4,228 stories by "Barry"
By David Sheward
September 19, 2025: On our way out of the Music Box Theater where the revival of Yasmina Reza's Art is currently playing, my female theatergoing companion remarked, "It wa…
A STUNNING INDECENT REMINDS US THAT FREE SPEECH IS ALWAYS ON TRIAL The triumphs and travails of an itinerant Yiddish theater troupe get a full examination in Paula Vogel's acclaimed hit play…
By David Sheward
September 17, 2025. The worlds of camp and opera collide deliriously in the revival of Charles Ludlam's 1983 Galas in a spectacularly silly outdoor production at Little Isl…
A METRPOLITIAN OPERA PREVIEW
By Alix Cohen
September 17, 2025: Tonight's glimpse into The Metropolitan Opera's upcoming production of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay feature…
By David Sheward
September 15, 2025: The Wild Duck (1884) is the red-headed step-child among Henrik Ibsen's classic plays. It seems every time a high-powered actress best known for her film…
By Samuel L. Leiter
September 14, 2025: Revivals of Henrik Ibsen are common enough, though A Doll's House tends to dominate. Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, and An Enemy of the People appear regular…
JOPLIN ROARS A legendary rock singer comes roaring back to life in A Night with Janis Joplin at Sonoma Arts Live. Libby Oberlin With elegant direction by Carl Jordan (also responsible for th…
DELIGHTFUL!
By Alix Cohen
September 8, 2025: Without other similarity to the character Baby June from Gypsy, Rachel Matz Hunter might be called "a five foot two bundle of dynamite." Dimin…
By Isa Goldberg
September 8, 2025: A scream alert bursts your ears -- stabbing the subconscious, evoking fear, and demons that become real -- more than mere apparitions. Exorcistic: The Ro…
By Alix Cohen
September 4, 2025: An instrumental "After You've Gone" (Turner Layton/Henry Creamer) sashays in. Trombone surges, cornet and clarinet shimmy, sax kicks up. Tonight's band is …
Jaime Lozano and performers. Photo Credit: Rebecca J. Michaelson
A FEATHERBABY IN SPRECKELS' CAP A talking, squawking parrot dispenses wit, wisdom, and wonder in Featherbaby at Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. In a bright green suit and y…
By Samuel L. Leiter
August 31, 2025: Magic, as Jamie Allan, the appealing British magician now holding forth at one of the venues in Off-Broadway's New World Stages, explains, goes back…
By David Sheward
August 31, 2025: You might expect a lot more snark from comedian Jeff Ross in his one-man show Take a Banana for the Ride at the Nederlander. After all, he is nicknamed th…
By Alix Cohen
August 27, 2025: With this 11" x 17" book, you too can put a Hirschfeld on your wall or gift an uber-fan. There are 58 pages, 50 drawings and 25 glossy, thick, ready to frame…
By Samuel L. Leiter
August 21, 2025: At last! The Delacorte Theatre, home of Free Shakespeare in Central Park has reopened, after a two-year renovation costing a reported $85 million, with…
By Samuel L. Leiter
August 18, 2025: In our currently niche-dominated entertainment world, including the infinitesimal number of choices on cable, streaming, and broadcast TV, it's easy…
By Paulanne Simmons
August 16, 2025: Late in her life, Ava Gardner decided to write an autobiography. She didn't so much want to tell her story as raise money. She was low on funds and as …
Gabriel Diamond Evokes Laughter, Tears, Love, SF Style by Barry David Horwitz Somehow, I was summoned magically to The Tenderloin Sunday night and ended up at the Fringe Festival at the invi…
CHARMING AND ENTERTAINING
By Alix Cohen
August 14, 2025: "Every story begins with a spark of imagination…" Jamie Allan was eight when his parents bought him a Fisher Price magic set. Dad…
By Paulanne Simmons
August 14, 2025: When theater star and Nashville recording artist Rachel Potter turned forty, she was living in Nashville doing corporate real estate. After many yea…
By David Sheward
August 12, 2025: Bubba Weiler's new play Well, I'll Let You Go at the Space at Irondale in Brooklyn breaks a few rules and doesn't seem to have much going for it at first.…
By Isa Goldberg
August 11, 2025: Oddly, Bubba Weiler's new play at the Irondale Brooklyn, Well, I'll Let You Go, begins where the story ends …after Marv's death. Being iconoclastic of st…
TRANSCENDENCE DOES BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFULLY Sonoma County's home-grown musical revue troupe Transcendence Theatre Company has launched a wonderful production of Douglas McGrath's theatrical bio…
By David Sheward
August 7, 2025: "The story you are about to see is true…except for the parts that aren't." So reads a disclaimer flashed on the curtain before the start of Ava: The Secr…
