Steve Murray - Page 3

It was family night at the intimate Feinstein’s as Broadway stage star Norm Lewis asked us to think of his show as a cozy living room affair with friends. The sold-out audience certainly acted like friends, singing along when required and eating up his often-humorous anecdotes about his storied career.

Theatreworks Silicon Valley opens its 55th season in spectacular fashion with some familiarity and something quite new and extraordinary.

What did our critic think of KIM'S CONVENIENCE at American Conservatory Theatre? A.C.T. launches its 2025/26 season with the charming 2011 dramedy Kim’s Convenience written and performed by Ins Choi as the title character and a solid supporting cast.

It’s no coincidence that Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite opens Hillbarn’s historic 85th season, for it was 85 years ago that the comedy opened on Broadway. Since 1968, Hillbarn and Simon have created an artistic bond, being the most produced playwright in their history.

What did our critic think of CHAIN OF LOVE (A BROADWAY ALBUM) ALBUM RELEASE PARTY AND CONCERT WITH CARLY OZARD AND FR at GRNHS Gallery + Studio?

Hend is an adorable Palestinian five-year old giddy about attending her Jewish best friend’s Purim party. Dressed as a pretty princess, she can’t wait for the poppyseed hamantaschen, the ubiquitous pastry of the holiday.

A Black queer teen longs to be touched, to be held and squeezed tight. His expression of love is hampered by generations of stoic, toxic masculinity unable to express tenderness or self-expression.

Liberace & Liza: Pier Pressure (A Tribute), which rolls back into Feinstein’s for a return engagement, is one of the finest acts of this genre, featuring two extraordinary performers combining their talents to bring Liberace and Liza Minelli to life.

There’s a strong history of outrageous drag performance art in San Francisco. Born of necessity as a weapon against homophobia, discrimination and vile hatred, the gay community developed an all-inclusive, often comic, in-your-face style of theatre that includes nudity, sexual innuendo, and social satire.

Who doesn’t love a good transformation story? Dowdy bookkeeper Loretta Castorini morphing into Cher in Moonstruck or the streetwise prostitute becoming the elegant Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman are contemporary examples.

Michael Gene Sullivan and his troupe may be secretly saying to us all- “See I told ya so.” For 66 years they have been to sole voice of the left in the Bay Area scene, and their continuous commitment to socially relevant, in-your-face politically resistant theatre in proudly realized in this year’s offering, Disruption.

Witty, funny, flashy, and eye-popping, & Juliet rides the wave of phenomenally successful jukebox musicals and succeeds not only with the familiarity of the pop songs it includes, but by its remarkably well-written book

Robinson’s adaptation sticks to the development of the characters and deletes some unnecessary filler. Set in Nina Ball’s excellently appointed 5 & Dime during a drought, the once thriving town is now a dried-up skeleton, and the women brought together for their reunion are all caught up in the divergence between present realities and memories of 1955.

Marin Theatre concludes its 24-25 season with Mara Nelson Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?, about an empathy coach hired to train workers at a debt collection agency facing major lawsuits for their abusive communication skills.

Developed during the COVID pandemic lockdown, this one-man show has Fisher playing about a dozen characters and running the technical aspects of the show as well.

There was a palpable buzz pre-show at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater for the world premiere of a new hip-hop musical, a buzz that turned to excitement and joy once the curtain rose and the opening number commenced. Wildly creative, bristling with kinetic energy, beautifully staged and excellently acted, Co-Founders successfully merges the sounds and movements of hip hop with an engaging story of AI entrepreneurship.

A musically gifted daughter feeling neglected and invisible. A dutiful husband struggling to cope, and the ghost of a dead child waiting for recognition before ascending. These are the emotionally devastated characters orbiting Diana Goodman, wife, and mother coping with mental illness.

Before JVB was a sensation in New York City ( Tony-nomination (2007) GLAAD (2000), Obie (2001), Bessie (2004), Ethyl (2007), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2012) awards, and 2024  MacArthur Fellow), they were a cherished counterculture  icon in San Francisco.

A true story of unspeakable injustice is beautifully realized in Parade, deservedly winner of the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Like its dramatic courtroom cousins Inherit then Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird, Parade brings humanity to a tragedy, faces to the pictures projected on a huge backdrop screen, and a heightened emotional realism through Jason Robert Browns’ Tony winning score. Gorgeously stage by Michael Arden, its huge cast is always in motion, amazingly lit to create an atmosphere of hot and dusty 1913 Georgia.

JC Lee’s 2022 To My Girls continues the tradition of a group of gay guys getting together to trade snarky barbs, renew friendships and uncover hidden grudges.