Once in a Lifetime – when sound came to the silents!

Once in a lifetime one gets a chance to watch a play written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Only the lucky see it mounted as magnificently and as well acted as the ACT production of this classic.

A brand new musical adaptation in THE CITY – Tales of the City

The American Conservatory Theater did it again – a wonderful musical adaptation of an iconic book that captured the essence of a city. When Armistead Maupin came to San Francisco he was securely in his closet but the city, and the sexual revolution that it was undergoing in the 70s, encouraged him to put his [...]

Sartre’s No Exit – Hell is other people!

And now for new year resolutions! ahoy there 2011

I decided to make this list before the revelry of the 31st made me lose my judgment. After a few margaritas and some loud music one tends to make all kinds of resolutions that seem foolish the next morning. And then the guilt sets in. So this year I am starting early. In 2011 I [...]

A. R. Rahman’s marvel of light and sound – but where’s the music? (part 2)

I have so much to say about the AR Rahman Bay Area concert, a show that was stunning as a spectacle, but thin on the ground as far as music went.  You cannot have Benny Dayal, Neeti Mohan, Javed Ali, Shweta Pandit, and Blazee as showcased singers and get a good music program.  OK there [...]

The golden silence of Olympia Dukakis – ACT’s VIGIL!

I was heartbroken when Marco Barricelli decided to leave the core theater company at American Conservatory Theater and move to New York. His flamboyance, his sheer size, and that deep voice had created many a wonderful character in ACT productions, the most memorable being that of Tony Roma in GlenGarry Glen Ross. So it was [...]

The Caucasian Chalk Circle – test of a mother’s love!

Brecht wrote drama that typified street theater, with many intersecting stories, and relied on an audience that viewed the play without the benefit of a fourth wall. Born in Bavaria at the turn of the century, he was forced to flee Germany in 1933 and settled in California. During the war years he wrote some [...]

Yet another boring love story? Phedre pulsates with forbidden passion!

The American Conservatory Theater joins hands with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Ontario, Canada to present Jean Racine’s retelling of the Greek tragedy, Phedre. Directed by Carey Perloff, this masterful presentation runs almost two hours with no intermission. The drama unfolds on a minimal yet striking stage with “tree” trunks made of coiled pipes in [...]

Political Satire at its best – David Mamet’s November

The American Conservatory Theater’s West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s November, directed by Ron Lagomarsino (television pilots include Picket Fences – Directors Guild Award, Homefront – Emmy nomination), is a bellyful of laughs! What can one say about a playwright who has won a Pulitzer and been Oscar nominated twice? That he is a genius? [...]

A surreal Coward – Brief Encounter

Sir Noel Coward, eminent playwright, actor, singer, songwriter and entertainer, was known for his chic and suave style. His one act play “Still Life” was made into a classic film Brief Encounter, by the master of mood David Lean. A shared Palm D’Or at Cannes and a Criterion Collection release testifies to the enduring value [...]

The animal within us – Albee’s At Home At The Zoo!

American Conservatory Theater Edward Albee wrote the one act play Zoo Story in 1958. It was first performed in 1959 at the Berlin festival in German and the success of the 1960 off-Broadway production firmly established Albee as a uniquely honest voice among the playwrights of America. Zoo Story dealt with the emptiness in everyday [...]

A forever kind of love – Boleros for the Disenchanted!

Jose Rivera is the first Puerto Rican to earn an Oscar nomination – for his adaptation of the Motorcycle Diaries. He was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in the mainland USA when his parents emigrated there to try and realize their American dream. They did manage to send two of their eleven children [...]

War Music – Logue meets Groag at ACT

Chrisptopher Logue is writing his own interpretation of Home’s Iliad, book by book, piece by piece. A man with no real poetry credentials, and no knowledge of Greek, his interpretation is a semi-modernization based on previous translations.

A Winter’s Tale – in the domicile of the Bard of Avon!

A longstanding desire to see a Shakespeare play in Stratford-upon-Avon, was fulfilled when I managed to snag tickets to a Winter’s Tale at the Courtyard theater in Stratford.

The music in her head! Review of Souvenir – a fantasia on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins

The American Conservatory Theater production of Souvenir directed by Vivian Matalon threatened to be a musical, and had only two people listed in the cast, Donald Corren as Cosme McMoon and Judy Kaye as Florence Foster Jenkins.   A musical about a soprano who could not carry a note, and only one other member in the [...]