KPFA - Bay Area Theater

Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic.LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES

KPFA - Bay Area Theater is a news podcast hosted by KPFA, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

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  KPFA - Bay Area Theater

  Review: “The Cook” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre

  Sep 14, 20266 min

  KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Cook” by Eduardo Machado, at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through October 11, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW: Over the past seventy years, Cuba has gone through a remarkable series of changes. First there was the Batista coup overthrowing the 1940 Constitution, leading to the corruption and repression of the mafia years. Then came the Cuban revolution, with its promise of democracy and freedom. Then Castro’s socialist government offering free medical care education, along with censorship and repression. Then came the blockade, shortages and eventually a loosening. Some of those changes are evident in Eduardo Machado’’s heartfelt and emotionally rewarding play, originally produced in 2003, The Cook, now at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through October 11th. Gladys has been a cook in a very wealthy Havana home since she was thirteen. It is the end of December 1958, and she and her boyfriend Carlos, the family chauffeur and an avid Communist, are presenting a New Years Eve party for Havana’s elite, when suddenly her mistress, Adria, announces that she and her husband are immediately leaving the country, going into exile. Batista has fled, the revolution has been won. But they’ll be back, she says, and Gladys must keep the house safe for their return. The play takes us through two more eras in Cuba’s history, as seen through Gladys’ eyes and the eyes of others as they cope with the country’s changing economic and social landscape. For playwright Eduardo Machado, it was the food and a conversation with a real life Gladys that inspired him to sit down and write about Cuba through the lens of this one person and one kitchen. Gladys in the play is no communist, barely a revolutionary. Adria, she thinks, is her friend, not merely her employer. And while others are excited to be free of tyranny, it is her world that’s been thrown upside down. Revolutions have emotional consequences, some obvious, some subtle, and some, ultimately, eye-opening. Homophobia, misogyny and racism play their own roles after Castro comes to power. Not everything changes. The Cook is anchored in superb performances, particularly that of Yesenia Iglesias as Gladys, Gisela Chipe in a double role, and Daniel Duque-Estrada as Carlos. The gorgeous scenic design is by Tanya Orellano. The Cook operates on many levels, from the personal to the political, It’s often moving and always informative, and is a welcome addition to the Bay Area theatre scene. The Cook by Eduardo Machado, directed by David Mendizabel, (Mend-di-ZA-bel) plays at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through October 11th. For more information you can go to berkeley rep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Cook” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

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  Review: “The White Chip” at Marin Theatre

  Sep 3, 20266 min

  KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The White Chip” by Sean Daniels, directed by Lance Gardner, at Marin Theatre through September 20, 2026. TEXT OF REVIEW: We live in a world of addiction. Drugs, tobacco, overeating, even mindless scrolling. But the granddaddy of all addictions, going back millennia, is of course alcoholism. It’s been a long time since the drunken comedy of people like W.C. Fields or even Dean Martin, and the serious stuff, about actual alcoholism, is always very serious. So it’s a surprise and maybe a shock to see a comedy about the subject, The White Chip by Sean Daniels, now at Marin Theatre through September 20th, which tells a largely autobiographical story about a young theatre director who is, until he isn’t, a very functioning drunk. The White Chip sets itself up as a memory play, with Steven, our narrator, telling us how he first meets alcohol as a teenager, how the drinking continues ,while work afterward as a theatre director and artistic director collide with his growing love of the bottle. The White Chip itself refers to a poker-chip given at AA meetings to those who first show up, or to those coming back after a relapse. A new beginning, they say, a fresh start. And over the course of the play, Steven McAlister gets a lot of them. One of the primary methods of overcoming alcohol is to trust in a higher power. But what if you’re an atheist? What if religion makes you run in the opposite direction, as it does for the ex-Mormon Steven? How can you get better if the only cure is another addiction, an addiction to world of wishes and prayers? Ben Clark is pitch-perfect as Steven, narrator and participant in his life story. Two castmates play all the characters around him, Lyndsy Kail taking all the women’s roles, most affecting as Steven’s mother , and Danny Shae all the male roles, often escaping his usual Bay Area typecasting. The narration is serious and sardonic, always self-aware, and the action and dialogue reflect the fact that, as the playwright himself once noted, the antics of alcoholics can often be silly and sidesplittingly funny. There’s hilarity in the tragedy. The White Chip feels so real, and Sean Daniels is so truthful in his writing, that the play could be triggering for those who have beaten addiction. And while many of us have never been in Steven’s shoes, we’ve all witnessed Stevens in our lives. No matter who you are, this is a production that hits very close to home. The White Chip by Sean Daniels, directed by Lance Gardner, plays at Marin Theatre through September 20th. For more information you can go to marintheatre.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The White Chip” at Marin Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

