SAN FRANCISCO / BAY AREA THEATER REVIEWS

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....

weary soul. With a steady beat that blends with your pulse, this music sticks in your mind and body. Devoid of elaborate set pieces or high tech features, the show soars because the story matters. And you will come away remembering all that is good and noble and possible in community....

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....

Energetic dances, soaring songs, and clever comedy make a winning combination in ANYTHING GOES at Altarena Playhouse. With classic songs by Cole Porter and witty dialogue from P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, ANYTHING GOES has entertained audiences since 1934. The fun and humor still resonate as a new...

Center Rep presents Neil Simon’s classic tale of family and obligations, LOST IN YONKERS. In a world of sound bites, TikTok, and AI images, this show reminds us that when it comes to family, things haven’t really changed that much. With humor and heart, the show demonstrates that even in the mid...

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 ...

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....

It's easy to see why Beetlejuice, the screen-to-stage adaptation of Tim Burton's beloved 1998 cult-classic film, earned eight 2019 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical. It is to die for. ...

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 conce...

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 perspective...

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 devastate...

What did our critic think of DON QUIXOTE at San Francisco Ballet?...

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 ...

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 th...

There’s a giant dynamo inside the petite frame of Marilyn Maye that propels her constantly forward, now approaching her 98th birthday, and eighth decade of performances. She’s a national treasure and receives adulation befitting her status wherever she performs....

The late AIDS activist Larry Kramer meets Pete Buttigieg in John Fisher’s wild political fantasia Left Field, now occupying the full stage at Theatre Rhino. Written and directed by Fisher, Left Field follows an angry radical f****t who rises from mayor to supervisor, to VP candidate, to potential ...

Arthur Miller needed after his disastrous Broadway debut with the four-performance The Man Who Had All the Luck, and an article in an Ohio newspaper would provide the basis for All My Sons which would on to win two Tony awards for Best Author and Direction of a Play....

The Paranormal Activity franchise (seven films from 2007 -21), while critically panned, proved people love to be scared, then laugh at their foolishness. Now a theatre piece, the crowd anticipated the expected thrills of supernatural goings on in a live experience....

What did our critic think of THE NOTEBOOK at Orpheum Theatre?...

What did our critic think of M. BUTTERFLY at SF Playhouse?...

IMPROBABLE FICTION at Masquers Playhouse is a tale of two parts. Don’t let the easy-going first half lull you into complacency. When the action hits, it comes in quick succession with quippy lines, funny costumes, over the top dramatics, and plenty of belly laughs....