"Left Field" ★ ★ ★

There are amazing moments in John Fisher's "Left Field." Frenetic, subversive, ridiculous, meaningful, impossible but maybe not THAT impossible -- Fisher's ultra-cynical view of our political and social systems, as seen from left field -- which in this case just means anything that isn't center-field --  hits home more than it probably should.

Elana Swartz as Emerald and Gene Mocsy as Kebie are quite convincing in their supporting roles but this is a John Fisher show. His Delson Stammer is obnoxious but approachable. He is also different than every other politician, because the other candidates refuse to take unpopular stands. Stammer becomes Mayor of Provincetown, then Supervisor in San Francisco, even though he has opinions about everything, few of which make any sense in the real word but all of which are heartfelt. This sets him apart from everyone else.

Stammer somehow runs for Vice-President and then President. We're not sure whether he wins or loses but it doesn't really matter. Fisher's point is that it COULD happen.

The show runs long, particularly in one very long set piece in which Fisher scales every internal wall in the building to illustrate he is climbing a mountain in Alaska. This successful summit leads to name recognition and, therefore, a shot at the presidency.

I mean, this could never happen, right?

Of course, John Fisher shows are always funny. "Fascism is a temporary turn towards capitalism."

"Yale is an expensive whore with gonorhhea." 

We love what they do with the lighting in the shark scene. A hallmark of the Rhino is to do a great deal with very little in a tiny space. This company puts everything it has into every second. This is why we love shows here. John Fisher ends up doing sit-ups as the show ends. Why? Because he can. 

RATINGS ★★★

The San Francisco Theater Blog grants THREE STARS to "Left Field." John Fisher is a uniquely talented guy. His company always bites off more than anyone can chew, but we always leave the theatre amazed that, sure enough, they pulled it off again. The run for "Left Field" is over, but the melody lingers on. 

"Left Field"

Rhinocerous Theatre

4229 18th St., San Francisco

RUN IS OVER: SHOW CLOSED.

"Primary Trust" ★ ★ ★ ★

First things first: We loved this show. It is rare that a drama grabs us from the beginning and holds us to the end. "Primary Trust" is that show.

Two reasons jump out: the script by Eboni Booth and our main character Kenny, played by William Thomas Hodgson. We know something is up with Kenny, a young man who spends every night in a tiki bar drinking 2-for-1 mai-tais with his best friend Bert. Slowly we figure out that Bert exists only in Kenny's mind and Kenny is drinking both of those 2-for-1s. Ms. Booth dangles the reason in front of us but it is never spelled out until the very end.

To bring us with him, Hodgson must make us believe having a $18k/year job as a bank teller at Primary Trust, in a nondescript small town in upstate New York -- matters. And it does matter. We feel ourselves being drawn into the quiet lives of every character. 

Kenny Scott brings a lot of empathy to the unreal Bert and Dan Hiatt is his always wonderful self playing several characters, including Kenny's boss at Primary Trust. Rolanda D. Bell plays an uncountable number of servers at Wally's. Eventually, her friendship becomes the key for Kenny to loosen himself from his painful past. 

This is an award-winning performance for William Thomas Hodgson. Kudos to the entire cast. 

RATINGS ★ ★ ★ ★

The San Francisco Theater Blog grants "Primary Trust" FOUR STARS. Writing, directing (spot-on, by Jeffrey Lo), acting and sets earn one star each. We like the illuminated stars. We like the cool map. We like the whole danged thing. 

"Primary Trust"

Lucie Stern Theatre

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

Through Mar. 29, 2026

$34-$115

"After Happy" ★ ★

It îs always a pleasure to see a show in the Berkeley City Club, the Julia Morgan-designed venerable space in the heart of Berkeley. Such a small venue gives us an opportunity to feel as if we are inside the production itself. Patricia Milton's new "After Happy," the 79th World Premiere from Central Works, does not disappoint. 

But it doesn't make us yell Yo Ho Ho either. The problem with "After Happy" does not lie with the humorous subplot of the Pirate Festival, and especially not with the actors, but with the story itself. Lauren Dunagan, as Katherine, the young eco-terrorist bent on taking over her aunt's family oil business, tries her best to get us to believe Aunt Brenda (a jolly but not naive Jan Zvaifler) would go along with Katherine's idea to allow her to destroy the company, but those attempts are undone by Katherine's co-conspirator Steph (Rezan Asfaw), who is so angry and heartless that it is difficult to feel satisfied with the rather slapstick comedy conclusion.

We liked all three actors. We want to laugh with them. But Auntie is no dope. The idea that she wouldn't see through the two younger women's charade, or that she would let these scheming charlatans convince her of her own complicity in destroying the planet -- it's all a bit hard to digest.

There are some good jokes (has anyone ever seen a dober-doodle?) and funny bits. Perhaps Director Gary Graves could lighten up on Steph's non-stop meanness, or, conversely, make Aunt Brenda less sharp, so we could laugh a little harder and believe this plot is even remotely possible.

