Monday, February 23, 2026
A WORKING-CLASS ENDURANCE CONTEST TURNS INTO A MUSICAL OF HOPE AND DESPERATION A spirited, heartfelt production that balances humor with grit Victory by attrition is the name of the game in …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:32PMFriday, February 13, 2026
WRITERS RUN AMOK WHEN IMAGINATION TAKES OVER THE ROOM A nimble, high-energy ensemble comedy that turns creative frustration into gleeful theatrical chaos As hilarious today as it was when it…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:55AMSunday, November 23, 2025
MOTHER OF EXILES BAFFLES AT BERKELEY REP Jessica Huang's world premiere Mother of Exiles has posted a closing date of December 21. The lengthy run may not be a blessing for a disjoi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:50AMSunday, October 12, 2025
THE HILARIOUS NOISES OFF IS ON AT SF PLAYOUSE " OFF YOU GO The huge interior of an imposing English country estate by Heather Kenyon greets visitors to the San Francisco Playhouse, scene of …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:52AMMonday, September 29, 2025
A SONDHEIM SPECTACLE Sonoma County's Spreckels Performing Arts Center has launched a tremendous production of Into the Woods, the perpetually popular and nearly forty-year-old musical spoof …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:00AMThursday, September 18, 2025
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…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:00AMTuesday, September 9, 2025
JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for th…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:15AMTuesday, September 2, 2025
A FEATHERBABY IN SPRECKELS' CAP A talking, squawking parrot dispenses wit, wisdom, and wonder in Featherbaby at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. In a bright green suit and y…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:29AMSunday, August 10, 2025
TRANSCENDENCE DOES BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFULLY Sonoma County's home-grown musical revue troupe Transcendence Theatre Company has launched a wonderful production of Douglas McGrath's theatrical bio…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:50AMSunday, July 13, 2025
GET ME TO SF PLAYHOUSE ON TIME: MY FAIR LADY CHARMS UNION SQUARE Every summer, San Francisco Playhouse puts on a classic blockbuster musical that runs from early July into September. It's an…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:18PMWednesday, June 4, 2025
MUSICAL SATIRE SUPREME Napa's Lucky Penny Productions closes out its 2024-25 season with a screamingly funny spoof of an inexplicably popular TV franchise, in which five rich boozy women can…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:22AMTHE RUMOR THAT RUMORS IS A SCREAM IS NO RUMOR The late playwright/screenwriter Neil Simon remains one of America's most beloved creators of comedy. His plays often hinge on ludicrous setups,…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMSaturday, May 10, 2025
ANOTHER WORTHY WAY TO WONDER AT THE WORLD On rare occasions even the most seasoned reviewers are confounded by the inadequacy of language to describe a production so beautiful and transcende…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:50PMSaturday, May 3, 2025
The pleasure lies not in the cookies, but in the pattern the crumbs make when the cookies crumble. ~ Michael Korda Playwright Lynn Nottage is a national treasure"a two-time Pulitzer Prize wi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28AMWednesday, April 30, 2025
A TALE OF TWO CITIES Theater is all about storytelling, and stories don't come any better crafted than Jon Robin Baitz's Pulitzer Prize-nominated Other Desert Cities. The SF Bay Area is enjo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AMThursday, April 24, 2025
LOVE AND CHANGE, SONOMA STYLE Dating and mating get fully examined and fully skewered in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change at Sonoma Arts Live in downtown Sonoma, through May 4. Ably he…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:30AMMonday, March 17, 2025
THE ART OF MAKING ART An extravagant art purchase causes a major upheaval among three old friends in Yasmina Reza's Art, at Berkeley's Ashby Stage through April 9. David Sinaiko and Benoî…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:08PMSunday, March 16, 2025
NAPA'S LUCK PENNY GOES TO POT" IN A GOOD WAY A hokey 1930s propaganda film runs headlong into Beach Blanket Babylon in Reefer Madness at Napa's Lucky Penny Productions through March 23. A mu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:05AMWednesday, February 19, 2025
YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART Two young immigrant women find joy and hope in a budding friendship in Lloyd Suh's The Heart Sellers, at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre through March 9. The show moves to The…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:29PMSunday, February 16, 2025
FANTASTIC FROGGY Jennifer Haley's audacious graphic novel Froggy comes roaring to life on the Margaret Lesher Theatre's big stage in Walnut Creek, and it's one of the freshest theatrical …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:12PMTuesday, February 11, 2025
WELL-SEASONED THEATER IS LOADED WITH FLAVOR Welcome to 1999, a time of hysteria over the impending Y2K crisis, widespread fear of monosodium glutamate (MSG), crude video games and crude popu…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:10PMSaturday, February 1, 2025
SIX DEGREES SPOOFS UPPER-CLASS PRETENTIONS Sonoma Arts Live (SAL) has launched an ambitious production of Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare's now-classic tale of belief and deception amo…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:47PMMonday, December 16, 2024
THERE'S A LESSON HERE: EVEN WITHOUT THE BIG PARTY, THE MESSAGE RINGS CLEAR Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol is among the holiday season's most welcome recurring theater productions…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:36PMSaturday, November 30, 2024
IF THE HEAT IN AMERICA'S KITCHEN IS GETTING YOU DOWN, HEAD TO WAITRESS AT SF PLAYHOUSE San Francisco Playhouse has delivered an incredible gift for the winter holiday season: Waitress, Jessi…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:07PMThursday, November 21, 2024
MASQUERS KNOWS THE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL, MAGICAL COMEDY Alfred Hitchcock gets a good-natured but thorough pummeling in The 39 Steps at Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond, through December…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:59PMThursday, November 7, 2024
DRAGON LADY ROARS AT CENTER REP Sara Porkalob's solo tribute to her grandmother is both an astounding theatrical event and a master class in storytelling. Part biography, part autobiograp…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:47PMTuesday, October 29, 2024
COWARD'S ANGELS ARE A LAUGH RIOT Almost one hundred years after its somewhat scandalous debut, Noël Coward's Fallen Angels is enjoying a revival at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre, where it run…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28AMWednesday, October 9, 2024
A BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL GEM IN SONOMA COUNTY Carole King is unquestionably one of the most influential American songwriters of the late 20th century. Through October 13, Spreckels Theater Compan…
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:21AMSunday, June 16, 2024
A COMPELLING ECO-DYSTOPIAN STORY The destruction of tropical ecosystems has been a worldwide concern since the 1960s. Through June 23, San Francisco's Magic Theatre examines the crisis in a …
SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:01AMSunday, January 14, 2024
August Wilson's Portrait of a Man at War with Himself  by Barry Willis Meet Troy Maxon, Pittsburgh garbage collector, former baseball talent, father of two sons, and a man grappling might…
SOURCE: Theatrius at 02:05AMMonday, June 26, 2017
Miranda's Rap Extravaganza Makes Pop Art of History by Barry Willis When tickets for the national touring production of "Hamilton" went on sale this past spring, at $200 for the cheapest sea…
SOURCE: Theatrius at 05:16PM 
