Steve Murray

What did our critic think of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES at Theatre Rhinoceros?

Kate Hamill’s cheeky feminist reimagination of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a lot to chew tacking issues of toxic masculinity, female empowerment, and even a political message on unchecked power and megalomaniacal dangers. It’s a times bold, moody, haunting, well-acted and unusually comic.

This production is a touch bittersweet – it’s NCTC Founder Ed Decker’s last programed show after passing the baton to new Artistic Director Ben Villegas Randle. His choice to present Hedwig is extremely prescient in a time where sexual identity is being both vilified and explored.

What did our critic think of PICTURES FROM HOME at Marin Theatre?

What did our critic think of DAVID MARINO LIVE AT THE ORINDA at Orinda Theatre?

What did our critic think of THE WIZARD AND I: LIZ CALLAWAY SINGS STEPHEN SCHWARTZ at Feinstein's At The Nikko?

Hell’s Kitchen recently closed on Broadway where it was a critical and commercial success garnering 13 Tony nomination and winning two. This touring production allows the rest of the country to experience a brief taste of New York City’s pulsing rhythms set to the music and reflections of Alicia Keys teen years in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

Maggie O’Farrell’s fictionalized account of Agnes Hathaway was a solid hit when released in 2020, winning literary awards for its unique perspective on the little-known woman maligned by scholars.

Composer, lyricist, and pianist extraordinaire Stephen Schwartz presented an evening of conversation and song- a celebration of his continuing support and collaboration with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

Berkely Rep’s co-production with La Jolla Playhouse of Ngozi Anywanu’s The Monsters is a joyous, heartwarming story of the bond between sister and brother that will want to make you hug your sibling. Both emotionally devastating and rewarding, The Monsters is brilliantly written, superbly acted by Anyanwu and Bay Area–born actor Sullivan Jones (HBO’s The Gilded Age, Slave Play on Broadway), and beautifully staged by Director Tamilla Woodard and her technical crew.

For Starra Jones, a baller from rural Plainnole, Arkansas, fulfilling her mother’s dream of basketball glory is her prime motivation. Playing a style of ‘dirty’ ball, her braggadocio will lead her to a foul play in Candrice Jones’ Flex, making its West Coast premiere at SF Playhouse.

There are many types of great theatre- light, cheerful, romantic, uplifting, silly, classic. Z Spaces’ co-production of Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class is unflinchingly dark, emotionally devastating and a tough watch – but it is great theatre, a timely cautionary tale of evil startingly conceived and executed.

I admit I’ve never seen Stephen Sondhiem’s Assassins, nor ever heard the score or read the synopsis. A flop in 1990, the 2004 revival won five Tony awards, and it’s been in theatre rotations since, often causing controversy for its raw language and unsavory content. A play from the perspectives of infamous assassins?

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the world's first openly gay chorus, continues it’s forty-eighth season with a concert both cheerful and deeply emotional celebrating the music and events of the 1980’s. For the LGBT community, the 80’s was the apocalypse incarnate - a community devastated by the AIDS pandemic, government abandonment, and social ostracization.

What did our critic think of AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH LUCIE ARNAZ at Feinstein's At The Nikko?

There is plenty of interesting ideas in Eisa Davis’ into the lives of four women, students in a summer music program. The need for arts education drives these girls, partly for parity in a male dominated world of music and secondly as a respite from the dramas of their individual lives.

What did our critic think of GODS & MONSTERS at New Conservatory Theatre Center?

What did our critic think of SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Hillbarn Theatre?

TheatreWorks and director Jeffrey Lo must have been licking their chops with the chance to produce the regional premiere of Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer Prize winning Primary Trust. In Lo’s skillful hands, and with a seasoned powerful cast, Primary Trust is a winner – both deeply emotional and full of hope.

For every lover of Ibsen, Arthur Miller and Stephen Sondheim, there’s a lover of The Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello and of course, Monty Python. Back in the 1970’s Monty Python’s Flying circus was a sensation with their irreverent and risqué observational comedy. If you couldn’t recite the week’s show the next day, you were ‘square.’