Arts & Culture » Theater
The awesome twosome of 'Be More Chill'
"Be More Chill," an upbeat, offbeat sci-fi high school musical, with songs by Joe Iconis and a fan-fave featured performance by George Salazar, is a viral sensation.
Rachel Bay Jones' reputation precedes her. Well, sort of.
Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Sweat" defies initial expectations.
Last week Out There was lucky enough to catch two major figures from contemporary LGBT arts & culture live in performance, and to learn what they're up to these days.
Choreographer and performer Monique Jenkinson, in the guise of her drag queen persona Fauxnique, and her longtime partner, electronic composer Marc Kate, will premier their first full collaboration, "Girl," at the Joe Goode Annex.
"Oslo" playwright J.T. Rogers is far less interested in heads of state than in the hearts and minds of the people behind them.
Get ready for a barnburner. "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?," now singeing audience eyebrows at the Custom Made Theatre, is the late Edward Albee's most uproarious, in-your-face play by a long shot.
In the wake of last week's unintentionally laughable Kavanaugh Confirmation follies, one might attend "Red Scare on Sunset," Charles Busch's high-camp take on the pinko paranoia of mid-20th century Hollywood, thirsty for a comic tonic.
"Terror Vault," an immersive haunted journey though the underground vaults at the historic old San Francisco Mint, opens on Oct. 10 for a four-week run.
After 16 years on the musical theater A-list, Gavin Creel's performance at the Venetian Room on Oct. 14, as part of the Bay Area Cabaret series, will be his first major concert of showtunes.
Do you enjoy puzzles? If you answered "Yes," please continue to the next question; you may be a likely admirer of Christopher Chen's "You Mean To Do Me Harm" now playing at the San Francisco Playhouse.
Last week Out There was in the house when "On Your Feet!," the touring Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway musical, opened at the newly remodeled SHN Golden Gate Theatre.
Berkeley Rep's new season blew in on a chilly Norwegian breeze with last Thursday night's opening of "A Doll's House, Part 2."
I felt jealous of the gentleman sitting in front of me at a performance of Theater Rhinoceros' "Dead and Breathing" last week. For 10 of the show's 90 minutes, he escaped, drifting off to sleep.
David Pavlovsky's new 30-minute documentary, "Stand Up, Stand Out," tells the story of three gay teachers' fight for equal rights during the 1970s gay liberation movement, which led to the founding of the Valencia Rose Cabaret.
The incomparable Lily Tomlin returns to the Bay Area stage for a benefit performance of her one-woman show "An Evening of the Classic Lily Tomlin." The award-winning actress will perform a two-hour show on Thurs., Sept. 20, 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall.
It's been almost a year since Jackie Hoffman turned in what may be the most widely seen performance of her career.
Catch him if you can: Broadway heartthrob Aaron Tveit.
On the first page of the program for Shotgun Players' production of Guillermo Calderón's "Kiss," "A Note from the Director" is subtitled, "Spoiler Alert: Please read after the show!"
Bay Area theater companies are putting a smorgasbord on the boards this fall. Unfortunately, with dozens of productions on offer, it's not an all-you-can-eat affair. Here's a selection of quirky canapés and dramatic dishes that have my mouth watering.
This fall, San Francisco's venerable American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) raises the curtain not only on a new season of productions, but also on its new leadership team, artistic director Pam MacKinnon and executive director Jennifer Bielstein.
The New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) will honor actor, playwright, director and cabaret performer Charles Busch at the theatre's annual gala on Saturday, August 25, and will open their 2018 season with his play "Red Scare at Sunset."
Playwright Lynn Rosen slices, dices and juliennes the banal chit-chat of unmotivated office workers in "Washed Up on the Potomac."
Carole Cook, still quite active in cabaret, is one of more than a dozen performers who will be taking to the stage of the Herbst Theatre on Sun., Aug. 19 for "Help Is on the Way 24," the latest fundraising variety show for Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation.
"#GetGandhi: A Seriously Radical Feminist Comedy" opens this Saturday, August 11, at the Mission District's Z Space Below performance space.
"There's a standard criticism that people make about us," says Joan Holden, a member and leader of the San Francisco Mime Troupe since 1967. "They say we're preaching to the converted. Well, don't the converted need to be inspired and animated?"
Shotgun Players' "White" is emotionally hot and utterly of the moment.
My favorite moment in "Sunday in the Park with George" is when the titular artist, George Seurat, describes the inventiveness of the pointillist brushwork in "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte."
"Oedipus at Palm Springs," written and originally performed by the Five Lesbian Brothers collaborative, is particularly reliant on the performers' delivery rather than the plot.
Raise your curtains of preconception and imagine a musical: There's a spunky, sexually adventurous gay boy pursued by a hardworking man, a few years older, who wants to tame the young-un's wandering eye and get domestic.
"Oedipus in Palm Springs," a play by The Five Lesbian Brothers, a writing collaborative that includes Lisa Kron, was in rehearsals for a rare revival at Theater Rhinoceros (opening July 12 at the Gateway Theatre, with a local cast).