Now that the holidays are behind us, we can focus on the ongoing and upcoming seasons of our best local theater companies. And assuming you like live theater and don't always know what's happening locally, this can be your heads up.
For all the twentysomethings out there who are paying too much in rent, you should know that many of these theaters are extremely eager to attract younger audiences. Berkeley Rep offers half-price tickets to every show if you're under the age of 30; the Magic Theatre has Next Gen nights with $20 tickets, free drinks, and post-show receptions for students and young artists and professionals; Shotgun Players offers $5 tickets to people 25 and younger; and A.C.T. does Bike-to-Theater nights, usually during previews, with bike valet provided by the SF Bicycle Coalition and discounted tickets starting at $10.
American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.)
Satchmo at the Waldorf begins previews this week and officially opens at ACT's Geary Theatre on January 20. It's a one-man show starring John Douglas Thompson centering on a moment in the final months of jazz legend Louis Armstrong's life, in 1971.
Starting previews on February 3 is The Unfortunates, the newest production in the new Strand Theater on Market Street. The piece developed by a quartet of writers premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last year and is described as a genre-bending "musical fever dream that's as life-affirming as it is darkly imaginative."
And on March 9, performances begin at the Geary Theater for Brooklyn-based playwright Will Eno's latest comedy, The Realistic Joneses, all about two couples in a small American town who share the same last name. (It was a hit on Broadway in 2014 starring Toni Collette, Marisa Tomei, and Michael C. Hall.)
The Aurora Theatre Company
Just up the street from Berkeley Rep, this smaller and scrappier company is doing two plays this winter: the West Coast premiere of The How and Why, about women in science clashing over what it means to be women (opening March 18); and Little Erik, a contemporary adaptation of Ibsen's Little Eyolf (opening January 29).
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
The inaugural production in the brand new Peet's Theatre (the renovated Thrust Stage) will be the premiere of a new play by Julia Cho that was developed at Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor titled Aubergine. It's directed by company artistic director Tony Taccone, and is described as a "meditation on family, forgiveness, and the things that nourish us."
The big main stage production of the season is Macbeth starring Frances McDormand and Conleth Hill, and remarkably it hasn't sold out yet but it will. Previews start on February 19, and this marks the most high-profile appearance of Oscar-winning McDormand in years, and it's sure to be a stellar production directed by "go-to guy for Shakespeare" Daniel Sullivan.
The Curran Theatre
As I talked about in December, the Curran is undergoing a major makeover, both physically and creatively, under the helm of producer Carole Shorenstein Hays. And one of the first major examples of that will be a brief, six-night run of Taylor Mac's ambitious 24-Decade History of Popular Music two parts of it anyway. Mac (whose play Hir was a recent hit off-Broadway), in his inimitable, off-the cuff style, spends an hour on each decade beginning in 1776, with each part lasting three hours, so here you'll get to see either 1776-1806, or 1806-1836, starting January 21.
Cutting Ball Theater
Arguably SF's most experimental theater company is staging Ondine, which starts previews on February 5. It's a world premiere based on the classic mermaid myth by playwright Katharine Sherman, directed by founding artistic director Rob Melrose, and seems to come complete with Splash references.
The Magic Theater
San Francisco's only theater company dedicated to producing only new work is premiering Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, starting February 3. Set in Manila in 1982, the play delves into the world of drag queens, celebrities, and power-players at the Philippines' version of Studio 54 during the waning days of the Marcos regime.
SF Playhouse
Starting January 19 is playwright Jennifer Haley's The Nether, a sci-fi thriller that follows a young female detective into a virtual wonderland that has become a popular new form of entertainment, exploring the moral complexities and technological possibilities therein.
SHN
Opening at the Golden Gate Theater on February 23 is Dirty Dancing: The Musical. If your mom is in town, or if you just want to have "the time of your life," you may want to consider it.
Shotgun Players
Berkeley's Shotgun Players has extended their production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap through January 24. But you should note that they're doing a cool, and high-degree-of-difficulty production of Hamlet in the early spring, in which all the actors will learn all the parts in the play, and will draw names at the beginning of each performance to see who will play whom each night. That starts April 9.
Theatre Rhinoceros
SF's premiere queer theater, Theatre Rhinoceros, returns from a hiatus with a production of Noel Coward's last play, A Song at Twilight, thought to be a "coming out" of sorts from the long-closeted and celebrated playwright. (Though Coward himself insisted the play, about "a cosmopolitan author caught in his declining years between two women," one of whom has been his wife of convenience for many years, was about Somerset Maugham.) Tickets are available here for this two-week run, which goes from January 20 to 31.
Previously: The 12 Best Local Theaters In The Bay Area
