Odysseo: full gallop gorgeous
If Bojack Horseman and Mr. Ed count, I can say I'm a horse person. I fell off the back of a running stallion as a child while visiting relatives on a farm in Idaho (that horse really wanted to get back to the stable), and I know people who love horses beyond all measure. But when it comes right down to it, I'm not a horse guy. But I sure do like watching horses running around and doing tricks in the epic new equestrian extravaganza Odysseo.
Aurora builds a mighty (funny) Monster
When salsa splatters across the unsealed Carrara marble, the horror of the architect played by Danny Scheie resounds through the intimate Aurora Theatre Company. An hors d'oeuvre has fallen on the floor, and after admonishing the clumsiness of his girlfriend, the architect demands a napkin and some vodka to clean it up. The marble is not stained, and the architect, one Gregor Zobrowski, calms down enough to say, "Crisis averted." But is the crisis averted? Not even a little bit, and that's the fun of Amy Freed's The Monster Builder, a very funny riff on Ibsen's The Master Builder (which the Aurora produced in 2006).
Cal Shakes gets terrifically Tempest tossed
On a day when terrible things were happening in the world, being immersed in William Shakespeare's The Tempest was sweet balm, especially as performed by the fine actors of California Shakespeare Theater's "All the World's a Stage" tour of the show, which, in classic traveling players mode, is being performed in senior centers, homeless shelters, federal prison, rehab centers and the like. It's hard not to agree with Caliban when he says, "Hell is empty. All the devils are here." But dark notions of revenge, which so inform the play itself, are soothed by virtue, and Prospero's exquisite speech, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep,” is practically heartbreaking in its beauty.
If/Then? No/Thanks.
If/Then is not a musical I like much. I saw it on Broadway because I was enthusiastic about creators Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey after their powerhouse effort on Next to Normal (a show that I had problems with but admired). My reaction – meh – was very much the same when I saw the show in its touring incarnation featuring much of the original cast, including star Idina Menzel.
There are some pretty melodies, good songs and affecting moments in the show, primarily courtesy of an excellent cast working hard to make something of this rather mushy tale.
MTC's Mañana captures real-life struggles, passions
Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes cuts through any pretense and gets right to the heart of real life in these United States. In so much of the entertainment we consume (and, truth be told, in the lives we lead), the people Irwin writes about here are on the fringes, working diligently to make modern life run smoothly and efficiently but without much consideration from those whose lives their work benefits. In this case, the focus is on four bus boys in a busy Manhattan restaurant.
42nd Street Moon hits the high seas with Coward's Sail Away
Sail Away, the last musical for which the great Noël Coward wrote the whole shebang (book, music, lyrics), had two things going for it when it premiered on Broadway in 1961. First was the customary Coward wit, which shone in numbers like "The Passenger's Always Right" and "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" And then there was the show's star, Elaine Stritch for whom Coward created the role of cruise hostess Mimi Paragon. Any show was better for having Stritch in it (Goldilocks anyone?), and the combination of her personality and Coward's charm should have proven irresistible.
Sweet transvestite! Ray of Light rocks Rocky Horror
Any prospect of a live Rocky Horror Show makes us shiver with antici................pation, And the good news is this Rocky is a rollicking ride through one of the most beloved cult musicals of all time.
Jason Hoover, Ray of Light's artistic director, is at the helm of this full-scale production, which Ray of Light last produced in 2008 when Hoover...
Arctic Requiem celebrates work, spirit of local hero
A very personal play, BootStrap Theater Foundation's Arctic Requiem: The Story of Luke Cole and Kivalina is both educational and emotional. You'll learn more about Native Alaskan Inupiat people than you ever knew, and you'll come to care about and feel the tragic loss of Luke Cole the San Francisco environmental lawyer whose good work in the world was ended by a tragic auto accident in Uganda in 2009.
Curran brilliance continues with stunning Ghost Quartet
Before I rhapsodize about the incredible Ghost Quartet now at the Curran Theatre as part of the Curran: Under Construction series, can I just say how extraordinary this series has been so far? This is the third show following The Events (review here) and The Object Lesson (review here), and so far, producer Carole Shorenstein Hays is batting a million (I don't know sports).
Hypocrites' Pirates sets sail at Berkeley Rep
The Hypocrites' Pirates of Penzance is one part Yo ho! and one part Yo, ho! Which is to say, this is not your great-grandparents' Gilbert and Sullivan, and what a blessed relief that is. No wonder Berkeley Repertory Theatre seized the opportunity to present this Pirates as part of its season.
