TheatreFirst’s Bold Third Act

TheatreFirst’s Bold Third Act

Longtime East Bay company TheatreFirst reinvents itself with a bold new mission.

Read my company spotlight for Theatre Bay AreaRead more

The Original Romcom

17 September, 2015 Theater No comments
The Original Romcom

TheatreFIRST tries its hand at free Shakespeare in the park with Much Ado.

Read my review in the San Jose Mercury News. Read more

Knot in Your Gut

21 February, 2014 Theater No comments
Knot in Your Gut

Gidion’s Knot is a hard play to take. As seen in director Jon Tracy’s brutally effective Bay Area premiere staging at Aurora Theatre Company, Johnna Adams’s drama is 75 minutes of nonstop tension, alleviated only by moments of grim humor.

Read more

Marley We Roll Along

28 November, 2013 Theater No comments
Marley We Roll Along

Marin Theatre Company’s holiday show riffs on Dickens through the dead eyes of Scrooge’s partner.

My review is in today’s Marin Independent Journal. Read more

Strangers Will Make You Uncomfortable

Strangers Will Make You Uncomfortable

Scottish playwright Linda McLean returns with an eerie, elliptical portrait of a life in five scenes.

My review is on KQED Arts. Read more

Bonnie and Clyde’s Barn Dance Jamboree

12 September, 2013 Theater No comments
Bonnie and Clyde’s Barn Dance Jamboree

Bank-robbing couple Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow have been objects of popular fascination since their heyday of the 1930s—a sexy young couple whose crime sprees were blown up into folklore even while they were active, and were then gunned down in their prime by law-enforcement officers in the course of, you know, enforcing the law. From the classic 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde to the Serge Gainsbourg/Brigitte Bardot pop song of the same name released that same year, they’ve been elevated to the level of mythic figures, like their fellow American outlaws Jesse James and John Dillinger.

Read more

Tales to Astonish

Tales to Astonish

Mark O’Rowe’s Terminus at Magic Theatre is a spellbinding, dizzying play in which it doesn’t matter a whit that it’s made up of three people standing around telling their stories. KQED Arts has my review.

Read more

She’s So Quirky

She’s So Quirky

You’ve scoffed about the romantic comedy wish-fulfillment archetype, now see the play! Katie May’s “graphic novel play” Manic Pixie Dream Girl is playing at ACT’s new Costume Shop Theater, and I wrote it up for the KQED Arts Blog. Head over there to read all about it.

Read more

Embarrassment of Riches

30 December, 2012 Theater No comments
Embarrassment of Riches

Boy, this was a hard year to reduce to a Top Ten. When I look over the list of the 117 shows I attended in 2012, eight strike me as shoo-ins for the list, and then there are fifteen other shows vying for the remaining two slots. Mind you, that’s a good problem to have; there really was a lot of good theater in the Bay Area this year—and, of course, some so-so and not very good theater as well. And of course there’s not any inherent virtue in the vast theaterscape of 2012 being reducible to a list in the first place, so maybe I should quit my kvetching, suck it up, and get to it. Although I’m restricting myself to ten, these shows aren’t ranked or numbered and are listed in chronological order.

Read more

On the Radio

29 November, 2012 Theater No comments
On the Radio

Hey, remember last week when I linked to my feature in the Marin Independent Journal about It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Marin Theatre Company and said I’d be reviewing it this week?  Well, that happened in today’s Marin IJ, so you can read all about it over yonder.

Read more