San Francisco Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 11

BWW Review: AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON WITH RAEHANN BRYCE-DAVIS at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - November 09, 2021

Bryce Davis and Cilliers opened their recital program with Richard Strauss' and John Henry Mackay's uplifting 'Heimliche Aufforderung' ('The Secret Invitation'). This joyous, celebratory composition was the composer's gift to his bride on their wedding day. Bryce-Davis sang it with exquisite vocal c...

BWW Review: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC at 42nd Street Moon
by Steve Murray - November 08, 2021

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BWW Review: MY FAIR LADY at Orpheum Theatre
by Steve Murray - November 04, 2021

There's a brief appearance by a group of protest sign carrying suffragettes during a street scene in this Lincoln Center 2018 revival of Lerner and Loewe's classic musical My Fair Lady, and it may be the only bridge between this distinctly old-fashioned early 20th century Edwardian perspective and t...

BWW Review: THE GREAT KHAN at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - October 28, 2021

A traumatized black teen works his way through buffoonish white liberalism, racist oppression, a protective mother, and his desire to fight the good fight against his repressors in Michael Gene Sullivan's well-crafted, fully realized fantasia. Opening their 19th season with this collaboration with t...

BWW Review: THE CLAIM at Shotgun Players
by Steve Murray - October 17, 2021

After an almost two-year Covid shutdown, Shotgun Players open their 30th season with Tim Cowbury's dark, absurdist comedy The Claim, a smash hit at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In a nod to Kafka's The Trial, Cowbury shines his searing focus on Serge, an asylum seeker trapped in a bureaucratic...

BWW Review: INTERLUDE at New Conservatory Theatre Center
by Steve Murray - October 16, 2021

Harrison David Rivers continues his characterization of Jesse Howard, first introduced four years ago in This Bitter Earth, who has now returned home to conservative Manhattan, Kansas, and his childhood home full of unresolved memories and a welcome chance at redemption and closure. ...

BWW Review: SAN FRANCISCO OPERA'S FIDELIO ONLINE at War Memorial Opera House
by Maria Nockin - October 15, 2021

On October 14, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, in a well-thought-out production with an outstanding cast. Matthew Ozawa directed the action in a prison of the current era. There, Leonore, a prisoner’s wife disguises herself as a male worker and rescues her husban...

BWW Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Golden Gate Theatre
by Steve Murray - October 15, 2021

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's iconic rock opera celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a spectacular re-staging of the 2017 Olivier Award-winning Best Musical Revival production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Re-imagined through the eyes of director Timothy Sheader (Crazy for You, Into the Woods) and...

BWW Review: LIZARD BOY at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
by Steve Murray - October 10, 2021

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley opens its much-anticipated 51st season with a sensational production of Lizard Boy, first time playwright-actor-composer Justin Huertas' quirky mythological hero journey that is both a universal and deeply individual story of accepting oneself....

BWW Review: BRATPACK at Feinstein's At The Nikko
by Steve Murray - October 09, 2021

Those of us too young to have identified with the Rat Pack of the 50's and 60's, a group of Hollywood A-listers including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, can easily resonate with the themes of the 1980's teen-oriented coming of age films whose soundtrack d...

BWW Review: SPANKING MACHINE at The Marsh Offers a Painfully Funny Exploration of Our Collective Fear
by Jim Munson - October 07, 2021

'Spanking Machine' at The Marsh is Marga Gomez' latest theatrical memoir, a funny-scary tale of growing up brown and queer in Washington Heights....

BWW Review: CHESS IN CONCERT at 42nd Street Moon
by Steve Murray - September 26, 2021

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BWW Review: STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - September 12, 2021

Re-starting theatre after the pandemic shutdown is a bit of a challenge; theatregoers are still wary of live performances and seating is limited. Not a sustainable outlook, but it is encouraging that companies are proceeding and hopefully the outlook will improve. SF Playhouse's choice of presenting...

BWW Review: Transcendence Theatre's 'Broadway Under the Stars' Celebrates 10 Years with a 'Road-Trip!'
by Christina Mancuso - August 11, 2021

There’s something truly extraordinary that happens when you step onto the grounds of Jack London State Historic Park.  It’s not just any park.  You are whisked away into a magical land of beauty, passion, exuberance -- and immersed in spellbinding talent that is known as the Transcendence Theatre fa...

