130 stories by "Chuck Louden"
FUNNY HOW IT GOES WRONG, BUT IT KEEPS GETTING WRONGER AND WRONGER AND… San Francisco Playhouse launches into its 2025-25 season with the fast-paced comedy: The Play That Goes Wrong. …
JAGGED WITH SOPHISTICATION A.C.T. is bringing back on stage to the Bay Area a tried and true favorite: Noël Coward's Private Lives. An ultimate comedy of manners, this three-act play cent…
STUNNING STORYTELLING Many times when I go to see a show, whether as a critic or just a patron, I'll come in not knowing in advance what I'm going to see. With a reputable theater company, m…
Arsenic and Old Lace, the classic black comedy about two sweet old sisters poisoning old men lodgers has been told on stage and screen for decades. This includes the original play written by…
LET THIS SILLY BLONDE MUSICAL ENTERTAIN YOU Post-pandemic, as the world is seemingly opening up, local theater and the arts have not rebounded. Many venues are suffering or have gone out of …
WHAT'S ALL THE HOO-HA? Last Saturday, Berkeley's Shotgun Players opened a play by Jen Silverman which is so provocative that some publications won't publish its full title: Collective Rage: …
DEBBY BOONE DOES INDEED LIGHT UP MY LIFE On Sunday July 14, the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation (REAF) is celebrating 30 years of producing Cabaret Concerts to fundraise for HIV and AIDS with …
MY HEAD SAID "STAY" BUT MY HEELS SAID "RUN" Since 2007 the Berkeley Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that offers classes and camps for youths. Consequently their shows fe…
COME TO THIS CABARET Cabaret is a masterpiece of American musical theater that has been presented in a vast variety of musical and physical shapes and sizes since its premiere on Broadway in…
A SONG WHICH HAS BECOME A STANDARD Harvey Fierstein wrote his semi-autobiographical Torch Song Trilogy in the late 1970s. In it, Arnold Beckoff, a gay, Jewish man and professional drag qu…
New Conservatory Theatre Center is offering The Tutor, a gripping and thought-provoking three-person drama that tells a timely story of love, lies, survival, and culture. With insightful min…
A MAJESTY OF DRAG QUEENS BECOMES A PRIDE OF LIONS Founded in 1977 The Castro District's Theatre Rhinoceros is the longest-running queer theater in the nation. This month is the world premier…
FREEDOM WRITER San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) is presenting a terrific production that tells the amazing true story of Bay Area icon Betty Reid Soskin, known to residents i…
THE STEPS TO SUCCESS They say that timing is everything. Timing certainly is everything in The 39 Steps, the English spy spoof that occupies a delightful, often amazing, and even suspense…
A PIPELINE TO GREAT THEATER Theater can do more than entertain. A good drama can not only pull at your heartstrings, it has the ability to educate, influence and inform. Pipeline, now playin…
Some consider A Midsummer Night's Dream to be one of William Shakespeare's greatest tributes to love: both romantic and platonic. "Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind. And therefo…
THE DEMONS ON ANGEL ISLAND We've all heard stories about coming to America through Ellis Island. We've read the books and seen the movies set in the early 1900s about the immigrants sailing …
UNPACKING PACKS IN TOO MUCH INFO WITHOUT PACKING ENOUGH PUNCH Set in the East Coast Summer gay mecca Provincetown in 1959, four old vaudeville friends reunite anxiously awaiting the promisin…
SURVIVING THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO Theatres took a big hit after COVID. Many lost a third of their audience. Now, regional theatres " those that haven't shuttered " are turning to a new …
WHAT MORE CAN I SAY? BRING YOUR KLEENEX The musical masterpiece Falsettos follows Marvin (William Giammona), an appealing, brainy, anxious, obsessive, wealthy Jewish gay man who struggles to…
In the 21st century with the advancement of social media, anyone has the ability to be the star of their own reality show. Communicating with friends, expressing personal politics or even sh…
SEASONS OF LOVE A PRODUCTION OF LOVE Founded in 2007, Berkeley Playhouse is known for its youth programs and summer theater camps for Bay Area youth. Classic family friendly shows such as Pe…
WHAT THE PHO IS GOING ON? Pho (pronounced in 2 sounds, sliding up at the end: fo/É™, like your saying "fur" with a strong New York accent) is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, r…
CULT OF LOVE TAKES YOU FROM "HO, HO, HO" TO "HOLY CHRIST!" The Dysfunctional Family, whether in a comedy or drama, is a staple of storytelling, from The Bible and Shakespeare to Netflix. We …
KOOZA RETURNS TO THE CITY OF ITS 2007 U.S. PREMIERE Circuses since the 19th century conjure up images of clowns, fire eaters, men walking on stilts and lion tamers with jungle felines jumpin…
