Episodes

  • Review: “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse

    Review: “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse
    Feb 18 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW (minor changes were made during recording and editing): M. Butterfly Back in 1964, a French Diplomat in China became infatuated with a singer from the Beijing Opera. When they met, the singer, now wearing men’s clothing, said she was a woman presenting as a man. They embarked on an affair that began in China and ended several years later in Paris, where it turned out the diplomat was passing secret information to his lover. He later said he never knew that the singer was really a man. That story caught the public’s eye, and not long afterward, first time playwright David Henry Hwang used that story to create a play,which launched the career of B.D. Wong and later became a film with Jeremy Irons. And now a production of M. Butterfly is at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14th. Of course, times change. When first produced on Broadway in 1988, gender roles outside of the gay community were rigid, and the East was still somehow viewed as exotic in the United States. But change was already happening. Ten years earlier, Edward Said had redefined the term “orientalism” to describe, now quoting from Google, a Western system of representation that depicts the “East as static, exotic, and inferior to justify Western imperialism and domination.” On top of that, gender fluidity hit the zeitgeist. While David Henry Hwang did update the play in 2017, it turns out there was no need, as we see and hear in the original 1988 version. The show opens. We are in a prison cell where Rene, a former French diplomat, is serving out a sentence of treason. Mocked and reviled, he tries to explain exactly what happened and why, and how his uncontrollable obsession with the opera singer Song led to his ruin. The prison is real, and metaphorical. Rene is trapped in his fantasy and in his understandings, most of which are wrong and foolhardy. Unfolding as a subtext is an examination of gender roles, of myths about the east, and of sexuality in general, as well as of the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell others, and the strictures society and governments put on all of us. The production’s secret weapon are its two leads. Dean Lillard as Rene and Edric Young as Song are both brilliant, with a palpable connection, and repulsion. They are assisted by a superb cast in other roles, and mention must also be made of the gorgeous set design, lighting and costumes. This M. Butterfly is a sumptuous feast of theatre, for both the eyes, the intellect and the emotion. M Butterfly plays at San Francisco Playhouse through March 14th. For more information you can go to sfplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “M. Butterfly” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “The Notebook, the Musical” at the Orpheum

    Review: “The Notebook, the Musical” at the Orpheum
    Feb 17 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the national touring company of “The Notebook, the Musical” at ATG Orpheum Theatre through March 1, 2025. TEXT OF REVIEW Towards the end of the twentieth century, as the corporate world eyed the record-breaking receipts of shows like Cats and Les Miz, it became clear that if you could turn any IP, intellectual property, into a musical, a new stream of profits would come a-calling. Its also true that producers have always been searching for properties that might sing, and often it’s a labor of love. So is “The Notebook: The Musical”, now in a national tour at the Orpheum theatre through March 1st a labor of love, or just another brand name for Broadway’s corporate class to exploit for profit? Based on the weepy best-seller by Nicholas Sparks and the 2004 film with Ryan Gosling and Gena Rowlands, among others, The Notebook on Broadway presented theatregoers with a free box of tissues at each performance. The show received mixed reviews and closed after nine months, in December, 2024, before embarking on this tour, hoping to make back its investment. Noah Calhoun, an older man, is in a nursing home visiting his wife, Allie, whose memory has been ripped out of her by Alzneimers. The only way to get her to remember is by reading his notebook diary of their life together. She had promised him, at the time of her diagnosis, that if he does that, she’ll come back to him. So we embark on their love story, as two couples play Noah and Allie at seventeen and again at twenty seven, while old Noah reads to old Allie. But back to the weepie business. Much of the show is saccharine and manipulative, particularly in the flashbacks focusing on parental meddling and class distinctions. And if Allie only focused on the songs, she’d never get her memory back. But there is much more going on here, and inside The Notebook: The Musical is a much better show than the producers were able to promote. It’s a show about loss, loss of memory, loss of mobility, loss of health. In that sense, the creators have focused on musical theatre as metaphor, with body movement and dance and snippets of dialogue and song representing the swirl going on in Allie’s mind as she attempts to find meaning inside the chaos. Along that path, the strongest elements are the performances of Beau Gravitte and Sharon Catherine Brown, who shine in their scenes, and take the show into places other musicals haven’t attempted, and why ultimately, The Notebook works far better than it should. The Notebook: The Musical plays at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre through March 1st. For more information you can go to broadwaysf.com, which takes you to an agttickets site. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Notebook, the Musical” at the Orpheum appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “The Mountaintop” at Oakland Theatre Project

    Review: “The Mountaintop” at Oakland Theatre Project
    Feb 10 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Mountaintop” at Oakland Theatre Project through Feb. 15, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW: In late 2008, it felt as if we’d entered a new world. The Republicans were out of office, people of color were being appointed to key positions in business and government, and a black man had just been elected president. Martin Luther King’s dream seemingly had come true. Stories of his infidelities had come to light two decades earlier, and he’d been shown to have, as they say, feet of clay. He was no longer a god, but he was a hero. And Obama’s election had proven it. And in June 2009, The Mountaintop, a play by Katori Hall, about the last evening in the life of Martin Luther King, premiered in a small theatre in London, later moving to the West End, and coming to Broadway two years later. Now, under a very different national circumstance, The Mountaintop can be seen in an Oakland Theatre Project production, which runs through February 15th, this coming weekend. We are in Dr. King’s room at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, just after his sermon, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. Rain pounds the windows, lightning flashes, lights go on and off. He’s sent his assistant out looking for cigarettes and he’s waiting impatiently. He calls room service for coffee. A maid quickly appears. They chat, flirt, and then things take a surprising turn. In this staging, King’s motel room is also his tomb. We are not quite in the real world. But Dr. King, as performed brilliantly by William Thomas Hodgson, feels definitely real, as does Sam Jackson as Camae, the maid. Also real is the intimacy of the theatre, especially during the play’s various moments of crisis, when the audience feels like part of the production. The times are very different now than back in 2009. As the co-director of the production Michael Socrates Moran writes in the program, today It may very well be that the fate of our democracy hinges on the capacity of citizens to engage in non-violent resistance against armed federal paramilitary troops. He goes on to say that, Dr. King’s worldview stands as a bastion for radical humanization not only in the face of fascism, but also in the face of a status quo that privileges peace over justice, equality and freedom. In 2026, Dr. King’s mountaintop feels even further away than it did nearly sixty years ago, and what felt triumphant then takes on an irony nobody could have expected. But the play’s focus on King’s humanity and the humanity of his message still remains, as does the power of theater in this formidable production The Mountaintop plays at Oakland Theatre Project through February 15th. For more information, you can go to oaklandtheatreproject.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Mountaintop” at Oakland Theatre Project appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “The Cherry Orchard” at Marin Theatre

    Review: “The Cherry Orchard” at Marin Theatre
    Feb 7 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Cherry Orchard” by Anton Chekhov at Marin Theatre through February 22, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW (differs slightly from final edit for time). ​​​​​For centuries, serfs had no power in Russia. They weren’t quite slaves, but they also were not free. It was a feudal society, run by a powerful nobility ruled by an all-powerful Tsar. Due to societal and economic advances, that all changed in 1861 when Alexander the second freed the serfs. Even though their economic status shifted, and a new middle class was born, the old nobility carried on as before, eventually finding themselves in poverty. The great playwright Anton Chekhov wrote about these newly impoverished aristocrats, first in Uncle Vanya, and then later in his final play, The Cherry Orchard, which runs in a new production at Marin Theatre through February 22nd. The spendthrift Madame Lyubov has returned to her country estate with her two daughters, having bankrupted the family while in Paris. The estate itself is now up for auction, and the only way to save it is to sell the land to make way for a vacation home development. That means destroying the fabled cherry orchard, once a key element of the family’s inheritance. The production uses a 1993 translation by Paul Schmidt, which underlines the parallels to today’s world, of which there are several, while maintaining a style that makes clear this is a translation. The characters never use contractions, such as won’t, can’t or weren’t. This combination of the modern and the archaic creates a distance, which is translated by director Carey Perloff into a heightened form of acting, most successful in the comic segments and less so in the pathos. At times the production almost feels like a musical, say, A Little Night Music, with Lyubov substituting for Desiree Armfeldt. Carey Perloff has assembled a who’s who cast of Bay Area actors. Liz Sklar leads the cast as Madame Lyubov, ever the diva, and Anthony Fusco matches her as her brother Gayev, both showing the befuddlement befitting two souls who can’t wrap their heads around their predicament. Then there’s the comic brilliance of Danny Scheie as the neighbor Pishchik and Jomar Tagatac as the family clerk. Rounding out the Bay Area names are Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as the circus born governess and Marin Theatre artistic director Lance Gardner as Lopatkin, the serf turned businessman.. In an age when the theatrical canon is often reviled, and a time when the plays of Checkov, Ibsen and Shaw are often confined to high school, college, and community stages, creating a professional production can be a great risk. But at Marin Theatre, it’s a risk well worth taking. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, directed by Carey Perloff, plays at Marin Theatre through February 22. More more information, you can go to marintheatre.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Cherry Orchard” at Marin Theatre appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “How Shakespeare Changed My Life” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre

