Senioritis
It’s hard to imagine the Bay Area theater scene without Geoff Hoyle, who’s been a tremendous comedic presence on local stages from the early days of the Pickle Family Circus down to frequent shows at Berkeley Rep and ACT today (not to mention notable side trips such as the original cast of Broadway’s The Lion King). From the start his work has been so rooted in his marvelous facility for physical comedy that it’s especially striking that his new, sold-out solo show is about the body falling apart. An often hilarious reflection on aging, Geezer was developed with and directed by David Ford at the latter’s frequent stomping ground the Marsh, where Hoyle’s son Dan has enjoyed long runs in his solo shows Tings Dey Happen and The Real Americans (the latter is still running after a hiatus to recover from a leg injury).
Stall, Interrogate, Repeat
In one sense, The Composer Is Dead has been around for a while. Originally commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, it debuted at Davies Symphony Hall in 2006 as an orchestral piece with music by local composer Nathaniel Stookey and text and narration by Lemony Snicket, the fiendish children’s author of A Series of Unfortunate Events who lives in San Francisco under the ludicrous alias of Daniel Handler. It has since made the rounds of various symphonies around the country as a humorous Peter and the Wolf-style piece designed to familiarize children with the various instruments in an orchestra, and has also been released as a book and CD.
