It’s immediately evident from the grim set that one is about to witness a decidedly bleak version of the Kander and Ebb classic.

It astounds what can be done with red felt, and old garden hose. A steamer trunk, all 9 cubic feet of it? Pure gold.

As he did when he played Destry in Wirehead, Marin creates a character that’s a bit of a nebbish, the perennial loser whose efforts are charming in their sincerity. This role might be so effective because it goes to so many of us on our better days.

Wilder can be very funny, but his humor here is kitschy or weird, instead of revealing. His attempts at profundity, such as the repetitious Christmas dinner, left me feeling like a fidgety kid in need of an Adderall fix.

Costumer designer Brandin Barón developed the true shocker – a 1970’s wardrobe that isn’t an affront to the dignity of the characters.

I was curious and eager to see this show at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco the night before Thanksgiving, having had the good fortune to have seen the original production in New York City.

Watching Felder’s Bernstein conduct the Vienna Philharmonic play Wagner, you’re immediately in the moment, understanding perhaps, for the first time, Bernstein's take on something so hugely heroic.

Wilder and Bracco’s play works so well because of the obvious lengths they’ve gone to make this historically accurate – to make it less of a fairy tale and more of a real-life miracle.

The central theme is carried inexorably forward, much in the same way one can follow the direction of a ball in a game of pinball - the path may appear haphazard, but important points are scored along the way.

Are you married to a Squid Mother? Then, what are you waiting for, you could have a star in the making! All it takes is some polyurethane, a filmmaking partner based in San Mateo, and dreams of Hollywood. Such is the fate of creature feature filmmaker Checkers Rosario (Sean San José). He's been...