San Francisco Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: LIBERACE & LIZA: A TRIBUTE 'PIER PRESSURE' at Feinstein's At The Nikko
by Steve Murray - July 19, 2025

Liberace & Liza: Pier Pressure (A Tribute), which rolls back into Feinstein’s for a return engagement, is one of the finest acts of this genre, featuring two extraordinary performers combining their talents to bring Liberace and Liza Minelli to life. ...

Review: JURASSIQ PARQ at SF Oasis
by Steve Murray - July 11, 2025

There’s a strong history of outrageous drag performance art in San Francisco. Born of necessity as a weapon against homophobia, discrimination and vile hatred, the gay community developed an all-inclusive, often comic, in-your-face style of theatre that includes nudity, sexual innuendo, and social s...

Review: MY FAIR LADY at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - July 11, 2025

Who doesn’t love a good transformation story? Dowdy bookkeeper Loretta Castorini morphing into Cher in Moonstruck or the streetwise prostitute becoming the elegant Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman are contemporary examples. ...

Review: DISRUPTION at Dolores Park
by Steve Murray - July 06, 2025

Michael Gene Sullivan and his troupe may be secretly saying to us all- “See I told ya so.” For 66 years they have been to sole voice of the left in the Bay Area scene, and their continuous commitment to socially relevant, in-your-face politically resistant theatre in proudly realized in this year’s ...

Review: & JULIET at Orpheum Theatre
by Steve Murray - July 05, 2025

Witty, funny, flashy, and eye-popping, & Juliet rides the wave of phenomenally successful jukebox musicals and succeeds not only with the familiarity of the pop songs it includes, but by its remarkably well-written book...

Review: COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
by Steve Murray - June 23, 2025

Robinson’s adaptation sticks to the development of the characters and deletes some unnecessary filler. Set in Nina Ball’s excellently appointed 5 & Dime during a drought, the once thriving town is now a dried-up skeleton, and the women brought together for their reunion are all caught up in the dive...

BWW Review: Transcendence Theatre's ‘BROADWAY UNDER THE STARS’ - Best Year Ever
by Christina Mancuso - June 18, 2025

The Transcendence Theatre Company welcomed in their 14th season with ‘Broadway’s Best Night Ever,’ featuring some of the greatest songs from favorite musicals spanning multiple generations.  From old classics such as CAROUSEL, GYPSY, and A CHORUS LINE to more modern shows like WICKED, THE NOTEBOOK, ...

Review: DO YOU FEEL ANGER? at Marin Theatre
by Steve Murray - June 18, 2025

Marin Theatre concludes its 24-25 season with Mara Nelson Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger?, about an empathy coach hired to train workers at a debt collection agency facing major lawsuits for their abusive communication skills....

Review: DOODLER at The Marsh
by Steve Murray - June 15, 2025

Developed during the COVID pandemic lockdown, this one-man show has Fisher playing about a dozen characters and running the technical aspects of the show as well....

Review: CO-FOUNDERS at American Conservatory Theatre
by Steve Murray - June 13, 2025

There was a palpable buzz pre-show at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater for the world premiere of a new hip-hop musical, a buzz that turned to excitement and joy once the curtain rose and the opening number commenced. Wildly creative, bristling with kinetic energy, beautifully staged and excellently acted, Co...

Review: NEXT TO NORMAL at Victoria Theatre
by Steve Murray - June 09, 2025

A musically gifted daughter feeling neglected and invisible. A dutiful husband struggling to cope, and the ghost of a dead child waiting for recognition before ascending. These are the emotionally devastated characters orbiting Diana Goodman, wife, and mother coping with mental illness....

Review: JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND: OH WELL at Feinstein's At The Nikko
by Steve Murray - June 07, 2025

Before JVB was a sensation in New York City ( Tony-nomination (2007) GLAAD (2000), Obie (2001), Bessie (2004), Ethyl (2007), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2012) awards, and 2024  MacArthur Fellow), they were a cherished counterculture  icon in San Francisco....

Review: SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER at Altarena Playhouse
by Kelly Rogers Flynt - May 31, 2025

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER at Altarena Playhouse is a slow burn of a Tennessee Williams’ play that never fully catches fire. It is a challenging play that delves into darker themes while retaining some of the lyricism of William’s style. With a focus on mental illness, manipulation, perversion, pride, and...

Review: PARADE at Orpheum Theatre
by Steve Murray - May 23, 2025

A true story of unspeakable injustice is beautifully realized in Parade, deservedly winner of the 2023 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. Like its dramatic courtroom cousins Inherit then Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird, Parade brings humanity to a tragedy, faces to the pictures projected on a ...

Review: TO MY GIRLS at New Conservatory Theatre Center
by Steve Murray - May 18, 2025

JC Lee’s 2022 To My Girls continues the tradition of a group of gay guys getting together to trade snarky barbs, renew friendships and uncover hidden grudges....

Review: THE RADICALIZATION OF ROLFE at Safehouse Arts
by Steve Murray - May 11, 2025

Andrew Bergh’s The Radicalization of Rolfe, winner of a 2016 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award, might have had its germination by observing the naïve American white males joining the MAGA movement of our current president. ...

Review: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME at SF Playhouse
by Steve Murray - May 11, 2025

San Francisco Producing Director and co-founder Susi Damilano has done a remarkable job of imagining the world of fifteen-year-old mathematics genius Christopher who just happens to be autistic....

Review: COST OF FREE- A CONVERSATION WITH SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE'S MICHAEL GENE SULLIVAN
by Steve Murray - May 09, 2025

The San Francisco Mime Troupe, founded in 1959, started with movement 'Events' with visual art elements and music, segued to commedia dell’arte, and now presents fully fledged outdoor political musical theatre with a decidedly “left” bent. ...

Review: THE AVES at Berkeley Repertory Theatre
by Steve Murray - May 09, 2025

Jiehae Park’s World Premiere of her memory play the aves is gorgeously presented with a remarkable scenic design by visual artist Marsha Ginsberg. That the setting, and some fanciful avian puppetry by Erik Sanko becomes the focal point of the play is problematic. The story, set in a number of vignet...

Review: MAMMA MIA at Orpheum Theatre
by Steve Murray - May 02, 2025

It’s hard not to be swept up in the Mamma Mia juggernaut. Since its Broadway premiere in 2001, it’s grossed over $4.5 billion,  been seen by 70 million people, turned into two record-breaking movies with productions in 16 different languages. ...

Review: IT'S TRUE, IT'S TRUE, IT'S TRUE at Marin Theatre
by Steve Murray - April 20, 2025

A sensational rape trial with high profile participants, the female accuser’s reputation besmirched, the alleged rapists’ pals piling on the dirt - a he said, she said scenario being played out in the male dominated courts. ...

Review: TWO TRAINS RUNNING at American Conservatory Theatre
by Steve Murray - April 17, 2025

Two Trains Running is the seventh work in two-time Pulitzer winning author August Wilsons Pittsburg Cycle and continued his chronicling of the Black experience post migration to the North. Set in Pittsburgh’s once prosperous Hill District, the play focuses on diner owner Memphis Lee, facing the pres...

Review: BROKEN LOVE at San Francisco Ballet
by Jim Munson - April 10, 2025

What did our critic think of BROKEN LOVE at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews the program of two contrasting ballets that runs through April 18th at the War Memorial Opera House....

Review: VAN MANEN: DUTCH GRANDMASTER at San Francisco Ballet
by Jim Munson - April 08, 2025

What did our critic think of VAN MANEN: DUTCH GRANDMASTER at San Francisco Ballet? BroadwayWorld reviews the mix-rep program of 4 works by the celebrated choreographer running through April 19th....

Review: DAVID MILLS RIOT ACT! at Martuni's San Francisco
by Steve Murray - April 07, 2025

The apocalypse just wouldn’t be any fun without the rapier wit ruminations of actor/comic/performance artists David Mills, here in San Francisco for two shows as part of his ‘four-show national tour.’ After decades in London, Mills is back in NYC and his acclimation isn’t as joyous as you’d think. W...