new year.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Best of 2023: Despite financial panic, gorgeous theater abounds in the Bay by Lily Janiak

From cleverly reimagined classics to entirely original performance art, these companies produced some of the best theater in the Bay Area.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, December 18, 2023

As ACT bids adieu to ‘A Christmas Carol,’ costumes, sets and props get a last hurrah by Lily Janiak

One Christmas ghost will haunt the rafters of American Conservatory Theater’s Toni Rembe Theater no more.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 11:04AM
Saturday, December 16, 2023

Review: ‘Kaleidoscope’ is an analog circus feast amid digital HQ of SoMa by Lily Janiak

Circus Bella’s show at the Crossing at East Cut might make you wonder why S.F. doesn’t use more performing arts to enliven neighborhoods.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:43PM
Saturday, December 9, 2023

This Santa Rosa show is only 25 minutes, but it’s a winter solstice wonderland by Lily Janiak

With “Nightlight,” about light pollution, the plucky and whimsical Imaginists dance on theater’s boundaries.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:33PM
Thursday, December 7, 2023

Why critics should still review low-budget, not-great works of art by Lily Janiak

Though not without its hiccups, indie show “A Nightmare on Elm St Holiday Special” is sure to titillate horror fans and indie theater aficionados.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:40PM
Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Another celebrity is coming to Berkeley Rep this season, for a world premiere by Lily Janiak

In “Galileo,” Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza is set to play the astronomer who argued for heliocentrism, even if it meant giving up his freedom.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:04PM
Sunday, December 3, 2023

Review: Mélia Mills at the Marsh Berkeley says the upper-middle-class can rap, too by Lily Janiak

“The Allure of Thug Life” shows great promise in its kaleidoscopic vision of both Blackness and rap.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:09PM
Friday, December 1, 2023

Review: Celebrate a very S.F. Christmas by seeing drag queens spoof ‘The Golden Girls’ by Lily Janiak

The biggest change in this year’s incarnation, at the Victoria Theatre, is that Coco Peru is playing the role originated by spoof co-creator Heklina, who died in April.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:21PM
Thursday, November 30, 2023

Review: With Audra McDonald, S.F. Symphony loosens up for a playful jaunt of showtunes by Lily Janiak

The Broadway star proved the best place to hear musical theater numbers might be the San Francisco Symphony.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:19PM
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Review: Sara Porkalob’s ‘Dragon Lady’ roars with fire and tightens like a coil by Lily Janiak

The solo cabaret musical at Marin Theatre Company makes a family’s origin story in a Manila nightclub feel as mighty as myth.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:42PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Review: Billy Crudup at Berkeley Rep unlocks the deviance in all of us by Lily Janiak

“Harry Clarke,” David Cale’s one-man play, is about the intoxicating fantasy of becoming someone else. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:21PM
Monday, November 20, 2023

One theater’s solution to pandemic doldrums: Go smaller by Lily Janiak

Theatre Rhinoceros is producing gay theater in the Castro for the first time in its 46-year history.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 12:50PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards