Monday, February 10, 2025

In the second Trump term, we need Ibsen’s plays more than ever by Lily Janiak

“An Enemy of the People” has rarely felt as true-to-life as it does in San Jose Stage Company’s trenchant production.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:22PM
Saturday, February 8, 2025

Review: ‘Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play’ is perfectly seasoned but undercooked by Lily Janiak

San Francisco Playhouse’s production is “inject this into my veins” funny but shambolic, as if a ouija board is in charge. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:39PM
Thursday, February 6, 2025

Review: In this brilliant, disgusting play, a man appears to inhale thousands of calories by Lily Janiak

In Geoff Sobelle’s “Food,” in a four-day Stanford Live run, our appetites write history itself.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:40PM

This sleepy suburb is home to the Bay Area’s edgiest new play by Lily Janiak

Center Repertory Company’s world premiere of “Froggy” is a departure on multiple fronts.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, February 4, 2025

You know Hugh Bonneville from ‘Downton’ and ‘Paddington.’ Now he’s onstage in a Chekhov masterpiece by Lily Janiak

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “Uncle Vanya” marks its first play from the theatrical canon since Johanna Pfaelzer became artistic director in 2019.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Monday, February 3, 2025

Cirque du Soleil returns to S.F. with a stage set condensed into a single shape by Lily Janiak

Cirque du Soleil returns to Oracle Park with “Echo,” featuring a unique cube set and running Nov. 20 to Dec. 21.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 12:00PM

Artistic Director Lance Gardner returns to the stage in personal-meets-political play ‘Waste’ by Jessica Zack

Lance Gardner, Marin Theatre’s artistic director, rediscovers his passion for acting in new collaboration with Carey Perloff. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The silence is alive in Berkeley Rep’s stage adaptation of ‘The Thing About Jellyfish’ by Jessica Zack

Ali Benjamin tells the Chronicle about writing her bestselling novel about a griefstruck girl, and what’s exciting about its theater adaptation. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:23PM
Wednesday, January 22, 2025

‘I wanted to theatricalize the taste of MSG’: How an S.F. play explores racism in food by Lily Janiak

‘Exotic Deadly’ at San Francisco Playhouse was inspired partly by playwright Keiko Green’s experience as the granddaughter of a MSG food scientist.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Friday, January 10, 2025

Review: ‘Some Like It Hot’ doesn’t know what kind of show it wants to be by Lily Janiak

You start to wish Daphne’s story could take life as its own new musical instead of being shoehorned into preexisting intellectual property.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:25PM
Thursday, January 9, 2025

Monet X Change to bring one-woman show to S.F. by Tony Bravo

Monét X Change shares her process of building her show, the comeback of classical art songs and why she thinks her teen years would be the next great sitcom.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 08:09PM
Tuesday, January 7, 2025

‘Some Like It Hot’ stage adaptation explores modern gender themes by Tony Bravo

The Tony Award-winning musical expands Billy Wilder’s 1959 drag film to include a nonbinary character. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 12:39PM
Thursday, December 26, 2024

‘The selfies of an SS officer’ tops this promising 2025 theater lineup by Lily Janiak

Shotgun Players, SFBATCO, Berkeley Rep and others offer shows to organize your calendar around.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Friday, December 20, 2024

Review: The Black salon chair is baptismal font in ‘A Thousand Ships’ by Lily Janiak

Despite its indulgences, Marcus Gardley’s world premiere stands as an example of how Oakland Theater Project is the most ambitious little theater company in the region.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:21PM
Thursday, December 19, 2024

Best of 2024: In a tough year, Bay Area theater fights back by Lily Janiak

Oakland Theater Project, Theatre Lunatico and American Conservatory Theater made Bay Area theater sparkle this year.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 09:50AM
Monday, December 9, 2024

Review: ACT’s ‘Whynot’ almost makes its previous ‘Carol’ look good by Lily Janiak

Director Pam MacKinnon and playwright Craig Lucas don’t establish enough ground rules for their story to cohere into something more than a string of random events.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:56PM

Review: The holiday panto in the Presidio is getting better by Lily Janiak

‘Peter Pan’ aspires to, and often achieves, smooth-mind, sparkly escape from worldly cares.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:00PM
Sunday, December 8, 2024

Review: ‘Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley’ surpasses any Netflix holiday rom-com by Lily Janiak

TheatreWorks’ production of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s “Pride and Prejudice” sequel combines holiday confection, spicy debate and sumptuous visuals.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:58PM
Sunday, December 1, 2024

Review: S.F. Playhouse’s ‘Waitress’ needs more time in the oven by Lily Janiak

For all of Susi Damilano’s compassionate, imaginative direction, this production of Jessie Nelson and Sara Bareilles’ 2015 musical suffers from a near-fatal flaw.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:01PM
Sunday, November 24, 2024

At Shotgun Players’ ’Thirty-Six,’ love doesn’t need physical touch by Lily Janiak

Leah Nanako Winkler’s world premiere, inspired by a New York Times article, capitalizes on how theater is, at its core, bodies in the same space as you.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 04:44PM

From barista to Broadway tour: S.F. theater kid Lucas Babcock joins ‘Hamilton’ cast by Lily Janiak

When Lucas Hinds Babcock performs at BroadwaySF’s Orpheum Theatre, he’ll be returning to the venue where he saw tours as a boy.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, November 17, 2024

Review: Haruki Murakami stage adaptation has visual whimsy, textual weirdness by Lily Janiak

In Word for Word’s “The Strange Library,” self-rearranging walls submerge you in a dreamlike state.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:41PM
Friday, November 15, 2024

Review: Annie Baker’s script is a feast, and this pandemic-born theater casts it with eye-popping talent by Lily Janiak

The cast members of Actors’ Reading Collective’s “The Antipodes” don’t just chow down on rich material; they’re connoisseurs.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:35PM
Thursday, November 14, 2024

Review: ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’ yowls with pain, chortles with joy by Lily Janiak

In a country that just elected a xenophobe president, Jocelyn Bioh’s West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep is a necessary corrective.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 03:30PM

Holiday 2024: ‘A Whynot Christmas Carol’ is among the most stirring theater productions this season by Lily Janiak

American Conservatory Theater’s world premiere of “A Whynot Christmas Carol” demands introspection alongside its magic and laughs.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 01:00PM
Monday, November 4, 2024

Review: Dave Malloy’s chamber musical is ghostly — for good and for ill by Lily Janiak

Oakland Theater Project’s “Ghost Quartet” is so gossamery, so there-yet-not-there, that you might feel as if you merely got haunted by a narrative’s shadow.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 02:19PM

In ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ a 62-year-old actor plays a dying 16-year-old ‘girl who wanted to live’ by Lily Janiak

The Tony Award-winning musical at BroadwaySF’s Curran Theatre takes a different path from other shows about high schoolers.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 07:00AM
Sunday, November 3, 2024

Cal Shakes artists remember the legendary theater they loved by Lily Janiak

Bay Area actors who trod the boards at the Bruns Amphitheater share their memories of the quirky outdoor venue as Cal Shakes’ closure looms. 

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:00PM
Friday, October 25, 2024

Review: Aurora Theatre’s ‘Fallen Angels’ falls… flat by Lily Janiak

Noël Coward’s famed repartee — “I love you when you’re offended” — occasionally lubricates the proceedings.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 05:19PM
Thursday, October 24, 2024

In 2025, Magic Theatre keeps pushing its art form forward by Lily Janiak

The legacy theater, under the leadership of Sean San José, continues to buck trends by producing exclusively world premieres next year.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 06:11PM
Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Brontës get campy, sexy and murderous in delectably outrageous ‘The Moors’ by Lily Janiak

Jen Silverman’s play, now in a Theatre Lunatico production, is so strong as to inspire a feeling of hope in a Bay Area theater scene recently devastated by news of closures.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle at 08:17PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime