TAKES FLIGHT AT TFANA: TRUTH, LIES AND QUACKING DELUSIONS While Shakespeare agonized over "to be or not to be," Henrik Ibsen was more concerned with "why is everyone being so fake?" It's exi…
A CLAUSTROPHOBIC MISERY AT CITADEL Citadel Theatre's production of Misery by William Goldman, based on the novel by Stephen King, is a respectable staging that scratches the itch for a…
A STUNNING INDECENT REMINDS US THAT FREE SPEECH IS ALWAYS ON TRIAL The triumphs and travails of an itinerant Yiddish theater troupe get a full examination in Paula Vogel's acclaimed hit play…
TAKE A TRIP DOWN THIS RABBIT HOLE Coping with familial grief has long been fertile ground for theatre, from Rabbit Hole to Hamlet to Antigone, performed almost 2500 years ago at the birth of…
A STAR VEHICLE ON THE ROAD TO FRANCIS GUINAN I confess to some amount of trepidation as I settled into my seat at the Goodman Theatre, launching its centennial season with the world premiere…
HOPE IN THE GLOW OF DISASTER Five years ago this month, Sept. 9, 2020, was the infamous day when the Bay Area sky literally did turn orange. Smoke from multiple wildfires blocked the sun, ca…
THE FINE ART OF A THREE-MAN MASTERPIECE Yasmina Reza's Art returned to Broadway last night starring Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden, and it is a tight, acidic joyride …
TRACES OF POSSIBILITY Premiering Off-Broadway in 1989, Cindy Lou Johnson's Brilliant Traces is one of those plays that can be either mesmerizing or exasperating and tiresome. Lacking a…
GLITTER, GHOSTS AND GOLDEN-AGE GLAMOUR: DESPITE THE SCRIPT, CYGNET'S FOLLIES MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT THE JOAN Cygnet Theatre staked the debut of their new theater complex "The Joan" on a fairl…
A CLIFFHANGER For the Midwest premiere of TL;DR: Thelma Louise: Dyke Remix, a rock musical by Ellarose Chary (book & lyrics) and Brandon James Gwinn (music and lyrics), the entirety of t…
THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR Not every life-altering relationship is romantic. Sometimes it's a friend who helps us endure, who shapes us in ways that can last long after the friendship has e…
OUTBREAK OF MANNERS: WHEN POLITENESS TURNS CONTAGIOUS The play begins with a picture of composure. Five parents sit at a polished library table in a progressive private school in Berkeley. T…
BESIDE MYSELF WITH PRAISE When the lights came up at the end of Act I of Beside Myself, my immediate reaction was, "No!" I was so invested in the proceedings of this stupendous world premier…
COMEDY IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS So much could have gone wrong in this production of playwright David Templeton's delightfully original and utterly unique Featherbaby, but in the able hands…
A GEM OF A PRODUCTION FOR THERESA REBECK'S DAZZLING SUNDAY ON THE ROCKS Solid. Diamond Solid. Strength and luster. That is what's most striking about Sunday on the Rocks by playwright Theres…
In Yukio Mishima's KINKAKUJI, currently playing at Japan Society, the impeccably cast Major Curda is mesmerizing as Mizoguchi, a Zen monk-in-training who, in 1950, ends up burning down the K…
TAKE MY HUSBAND, PLEASE Marriage has long been fodder for male stand-up comics, but it has generally been women who have been the butt of the jokes. Actress, comic, and TV personality Joy Be…
Am I Roxie? Am I a Play? Am I at the Wrong Theater? Geffen's Latest Solo Act Feels More Fringe Than Mainstage Within five minutes of "this fiercely funny one-woman tour-de-force" (so says th…
Following the wildly successful, sold out premiere on August 27, The Roost Revue continues to captivate audiences with its vibrant celebration of song, story, and connection. On Wednesday, S…
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A PLAY Writing short plays is a refined art unto itself, demanding precision, discipline, and a flair for economy that borders on the surgical, a very difficult t…
A DROP-DEAD DELIGHT Fall is officially here. Kids are back in school and Halloween is just around the corner. Thus it feels like the perfect time for Berkeley Playhouse to open their new sea…
FLY ME TO THE SUN… AND LEAVE ME THERE I confess, playwright Brian Quijada was an unknown quantity to me, and after attending Fly Me to the Sun at the Fountain Theatre, I was of the mind th…
MORE LIKE 9 TO 9, THIS MUSICAL IS AN OVERSTUFFED BUT FUN DOLLYFEST Ray of Light Theater is known for putting a spin on musicals that are big in popular culture. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Th…
Emma, a regional theater's scenic designer, stares at her draft for Romeo and Juliet: a rotating platform (radius 4ft) with a 12ft-wide backdrop. "Will this fit in our 30ft stage depth? And …
JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for th…