CALL ME SLACKJAWED It's amazing what critics and audiences alike are willing to forgive when they're in the presence of a true star. Regardless of some bouncy and hummable Irving Berlin tune…
AN OPENING NIGHT SURPRISE It's one of those instances that may just be talked about in the San Francisco opera circle for years to come. In Act One of Puccini's Tosca (1900) at San Francisco…
AÂ DREAMY BEDTIME STORY Theater critics often speak of "universal themes" in the theater"these are topics to which people in any place and at any time can relate. One of the main reasons t…
THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY When Anna Ziegler's world premiere play Another Way Home began, it seemed that the thrust of the play would revolve around Joey (Daniel Petzold), a 17-year-old sp…
FAR FROM WILD Thornton Wilder, especially as a playwright, looks to the commonality of all people to demonstrate the value in appreciating life, especially when the death of a loved one is i…
THE HAT'S JUST KEEP ON COMIN' Billed as the world's longest running musical revue, Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon is a flamboyant, frivolous, and frothy burlesque that takes a jab at p…
AN IMAGINATIVE STORY AND SPECTACULAR VISUALS MAKE UP FOR CALCULATED FAMILIARITY It's quite an accomplishment for Disney that the multitude of elements in Wreck-It Ralph don't collapse in on …
HOW TO LAUGH AND CRY AND BE UNMOVED AT THE SAME TIME Playwright Bill Cain, after discovering his mother, Mary, had six months to live, moved into the family home in Syracuse, New York. Like …
AN AUGUST PROJECT In many ways, playwright August Strindberg's influence in the theater has been far more significant than his public reception. While theater historians and scholars speak o…
THAT’S AMORE I hope San Franciscans actually know how advantaged they are to have a company like 42nd Street Moon, which presents fully staged productions of rarely-seen musicals. Whil…
RED AND BROWNÂ IS THEATRICALÂ GOLD Los Angeles is usually the last major theater city in the states to see productions of playwrights whose works have received praise in their world prem…
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID Bootleg Theater continues its run of the world premiere of Death of a Salesgirl, an absurdist tragicomedy with integrated media, about one woman's struggle to fr…
THE MADNESS OF SITE-SPECIFIC THEATER Back in 2010, First Folio presented David Rice's site-specific theater piece, The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story. If any show should be heaped …
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TITLE MEANS Every once in a while, a theater company falls in love with a script and simply must stage it. I can't imagine any other reason that Seanachaà decid…
A DEATH OF FRESH AIR During the height of WWII in Germany, a recently orphaned adolescent girl named Liesel is taken in by a poor couple in The Book Thief, now receiving a world premiere pro…
THE DANGERS OF TECHNOLOGY " ON STAGE AND OFF Playwright Jennifer Haley is definitely onto something in her play Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, now receiving its Chicago premiere at Str…
AFTERGLOW It's with good reason that Chad Beckim's After has been extended at Profiles Theatre. Yes, Beckim's script undoubtedly tries to cover too much territory as he tells the tale of Mon…
YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO MEET THESE FEET I was led to believe, based on having seen both the original Broadway version of 42nd Street and the humongous Broadway revival, that the slight jukebo…
THE LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL Those who were lucky enough to witness the Joffrey Ballet's Spring Desire program this year were treated to what may well have been the greatest dance program…
A STORY TO TELL Writer/Actress Dael Orlandersmith has many stories to tell in her one-person show at the Goodman, but they all encompass the same theme: abuse. Specifically, involving boys a…
PIECES OF FATE There is quite a bit of buzz surrounding Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's One Thousand Pieces, which will commence the company's 35th season. Inspired by Chagall’s masterp…
ONE TIME ONLY FOR ONE NAME ONLY WAS ONE TOO MANY TIMES Yes, America's got talent. And the performers on stage at Black Ensemble Theater's beautiful new digs are packed to the gills with char…
NOISE IS OFF It is 1944 in a field near a watering hole in Kent, England. A strapping, fine-looking, and masculine young man purveys the view and strips off his shirt. Another young man ente…
GARY GRIFFIN CREATES A TRIUMPHANT MASTERPIECE AT CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE Rare is the theatrical experience that is so haunting and so achingly beautiful that your soul actually feels caressed an…
TRAGEDY FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY If you have ever wanted to introduce teenagers to Hamlet, the production directed by Leisl Tommy at California Shakespeare is the one to take them to. Staged on …