Review

The night smiles three times

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Hillbarn-night-music-MKitaoka_130507_3906By Ande Jacobson

Hillbarn Theatre Company’s latest offering is A Little Night Music which opened on Friday, 10 May.  This highly acclaimed Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical, suggested by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, follows the lives and loves of several mismatched couples in early 20th Century Sweden.  As Sondheim recalls in his memoir Finishing the Hat, director Harold Prince once described A Little Night Music as “whipped cream with knives.”  An apt description as the plotline is both sweet and sharp.  Sondheim claims he focused on the knives and spent his energy pursuing his dream of writing a “Theme and Variations,” in this case, using a metric theme, or more specifically a triple-meter theme exploring the myriad options available to him beyond the waltz. Continue reading →

East meets west in “Miss Saigon”

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Saigon129FBy Ande Jacobson

Palo Alto Players (PAP) tackles a classic story with their production of Miss Saigon, by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Richard Maltby, Jr., which is based on Giacomo Puccini’s tragedy, Madama Butterfly, about a doomed romance between an Asian woman and her American GI lover.  The modern version keeps the drama and concept on which Puccini’s opera was based but modernizes the story and brings it to Vietnam, and PAP makes a valiant effort to stay faithful to the script.  Overall, it’s a production worth seeing in spite of a few shortcomings. Continue reading →

The Pear presents nine more “Slices”

A Good Reed Review Review

slices12-5503By Ande Jacobson

Spring is here, and that means it’s once again time for The Pear Avenue Theatre’s annual installment of slices in Pear Slices 2013.   For the tenth time in its eleven year history The Pear welcomes audiences to enjoy a varied evening’s entertainment, this year with nine plays by nine different playwrights from the Pear Playwrights Guild spanning multiple generations and four dimensions. Continue reading →

Sister and brother, mother and son, and a journey through time

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johnjensliderimagelrgBy Ande Jacobson

Hillbarn Theatre’s latest offering, John & Jen, is best described as a chamber musical.  Written by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald, the show calls for two actors and three musicians to bring the audience the winding story of Jen Tracy and the two Johns in her life.  Alicia Teeter plays Jen, and William Giammona plays her baby brother and her son, both named John.  The story covers almost 40 years from 1952 to 1990, and as the plot unfolds, we see humor, pathos, and drama, all in slightly less than 2 hours.  In the beginning, Jen is 6 and her baby brother is a newborn.  At the end, she’s 44 and her son is 18 and just getting ready to start college. Continue reading →

Meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the man behind the legend

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TheMountaintop7_MKitaokaBy Ande Jacobson

TheatreWorks celebrates the accomplishments of an American icon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the regional premiere of The Mountaintop.  Playwright Katori Hall takes us on a journey to better understand the man behind the legend through a chance meeting between King and Camae.  Camae is the maid on duty when King calls room service to bring him a cup of coffee to help him stay awake to finish his speech for the next day.  The next day is 4 April 1968, King’s last.  Despite the story taking place the night of his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech and immediately before his assassination, Hall’s play is not morbid.  It is instead a gripping story filled with grit and humor showing us King’s fears and his triumphs, making him more accessible than public perceptions would imply.  As Michael Eric Dyson states in his forward to the play, “The Mountaintop portrays a man who is much more interesting and useful when his blemishes and virtues are shown together.” Continue reading →

Ignorance is not bliss

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Spring_Awakening_2_Karen_SantosBy Ande Jacobson

Foothill Music Theatre has taken on a German impressionist masterpiece presenting Spring Awakening, a musical based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play, Frühlings Erwachen.  The musical keeps much of the intensity of the play, although it softens a few scenes and deletes others, but the message is clear as noted in the title of this review.  Ignorance is not bliss, and parents don’t do their children any favors by keeping them in the dark about human nature and sexuality. Continue reading →

How far does the apple fall?

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appleneverfalls-tasca-tyler-weilandBy Ande Jacobson

The Pear welcomes the world premiere of Paul Braverman’s latest work, The Apple Never Falls, as their current offering. Take a trip into 1964 Boston at the height of the Boston Strangler’s reign of terror in this film noir style story following Frankie Payne, a hard-boiled detective turned private eye. Per her client’s wishes, she investigates the murders attributed to the Strangler, searching for clues, and in the process, evaluating relationships, heredity, and furthering the age-old nature/nurture debate. This is a sequel of sorts to Braverman’s first Frankie Payne adventure, No Good Deed, which debuted at The Pear in early 2011. Braverman’s writing is fun, and being firmly planted in the noir genre, he smacks you with some twists that you don’t see coming, although the clues are there if you know where to look. Continue reading →

He served his art and his country

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creer-as-fieldsBy Ande Jacobson

Tabard Theatre Company continues its “True Lives” theme with the Bay Area Premiere of James Stills’ one-man play, Looking Over the President’s Shoulder, telling the story of Alonzo Fields, the chief butler in the White House through four administrations.  In a note at the beginning of the script (and in the program), Stills writes, “I remember thinking there was something wonderfully subversive and bold about a one-man play whose character hadn’t been allowed to talk on the job.”  And talk he does.  And the story he tells is captivating. Continue reading →

Following the American Dream by way of Asia

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cltc-ching-chong-chinamanBy Ande Jacobson

Lauren Yee’s Ching Chong Chinaman may not be the most politically correct play in existence, but it certainly has found a home at City Lights Theater Company.  The play is surreal at times and unfolds in a satirical, sitcom fashion as Yee explores the American Dream through the completely assimilated Wong family. Continue reading →

The Dragon roars again with “After Ashley”

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sean-gilvery-after-ashley

By Ande Jacobson

Edna the Dragon roars again as Dragon Theatre Productions opens its 2013 season in its new home in Redwood City with Gina Gionfriddo’s After Ashley.  The show is a dark satire that takes biting stabs at reality and true crime television as the story unfolds.  Be aware, this production contains strong language, adult situations, and sexual content not appropriate for young children. Continue reading →