“Director Susi Damilano shows how attending theater can be as grounding and clarifying as going for a walk in the forest and taking a deep breath.” So glad I very belatedly caught “Into the Woods” at San Francisco Playhouse! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

When Tony, Joy and I first started reporting this timeline of SF Oasis' history, back in October, we thought counting down to NYE would be a way to say goodbye. But sometimes your wildest dreams come true, and you get to reframe a sad story into a happy one. www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

Earlier this year, S.F. actor Radhika Rao told me she was getting theater work from an usual source: an AI company. That made me wonder: How else could theater artists (and other artists!) work inside an industry that often seems hostile to ours? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Us, too, inflatable man. Us, too.

My mind is BLOWN. The Curran has a new owner, and it's... the San Francisco Giants?!?!? As a theater critic, I never thought I'd be texting with the owner of an MLB team, but there you go! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

The former leader of Berkeley's Aurora Theatre is now running — wait for it! — a movie theater! The transition comes as both art forms, for all their differences, share a struggle: getting butts in seats. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Honored to amplify the story of Brian Copeland's relationship with Rob Reiner and his family. A great way to judge someone's character is how they treat someone with less clout when no one else is watching. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Going to rewatch "The American President" tonight. RIP to an artist who married craft to commercial appeal — i.e. he understood how people work. If you're also looking for some streaming options as you mourn, fellow Chron staffers and I offer a few: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

I admit I’ve previously been down on revisiting “A Christmas Carol,” so Center Repertory Company has my gratitude for reminding me how much juice the story has. On its new version, in collaboration with Axis Dance: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

I read the Tom Stoppard line, and I thought, "If I ever get married, I want this to be said during the ceremony." 1/ www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Another magical Nina Ball set! At Center Rep for “A Christmas Carol”!

Can't wait for this new take on "Carol" at Center Repertory Company in partnership with Axis Dance: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

If “Dear San Francisco” is doing a holiday show, then hot damn, I get to go back and give them another rave: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Killing My Lobster always seems like the best party in S.F. on Giving Tuesday, and all the more so this year. Read on for a rare bit of good news in Bay Area theater: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

On Olivia Nuzzi and whether being good at one kind of writing necessarily qualifies you for another: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

I happened to see "Hamnet" the day after I saw Shotgun's "Sunday in the Park With George," and they felt like they were in conversation with each other —

food takes are what got jean valjean into trouble

What imaginative riches. On Shotgun Players' "Sunday in the Park With George": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Still thinking about the audience member the other night who shouted “You go, girl!” when Louise told Mary Todd Lincoln “You are not nice!”

You know that feeling of “no one else could make theater like this”? That’s what it’s like to see Manual Cinema. On “The 4th Witch” at Cal Performances: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Huge news in Bay Area theater. Slide into my DMs if you want to discuss favorite Pam projects — or trade fantasy theater football picks about who the successor should be! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

“What happens when an industry spends 15 years telling talented young journalists that personal brand is currency … that being a character in the story makes better content—and then acts shocked when someone takes that logic a few degrees too far?” www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...

Wish I could give a more positive report on this one. On Berkeley Rep's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Love being the first one in the theater! At Berkeley Rep!

There is now new Anh Phoong fashion merch, it came about because an S.F. designer dressed up as an Anh Phoong *billboard* for Halloween, and now I know what I want for Christmas. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Two nights in a row at SF Opera !!!

The touring cast of "Stereophonic" wasn't going to perform in the Bay Area without visiting the Sausalito studio where their show is set — and where Fleetwood Mac recorded "Rumours." On Monday, 2025 met 1976 in a totally surreal, beautifully fluid way. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

It's not every opening night that gets interrupted by a fire alarm. On Actors' Reading Collective's "Mary Jane": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

This one didn’t work for me, but I hope it finds its audience. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Belatedly catching some TheatreWorks!

I love plays about great big horrible family secrets. On "The Hills of California" at Berkeley Repertory Theatre: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

in my heart I know that Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to play Zohran Mamdani on SNL so bad it physically hurts him

As a former wannabe Andrews Sister myself, I am jazzed for Berkeley Rep’s latest!

Very grateful to have experienced this work of theater by these artists. On Marin Theatre's "Sally & Tom," which shows how art can set free: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Big night at Marin Theatre! My feature on the show at the link in bio.

We don’t often get to see Broadway tours like this one. On “Stereophonic”: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Finally!

Eight years ago, the play "Thomas and Sally," about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, upended the Bay Area theater community. Now the same theater is mounting a very different play about those same two characters. Can it help us heal? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

No offense to my brother, but this play made me wish I had a sister. Yes, Sosan and Nadia are ruthless with each other, but still. On Golden Thread Productions and Z Space's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

In the round at Z Space for Golden Thread !

I needed to see this show. Maybe you do, too. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

How do you look as good as Fleetwood Mac when you have only a few weeks to rehearse? On the touring cast of "Stereophonic," in BroadwaySF and ACT performances beginning next week! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

In January Berkeley Rep unveiled artwork for "The The Thing About Jellyfish" with an AI credit. Since then I've talked to artists and designers who love it as a tool, who use it as a spur, who loathe it as a threat. Also: How do they even use it? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

So much better than Sweet James!

Legend. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

The journalist Ida B. Wells is a character in "Suffs," and she has descendants — one of whom lives in the Bay Area. I got to talk to two of her heirs about what it was like to grow up with her legacy and crusading for justice in their own ways, on their own terms. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

For any Bay Area theater fans reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist,” Daniel Pollack-Pelzner has planted a jaw-dropping Easter egg. My marginalia? OFF THE CHARTS. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

It's pretty badass to still be writing plays at 87. On Ishmael Reed, the vile Disney movie "Song of the South" and Reed's new play “The Amanuensis,” now in a staged reading: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

I knew there would be contemporary parallels, but I don't think I anticipated quite so many. Theatre Lunatico's show is required viewing for every AI proponent or apologist. The rest of us can just savor those scrumptious Gothic thrills this Halloween. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

Tell the aspiring arts journalists in your life: the Chronicle is hiring a Datebook intern for next summer! Application deadline: Nov. 3. eevd.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...