San Francisco Spotlight: March 2011
in Rock of Ages
(© Winslow Townson)
Break out your disposable lighters and start waving your arms as Tony nominee and American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis leads the national tour of Rock of Ages (March 8-April 9) to the Curran Theatre. The music of Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon and others fuel this jukebox romance set on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip music scene. The musical is also being adapted into a forthcoming film, featuring Tom Cruise.
Sex and danger come to the fore in Harold Pinter’s 1964 classic The Homecoming (March 3-27) at American Conservatory Theater. Longtime Pinter collaborator Carey Perloff directs 2011 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow René Augesen in her tenth anniversary season along with co-stars Anthony Fusco, Adam O’Byrne, Andre Polk, Kenneth Welsh, and Jack Willis. A.C.T.’s MFA Program presents the world premiere of Litter (March 3-19) at Zeum. The play by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb was commissioned for the 2011 class and tells of a family of dodecatuplets — twelve siblings — who need to contend with real life now that their cute factor is wearing thin.
Ryan Rilette directs David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers (March 31-April 24) for Marin Theatre Company. In the comedy, Claire awakens with amnesia and the strange, lisping man hiding under her bed tells a story about a secret murder plot. Evren Odcikin directs Paula Vogel’s The Oldest Profession (March 12-April 9) about a Reagan-era group of septuagenarian hookers in Brava Theatre’s observation of Women’s History Month.
New Conservatory Theatre Center has the San Francisco premiere of Keith Bunin’s drama, The Busy World is Hushed (March 25-May 1). In it, Hannah, a minister and bible scholar, finds her faith at odds with that of Thomas, her wayward homosexual son. Racial profiling and political correctness are at the core of The North Pool (March 9-April 3), presented by TheatreWorld at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. The play marks a world premiere for Rajiv Joseph, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, opening on Broadway this month with Robin Williams.
Cutting Ball Theater serves up three short plays by Will Eno including Lady Grey (in ever lower light), Intermission and Mr. Theatre Comes Home Different (March 11-April 10). At the EXIT Theatre, James Judd is unrepentant in 7 Sins…One More Time (March 11-April 10). Geoff Hoyle is a Geezer (March 5-May 1), Robert Dubac engages in some Free Range Thinking (March 4-April 9) and Randy Rutherford is Singing at the Edge of the World (March 10-April 16), all at The Marsh.
What if you couldn’t afford the operation to become a genius and your hated coworker could? Susi Damilano directs the options in Wirehead (March 15-April 23) at SF Playhouse. The Islanders (March 9-12) is a pointed, prickly, and humorous story of the bonds of friendship and love by Andrew Sean Greer at Z Space.
The Rrazz Room hosts Linda Purl and Kevin Spirtas in Rhapsody in Two (March 13-14), Amanda McBroom in Song Noir (March 18-20), and Louise Pitre in La Vie En Rose (March 20-21). Joan Rivers spends a night at the Castro Theatre (March 12).
Legacy of Light (March 24-April 17) by Karen Zacaraias asks if the birth of a child ultimately means as much to the world as the birth of an idea at San Jose Rep. Also in San Jose, City Lights puts Equus (March 17-April 17) through its paces. Playwright Jason Craig, composer Dave Malloy, and director Patrick Dooley delve into the world of Russia’s infamous bad boy mystic Rasputin in Beardo for Shotgun Players in the Ashby Stage. Hapgood Theatre recites The Compleat Works of Wllm. Shakespeare (March 4-27) in Antioch and Martinez.
There’s four-part harmony in Broadway By The Bay’s Forever Plaid (March 31-April 17) in their new home at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City. John Preece upholds traditions in a tour of Fiddler on the Roof (March 15-20) for Broadway San Jose. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee buzzes into the Altarena Playhouse in Alameda. Berkeley Playhouse stages a live musical version of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, March 12-April 3). Contra Costa Musical Theatre and Center Rep spritz on some Hairspray (Lesher Center dor the Arts, March 18-April 16) in Walnut Creek. Ross Valley Players stitch up Quilters (March 18-April 17). It’s a showgirl reunion for Follies in Concert (March 4-27) presented by the Tabard Theatre at Theatre on San Pedro Square in San Jose.