    Review: “How Shakespeare Changed My Life” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre
    Feb 3 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “How Shakespeare Changed My Life” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre through March 1, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW You’re just a kid. You’re Black .Your teachers think you’re stupid, a hopeless fat boy. At home, your mom tossed out your junkie dad. Mom herself is ice cold, and when you’re sixteen, Mom throws you out on the street. You’re homeless, destitute, and you love Shakespeare. That’s the start of the world premiere one person play, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, written and performed by Jacob Ming-Trent, now at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through March 1st. The play is billed as semi-autobiographical, and it’s unclear what the relationship is between Jacob the character and Jacob the playwright performer. The real Jacob, for example, was already on stage at age eleven, and was admitted to acting school in New York at the age of seventeen, before developing a career in Hollywood. It shouldn’t matter, but in retrospect, it does. The story, at least, feels real, and Jacob Ming-Trent has the acting chops to make it so, to grab an audience and to keep them. When the play works, it works wonders. The basic idea is that Shakespeare himself was an urban artist, in his own lifetime no different than Tupac or Biggie or the Wu-Tang Clan. Famous lines from the plays are easily incorporated into the dialogue, and each takes on new meaning and resonance. The Elizabethan poet meets the street. Jacob Ming-Trent has an innate ability to create empathy, an empathy that expands via the brilliant immersive staging of director Tony Taccone. When the lights, the sound, the acting and the script all work in tandem, the result can be stunning, as witness the character Jacob’s discovery of James Baldwin, or his scenes with his dad. The theater shakes, the images flashed behind the actor never stop. But not everything does work. Phone dialogues with God through an old fashioned telephone fall flat, as does a sequence in a jail cell with an individual of uncertain gender. Some Shakespearean monologues go on too long, and the play itself does not stick the landing, leaving the audience wondering how the play’s Jacob became the stage’s Jacob. Audience participation, so successful earlier, now dissipates in a final, unearned test. But as a world premiere, some of these issues can be corrected going forward and there is enough here, and Jacob Ming-Trent is talented enough, to find solutions to these and other problematic elements. How Shakespeare Saved My Life is a work in progress, but even so, it’s a diamond in the rough. How Shakespeare Saved My Life plays at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through March 1st. For more information you can go to berkeleyrep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “How Shakespeare Changed My Life” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre appeared first on KPFA.
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    6 mins
  • Review: “A Streetcar Named Desire” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre

