All stories by Lily Janiak on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

‘Astonishment, horror and glee’: Bay Area understudies recount on- and offstage drama by Lily Janiak

Actors at TheatreWorks, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Berkeley Rep and more share the thrills and chills of filling in last-minute.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Thursday, January 13, 2022

Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’ trades razzmatazz for open desert highways, arias burning inside by Lily Janiak

The quiet assurance of the Tony-winning show at BroadwaySF's Golden Gate Theatre almost makes other musicals look insecure.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:53PM
Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Susie Medak to step down from Berkeley Rep in August, ending a legendary 32-year run by Lily Janiak

For a city of fewer than 125,000 residents, Berkeley has an outsize reputation as an arts destination in part because of Medak.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:00PM

Q&A: Susie Medak on her 32 remarkable years at Berkeley Rep and how ‘the social contract has changed’ by Lily Janiak

"I love what happens when you have an audience meeting artists halfway," Berkeley Rep's Susie Medak said.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:00PM

Berkeley native Itamar Moses on ‘The Band’s Visit,’ before and after the pandemic by Lily Janiak

The Tony-winning musical about isolation and waiting might strike pandemic-era audiences differently.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Friday, January 7, 2022

BroadwaySF to require booster shots beginning Feb. 1 by Lily Janiak

The new policy adheres to a San Francisco Department of Public Health order applying to operators of indoor "mega-events."

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:41PM
Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Good luck getting home: Bay Area arts can’t recover without late-night public transit by Lily Janiak

For too long now, we've allowed a region with first-class performers to make its art so physically inaccessible.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Bay Area theater in 2022 promises to be dynamic and dizzying by Lily Janiak

Shows by SFBATCO, Berkeley Rep, Oakland Theater Project and more gleam in Bay Area theater in 2022.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Thursday, December 23, 2021

The truism that the Silicon Valley doesn’t support the arts might not be true any more in the Bay Area by Lily Janiak

Gifts from Zendesk, Amazon, SalesForce to theaters, choruses and more suggest the start of a shift in tech philanthropy.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, December 22, 2021

‘A Christmas Carol,’ S.F. Gay Men’s Chorus cancel shows amid growing omicron worry by Lily Janiak

Cal Performances, Berkeley Playhouse and Cutting Ball Theater have also announced cancellations.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:37PM

Guaranteed income, poetic circus and legit ritual: How Bay Area theater came back in 2021 by Lily Janiak

San Francisco Playhouse, SFBATCO and California Shakespeare Theater offered just some of 2021's Bay Area theater highlights.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, December 21, 2021

American Conservatory Theater to close its star-making MFA program in 2022 by Lily Janiak

"Conservatory" is inscribed in ACT's middle name; without the master's program, the theater will have to forge a radically different identity.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:14PM

The church of theater gathers to say goodbye to one of its own by Lily Janiak

FoolsFury festival director Claudia Alick urged everyone to "resist the narrative that closing is failure."

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, December 20, 2021

Cal Shakes to mount two new Shakespeare adaptations in 2022 by Lily Janiak

Two of the Bay Area's most exciting theater companies — one a major institution, the other small and scrappy — are working together.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:00PM
Saturday, December 18, 2021

Review: ‘Woman in Black’ a white-knuckle thrill at ACT’s Strand in S.F. by Lily Janiak

The long-running London production of Stephen Mallatratt's play operates quietly and steadily, with confidence in its solid bones.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:22PM
Saturday, December 11, 2021

Review: ‘The Magic Lamp’ anatomizes your brain’s descent into hell by Lily Janiak

As a technical difficulty-plagued opening night approached three hours, all that was left was bargaining with God.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:24PM
Monday, December 6, 2021

How the pandemic is changing HVAC standards in Bay Area entertainment venues and beyond by Lily Janiak

For Chase Center, Davies Symphony Hall, American Conservatory Theater and other venues, COVID has meant an immersion into HVAC.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, December 5, 2021

Review: Theater doesn’t add to Malvina Reynolds’ music in ‘The Cassandra Sessions’ by Lily Janiak

At Shotgun Players, the gritted-teeth panic of the not-quite-finished show seeps through.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:11PM
Thursday, December 2, 2021

Review: San Francisco Playhouse’s ‘Twelfth Night’ is local theater at its best by Lily Janiak

The romantic comedy adapts Shakespeare into a musical so persuasively you might think the two genres had always been intertwined.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:37PM
Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Review: BroadwaySF presents a ‘Christmas Carol’ that’s actually interesting by Lily Janiak

Every monstrous skinflint was once a small child, the S.F. production says, one who read adventure stories and imagined his toys to life.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:18PM
Tuesday, November 30, 2021

With Stephen Sondheim, musicals grew up, charting careers for Bay Area theater artists by Lily Janiak

The composer and lyricist, who died Friday, Nov. 26, made musical theater encompass the full range of human experience.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:40PM
Monday, November 29, 2021

Doomed to be unheard: Malvina Reynolds’ music retells Cassandra myth at Shotgun Players by Lily Janiak

The folk singer-songwriter, who never had wide name recognition, gets new life in the form of a piece by theater artist Beth Wilmurt.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Wednesday, November 24, 2021

TheatreWorks’ Phil Santora to depart after 15 years as executive director by Lily Janiak

The move concludes a 15-year tenure with the Tony-winning theater, and it closely follows the departure of Robert Kelley.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:18PM

Review: The drawing room is lab and sports arena in Marin Theatre Company’s Jane Austen riff by Lily Janiak

At its best, the world premiere "Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley" is a field day for its nine-person cast.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:09PM
Tuesday, November 23, 2021

When you paid top price for Broadway tour seats — and can’t hear the dialogue by Lily Janiak

It would be one thing if the "My Fair Lady" sound gaffe lasted only a moment instead of recurring throughout the show.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Saturday, November 20, 2021

Review: ‘Plot Points in Our Sexual Development’ starts as a gossip sesh, turns into couples therapy by Lily Janiak

An uneven New Conservatory Theatre Center production is deeply interested in seminal memories of the body and desire.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:35PM
Friday, November 19, 2021

In Aurora’s ‘Father/Daughter,’ two couples, two meet-cutes but endless analysis by Lily Janiak

Playwright Kait Kerrigan elongates what could have been a poetic, fragmentary play into a full-blown relationship postmortem.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:07PM
Thursday, November 18, 2021

Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘Wintertime’ is an imaginative romp that could happen only in person by Lily Janiak

In Charles L. Mee's play, with lift-off come immediate flights into the wondrous.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM
Monday, November 15, 2021

Review: Oakland Theater Project’s ‘Saint Joan’ says the saints are still with us by Lily Janiak

Playwright Lisa Ramirez makes forcefully clear that for Generation Z, too much all the time is a permanent condition.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:53PM
Wednesday, November 10, 2021

In with the new: Theater lineups throw holiday traditions out the window by Lily Janiak

From Jane Austen to panto, this winter season sparkles with world-premiere adaptations and other new works.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Theater workers aren’t just changing jobs during the pandemic. They’re leaving the field by Lily Janiak

Julie Saltzman Kellner on the theater industry: ‘Family is second. Any other aspirations are second. Being sick is second.’

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

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