All stories by Lily Janiak on BroadwayStars

Friday, May 5, 2023

Embattled leader Nataki Garrett resigns from Oregon Shakespeare Festival by Lily Janiak

The move marks an about-face from the attitude the Oakland native displayed in a February interview with The Chronicle.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:25PM
Thursday, May 4, 2023

This Bay Area theater started an emergency fundraising campaign, but not because of low attendance by Lily Janiak

The irony of Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s campaign is that demand for its work — in both performance venues and school classrooms — is as high as ever.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:02PM
Friday, April 28, 2023

Review: ‘Adventures with Alice’ is theater as wonderful as its Golden Gate Park setting by Lily Janiak

We Players’ site-specific, immersive walk-through show adapting Lewis Carroll polishes an San Francisco jewel to a fresh gleam.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:20PM
Thursday, April 27, 2023

Review: BroadwaySF’s ‘Pretty Woman’ is the musical no one asked for by Lily Janiak

Book writers J. F. Lawton and Garry Marshall make some small updates to the Julia Roberts-Richard Gere film, but they can’t paper over the story’s core ickiness.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:19PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2023

New experiment in preventing theater industry toxicity: Term limits by Lily Janiak

“We don’t want to bleed for our art; we want to make art, and we want to be happy and compensated,” said Cutting Ball Theater Community and Education Director Cathryn Cooper.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, April 23, 2023

Review: We talk a lot about theater for the marginalized, but ‘Exhaustion Arroyo’ in S.F. is the real deal by Lily Janiak

Cutting Ball Theater and In the Margin’s world premiere is set partly in a late-capitalist pizza chain, partly during a shrooms trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM
Saturday, April 22, 2023

Review: ‘Are You Goth Enough?’ is for the ‘90s mall rat in all of us by Lily Janiak

Awesome Theatre’s production proves that Hot Topic is a fertile setting for a gothic romance.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, April 18, 2023

With ‘MJ’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ BroadwaySF’s 2024 season courts controversy by Lily Janiak

Other highlights at the Orpheum and Golden Gate theatres include “Company” and “The Wiz.”

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:55PM

Shakespeare in Yosemite uses ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to present a hopeful environmental message by Lily Janiak

Uniformed park rangers are among the actors at the unique company, and Mother Nature is the set designer.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Saturday, April 15, 2023

I deleted my personality flaws with an immersive theater psych experiment on S.F.’s Haight Street by Lily Janiak

“Change Your Mind,” the first public offering from collective Say Nothing and Leave, gets right what much immersive theater gets wrong.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:27PM
Friday, April 14, 2023

Review: Aurora Theatre’s ‘Cyrano’ smells… off by Lily Janiak

In Josh Costello’s adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic, the title character comes off as an antagonist. Of the audience.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:10PM
Thursday, April 13, 2023

Review: ACT’s ‘Poor Yella Rednecks’ is a hormone-spewing love story about VIetnamese immigrants by Lily Janiak

Jaime Castañeda’s direction at the S.F. theater evinces that DNA-deep understanding of what makes a playwright special and important.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:59PM
Wednesday, April 12, 2023

California stories reign supreme in Berkeley Rep’s 2023-24 season by Lily Janiak

Michael Mayer, Octavio Solís, Lloyd Suh and Eric Ting will alight on the flagship Berkeley company next year.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:55PM

How Heklina created a lonely theater critic’s saving pandemic moment by Lily Janiak

The beloved S.F. drag icon, who was found dead on Monday, April 3, triumphed during the pandemic in Meals on Heels.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, April 10, 2023

Tony Award winner and Hayward native James Monroe Iglehart returns to TheatreWorks for 2023-24 season by Lily Janiak

Highlights of the Silicon Valley company’s 53rd lineup include “How I Learned What I Learned,” “Queen” and “Tiger Style!” 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 10:00PM
Saturday, April 8, 2023

Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘English’ is a master class in subtext by Lily Janiak

