Opera’s not really my bag, but I had a fantastic time reviewing West Bay Opera’s Der Freischütz for the Palo Alto Weekly. The short run ended today (Sunday, Feb. 28), but the review lives on forever. Read it here and please enjoy this photo from the production. Eric Coyne is Kuno, the head forester, and [...]
Home > February, 2010
A night at the opera with funny Freischütz
Posted by Chad Jones on 28 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
TheatreWorks’ 2010-11 season is a wow!
Archived in the category: Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Laura Schellhardt, TheatreWorks, Tracy Letts, [title of show]
Posted by Chad Jones on 18 Feb 10 - 2 Comments
The original cast of [title of show] included (from left) Heidi Blickenstaff, Hunter Bell (seated), Jeff Bowen (top), and Susan Blackwell. [title of show] will be presented as part of the 2010-2011 season at TheatreWorks. Photo by Carol Rosegg If the new TheatreWorks season only contained[title of show], I would be thrilled. I wanted desperately [...]
Now and at the Hour is time well spent
Posted by Chad Jones on 14 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
EXTENDED THROUGH MARCH 27! The last major magic show to hit the Bay Area theater scene involved Siegfried and Roy giving their stamp of magical approval to a kid who sang show tunes while doing fairly lame tricks. It’s no wonder that magic gets such a bad rap for being such a cheeseball staple of [...]
It’s Curtains for Diablo Theatre Company
Archived in the category: Contra Costa Civic Theatre, David Hyde Pierce, Diablo Light Opera Company, Kander and Ebb, Lamplighters, local theater, musicals
Posted by Chad Jones on 12 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
Curtains, the final collaboration of legendary John Kander and Fred Ebb (Rupert Holmes came in to finish the show after Ebb’s death), is finally taking a Bay Area bow. Diablo Theatre Company (formerly Diablo Light Opera Company) opens the show tonight (Feb. 12) at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, where it [...]
Mike Ward’s year of living/dying dangerously
Posted by Chad Jones on 09 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
Consider the last couple years in the life of local director Mike Ward. He received a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nomination for best director and he was nominated for the prestigious Ockrent Fellowship for Broadway. Oh, and he almost died several times. Ward says he had a “white light” experience during [...]
Glitter and be Shanghai gay!
Posted by Chad Jones on 08 Feb 10 - 1 Comment
EXTENDED THROUGH AUG. 1! Above: Kara Emry and William McMichael get Shanghaied in Pearls Over Shanghai. Below: Eric Wertz and Steven Satyricon dream of “un bel di.”Photos by David Wilson Mash up Beach Blanket Babylon with Miss Saigon, throw in every bad Oriental exotica movie ever made, season with Ziggy Stardust and The Rocky Horror [...]
Bless my Blu-ray forever…
Posted by Chad Jones on 06 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews, 1965. TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection. Back in the dark ages of VHS, I remember being thrilled when I could actually buy The Sound of Music and watch it whenever I wanted, not just on whatever holiday the [...]
Trevor Allen takes a Roadtrip
Posted by Chad Jones on 04 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
There’s bad news aplenty in the world, so it’s always nice to discover some bright spots of good news, especially in the theater world. San Francisco playwright Trevor Allen, who had a sizable hit last fall with his adaptation of Frankenstein, received a walloping dose of good news the other day. PlayGround’s New Play Production [...]
Cabaret classic: A valentine to Paula West
Posted by Chad Jones on 03 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
Paula West is going to do things to you in the dark, and you’re going to like it. Now that she can actually be considered a veteran of the San Francisco cabaret scene, West is letting loose in her new show at the Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko, and man does it feel good. [...]
Oh, Brothers — an ode to Julia Brothers
Archived in the category: Aurora Theatre Company, Joel Drake Johnson, Julia Brothers, Tom Ross, plays
Posted by Chad Jones on 01 Feb 10 - 0 Comments
Julia Brothers floors ‘em in Joel Drake Johnson’s The First Grade at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company. Rebecca Schweitzer is in the background. Photo by David Allen The Bay Area is blessed with an abundance of theatrical talent. Spend any time at all in local theaters, and that becomes clear pretty quickly. What’s even [...]
