Theater News

San Francisco Spotlight: February 2011

Ruined Evenings

Oberon K.A. Adjepong and Tonye Patano in Ruined
(© Kevin Berne)
Oberon K.A. Adjepong and Tonye Patano in Ruined
(© Kevin Berne)

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning Ruined (February 25-April 10) at Berkeley Rep provides a bleak yet beautiful look at the lives of women in a land ruled by whiskey and bayonets as civil war ravages the Congo. More Nottage is available with Intimate Apparel (February 11-27) at the Sixth Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa.

It’s time once again to be a little bit racist, engage in some schadenfreude, and ogle full puppet nudity when the second national tour of Avenue Q (February 15-27) arrives at the Orpheum Theatre. Daren Carollo directs a lively production of the 2006 Tony-winning musical The Drowsy Chaperone (February 11-March 5) at Diablo Theatre Company in Walnut Creek. Michael Partick Gaffney is the Man in the Chair, sitting on the set of the original show’s national touring company. Craig Lucas and Norman René’s Sondheim trunk revue Marry Me A Little (February 9-20) gets an author-approved gender twist under John Fisher’s direction at Theatre Rhinoceros.

What We’re Up Against (February 2-March 6) ponders a mall with no air ducts in Theresa Rebeck’s world premiere comedy at the Magic Theatre. A powerhouse attorney and his deliriously social wife host an evening of biting humor in Paul Rudnick’s Regrets Only (February 25-April 10) at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. Christopher Titus performs his one-man show Neverlution (February 15-19) at the Marines Memorial Theatre, calling for a revolution against technology, politics, racism, child worship and the prescription drug companies.

Kevin Augustine’s festival favorite Hobo Grunt Cycle (February 17-March 5) at EXIT Theatre juxtaposes life size puppets and live performers. Also at EXIT, Platypus Theatre performs Yasmina Reza’s Art (February 3-12) in the playwright’s native French.

The Marsh offers news shows in San Francisco with Holly Hughes’ The Dog and Pony Show (February 3-27), Pidge Mead’s 40 Pounds in 12 Weeks: A Love Story (February 18-26), and Ann Randolph’s Loveland (February 4-26). On their Berkeley side Marga Gomez launches the variety series Marga’s Funny Mondays (February 7-28).

Willows Theatre Company is presenting Stephen Schwartz’s immigrant era musical Rags (February 1-27) at the Campbell Theatre in Martinez. Contra Costa Civic Theatre in El Cerrito shoots the rapids with Big River (February 11-March 13). The Studio at Tri-Valley Repertory is in a flap with Bat Boy: The Musical (February 18-March 13) in Pleasanton. Foothill College clocks in with Working (February 18-March 6) at Lohman Theatre in Los Altos Hills.

Gene Mocsy and Bobbi Fagone star in Noel Coward’s Private Lives (February 25-March 20) at Douglas Morrison Theatre in Hayward. Town Hall Theatre Company in Lafayette presents The Glass Menagerie (February 17-March19) directed by Susannah Martin. Coastal Rep sounds some Noises Off (February 11-March 5) in Half Moon Bay. Josh Kornbluth asks Andy Warhol: Good For the Jews? (February 9-21) at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley.

Four generations of African-American women come together in Jar the Floor (February 25-March 6) at San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild. Also in San Jose, Budd Schulberg’s On The Waterfront (February 16-March 13) is staged by The Stage. John Cariani’s romantic comedy Almost, Maine (February 4-27) tracks the ways of love at California Conservatory Theatre of San Leandro. A Man’s Home. . . An Ode To Kafka’s Castle (February 12-March 13) is written and directed by Aaron Henne and presented by Central Works in Berkeley. Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me A Tenor (February 25-March 20) brings the laughs to Castro Valley courtesy of Chanticleers. It is the East Bay light through yon window for Romeo and Juliet (La Val’s Subterranean, February 17-March 26) as directed by Melissa Hillman for Impact Theatre. Northside Theatre unravels the clues in Deathtrap (February 10-March 6) in San Jose. Pear Avenue Theatre pays attention to Death of a Salesman (February 25-March 20) in Mountain View. You can Run For Your Wife (February 18-March 6) with the Santa Clara Players.

The kids are alright as Palo Alto Children’s Theatre tames Ferdinand the Bull (February 3-13), Children’s Musical Theater are rockin’ the boat with Guys and Dolls (February 24-27) in San Jose, and Youth Musical Theatre tackles Jason Robert Brown’s weighty Parade (February 26-March 6) in Berkeley.