Greg Jackson, Jonathan Moscone, Lauren English, local theater, Magic Theatre, Meg Neville, Nina Ball, Patrick Alparone, Paula Vogel, plays, theater review Greg Jackson, Jonathan Moscone, Lauren English, local theater, Magic Theatre, Meg Neville, Nina Ball, Patrick Alparone, Paula Vogel, plays, theater review

Delight and loss dance through Magic's Waltz revival

Any of us would be lucky – beyond lucky – to be as loved as Paula Vogel's brother Carl. The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (who, after nearly 50 years as one of the country's preeminent playwrights, will see her first Broadway opening next month with Indecent) wrote The Baltimore Waltz a year after Carl died of complications from AIDS. This is her tribute to him, a love letter from sister to brother, but she accomplishes this with such offbeat originality, whimsy and heart that there's no room for sentimentality or feeble clichés about love and loss.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Magic Theatre has revived The Baltimore Waltz 25 years after hosting its West Coast premiere.

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Berkeley Repertory The..., Charles Shaw Robinson, local theater, Meg Neville, plays, Sharon Lockwood, theater review, Tony Taccone, World premiere Berkeley Repertory The..., Charles Shaw Robinson, local theater, Meg Neville, plays, Sharon Lockwood, theater review, Tony Taccone, World premiere

Berkeley Rep's warning: it can so happen here

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s It Can’t Happen Here is a nightmare on so many levels, and that’s mostly a good thing in the world-premiere adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel.

This is the right story at the right time, and therein lies the dark heart of this nightmare.

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California Shakespeare..., Catherine Castellanos, Christopher Liam Moore, Domenique Lozano, Julie Eccles, Lisa Anne Porter, local theater, Margo Hall, Meg Neville, Nina Ball, plays, Rami Margron, Shakespeare, Stacy Ross, theater review California Shakespeare..., Catherine Castellanos, Christopher Liam Moore, Domenique Lozano, Julie Eccles, Lisa Anne Porter, local theater, Margo Hall, Meg Neville, Nina Ball, plays, Rami Margron, Shakespeare, Stacy Ross, theater review

Women rock the Night at Cal Shakes season opener

Last year, California Shakespeare Theater offered an off-season touring production of Twelfth Night that featured an all-women cast and made stops in prisons, homeless shelters, senior communities and the like. It was a stripped-down, wonderful production, and apparently its impact was strong enough that outgoing artistic director Jonathan Moscone (he bids adieu in August after he directs The Mystery of Irma Vep) decided to pull the play into the company's 41st season.

With a different director (Christopher Liam Moore), this is a very different Twelfth Night but with two key returning players and one overriding concept.

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