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  Review: “R.O.I. (Return on Investment)” at San Francisco Playhouse Creativity Theatre

  Aug 18, 20266 min

  KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “R.O.I. (Return on Investment) by Aaron Loeb, directed by Jonathan Moscone, a San Francisco Playhouse production at Creativity Theatre. TEXT OF REVIEW: Back just a few short years ago, despite the warning dystopias of Skynet in the Terminator films and HAL in 2001, most believed technology had the power to turn this planet into a utopia. That was especially true since the tech titans seemed so idealistic. Elon Musk and his electric cars, Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, the optimism of Steve Jobs. But times have changed. How does the horror of monopoly capitalism engage with the sunniness of a brighter tomorrow? These are heavy questions, which are subsumed inside the interpersonal power struggles that make up the bulk of the funny and profound World Premiere play, ROI, Return on Investment by Aaron Loeb, directed by Jonathan Moscone, now a San Francisco Playhouse production at the Creativity Theatre through September 5th. The Montrose Fund links investors with technology projects, and May Lee, the protege of the Fund’s founder, Paul Montrose, thinks she’s found her golden goose. It’s a young biotech genius named Willa McGovern, who explains she’s found the way to map individual genetic signs that point directly to cancer and alzheimers, and to then engineer genetic changes to cure both maladies. And Willa is the real deal. Over the course of the play we follow the three over a period of months and years as they weave their own scenarios and objectives, sometimes in tandem but often putting their individual priorities first. Which creates the kind of conflict that makes for thrilling theatre. Anthony Fusco has a field day as the gadget and toy happy Paul, Sharon Shao gives her all as the idealistic and snarky May, and Lauren English plays it both ways as the enigmatic Willa, the three-person chemistry sparking laughs and sometimes shocks as they play off each other. Also mention should be made of the excellent set design, lighting and sound. Issues involving ethics, late stage capitalism, the power of the internet, the joy and horror of technology, its toys and surveillance mechanisms all rise inside the show, usually yielding more questions than answers. There’s always subtext behind the laughs. R.O.I. turns sober in its last scenes, a common trait of comedies these days, and it’s possible to argue with the resolution. But it’s the best new comedy to emerge from the Bay Area since the pandemic, and well worth seeing. R.O.I., Return On Investment by Aaron Loeb, directed by Jonathan Moscone, a San Francisco Playhouse production, plays at the Creativity Theatre through September 5th. For more information, go to sfplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “R.O.I. (Return on Investment)” at San Francisco Playhouse Creativity Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

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  Review: “Orpheus Descending” at Oakland Theatre Project

