World Class Musical Shows Black & Irish Lives Matter by Jennifer Ann Charron It's rare to witness a momentous new musical. Â My shoulders clench and my jaw drops, like a dumb-struck ch…
Sankoff & Hein Offer Hope & Hospitality for ALL by Rachel Norby & Barry David Horwitz With Celtic overtones and intriguingly accented songs, the driving beat of "Welcome to the R…
Millennial Notes Thornton Wilder Imagines Hilarious Apocalypse by Tyler Jeffreys If the audience is laughing…they're listening.    "V. Cate (playwright) You've heard that laug…
Tom Stoppard Plants Modern Mirror in Romantic Garden by Joanna G. Harris & Barry David Horwitz Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," wittily directed by Patrick Dooley, pits history against fantasy,…
Bruce Coughran Convokes Three Wise Brits & the Big Bang by Barry David Horwitz Listen closely and you can hear the rumble of Stephen Hawking's Big Bang working its way through the univer…
Millennial Notes Nick Ishimaru Switches Up Our Dickens' Lens by Carly Van Liere We've seen A Christmas Carol a million times. On big stages like ACT's, in movies and theaters, on TV Christma…
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul Make Music for Harsh Times by Rachel Norby and Barry David Horwitz The plot of "Dear Evan Hansen" could be a teenie bopper movie: boy makes up story, the lies sp…
Jake Heggie's Feel-Good Opera Packs a Lesson by Jeff Dunn Fine singing, a thin adaptation, tune-starved but inoffensive music, and an awkward set characterize San Francisco Opera's third del…
Millennial Notes Charles Dickens' Magical World Soars to Spectacular Success by Rachel Norby A Christmas Carol is everyone's favorite holiday tradition. Charles Dickens' classic Christmas ta…
Gunderson & Melcon's Comedy Transfigures Pride & Prejudice  by Barry David Horwitz In this sequel to Pride and Prejudice, the clever playwrights take us downstairs into the vast …
When we can keep up with them, the characters dazzle with their wit. They recite poetry. They ponder, to nihilistic ends, Newtonian determinism, the new science of thermodynamics, and the ma…
Jon Tracy Premieres Prophetic Youth Project by Maya Rath and Barry David Horwitz When we walk into Live Oak Theatre, it looks like a construction site. We see walls lined with giant plastic …
Lopez & Marx's Adult Sesame Street Meets Queer Musical by Kim Waldron "I love the lively ones," said my friend, after seeing "Avenue Q."Â She's right. Spirited and profane, with smart…
Millennial Notes Max Tachis, Jeffrey Lo Delight in Holiday Shenanigans  by Evelyn Arevalo What better way to finish off the year than treating yourself to Joe Mantello's dramatization of…
Millennial Notes Sholeh Wolpé Transforms Church into Spiritual Nest by Carly Van Liere After filing up the long narrow staircase into the second floor aerie of the semi-abandoned Oakland ch…
Lindsay-Abaire Infuses Senior Living with New Life  by Rachel Norby & Barry David Horwitz "Ripcord" by David Lindsay-Abaire tells the story of two women sharing a room in a senior liv…
Gale Childs Daly Delivers Hope of Resurrection from Chaos by Jennifer Ann Charron Most of us are familiar with Great Expectations─Charles Dickens' Victorian novel about a boy who sell…
Millennial Notes Chuck Nevius, Chron Reporter, Celebrates Captivating Stories by Jordan Freed Chuck (C.W.) Nevius has been writing news and sports stories for 40 years at the San Francisco C…
Nico Storrow is originally from Southern California and moved to the Bay Area in 2016 to start a graduate program in counseling with a special interest in gender/queer identity, adolescents,…
Wendy MacLeod's Black Comedy Stacks the Deck by Jennifer Ann Charron It's Thanksgiving, a day for holding our tongues and biting our lips. But in Wendy MacLeod's "The House of Yes," at the P…
Maya Rath recently retired as General Manager of the Oakland Symphony where she served for 24 years. She was a music major at Smith College and received her MBA from Tulane University. She b…
John Fisher's Victorious One-Man Army by Barry David Horwitz John Fisher is obsessed with WWII. When he was a kid in the Marin suburbs, John Fisher found a way to escape his family's bigoted…
Mac Attack Celebrates Drag & Rebellion by Barry David Horwitz Taylor Mac, MacArthur Genius Award winner, destroyer of Icons, Ironic Drag Queen of Assault on Patriarchy, singer, comic, wi…
Nilaja Sun Embodies Beautiful New York Voices, Powerfully by Barry David Horwitz When Nilaja Sun tells us to take a deep breath at the beginning of the show, we willingly breathe with her. I…
Millennial Notes Susi Damilano Delivers a Poppin' Nanny for the Ages by Rachel Norby and Tyler Jeffreys P.L. Travers' quirky, beloved English governess, Mary Poppins (commanding El Beh) take…