Broadway Under the Stars: From Baja beaches to Sonoma ruins, the remarkable story (Video)
This has to rank as one of the country’s most incredible arts-related stories. The arts? Success? In 2016? Yes, yes and yes. It’s an adventurous…
Theater and Stage
Reviews and coverage of theater and performing arts in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Berkeley, and beyond. Written by ATCA critic Clinton Stark.
A smashing send-off for David Gockley
After ten years as the general director of San Francisco Opera, David Gockley is retiring. To chronicle his contributions to American opera would take a…
San Jose Stage: 2016-17 season takes audiences to Africa, Ireland, the Middle East and back to America
San Jose Stage Company is calling their 2016-17 season a “provocative journey.” We can see why. The theater’s 34th season (full line-up and details below)…
Bone-chilling Fast: ‘The Velocity of Autumn’
Playwright Eric Coble loves his characters, and lavishes them both with one-liners that ring so true they occasionally raised a gasp of recognition from the…
Must-See Theater: ‘Chester Bailey’ is best world premiere in recent memory (Review)
“This is why you see live theater. It sticks with you, haunting, and beautiful. At its best, it shines an inspiring, if not at times…
Carmen without the romance at San Francisco Opera
Sex and violence dominate Calixto Bieito's Carmen, which paints a gritty, unidealized picture of poverty and abuse.
Not Quite Aloft: ‘For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday’ (Berkeley Rep)
The magic in this play is all in that fantastical morphing, which shimmers in its quiet way, infusing the play with lightness and warmth. The…
Elect to Laugh 2016: Again and again
Quick to connect with the audience, Will Durst alternates knowing insults and ego stokes, always taking the audience’s pulse.
San Francisco: Summer with the Symphony line-up revealed
Star Trek, Pink Martini, Ratatouille with live orchestra, music from the Final Fantasy video game series. San Francisco Symphony's Summer Series is stocked to the…
‘Last Five Years’ a sleeper hit at A.C.T. San Francisco (Review)
The imaginative geometries created by Roberts Wierzel’s lighting design are so striking that whole dissertations could be directed at explicating how their crisp precision advances…