The cast of Goldfish, playing at Magic (l-r): Anna Bullard (Lucy), Andrew Pastides (Albert), Patricia Hodges (Margaret Whitney), Rod Gnapp (Leo)
The cast of Goldfish, playing at Magic (l-r): Anna Bullard (Lucy), Andrew Pastides (Albert), Patricia Hodges (Margaret Whitney), Rod Gnapp (Leo)Curtains go up, actors take bows, curtains go down. It’s a cycle that has been repeating for centuries amid gloom and boom, triumph and tragedy. Whatever is going on in the world, people still want to sit in darkened rooms together applauding the live performers on stage enacting the stories and songs of our lives.
The Bay Area theater scene has been through many a bumpy economic cycle, and survived. The latest woes have resulted in a few casualties. In December of last year, American Musical Theatre of San Jose closed its doors for good, in the middle of its 74th season.
Earlier this year, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre sent up a flare, and word went out that if the venerable theater dedicated to the creation of new work didn’t raise $350,000, it would close its doors for good. Loretta Greco, who had just stepped into the job of artistic director, managed to raise nearly $500,000, and the season was salvaged.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz faced a similar plight and also managed to raise enough money ($300,000) to survive. Now it’s the Willows Theatre in Concord seeking a company-saving $350,000 to survive.
Even the larger companies with sturdier subscription audiences and budgets have been tightening belts, trimming where they can, and forging ahead. The show, as they say, must go on.
Now that the Magic is back on its feet, the season opens with an audacious double feature. John Kolvenbach’s comedy Goldfish kicked things off in October (and runs through Nov. 8), followed quickly by that show’s world-premiere sequel, Mrs. Whitney (through Nov. 22). During the time these two overlap, audiences have the opportunity to watch the two shows back-to-back (6:30 and 9:30 p.m., or on matinee days, 2:30 and 7 p.m.).
It’s a clever approach, and one that should pay off nicely for the Magic. To further spice things up, the Magic is bringing back one of its favorite playwrights, Theresa Rebeck, author of last season’s hit Mauritius, for a one-night-only event on Dec. 7: Rendezvous with Theresa Rebeck.
With the darkening of the Theatre on the Square and the Marines Memorial Theatre, the Union Square theater scene has grown less active, but amid two giants—American Conservatory Theater (ACT) and SHN/Best of Broadway’s Curran Theatre—several smaller companies, including the EXIT Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of San Francisco, and Phoenix Arts Theatre, are keeping the area lively.
SF Playhouse, a gem in the Union Square area, attempts to brighten dark times with an entire season devoted to comedy. Following the
sexual romp of the season opener, Billy Aronson’s First Day of School, things get decidedly theatrical with David Greenspan’s She Stoops to Comedy (Nov. 18–Jan. 
a gender-bending farce about a woman (played by a man) who disguises herself as a man to woo another actor in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, which features its own roster of gender-bending role reversal.
At ACT, the season began with fireworks in the form of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, a wildly romantic play with music imported from London. As the season moves on, things get more American with the appropriately named November, a political comedy by David Mamet. Running through Nov. 15, the satirical work follows a corrupt buffoon in the Oval Office. Then, to banish the political aftertaste, ACT ushers in the holidays with the annual spectacle of A Christmas Carol (Dec. 4–27).
Further afield in the Mission, The Marsh, a self-described breeding ground, is thriving. This fall sees the return of two enormous hits for the small theater, which is nestled amid a throng of fantastic restaurants out on Valencia Street.
Dan Hoyle, son of the great Bay Area comic actor Geoff Hoyle, scored a major hit with Tings Dey Happen, his one-man show about, of all things, Nigerian oil politics. After winning awards and extending his original run, Dan went on to work on other shows, but then the State Department came calling and invited him to take the show on tour in Nigeria. Before he heads to Africa, Hoyle performs his extraordinary show for one more run through Nov. 28.
One secret to the success of Dan’s show is its director: one-man show veteran Charlie Varon, whose comic instincts and insights are unerring. Varon knows all about hit solo shows, and he’s got another one on his hands. Varon’s own Rabbi Sam, about a rabbi who wants to reinvent American Judaism, returns to The Marsh through Nov. 22, after winning rave reviews earlier this year.
On the theatrical spectrum, the opposite of the economical one-man show is the high-priced spectacle of Cirque du Soleil’s shows. That indomitable company—now celebrating its 25th anniversary—has yet another touring show, Ovo, making its American debut in the striped tent behind AT&T Park beginning Nov. 27.
Adult ticket prices range from $55 to $135, which is definitely on the steep side, but local audiences are almost always ready to splurge on the acrobatic thrills and colorful whimsy of a Cirque show. Ovo promises to be especially fun as it concerns an invented ecological system populated by fantastical insects that, according to a show description, “work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight, and look for love in a nonstop riot of energy and movement.” Insect repellant is probably not required.
Chad Jones is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, and Theatre Bay Area. He blogs at TheaterDogs.net.
