SAN FRANCISCO
NEWS AND REVIEWS

Some family fare for San Franciscans: Songs or Felines. Opening on April 5 at the Valley Center for the Arts is Disney's High School Musical, a live theater production of the award-winning Disney Channel Original Movie. Then, on April 7 at the Palace of Fine Arts, it's the international smash-hit Moscow Cats Theatre. The only entertainment of its kind in the world, the Moscow Cats Theatre features 30 cats, 1 dog, and 5 clowns in an astonishing assortment of acrobatic feats.

For family fare, check out the unforgettable children's fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin (March 3-31), written and composed by Bay Area playwright Ron Lytle, at the East Bay Children's Theatre. This is a musical retelling of the beloved story of a miller's daughter who must spin straw into gold in order to impress the king and save her father from embarrassment. She enlists the help of an elf-like man who is able to achieve the impossible task, but the magical elf wants a very special gift.

Blonde Ambition

Laura Bell Bundy in Legally Blonde (© Paul Kolnik) Richard H. Blake, Christian Borle, Orfeh, Michael Rupert, Kate Shindle, and Nicole Ruth Snelson will j

This month, entertainer extraordinaire Fred Anderson performs his stand-up, juggling, and magic show in front of the water on Pier 39 (October 2-16) and the City Lights Theater Company hosts the self-explanatory Theatre Workshop for Youth: Puppet Theatre (October 14).

The Young Performers Theater puts a new spin on a classic Persian story with Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. It opens on September 16 at the Fort Mason Center. Hurry, though. It won't last 1001 Nights. It closes October 8.

The man behind the curtain isn't the only one pulling the strings in this puppet version of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. In Fairyland's latest show, Dorothy and her friends are operated by expert puppeteers as the characters battle the evil witch, confront the old man, and learn the value of home. It also contains music from the original 1939 movie.

Lea DeLaria and cast in Once Upon a Mattress(Photo © David Allen) I approached the 42nd Street Moon company's staged concert prese

Nice guy Tom Hewitt stars as Officer Lockstock in the national tour of Urinetown.

John McDaniel Those who insist on thematic cohesiveness in concert programming would probably have been riled by An Evening of Music and Laughter, a recent ...