Not that there's anything wrong with G&S, but I have been tortured by Pirates and Mikados in the past and...
Trekking gently through O'Neill's nostalgic Wilderness
Can we agree that Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! is warm and wonderful...and weird? The sepia-tinted 1933 play is a rare light work from tragedian O'Neill, though its fantasy elements – the family O'Neill wished he had growing up rather than the more nightmarish version he depicted in Long Day's Journey Into Night – lend it a rather sad underpinning.
It's almost as if O'Neill strayed into Kaufman and Hart territory long enough to write the four-act play about...
Stuff, nonsense and dreams in Curran's Object Lessson
You'd think, from the piles and walls of boxes that fill the stage of the Curran Theatre, that Geoff Sobelle's would involve shame – shame that we're so attached to our stuff and that we accumulate so much stuff and that being burdened by SO MUCH STUFF would be about the worst thing there is.
But that's not really the case.
Cutting Ball pumps energy into vivid Dream
What a rare treat to have had two productions of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Life Is a Dream on local stages this year. First there was California Shakespeare Theater's production (read my review here), and now we have a brisk, streamlined version from Cutting Ball Theater and its resident playwright, Andrew Saito at the EXIT on Taylor.
Ramping up the teenage angst in Crowded Fire's Truck Stop
The whole time I was watching Lachlan Philpott's Truck Stop, a Crowded Fire Theater production at Thick House, I was working myself into a state of anxiety imagining being the parent of a teenage girl. How do you fight the global objectification of women and instill a sense of self-worth that comes as much from intellectual, spiritual, emotional places and not just the physical and sexual, which it seems is all the world cares about if you're watching TV or movies, reading magazines or listening to music.
Uneven tone tilts ACT's Monstress double bill
Two of the Bay Area's most interesting theater artists, Philip Kan Gotanda and Sean San José, were asked to adapt a short story from Lysley Tenorio's 2012 collection Monstress for American Conservatory Theater's Strand Theater as part of the company's San Francisco Stories initiative and the New Strands play development and commissioning program.
The results make up the double bill Monstress now at the Strand, and while both plays...
Performances make Dogfight musical sing
There are two very good reasons to see the musical Dogfight at San Francisco Playhouse. The 2012 stage adaptation of the 1991 movie starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor has its moments (mostly thanks to the emotional score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), but what really makes it connect are the lead performances by Jeffrey Brian Adams as a U.S. Marine with more depth under his gruff military exterior than even he may realize and Caitlin Brooke as a San Francisco waitress/folk singer who is smarter, stronger and more compassionate than anyone the Marine has ever known (or probably ever will know).
Curran Theatre roars back to vibrant life
Carole Shorenstein Hays is doing something very exciting with the her jewel of a theater, the Curran Theatre. The 93-year-old neighbor to the Geary Theater in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood is undergoing refurbishment, but most of the improvements are happening front of house, which leaves the stage available. So Hays, formerly of Best of Broadway and SHN, has launched a performance series called Curran: Under Construction, which brings smaller but notable performances to the Curran stage, where the audience also happens to be seated.
Ferocious Lotus unfolds a lovely Crane
The Ferocious Lotus world premiere of JC Lee's Crane is the kind of theater that makes me happy. Here's a small company taking a step up with its first solo production. They're tackling a notable playwright (Lee's work has been seen locally at Impact Theatre and Sleepwalkers Theater and he's a writer for ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" and HBO's "Looking"), and with a small budget in a small theater (NOHspace), they're making something beautiful.
Cal Shakes closes with apocalyptic King Lear
When California Shakespeare Theater ended the 2007 season with a heavy, industrial-looking King Lear, opening night was a cold one in the Bruns Amphitheater (read my review here). Eight years later, Cal Shakes once again ends the season with another heavy, industrial-looking Lear, but opening night was one of the rare ones when you could have worn short sleeves throughout (most of) the 2 1/2-hour tragedy. There's just something delicious about...
Flying high in Aurora's Mud Blue Sky
There's easy comedy and titillation to be had in choosing to explore the lives of flight attendants. You could blithely whip up a story detailing the lives we imagine those high-fliers live, with their easy access to great cities, hot coworkers and the occasional randy passenger. That story might be fun, but in truth, the days of "coffee, tea or me" are long past, and flying is a grind for everyone, from passengers to crew, and that may actually be the more interesting story.
Marisa Wegrzyn's Mud Blue Sky, now in an extended run through Oct. 3 at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company, tries to have it both ways.