Theater News

San Francisco Spotlight: September 2009

What an Idiot!

Green Day's Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool, and Billie Joe Armstrong
(Courtesy of Warner Brothers Records)
Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool, and Billie Joe Armstrong
(Courtesy of Warner Brothers Records)

September kicks off the 2009-2010 season of nearly every major theater company throughout the Bay Area, with one of the most anticipated offerings being Berkeley Rep’s American Idiot (September 4-October 11). This enthralling new musical is directed by Michael Mayer, and co-authored by Mayer and Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong. The musical chronicles the lives of working-class characters from the suburbs to the Middle East, and includes every song from Green Day’s album American Idiot, as well as several new songs from the band’s current release, 21st Century Breakdown. Tony Award winner John Gallagher, Jr. will lead the cast.

South Pacific, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s Pulitzer-prize winning musical, chronicles the tragic love stories of Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, who is in love with French plantation owner Emile de Becque, and Navy airman Joe Cable, who has fallen for a local native girl named Liat. Their happiness, however, is threatened by the harsh realities of World War II and their own prejudices they struggle to overcome. This run, presented by Shorenstein Hays Nederlander at the Golden Gate Theatre (September 18 through October 25), launches the national tour of the Lincoln Center production, and stars Grammy-nominated opera singer Rod Gilfry and Carmen Cusack.

In playwright Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter, adapted from Noel Coward, a suburban housewife does the unthinkable when she falls for a married doctor. This US premiere features songs from Coward’s repertoire, and brings England’s renowned Kneehigh Theatre Company to the stage of the American Conservatory Theater, September 11-October 4.
Amidst the post-apocalyptic ruins of a culture gone mad, two strangers, inspired by the rhythms of a mysterious drum, work to build a new society. #5 Angry Red Drum (September 26-October 17), a world premiere production by Philip Kan Gotanda, is the fifth in the playwright’s Garage Band Series. The comedy-tragedy, produced by Asian American Theater Company and performed at the Thick House, features a live original sound score with dance. In Bohemian Cowboy (Off-Market Theater, September 11-19), Raymond King Shurtz attempts to piece together his father’s mysterious disappearance in November of 2005 when he walked into the desert of Clark County, Nevada and vanished.

It’s the start of the school season. The kids are back in the classroom, and the parents have their free time back. So what do they do with it? Find out in the SF Playhouse production of First Day of School (September 23-November 7). This comedy written by Billy Aronson and directed by Chris Smith, is an outrageous look at sex and marriage. Presenting the play that launched its career in 1960, the Contra Costa Civic Theatre is staging Harvey ( September 18-October 11), the Pulitzer-prize winning comedy by Mary Chase about an invisible rabbit and his whimsical sidekick.

Mitch Mikinos (Phoenix Theatre, September 25-October 18), a new play by Jim Strope, is adapted from the Greek play Aeschylus, and set in modern day San Francisco. Produced by the CatchyName Theatre Company, dutiful wife Ellen Mikinos is just about fed up with her patriarchal, cheating, felony-inducing husband. Adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok, Aaron Posner’s My Name Is Asher Lev (September 10-October 4) follows the journey of a young Jewish painter torn between his desires to pursue his artistic dreams and his Hassidic upbringing. In this West Coast premiere — produced by the Marin Theatre Company — Lev must choose between his art and his faith.

Dan Hoyle’s award winning solo play about Nigerian oil politics, Tings Dey Happen, plays The Marsh September 10-26, just prior to embarking on a tour of Nigeria, sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Famous for its avant-garde, cutting edge, sometimes odd, often compelling run of new, original, completely uncensored theater, The Exit Theatre presents the San Francisco Fringe Festival (September 9-20) featuring 43 independent shows all around San Francisco.

Being a witch takes serious practice. So when the titular good witch of Strega Nona takes on a new assistant, it’s important that he doesn’t monkey around. Easier said then done! This fun for the whole family production runs at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and is presented by Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences, September 19-October 4.