"Storefront Church" ☼ ☼ ☼

If you want a blockbuster for the Christmas season, it's a great idea to hire a cast featuring some of the finest and hardest-working actors in the Bay Area. Scarcely a week goes by that we don't see Gabriel Marin or Rod Gnapp on a stage somewhere. Carl Lumbly has had a great year, with superb performances in SFP's The Motherf**ker With the Hat and the Magic's "Terminus." Add in old pro Ray Reinhardt, plus Derek Fischer and Gloria Weinstock and you have a cast that makes you understand why Bay Area theater has become such an ongoing treasure.

Local rave reviews notwithstanding, we're not sure John Patrick Shanley's "Storefront Church" measures up to this cast. As the last of a trilogy (the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doubt" was the first), "Storefront Church" once again talks about issues of faith and their intersection with the real world. Act One introduces us to Reed (Gnapp, a bank manager) and Ethan (Reinhardt, an old man looking for a loan). We watch them interact with Lumbly's Chester, the depressed pastor of a new storefront church and Marin's Donaldo, the Borough President of the Bronx. Donaldo needs Chester to pay his debts to Jessie (Weinstock), a neighborhood compatriot of Donaldo's. The plot is simple to understand. We get plenty of laughs at the goodhearted expense of religion and politics as we await Act Two.

Granted, it's a Christmas show, so we're supposed to exit smiling and we do. But we also wonder how the action in Act Two became so stilted and the conclusion so improbable? The cast seems off-kilter. Lumbly is too self-assured to be so paralyzed, Marin is too morally conflicted to be Borough President, perhaps the most smoke-filled backroom job ever created, while Tom, while deliciously smarmalicious as the bank CEO, does not seem intellectually capable of pulling off his grand plan, which is to blackmail the Borough President in order to guarantee support on an ill-conceived construction project.

Watching these actors is worth the price of admission. But there are a lot of loose ends. Faith always wins at Christmas. We could have used a little more devil.

RATINGS: ☼  ☼  ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Storefront Church" Three Stars. We especially loved Rod Gnapp, getting a chance for once to play a more nuanced character. Go for the actors: they're all good. The show is funny and wholesome, but feels like it might have been more.

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"Storefront Church"

San Francisco Playhouse

Second floor of Kensington Park Hotel

450 Post Street, San Francisco

Through Jan 5, 2014

$30-$100

"The Jewelry Box" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

Brian Copeland has had a lot of success as a solo performer, beginning with his epic "Not a Genuine Black Man," which still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in San Francisco theater history. The reason is simple: the man is really funny. This time, Copeland has polished up another gem from his past with "The Jewelry Box," a wacky and heartwarming story about trying to raise the money to buy his mom a Christmas present when he was six years old. We meet lots of characters from his East Oakland neighborhood of the 1970s, including his mom and his sisters, his estranged father and his two grandmothers, his landlord, a car salesman, the school counselor, a chihuahua and, best of all, two trash-talking winos hanging out in front of the local convenience store.

Nobody does voices better than Brain Copeland and David Ford's co-production allows each character plenty of space to come alive. We cringe when we see his dad, Sylvester, because we know what's going to happen; we cheer when the school counselor comes up with a solution to Brian's problem; and we are first horrified and then gratified by the fine surprise ending.

We also get a supporting soundtrack including lots of soulful Christmas songs. Seeing as it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and we are already over the edge with "Winter Wonderland," hearing these old nuggets just adds to the show's luster.

You never know how long solo performances can last, but "The Jewelry Box" could turn into one of those shows you bring your family to every season. We saw it last year in development and it is even richer now. Call up everyone, even Grandma -- just not Brian's Grandma -- and bring them down to the Marsh for a smile and tug at the heart.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Jewelry Box" THREE STARS with a BANGLE OF PRAISE. In addition to being an amazing performer, Copeland is a fine writer. None of these vignetters are wasted, each tells us something -- about a character, about a different perspective on Christmas, about the neighborhood, about Brian Copeland as a man. He tackles a lot of subjects along the way. Writing, production and acting: Each deserves one star.

The BANGLE OF PRAISE is for "The First Santa Threat of the Season." Oh, woe, so true. Brian, we feel (and remember) your pain.

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"The Jewelry Box"
The Marsh
1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Thu-Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm through Dec. 28
$15-$35

"Arlington" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

At the talkback after Friday night's performance of "Arlington" at the Magic Theater, someone said "I don't know what this is. Is it a musical? Is it an opera? I don't know where to put it."

Victor Lodato and Polly Pen's new show is sung all the way through, as if it were an opera, and Analisa Leaming, playing Sara Jane, has an opera background. But there are no soaring arias, and Ms. Leaming has a human-quality voice, quite unlike anything you would hear in the opera house. Polly Pen's score is haunting, but its atonal, arrhythmic nature serves to show us the development of Sara Jane's character, not to give the audience anything to leave the theater humming. There are "songs," which make it more like a musical, but only a few and you don't always know you're listening to one.

