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Continue reading →: Review: Z Space’s powerful ‘Ripped’ is scintillating and challengingThe opening seconds of “Ripped” are loaded with foreboding. The young woman who lies beneath the cool, white sheets rustles with uncomfortable agitation. This woman, who we learn is named Lucy, moves with a weighted heaviness as the eerie strains of music lightly texture the background. You can see Lucy’s…
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Continue reading →: Review: Berkeley Rep’s witty and sharply irreverent ‘Kiss My Aztec!’ conquers the stageOne of the most hilarious moments in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of “Kiss My Aztec!” takes place in the opening number. In a world where the Aztecs were conquered by those vicious Spanish conquistadors, the opening number doesn’t just fit into this play but applies to many other battles.…
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Continue reading →: Review: A.C.T.’s powerful ‘Rhinoceros’ warns of the dangers of conformityEugene Ionesco might not have been thinking of mind-numbing dances like the Macarena or the Floss when he penned his great play “Rhinoceros” in 1959. But that one moment, when Gene feels his skin get a little leatherier, his voice a little more raspy and his moves a bit more…
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Continue reading →: Review: The kids shred in Broadway San Jose’s ‘School of Rock’There are some things in Broadway San Jose’s touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “School of Rock” that positively shred. That part of the show starts and finishes with a deluge of delightful performances from kids who are slicing up instruments that outweigh them by 20 pounds. The guitar, the…
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Continue reading →: For Taccone and Leguizamo, musical farce is the thing in Berkeley Rep’s ‘Kiss My Aztec!’Outgoing Berkeley Repertory Theatre artistic director Tony Taccone is not shy to share his aversion to the genre of musical theatre. He remembers going with his mother when he was 10-years-old to see the movie “West Side Story,” which was a special experience for both of them. He loved seeing the…
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Continue reading →: Review: A beautiful ‘Silent Sky’ at City Lights shines brightWhat is it about the stars that inspires endless fascination? Peek into the vast darkness that hovers above on a clear night, and the magical wonderment of the hundreds of billions of stars that dance among the moonlight creates a celestial world beyond our own. The stars and the possibilities…
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Continue reading →: Bublitz’ ‘Ripped’ at Z Space looks at the complexities of consentThe month of May is a thrilling time for a college-bound high school senior. College decisions sweep through the latest senior class, graduations and summertime looms large, and campuses big and small begin preparations to welcome a fresh crop of new faces in the fall. Yet there is also plenty…
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Continue reading →: CMTSJ’s costume crew works hard to do things oh sew rightThere’s a lot that takes place between getting cast in a musical and making it to opening night. There are lines to learn, dance steps to solidify, songs to harmonize, scenes to run. And every day of rehearsal is one day closer to another op’nin’ of another show. While there…
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Continue reading →: Review: Berkeley Rep’s ‘The Good Book’ a thrill that looks at the good and not so goodThere is a ferocity that lies within the Catholic priest, a man for whom there is no bend. In a small confessional in the back of the church, he and the utterly charming Connor engage in a battle of passions. For Connor, God is his passion, a young man who…
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Continue reading →: Review: Celestial beauty abounds in A.C.T.’s grand ‘Weightless’It is truly hard to pinpoint what exactly makes the American Conservatory Theater production of “Weightless” so beautiful, so majestic. It takes a hint of time at the onset to figure out what structure and devices are being called upon to speak the myth, but once the show’s rhythms set…
David John Chávez
Bay Area theater critic/reporter, Executive Chair – American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association, Two-time Pulitzer Prize for Drama jurist (’22-’23). Follow me on socials and say hi! #hellatheatre
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