    Review: “A Streetcar Named Desire” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre
    Jan 27 2026
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the Streetcar Project’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre through February 1, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW (some changes were made during recording and cuts for timing were made for radio). ​​​​​The greatest of plays often allow for multiple interpretations. We see that all the time in Shakespeare. We see it in Arthur Miller, in the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, even in August Wilson. And of course we see it in Tennessee Williams. Most interpretations of Williams’ second play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are inhibited by the famous movie, which catapulted Marlon Brando to fame. It’s hard to see Blanche Dubois beyond Vivien Leigh’s faded Southern belle, and it’s even harder to see the crude Stanley Kowalski past Brando’s scream of “Stella!” But those interpretations, however close to Williams’ wishes, obscure the play’s lyricism and more to the point, his greatest creation, Blanche Dubois. This production by The Streetcar Project, now at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through February 1st, which has played in a variety of site-specific spaces, changes the paradigms, first by removing all props and sets, and second by discardmg the characters’ accents, particularly that of Blanche Dubois, played by project co-creator, Lucy Owen. In addition, the full text has been restored. In this production, the stage area is fully open, bounded on three sides by two rows of audience members on folding chairs. Characters wander on and off stage, their voices carry but their bodies are sometimes hard to find.. it can feel like a reading, a radio play, but not always, and not in Act Two. What this shows now is that Streetcar is clearly Blanche’s play. Whether with her sister, Stella, beautifully embodied by Heather Lind – their sisterhood is palpable, or with Mitch, Stanley’s friend who falls for Blanche, played by James Russell as a product of his era, or with the brutal Stanley, performed by Brad Koed, who never quite escapes Brando. Without the accent, without the affectations, Lucy Owen’s Blanche is revealed as brilliant, incisive, misunderstood and wronged. Her lies are no longer signs of weakness; they’re not delusional; they’re necessary for her survival, and the survival of her pride. It’s a fascinating interpretation, which Williams’ poetic dialogue om;y amplifies. She’s caught in the trap of her times, and it’s brought her down low. While much is gained here, something is also lost. Concessions to time and place come from the sound system and from costumes, but much of the action becomes incomprehensible without visible cues and with only the four actors. The giant stage, the cavernous theatre weaken the passion between Stella and Stanley. Chemistry vanishes when characters seem a football field apart. Would such a strong Blanche break so thoroughly at the end of the play? But whatever those issues, this is a Streetcar well worth visiting in its short run, through February 1st. For more information, you can go to act-sf.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “A Streetcar Named Desire” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre appeared first on KPFA.
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    3 mins
  • Review: “Sunday in the Park with George” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage

    Review: “Sunday in the Park with George” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage
    Dec 10 2025
    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Sunday in the Park with George” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage extended through January 31, 2026. Text of Review: The late great composer lyricist Stephen Sondheim tackled a variety of subjects in his work, from an examination of relationships in Company to obsession in Passion, to gun culture in Assassins But two shows seem a bit more autobiographical, Merrily We Roll Along, which incorporates elements of his own life, and Sunday in the Park with George, which examines the role of the artist, both as creator and promoter. Because of the large cast and the giant canvas of the show itself, pun intended, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park is usually presented in large venues. Now Shotgun Players has taken on the Pulitzer Prize winning musical in the moreintimate confines of the Ashby Stage in Berkeley, running through January 31st, 2026. Musically, lyrically, in most ways, Sunday in the Park is sui generis. Act One focuses in on the creation by Geroge Seurat of his room sized masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, while Act Two takes place a century later as another George, his great-grandson attempts to get funding for his own art exhibit. Critics, money, getting it right, painting the perfect hat. The songs themselves serve as musical counterparts to the pointillist art George Seurat is creating on stage. The late Steven Sondheim: (actuality) As with all Sondheim musicals, lyrical precision takes as much precedence as singing voice and acting. This particular show also requires harmonies that blend together into something gorgeous and almost unearthly. Here, the Shotgun production succeeds beautifully. It also succeeds with Kevin Singer in the lead role, who fully embodies both Georges with an almost innate sense of what the creators had intended. He is complemented by Mara Sotelo, whose voice enhances Sondheim’s most exquisite music. The intimacy is a different matter. A relatively small space is made smaller by putting audience members on both sides of the set, and when the entire cast is performing at once, it all feels cluttered and chaotic, actors seemingly tripping over one another. The duets, with the stage now empty, feel static. But the glorious music, the brilliant lyrics, the harmonies, the actors in the leading roles, and of course, \the play’s focus on art and artists, make this Sunday in the Park with George well worth visiting. Sunday in the Park with George plays at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through January 31, 2026. For more information, you can go to shotgunplayers.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA The post Review: “Sunday in the Park with George” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage appeared first on KPFA.
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    7 mins
  • James Lapine on his collaboration with Stephen Sondheim

    James Lapine on his collaboration with Stephen Sondheim
    Dec 10 2025
    A short excerpt from a 2019 interview with James Lapine, who collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into The Woods.” Sunday in the Park with George plays at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through January 31, 2026. “Into the Woods” plays at San Francisco Playhouse through January 17, 2026. The post James Lapine on his collaboration with Stephen Sondheim appeared first on KPFA.
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    7 mins