The show, by the way, is brilliant. Leaming's performance is as good as anything you will see this season. Though she dominates the action, musical director Jeff Pew, sitting at a raised grand piano at the rear of the stage, is a character as well. At one point, Leaming sits down at an upright piano and plays an intriguing, if too-short duet with Pew. They create a rare back-and-forth musical dialogue that becomes the heart of the show, as the story begins to crystallize around the stories from Arlington National Cemetery.

It's short -- one hour -- and doesn't need to be any longer. Jackson Gay's direction carries us seamlessly through what is at heart a difficult story. This show will go through many changes as it develops, but you must not miss Analisa Leaming's performance here. It could hardly be any more breathtaking.

RATINGS: ☼  ☼  ☼  ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Arlington" Four Stars. It is that good. We emphasize this is a musical but not a Broadway musical, with operatic form but in no way operatic. You are seeing a hybrid and all you have to do is plug yourself in.

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"Arlington"

The Magic Theatre

Fort Mason, Building D, San Francisco

Through December 8

$20-$60

"Urge for Going" ☼ ☼ BANG

Mona Mansour's "Urge for Going" is written from the viewpoint of a Palestinian family stuck in a refugee camp in Lebanon, where they have lived for over sixty years. Sixty years is a long time. Why have they not left? Author Mansour, whose father is Lebanese, gives us some answers. Adham, the intellectual (Terry Lamb), has remained in the hope that some day he and his family will receive the right to return. His brother, white-bearded Ghassan (Munaf Alsafi) sees this dream as most likely an impossible one, while young Jamila (Camila Betancourt Ascencio) just hopes to get away and see the world.

There are tensions within this intergenerational household and they are exacerbated by the poverty in which they live. Jamila's brother Jul (Wiley Naman Strasser) has been left emotionally fragile, the result of a confrontation with a Lebanese policeman. Jamila and Jul's mother Abir (Tara Blau) finds herself as the referee, trying to find a middle ground between her husband's intellectual intransigence and her daughter's dream of a better life. Julian Lopez-Morillas plays Hamzi, Abir's brother, who has a more measured point of view.

Meanwhile, life goes on. The family plays cards, goes to work, watches "Baywatch" and discusses politics.

Perhaps pacing could be quicker. Director Evren Odcikin has done his best but it is a very small stage with a lot of furniture on it. This is no doubt intentional, to illustrate the cramped conditions of a refugee camp, but it does make for a lot of sitting around and not a lot of motion.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Urge for Going" Two Stars with a BANGLE OF PRAISE which brings it close to the Julie Andrews Line (see sidebar for ratings explanation). Opening Night performances were a little shaky but this will improve as the run continues. Middle East politics are impossibly complex and Americans tend to hear only two sides of a multi-faceted story. "Urge for Going" has its own story to tell and it is a fascinating one.

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"Urge for Going"
Z Space Below

470 Florida Street, San Francisco

Through December 8
$10-$35
($45 for two-show pass, including "444 Days" by Torange Yeghiazarian) 

A Bright New Boise: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

"A Bright New Boise" is one dark little night at the theater. Gripping and funny, with interesting characters and strong performances from each of the five actors, you exit the theater looking carefully in all directions, particularly up.

Robert Parsons is a great choice to play Will, the ex-evangelist -- maybe -- at the center of this drama. He has left upstate Idaho and come down to Boise to look for his son Alex, played by Daniel Petzold.  Alex is barely coping with reality, and his job as cashier at Boise's Hobby Lobby is the only thing he's got. When Will finds him and takes a job at the same store, it puts Alex in an impossible situation.

Luckily for Alex, he's got a protector: his stepbrother Leroy, played by Patrick Russell. Leroy is crazy, but he's got a plan -- to protect his little brother from his evangelist father, whose exit from the cult in northern Idaho has been well documented on the local news.

We particularly love the two women in the cast. Gwen Loeb plays Hobby Lobby supervisor Pauline with irreverent gusto, lobbing constant curses at everyone, to the dismay of Will who is still not ready to hear the Lord's name taken in vain. Pauline takes everyone's name in f-ing vain.

Meanwhile, silent Anna (Megan Trout) is as damaged as Alex. She is frightened by all contact and hints at a terrible situation at home. She and Will discover that neither has anywhere else to go, which is why they have taken to sneaking into the Hobby Lobby break room after hours. Trout's portrayal of Anna harkens back to her role as Grete in the Aurora's 2011 "Metamorphosis." Anna's present is grim, her past was sordid and we see little hope for her in the future.

