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KPFA - Bay Area Theater

KPFA - Bay Area Theater

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Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic. LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES2026KPFA 312700 Political Science Politics & Government
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  • Review: “The Lunchbox” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre

    Review: “The Lunchbox” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre
    Jun 3 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Lunchbox” at Berkeley Rep‘s Roda Theatre through July 5, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW The golden age of the Broadway musical died over a half century ago. The post-golden age of Sondheim and the rock opera faded before the new century. Since then, we’ve had corporate movie adaptations, jukebox junk and an increasing number of parody meta-musicals. But good and great shows do slip through the cracks. Hamilton, certainly, but also Fun Home, Next to Normal, Suffs and others. It’s quite possible that another gem eventually to hit New York, is currently at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre through July 5th, and that’s The Lunchbox, created by the team of Ritesh Batra and The Lazours.

Based on a 2013 film of the same name, The Lunchbox is about one of those one in a million chance meetings that change people and the direction of their lives. Mumbai, or Bombay as it was known, has a complex system in which business people’s hot lunches are delivered from home to workplace in the middle of the day via a phalanx of what are known as dabbawallahs. Despite millions of people and a gigantic metropolis, this system is incredibly accurate with spectacular on-time deliveries.

But there are screwups. One day, a young wife, Ila, sends her lunch canister to her husband’s office — the canisters have multiple smaller bowls — which never arrives. Somehow, it winds up on the desk of Sajaan, an older widower on the verge of retirement.He sends back a note. She responds. He’s decades older, she’s married with a daughter; romance may not be in the cards, but connection is. What makes The Lunch Box work so well is both its familiarity with musical theater tropes and its differences. You can hear a bit of Sondheim in the way music and lyrics meld to further the story, but there’s also the very distinctive sound of South Asian melody, harmony, instruments and rhythm, punctuated by Bollywood style ensemble dances. The result is organic, it feels right. The Lunchbox unites the two art forms into one, with the spectacle never overwhelming the delicacy of the story, songs, or performances, all of which, by the way, are very, very good, as is the gorgeous set design. The show is kind of a miracle, code-switching in a way that feels wholly original, while maintaining the sensibility and sensitivity of its source material. A note of caution: The Lunch Box is a soufflé. Any attempt to fix it, to make it more big ticket-friendly, could kill it. The show is perfect as it is. The Lunchbox plays at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre through July 5th. For more information you can to go berkeleyrep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Lunchbox” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” at San Francisco Playhouse

    Review: “Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” at San Francisco Playhouse
    May 27 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Woinsky reviews “Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really: by Kate Hamill at San Francisco Playhouse through June 27, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW According to Google’s unreliable AI, nobody beats Dracula as the single most portrayed literary character in film history, with over two hundred direct adaptations, parodies and crossover appearances. You can add the hundreds of theatrical versions floating around as well. Due to a screw-up in the 19th Century, Dracula has always been in the public domain in the United States. 

There’s also the whole vampire thing too, Vlad Tepes, Anne Rice, the Lost Boys. In 2020, following a flurry of Jane Austen adaptations, playwright Kate Hamill chose to take a bite out of Bram Stoker, and thus we have Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really … yes, that’s the title, which now runs at San Francisco Playhouse through June 27th. This Dracula hews to the beats of the Stoker novel, and at the same time turns it upside down. Dracula is not merely a monster, he’s the archetype of toxic masculinity, particularly as muscularly and scarily performed by Johnny Moreno. Renfield, or rather Mrs. Renfield, the fly-eating comic lunatic, played here in an indelible performance by Stacy Ross, is the night’s most tragic victim, the rejected female child, yearning for daddy to take her back. After a brief prologue the show opens at the doors of Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, where estate agent Jonathan Harker, in a physical performance by James Aaron Oh that runs from torment to slapstick, meets up with the titular vampire, and his vampire wives, who are themselves victims of a misogynist society.

Then we move on to the main story involving Jonathan’s Wife Mina, an engaging Sharon Shao, and her friend Lucy, a feisty Nemma Adeni, she’s a proto-feminist planning to marry for security, certainly not love. And her fiancé, the staid anti-feminist Dr. Seward of the asylum, a deliberately stiff Josh Schell. And then we meet Dr. Van Helsing, in a cowboy hat, played with gusto by Susi Damilano, and all the elements fall in place. It’s to director Bill English’s credit that Dracula stays most of the time on a tightrope between Victorian melodrama, horror and camp. The laughter is uneasy, the pathos over the top, and the violence pretty graphic. This Dracula doesn’t shy away from its bloody roots. While the subject may be fear and the subtext dealing with the evils of traditional masculinity, this is a fearless production with an impeccable cast. If you don’t mind the viscera. Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy Really by Kate Hamill plays at San Francisco Playhouse through June 27th. For more information, you can go to sfplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “Pictures from Home’ at Marin Theatre

    Review: “Pictures from Home’ at Marin Theatre
    May 24 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Pictures from Home” at Marin Theatre through May 31, 2026 TEXT OF REVIEW Acclaimed photographer Larry Sultan based his career on capturing life as lived through his art, and what better notion than collating photos of his own family and home growing up in Sherman Oaks in Southern California during the middle of the twentieth century. This collection of snapshots became a book published in 1992, which was then adapted for the stage as “Pictures from Home”, which plays at Marin Theatre through May 31st. In this memory play, Larry, who died in 2009, tells the story of his visits to his parents while preparing the book, as the three, parents and son, comment on the pictures and bicker with one another. Irving Sultan, a retired salesman, is no Willy Loman. He sold well and retired well-off, always ready to explain exactly what makes a great salesman, often to Larry’s chagrin. Jean Sultan, ever acerbic, puts up with her husband’s toxic masculinity, refusing to take his bullying and having a life of her own. Always seemingly on the verge of divorce, they will stay together until the end. What makes Pictures from Home work so well in this Marin Theatre production — the show began off broadway with in 2023 with a cast that included Nathan Lane — is the truthfulness, in the dialogue, in all three performances, and in the direction of Jonathan Moscone. There’s no heightened speech, no pregnant theatrical pauses. These are real people sounding like a family, dysfunctional maybe, but real. The performances by Victor Talmadge as Irving and Susan Koozin as Jean are so truthful that even if they’re not your actual parents or grandparents, they still sound like them in their sparring and quarrelling. Dan Cantor, as the narrator and son, physically a dead ringer for the real Larry, pulls off his double duties without a hitch. Pictures from Home can at times be painful to watch. These people are maybe too real for comfort. Do you really want to spend an evening with relatives like these, didn’t you move as far away from them as possible? Our memories create golden ages where such squabbles and power plays don’t exist. Which is why Larry Sultan’s photos have such resonance. His photos were more credible than the memories he retained, which is why his books and exhibitions work so well. This play mirrors that credibility. With truthfulness in short supply these days in social media and in news reports, finding it in a memory play is all the more special. Pictures from Home by Sharr White, directed by Jonathan Moscone, plays at Marin Theatre through May 31st. For more information you can go to marintheatre.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Pictures from Home’ at Marin Theatre appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
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