In leaving room for subtext, Sanaz Toossi’s West Coast premiere trusts actors and directors to coauthor a play’s meaning, showing understanding of how real people talk.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 10:48AM
Wednesday, April 5, 2023

‘1984,’ ‘Manahatta’ and ‘Lifespan of a Fact’ to be part of Aurora’s 2023-24 season by Lily Janiak

The Berkeley company has long distinguished itself as the Bay Area’s theater of intellectual debate.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:27PM
Monday, April 3, 2023

Review: Oakland Theater Project’s ‘Is God Is’ is touched by the divine by Lily Janiak

Aleshea Harris’ revenge Western emerges from our zeitgeisty concerns and tensions, yet feels as old as humanity. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:07PM
Sunday, April 2, 2023

Review: Shotgun’s ‘The Triumph of Love’ is a rom-com that dares to be dark by Lily Janiak

There are so many war fronts and stratagems in Pierre Carlet De Marivaux’s 1732 dramedy that a battle map wouldn’t be out of order. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:43PM
Sunday, March 26, 2023

Crowd-pleasers dominate San Francisco Playhouse’s 2023-24 season by Lily Janiak

“Guys and Dolls,” “The 39 Steps” and “Evita” are among the recognizable titles in the Union Square company’s next season.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 10:00PM
Friday, March 24, 2023

Review: SFBATCO’s incision-sharp ‘Private’ is the surveillance drama for our moment by Lily Janiak

With Mona Pirnot’s West Coast premiere, you’ll never look at workplace monitoring the same way again.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:13PM
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

S.F. native Kristina Wong to be a part of ACT’s 2023-24 season by Lily Janiak

American Conservatory Theater’s next season contains six shows, in contrast to this year’s five and a pre-pandemic seven.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:30PM

A powerful voice in theater returns to Berkeley Rep by Lily Janiak

Bay Area theater director Mina Morita recently received a $25,000 “mid-career” grant. Now she helms “English,” about Iranian TOEFL students, at Berkeley Rep.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, March 20, 2023

Review: African-American Shakes’ uneven acting doesn’t dampen the prescience of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Lily Janiak

Monica White Ndounou’s production at Marines’ Memorial Theatre in S.F. highlights the difference between not listening as a character and as an actor.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:59PM

In Bay Area theater, spring 2023 is the time to start small by Lily Janiak

Cinnabar Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, Cutting Ball Theater and others offer testaments to the joys of small theater.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, March 19, 2023

Review: Despite flaws, ‘The Hummingbird’ at the Marsh S.F. is unafraid of skin-prickling, gut-burrowing horror by Lily Janiak

Kathryn Keats’ solo show about her real-life captivity is testament to the messy, always in-progress act of survival. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:15PM
Thursday, March 16, 2023

Review: At S.F. Playhouse’s ‘Clue,’ everyone’s guilty — of having a good time by Lily Janiak

Susi Damilano’s cast rounds up several of Bay Area comedy’s usual suspects and gives them a welcome platform to mug, vamp and slay. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:55PM
Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Here’s what video games can learn from S.F. theater — and vice versa by Lily Janiak

How can video games improve story and character? With Bay Area playwrights and stage actors.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

A Black theater director on dealing with cutbacks — and death threats by Lily Janiak

"We don't want to disturb our patron base by telling them that they'll have to share the space with other people. What I want to do is disturb the notion of disturbing," Oregon Shakespeare F…

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Thursday, March 2, 2023

Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ is a paean to the power of art by Lily Janiak

Lauren Yee's play with music, which is directed by Chay Yew, features openhearted psychedelia, dreamy surf rock and ballads that sound like memories of summer days, most by Los Angeles band …

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:58PM
Wednesday, March 1, 2023

This Bay Area artist has ALS and can’t speak — but she’s still directing her dream project by Lily Janiak

The local theater community rallied around Erin Merritt to ensure she could direct "Tea Party" by Gordon Dahlquist.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards