All stories by Lily Janiak on BroadwayStars

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Review: Haruki Murakami stage adaptation has visual whimsy, textual weirdness by Lily Janiak

In Word for Word’s “The Strange Library,” self-rearranging walls submerge you in a dreamlike state.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:41PM
Friday, November 15, 2024

Review: Annie Baker’s script is a feast, and this pandemic-born theater casts it with eye-popping talent by Lily Janiak

The cast members of Actors’ Reading Collective’s “The Antipodes” don’t just chow down on rich material; they’re connoisseurs.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:35PM
Thursday, November 14, 2024

Review: ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ yowls with pain, chortles with joy by Lily Janiak

In a country that just elected a xenophobe president, Jocelyn Bioh’s West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep is a necessary corrective.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:30PM

Holiday 2024: ‘A Whynot Christmas Carol’ is among the most stirring theater productions this season by Lily Janiak

American Conservatory Theater’s world premiere of “A Whynot Christmas Carol” demands introspection alongside its magic and laughs.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:00PM
Monday, November 4, 2024

Review: Dave Malloy’s chamber musical is ghostly — for good and for ill by Lily Janiak

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.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM

In ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ a 62-year-old actor plays a dying 16-year-old ‘girl who wanted to live’ by Lily Janiak

The Tony Award-winning musical at BroadwaySF’s Curran Theatre takes a different path from other shows about high schoolers.

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

Cal Shakes artists remember the legendary theater they loved by Lily Janiak

Bay Area actors who trod the boards at the Bruns Amphitheater share their memories of the quirky outdoor venue as Cal Shakes’ closure looms. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:00PM
Friday, October 25, 2024

Review: Aurora Theatre’s ‘Fallen Angels’ falls… flat by Lily Janiak

Noël Coward’s famed repartee — “I love you when you’re offended” — occasionally lubricates the proceedings.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:19PM
Thursday, October 24, 2024

In 2025, Magic Theatre keeps pushing its art form forward by Lily Janiak

The legacy theater, under the leadership of Sean San José, continues to buck trends by producing exclusively world premieres next year.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 06:11PM
Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Brontës get campy, sexy and murderous in delectably outrageous ‘The Moors’ by Lily Janiak

Jen Silverman’s play, now in a Theatre Lunatico production, is so strong as to inspire a feeling of hope in a Bay Area theater scene recently devastated by news of closures.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 08:17PM
Monday, October 21, 2024

Finally, ‘The Heart Sellers’ is the fitting tribute to your immigrant parents by Lily Janiak

Lloyd Suh’s two-hander, which plays at Capital Stage, Aurora Theatre and TheatreWorks, is gentle, shattering and healing.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:57PM
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Mary Zimmerman’s imagination is unparalleled. Her ‘Matchbox Magic Flute’ is just the latest example by Lily Janiak

Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents a small-scale version of Mozart’s opera — small for opera, that is.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:32PM
Monday, October 14, 2024

This ‘Angels in America’ is the theatrical medicine you need by Lily Janiak

Oakland Theater Project’s second part of Tony Kushner’s epic is every bit as strong as the first.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:52PM
Monday, October 7, 2024

Christopher Chen, Sondheim to be a part of Shotgun Players’ 2025 season by Lily Janiak

In an era of emergency fundraising campaigns and sudden closures, it’s noteworthy to remain a pillar of the theater community, as Shotgun Players has.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:01AM
Sunday, October 6, 2024

In ‘Slam!’ circus and theater gave ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ competition by Lily Janiak

In Cirque Flip Fabrique and Ex Machina’s circus-theater hybrid, deep understanding and love of wrestling norms yield delightful scenarios.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:47PM
Saturday, October 5, 2024

Review: With Dan Hoyle’s ‘Takes All Kinds,’ the Bay Area’s theatrical prophet is back by Lily Janiak

The Marsh’s production benefits from sources who are so good that you want to see a whole separate play about how Hoyle found these people.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:47PM
Thursday, October 3, 2024

Review: In magic show at haunted S.F. hotel, Christian Cagigal violates laws of physics by Lily Janiak

“Witching Hour” moves a maximum of 20 spectators from the Hotel Majestic’s bar to a conference room to guest suite 407, which according to lore an especially noisy specter visits. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 08:54PM
Monday, September 30, 2024

Review: The Bay Area’s most daring theater takes on American drama’s craziest play by Lily Janiak

The overwhelming feeling watching Oakland Theater Project’s “Angels in America” is that this play is about us, right now. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:22PM
Thursday, September 26, 2024

A theater critic, watching a show from backstage, gets reborn by Lily Janiak

At San Francisco Playhouse’s “The Play That Goes Wrong,” I got to remember that backstage is a charmed, sacred space.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:23PM
Tuesday, September 24, 2024

A reporter confronts her discomfort putting sources in the hot seat by Lily Janiak

“Interrogations: Pre-Election Coverage,” a trio of plays from theater company Performers Under Stress, has parallels to the presidential election — and journalism.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Thursday, September 19, 2024

Review: Punching and tearing are aphrodisiacs in ACT’s ‘Private Lives’ by Lily Janiak

Underneath the surface gloss of Noël Coward’s comedy of manners is a serious truth: Marriage isn’t lovey-dovey. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:32PM
Friday, September 13, 2024

This ‘Legally Blonde’ epitomizes how fluffy musical theater makes a key political point by Lily Janiak

Ray of Light Theatre’s production slyly interrogates who’s allowed to take up the mantle of traditional femininity. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Harris-Trump debate stage puts political theater on display for the nation by Lily Janiak

As any high school theater teacher will tell you, you’re still acting when you don’t have any lines.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:31PM
Monday, September 9, 2024

With ‘Mexodus,’ live looping bops into musical theater by Lily Janiak

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s West Coast premiere, about the branch of the Underground Railroad that went south to Mexico, layers in a full orchestra from just two men onstage. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, September 8, 2024

Review: Bilingual ‘Paradise’ pulls back the curtain on picture-perfect Puerto Rico by Lily Janiak

Tere Martínez’s world premiere about the mainland United States’ exploitation of Puerto Rico constantly switches among English, Spanish and Spanglish, frequently pivoting mid-sentence.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:59PM
Thursday, September 5, 2024

Fall 2024: Intimate magic show in haunted hotel — and other top theater picks by Lily Janiak

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Church of Clown and La Lengua Teatro en Español are just some of the bounty in fall’s theatrical cornucopia.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:00AM
Sunday, August 25, 2024

Review: Shakespeare is adrenaline in Magic Theatre’s thrilling ‘Richard II’ by Lily Janiak

Naomi Iizuka’s translation, part of the Play On Shakespeare project, begins with a life-and-death fight scene and somehow never lets that rush abate throughout its lean 100 minutes.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:34PM
Saturday, August 24, 2024

Review: This ‘Comedy of Errors’ is undermined by actual errors by Lily Janiak

In Shakespeare’s comedy of mistaken identities and two sets of twins, now in a Marin Shakes production, tepidity prevails.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:03PM
Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Now it’s high arts’ turn to lure people back to S.F.’s downtown by Lily Janiak

Market Street Arts, the Living Earth Show and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival are partnering with the city to attract residents and workers back to downtown neighborhoods.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 09:41PM
Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Review: Return ‘Shipping & Handling’ to sender by Lily Janiak

Crowded Fire Theater’s world premiere makes us endure such prodigious and portentous throat-clearing as to dull its insights.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:37PM
Monday, August 12, 2024

Review: Ridiculous, relatable ‘Tempest’ shows S.F. Shakes at its best by Lily Janiak

Almost every cast member unveils something new and delicious in Rotimi Agbabiaka’s production of Shakespeare’s island-set play.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:57PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic