WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY Late in the first act of Lauren Gunderson's The Book of Will, a character makes an impassioned plea to her husband, John Heminges, one of William Shakespea…
LOU WALL SLAYS, AND THAT'S NO LIE Whether a comedian is obligated to tell the truth in their act comes up in mainstream discourse every once and a while. Plenty of comedians start a comedy b…
NOBODY PUTS THIS BABY IN A CORNER A set doesn't get any sparser than the one for Gangsta Baby, in the sense that there isn't one. You step in off the street into a basement with two dozen ch…
WEST SIDE SNORING Astoundingly unsatisfying, LA Opera's many-headed Hydra production of West Side Story, directed with no sense of urgency by Francesca Zambello, opened tonight to a crowd la…
STAR STRUCK Awe-inspiring lighting design (Eduardo M. Ramirez) and beautiful sound effects and music (Kai Bohlman with Violet Wang) elevate Lauren Gunderson's fictionalized biography of astr…
DIGITAL DREAMS, SUPERCHARGED What happens when you combine a century-old boiler room, an army of graphics processing units (GPUs), and some of the most imaginative digital artists? You get S…
Years ago, all a magician needed was a top hat and a live rabbit. Magic has come a long way. Jamie Allan's Amaze uses props, videos, projections and cell phones to do exactly what the title …
A FAR CRY FROM MISERABLE (UNLESS YOU'RE ONE OF THE CHARACTERS) There's a lot to gripe about in the world in 2025, but you know what? Spend a little time in 1815 France and you're going t…
ONE MAN, TWO HOURS TOO LONG Ask yourself how much you liked The Play That Goes Wrong series. That's a pretty good indicator as to your enjoyment of Richard Bean's 2011 play, One Man, Two Guv…
THE WIVES HAVE NEVER BEEN MERRIER The point of The Merry Wives of Windsor was to give Jack Falstaff a bit more time on the stage, beyond the bounds of Shakespeare's history plays, where his …
AN AUTHENTIC, FUNNY ACCOUNT OF SOBRIETY, STUMBLES, AND SURVIVAL Recovery from substance abuse isn't just about putting down the drug of choice and living happily ever after. The "recovery" p…
Ragtime is the epic musical by Terrence McNally (book), with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow). It weaves together stories of a Jewish…
TAKES FLIGHT AT TFANA: TRUTH, LIES AND QUACKING DELUSIONS While Shakespeare agonized over "to be or not to be," Henrik Ibsen was more concerned with "why is everyone being so fake?" It's exi…
A CLAUSTROPHOBIC MISERY AT CITADEL Citadel Theatre's production of Misery by William Goldman, based on the novel by Stephen King, is a respectable staging that scratches the itch for a…
A STUNNING INDECENT REMINDS US THAT FREE SPEECH IS ALWAYS ON TRIAL The triumphs and travails of an itinerant Yiddish theater troupe get a full examination in Paula Vogel's acclaimed hit play…
TAKE A TRIP DOWN THIS RABBIT HOLE Coping with familial grief has long been fertile ground for theatre, from Rabbit Hole to Hamlet to Antigone, performed almost 2500 years ago at the birth of…
A STAR VEHICLE ON THE ROAD TO FRANCIS GUINAN I confess to some amount of trepidation as I settled into my seat at the Goodman Theatre, launching its centennial season with the world premiere…
HOPE IN THE GLOW OF DISASTER Five years ago this month, Sept. 9, 2020, was the infamous day when the Bay Area sky literally did turn orange. Smoke from multiple wildfires blocked the sun, ca…
THE FINE ART OF A THREE-MAN MASTERPIECE Yasmina Reza's Art returned to Broadway last night starring Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden, and it is a tight, acidic joyride …
TRACES OF POSSIBILITY Premiering Off-Broadway in 1989, Cindy Lou Johnson's Brilliant Traces is one of those plays that can be either mesmerizing or exasperating and tiresome. Lacking a…
GLITTER, GHOSTS AND GOLDEN-AGE GLAMOUR: DESPITE THE SCRIPT, CYGNET'S FOLLIES MAKES A BIG SPLASH AT THE JOAN Cygnet Theatre staked the debut of their new theater complex "The Joan" on a fairl…
A CLIFFHANGER For the Midwest premiere of TL;DR: Thelma Louise: Dyke Remix, a rock musical by Ellarose Chary (book & lyrics) and Brandon James Gwinn (music and lyrics), the entirety of t…
THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR Not every life-altering relationship is romantic. Sometimes it's a friend who helps us endure, who shapes us in ways that can last long after the friendship has e…
OUTBREAK OF MANNERS: WHEN POLITENESS TURNS CONTAGIOUS The play begins with a picture of composure. Five parents sit at a polished library table in a progressive private school in Berkeley. T…
BESIDE MYSELF WITH PRAISE When the lights came up at the end of Act I of Beside Myself, my immediate reaction was, "No!" I was so invested in the proceedings of this stupendous world premier…