  Aug 12, 20266 min

  KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Orpheus Descending” by Tennessee Williams, at Oakland Theatre Project through August 23, 2026. Text of Review: Over the course of his career, Tennessee Williams wrote thirty full length plays and a host of one-acts. Yet looking at the list of plays produced by local and regional theaters, you’d think he only wrote The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. While it’s true there was a fall off in quality after 1965, and some of the early works were sketchy, there’s still quite a roster of plays that hardly ever get revived outside of New York. So it’s a kind of gift that Orpheus Descending is now playing at Oakland Theatre Project through August 23rd. The play has a curious and confusing history. A rewrite of one of Williams’ early plays, Battle of Angels, Orpheus Descending opened on Broadway in 1957 in the midst of Williams’ most creative period. It received mixed to negative reviews, and closed quickly, later becoming a Brando film titled The Fugitive Kind, which had no relationship to a same-titled early Williams play, and was later revived on Broadway in 1989 with Vanessa Redgrave, which was filmed but isn’t available streaming. Orpheus Descending opens in a dry goods store in a small white town in the South in the 1950s when Val, a drifter whose car has broken down, comes into the emporium and throws everyone in the town into turmoil, particularly Lady, wife of the store’s ill-tempered invalid owner. A romance, doomed of course, ensues. We do have to wait to meet them after a long expository duet from two lesser characters that Williams should have cut seventy years ago. O rpheus Descending is, as one critic noted for a recent revival, pure over the top Southern Gothic, verging on fantasy and brain rattling hysteria. It’s both Williams at his best, and at his most histrionic. This production, directed by Will Detlefsen, shows the play at its best through some of the actors, particularly Natalie Pasquinelli as Carol and Lisa Ramirez in the role of Lady. But we never understand Val’s attraction to Lady and the play suffers from the theatre’s configuration, forcing actors to shout from across the horizontal space, turning the play often into a one-note yelling spree. And some directorial choices that sounded good in theory just don’t work. But in a world of half-baked world premieres and undeserved Pulitzers, any Tennessee Williams is a treat, and when this production works, and it does work here and there, and when Williams is on a roll, it’s theatre as its meant to be seen. Orpheus Descending plays at Oakland Theatre Project through August 23rd. For more information go to oakland theatreproject. org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Orpheus Descending” at Oakland Theatre Project appeared first on KPFA.

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  Review: “Hairspray” at San Francisco Playhouse

  Jul 24, 20266 min

  KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the musical “Hairspray” directed by Bill English, at San Francisco Playhouse through September 12, 2026. Text of Review: The Golden Age of the Broadway musical faded in the sixties, the age of Sondheim and the pop opera died before the new century, and since then, the Great White Way has atrophied into a world of corporate jukeboxes, pointless renderings of hit movies, little shows that could, and hits that never close. And then there’s 2003’s Hairspray, now in a fine production at San Francisco Playhouse through September 12th. It’s not as if the show vanished; it pops up frequently in community theaters these days, filling in the gaps between the spelling bee Audrey II, Hedwig and a host of Sondheims. But without a Broadway revival, Hairspray never inserted itself into the canon. And it should, particularly now. John Waters’ most mainstream film from 1988 was a tribute to the outsiders, outcasts and freaks he grew up with in Baltimore, those very people inhabiting his earlier films, notably his muse, the drag superstar Divine, Harris Glen Milstead, cast as Edna Turnblad, mother of the full figured Tracy Turnblad. The film was a love letter to the way song and dance could overcome racism, body-shaming and all the biases that had control of America in 1962. Hairspray, the musical, with tuneful and memorable songs by Marc Shaiman, stayed true to the politics, and kept memories of Divine alive by always casting Edna in drag, first with Harvey Fierstein and later John Travolta. Hairspray was the sweetest of all John Waters films, and that sweetness is reflected in the musical itself, and particularly in this production. It’s seen here in the superb performance of Ella Ruth Francis, who embodies Tracy with as much joy, energy and voice as any performer in the role on Broadway or off. She is Tracy Turnblad . Other standouts include Jordan Covington as Seaweed, whose body movement in every scene is a joy to behold. And there’s Jeanine Anderson as a gospel voiced Motormouth Maybelle and Alison Ewing as the amusingly villainous Velma Van Tussle. Jonathan Chisolm as Edna takes a backseat during most of the show, only stepping out in the final scenes. The casting of Edna may have once been a tribute to Divine, but today there’s a political subtext that enhances the show’s theme of inclusion. One caveat: the decibel level toward the end is a bit off the charts, so be forewarned. But mostly it’s just a grand night in the theatre, a musical to enjoy and savor. Hairspray, directed by Bill English, plays at San Francisco Playhouse through September 12th. For more information, you can go to sfplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Hairspray” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.

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