Spend a “Weill” with the Redwood Symphony on Saturday night

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mahog1By Ande Jacobson

The Redwood Symphony is opening its 2016-2017 season by going into new musical territory (for this orchestra anyway). Saturday night’s season opener will be a partially staged, fully orchestrated performance of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s satirical, political operatic assault – Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Mahagonny was first presented in its entirety in 1930, though a smaller concert work featuring a subset of the songs debuted a few years before. The full work, which will be sung in English, lampoons both opera and politics, the latter being particularly relevant today. Maestro Kujawsky had the privilege of playing in the orchestra for a production of this opera while in graduate school and has looked forward to someday conducting it himself. He carefully selected this program slot as the perfect time to realize his dream. Continue reading →

Mystery, murder, mayhem, and magic abound in SBMT’s “City of Angels”

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sbmt-coa-program-1By Ande Jacobson

Who doesn’t love a tangled murder mystery? SBMT has one in City of Angels, complete with a full orchestra highlighting all the twists and turns in the story of a 1940s detective novel being transformed into a Golden Age Hollywood movie. This show (with book by Larry Gelbart, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by David Zippel) captures the film noir feel of the period, embellishes it with witty dialogue and a classy jazz score, and neatly packages it into an evening of exquisite theatre. Continue reading →

Freedom goes both ways

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veils-1By Ande Jacobson

The Pear’s 100th production is a repertory rotation of two politically charged plays, The Guys, by Anne Nelson (reviewed on A Good Reed Review here), and Veils, by Tom Coash, which is the subject of this review. Veils follows two female Muslim students at American Egyptian University (modeled after American University in Cairo) – an American named Intisar (Amani Dorn), and an Egyptian named Samar (Naseem Etemad). Coash has taught playwriting at numerous universities including the American University in Cairo. Drawing from his experience there, he’s compressed several events from the Arab Spring into this story about these two women. Continue reading →

Ripples that touch us all

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the-guys-2By Ande Jacobson

September 11, 2001. That’s a date that generally evokes a shudder from many both here and abroad. Many Americans remember with extreme clarity where they were when they heard about the attacks, and at the time felt powerless to do anything other than watch or listen in horror as the tragic events unfolded, hoping that it was all a bad dream. The Pear presents Anne Nelson’s play, The Guys, in a run that includes the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Nelson wrote the piece in only nine days during the fall of 2001, describing a very personal account of two people who would have otherwise never met but for the tragic events that threw them together. Continue reading →

Redwood Symphony presents a musical mob of Mahler magic this July

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mahler-symp-8By Ande Jacobson

This event is going to be big, so big in fact, that the Redwood Symphony’s normal home at Can᷉ada College can’t contain the excitement, or the ensemble. As a result, the San Mateo Performing Arts Center will welcome the expanded orchestra – including far more woodwinds than are usually seen, an extra brass band, two harps, a mandolin, and an organ – combined with vocals from the Masterworks Chorale, the Bay Area Festival Chorus, a renowned children’s chorus, and eight exceptional vocal soloists for one night only on Saturday, 30 July 2016. All told, over 200 musicians will grace the stage for this extravaganza. This musical mob will present Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, nicknamed the “Symphony of a Thousand”. Continue reading →

Exploring the beautiful glass of life

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George & JustinBy Ande Jacobson

Have you ever considered how one might cure intentional death? That’s an odd way to put it – intentional death. That might bring suicide to mind, but as Justin Capps (Atticus Shaindlin) explains to George (Emily Liberatore),

“Suicide implies a crime …. It’s [intentional death] not a crime. Almost every time, it’s an illness that causes the act. I’m trying to cure it.”

Curing intentional death requires examining what’s behind it, which of course means exploring the attitudes and actions surrounding mental illness. That’s the central theme in A Theatre Near U’s world premiere of Tony Kienitz’s new musical, A Beautiful Glass, and it is, in a word, smashing. Continue reading →

Yearning for peace and acceptance as time marches on

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TheatreWorks_Velocity 5_Kevin BerneBy Ande Jacobson

There is one thing that we all have in common. As long as we live, we continue to change as we age. With age, comes experience, perhaps wisdom, and a measure of perspective, but what of our independence and abilities? After the summer of adulthood, does the velocity increase exponentially in the autumn of life? TheatreWorks is excited to present one answer to that question with the regional premiere of Eric Coble’s 2014 play, The Velocity of Autumn, which closes its 46th season in style with a delicious slice of life to which we can all relate. Continue reading →

PYT makes the Dr. Seuss universe come alive in colors galore

A Good Reed Review Promo

Seuss-18-768x768seussical_show_image2By Ande Jacobson

What is Peninsula Youth Theatre’s Seussical? Imagine 15 Dr. Seuss stories wrapped up into one coherent tale complete with our friends The Cat in the Hat, Jojo the Who, Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, Mayzie La Bird, and a host of other Seussian creations alive on stage. Then imagine traveling with them from the Mountain View library to the Jungle of Nool and to the planet of Who, watching the adventures unfold in bright colors and song.

Continue reading →

A pauper, a poet, a swordsman, a nose – it’s “Cyrano”!

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Cyrano Production 3_Kevin Berne-cyrano-christian-roxaneBy Ande Jacobson

What do you think of when you hear the name Cyrano de Bergerac? Perhaps you might first think of a protuberance entering well before the man. That name should bring to mind the classic story of unrequited love, mixed with humor, hijinks, and verse written by Edmond Rostand and first performed in 1897. Since then, numerous adaptations have sprung to life on stage and on screen, some with casts of hundreds, and others with casts of dozens. TheatreWorks is honored to present the California premiere of a cozy new adaptation of Rostand’s play translated by Michael Hollinger and adapted by Hollinger and Aaron Posner. This new version keeps all of the poetic beauty of the original and adds even more swordplay. Continue reading →

PYT’s Mary Poppins flies for one more weekend

A Good Reed Review Promo

mary_poppins_show_image_FebBy Ande Jacobson

Mary Poppins first hit London’s West End over a decade ago, and finally made it to Broadway in 2006. It toured the US in 2009, and now Peninsula Youth Theatre (PYT) is bringing this charming, and lively, tale to you. The show draws elements from the original stories by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film, but it’s not exactly the same.

Mary Poppins is still the “practically perfect” nanny to Jane and Michael Banks, but her charges are more mischievous than we remember. Many of the Sherman Brothers’ musical favorites are still here such as “Feed the Birds”, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”, “Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercaligragilisticexpialidocious”, and “Chim-chiminey”, but there is also quite a bit of new music written by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Even some of the old favorites are recast in different locations and at different points in the story. Continue reading →