BWW Review: TALES OF THE RESISTANCE : VOLUME 2 PERSISTANCE at SF Mime Troupe
by Steve Murray - July 12, 2021

As I reported last year, SF Mime Troupe has revived the good old days of episodic radio serials, a perfect genre for shelter in place entertainment. In the comfort of your home, you can listen to these funny, left-leaning, provocative broadcasts that allow your imaginations to soar....

BWW Review: DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL: DC & PETER'S GLORIOUS ROMP THROUGH THE GOLDEN AGE OF TV THEME SONGS at 42nd Street Moon Delivers a Fizzy Celebration of Pop Culture
by Jim Munson - June 21, 2021

42nd Street Moon is concluding its online Moonbeams series on a rather deliciously demented high note with Don’t Touch That Dial: DC & Peter’s Glorious Romp through the Golden Age of TV Theme Songs. Just like the timeworn sitcoms that generated most of its songs, Don’t Touch That Dial wants nothing ...

BWW Review: HOLD THESE TRUTHS at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - June 14, 2021

The story of Gordon Hirabayashi's five-decade struggle for justice for the forced detention of Japanese-Americans during WWII is powerfully recreated in Jeanne Sakata's lovingly researched historical drama buoyed by a stellar performance by Jomar Tagatac....

BWW Review: SWAN LAKE at San Francisco Ballet Offers a Welcome Opportunity to Revisit an All-Time Classic
by Jim Munson - May 26, 2021

San Francisco Ballet brings its extremely successful 2021 Digital Season to a close by revisiting that all-time classic, Swan Lake, in a production choreographed by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson back in 2009, and captured on video in 2016. Swan Lake is a particular favorite of mine, so I was sinc...

BWW Review: ROMEO & JULIET at San Francisco Ballet Delivers a Beautiful Production of the Timeless Romantic Tragedy
by Jim Munson - May 10, 2021

San Francisco Ballet's revisiting of Helgi Tomasson's 'Romeo & Juliet' is, in a word, gorgeous. The dancing, the design and especially the music – all gorgeous. The penultimate program of its 2021 Digital Season is available for streaming through May 26th in a top-notch 2015 video capture featuring ...

BWW Review: SHOOT ME WHEN at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - May 07, 2021

I can't remember how many times I've joked 'Shoot Me if.... Shoot me if I ever wear my pants below my underwear. Shoot me if I eat this entire pint of Haagen-Dazs, etc. Writer Ruben Grijalva uses this usually non-actionable catchphrase as the catalyst for this untypically light drama about the effec...

BWW Review: PROGRAM 05 at San Francisco Ballet Highlights the Talents of Its Superb Dancers
by Jim Munson - April 28, 2021

The latest offering of San Francisco Ballet's 2021 Digital Season shows off the wondrous artistry of the company's dancing more than anything. This mixed rep program of 3 very different ballets originally made on the company provides a dazzling showcase for the dancers' versatility, technique and mu...

BWW Review: San Francisco Opera's Drive-In BARBER OF SEVILLE at The Marin Center In San Rafael
by Maria Nockin - April 24, 2021

On April. 23, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented its first drive-in opera, Rossini’s rollicking comedy, The Barber of Seville. As the boisterous Spanish hair stylist, baritone Lucas Meachem opened the show with a vigorous, rousing version of his famous “Largo al Factotum”. California COVID restrict...

BWW Review: LOVE AND SECRETS, A DOMESTIC TRILOGY Now Streaming to Computers Everywhere
by Maria Nockin - April 17, 2021

On April 15, 2021, Opera San Jose premiered its digital stream of Love and Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy: Il Segreto di Susanna (The Secret of Susanna), Four Dialogues, and The Husbands. Wolf-Ferrari’s buffa comedy presents a wife with an addiction that she tries to keep secret. Thus, her husband susp...

BWW Review: San Francisco Playhouse Streams Julia Brothers' I WAS RIGHT HERE
by Derek McCracken - April 13, 2021

Minutes into the train trip that propels the play I WAS RIGHT HERE, author/actor Julia Brothers reflects on the reflection of an across-the aisle passenger: “It’s like I’m watching a movie of his heartbreak.” Although simple, this cinematic analogy sets the entire kaleidoscopic 70-minute sequence of...

BWW Review: JEWELS at San Francisco Ballet Offers a Treasure Trove of Spectacular Dancing
by Jim Munson - April 05, 2021

The latest program in San Francisco Ballet’s 2021 digital season is the glorious return of George Balanchine’s Jewels. BroadwayWorld reviews the thrilling production now streaming through April 21, 2021....