Religion is the elephant in playwright Samuel D. Hunter's room. "A Bright New Boise" is about the search for meaning in life. The corporate video, which all Hobby Lobby employees are required to watch, is the obvious Big Lie. But hoping that humanity perishes so that the Rapture may begin is its destructive counterpart. When Will screams "Now, Lord! Now! Now!" we are relieved that the only thing that falls is the curtain.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "A Bright New Boise" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise. Writing, staging and performances by the ensemble cast merit one star each. The Bangle of Praise is for the little things -- the corporate video/medical video, the way the antiseptic lunch room becomes a haven for lost souls, the hints at sexuality issues without becoming specific. This is a show that will stay with you.

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"A Bright New Boise"

Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison Street, Berkeley

Through Dec. 8

$32-$50

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

"You get hungry, you get stupid," says the tiger, which pretty much sums up Rajiv Joseph's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo." The tiger was captured several years ago from his home in India, tranquilized and sent to the Baghdad Zoo. Now, the zoo and everything around him has been pulverized by American bombing, the lions have all escaped and been shot on the street, and the tiger is faced with an existential dilemma.

Will Marchetti plays the Bengal tiger with excellent large-feline angst. He feels guilty for his transgressions in the past, especially for killing and eating several small children, but he can't figure out why God would make him a predator and then get angry at him for preying. He also can't fathom why so many Iraquis are still worshiping a deity who would allow the horrors under which they must now live their daily lives.

Meanwhile, two marines, sympathetic Tom (Gabriel Marin) and dense Kev (Craig Marker), have been stationed to guard the zoo.  It doesn't end well for either one, nor does the story get any more heartwarming with the entry of translator Musa (Kuros Charney) and Uday Hussain, Saddam's evil son (Pomme Koch). War is Hell, and death is only the beginning.

Joseph is a beautiful writer. The story and the characters twist and turn. At the end of Act One there is no way to guess what will happen in Act Two. In the end, we are left with the only explanation of human behavior that has ever made any sense: "You get hungry, you get stupid." And we get it from the mouth of a tiger.

RATINGS": ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" Four Stars with a BANGLE of PRAISE. We get a brilliant, offbeat story, terrific performances as well as excellent direction by Bill English. The BANGLE is for Pomme Koch's depiction of Uday -- he is chilling while convincing, evil while sensible. A lesser actor might go over the top -- Koch does not. A monster like Uday Hussein feels completely believable. This is the scary part.

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"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo"
San Francisco Playhouse
450 Post Street (2d floor of Kensington Park Hotel)
San Francisco
Through 11/14
$30-$100

"Buried Child" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

It seems like every time there is a role in the Bay Area for a character who is deranged and damaged beyond redemption (but still erudite), someone rings Rod Gnapp's bell. This time, Loretta Greco at the Magic Theatre tapped Gnapp to play Dodge, the central figure in Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Buried Child." Dodge is deranged, all right, but everyone else in his family is several bolts short of a bridge as well.

Shepard wrote this play while in residence at the Magic in 1978, then re-wrote it for a 1996 Steppenwolf production. We see this later version, with a 2013 cast to do it proud.

You never want to walk into a dark alley with any character in a Sam Shepard play. You have relatives like them. Denise Balthrop Cassidy plays Dodge's wife Halle who oozes deliciously hypocritical religious prattle while carrying on with the local minister. Dodge and Halle's two surviving sons, Tilden (James Wagner) and Bradley (Patrick Kelly Jones) are each shattered wrecks, the detritus of an unspoken family secret. Bradley has lost a leg and Tilden his mind.  

Then Tilden's son Vince (Patrick Alarpone) and his girl friend Shelly (Elaina Garrity) enter and upset the applecart. Garrity comes close to stealing the show. With her initially vapid L.A.-girl persona, she is an outsider, and therefore the only person who can engage Dodge -- and finally get him to confess about what really happened all those years ago. 

The story is thick, the plot thicker, and, for a Pulitzer winner, there are some holes in the second act. But this is an actor's show and the cast brings life to Sam Shepard's desperate Illinois world. 

Special mention to costume designer Alex Jaeger. Tilden's final costume looks like he has gone down to hell and come back up. Which isn't far off.

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RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Buried Child" Four Stars, all for the acting. The play itself is a little obtuse -- what would have shocked an audience silly in 1978 just looks like another night on reality television in 2013. But Shepard's words make all the difference. We hear the playwright, as Halle speaks at the end of the show:

"...You can't force a thing to grow. You can't interfere with it. It's all hidden. Unseen. You just gotta wait 'til it pops up out of the ground." 

"Buried Child"

The Magic Theatre

Fort Mason, Building D, San Francisco

EXTENDED Through October 13

$20-$50