Aunt Brenda going to Madagascar to save the lemurs? Really?

RATINGS: ★ ★ 

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants "After Happy" Two Stars. The actors are very good. The jokes are clever. And we love how real pirates join the story at the end. Central Works is an excellent company. The show is new and will get sharper and more focused as the run continues.

"After Happy"

The Berkeley City Club

2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley

Fri-Sun, through March 29, 2026

$35-$45

"M. Butterfly" ★★ BANG

Before Chinglish and Yellow Face, there was M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang's breakout show, which in 1988 ran for almost two years on Broadway. Then, the show's gender-bending dramatic core was eye-opening. It seemed at least plausible that a French diplomat could enter a sexual relationship with a Chinese opera singer and maintain that relationship for twenty years without ever realizing the woman he idolized was actually a man.

What? Well, you know, the French.

In San Francisco Playhouse's 2026 production, directed and choreographed by Bridgette Loriaux, the emphasis has shifted. Our sensibilities now show Rene Gallimard, played by Dean Linnard, to most likely be bisexual. His gender fluidity is propped up by his friendship with Marc (Andre Amarotico), a clearly heterosexual raptor who continually but unsuccessfully tries to pair up Rene with easily-conquerable women. It never quite works.

We, in the audience, are asked to believe that Song Liling, Gallimard's Butterfly, played by the excellent Edric Young, has somehow duped the foolish Frenchman into believing he is a woman, and not only that, but Gallimard doesn't realize Butterfly is a spy for the Chinese government who is passing along every piece of information that she can gather. 

This production of M. Butterfly is visibly brilliant. Randy Wong-Westbrooke's set is stunning and Michael Oesch's lighting adds all the correct emotional touches. We are big Stacy Ross fans, and her turns onstage as M. Toulon, Gallimard's boss, are all scene-grabbers.  Song Liling's explanation as to how he managed to fool Gallimard all those years is, shall we say, fascinating, when you think carefully about it.

The moral of this story is that we are all capable of self-delusion, in the service of fulfilling our fantasies, both personal and, at times, international.

RATINGS: ★★ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog grants "M. Butterfly" Two Stars with a Bangle of Praise. Thirty-eight years ago M. Butterfly packed a Wow! Really! punch. Now, maybe not so much. And without it, we have a drama that is lovely to look at but not as involving as we would like.

We are adding a Bangle of Praise for Keiko Carreiro's costumes. Butterfly has an excellent eye for color.

"M. Butterfly"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post St. (2d floor of Kensington Park Hotel)

Through March 14, 2026

$52-$145

"The Cherry Orchard" ★ ★ ★

Anton Chekhov wrote “The Cherry Orchard” in 1903 and by 1904 it was already a hit in Moscow. Chekhov was well known by then, and the issues presented - the fading aristocracy’s inability to deal with rising revolutionary fervor — would have hit home and felt both prescient and a little scary to theatre-goers in the last years of Tsarist rule.

Carey Perloff directs this Marin Theater 2026 production with a stellar ensemble made up of Bay Area notables, including Anthony Fusco, Howard Swain, Liz Sklar, Rosie Hallett, Jomar Tagatac and Marin Theater Artistic Director Lance Gardner. This is basically the same cast she used in her previous Marin Theatre production of “Waste.” The set by NIna Ball is gorgeous to look at and the greatcoat-heavy costumes by Lydia Tanji make you happy we have central heat.

Yes, the issues are similar to today, as they always were and always will be - no one wants to change the way we live. NIMBYism appears to be as basic a human trait as the desire to diddle the servant girl.

Chekhov wrote three acts and it has been pared down to two and still feels long. Act One sets us up and Act Two tries to say good-bye but can’t. It doesn’t help that there are many people on stage at once and it is very difficult to tell who is an aristocrat and who is a serf and who is who’s mother and what about that guy with the guitar who keeps falling over?

To Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard”  was a wry comedy. We find the humor to be more banana-peel slapstick than seriously funny. But it’s 120 years later and maybe putting idiots in charge who don’t know the difference between love and dogma doesn’t feel so humorous any more. 

RATINGS ***

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants “The Cherry Orchard” Three Stars. It’s worth seeing just to enjoy the sets, laugh with Lance Gardner as he beats his head against the wall, and watch the future Bolshevik boy whisk away the soon-to-be impoverished aristocrat girl. We all know how that story ends.

“The Cherry Orchard”

Marin Theater

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley

Through Feb 22, 2026

$38-$89

Hershey Felder: “The Piano and Me” ★★★★★

We’ve seen and loved many Hershey Felder shows. The Canadian pianist/performer/playwright is usually portraying a well-known composer, a lá Beethoven or Debussy or Irving Berlin, in which he plays their music on piano while simultaneously acting out their life stories. Felder is able to play the most complex piano music while talking at the same time, a gift not available to the rest of us humans.

But this time, in his 2026 World Premiere “The Piano and Me,” playing only until Feb. 8 at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, Felder’s subject is none other than himself. His life story is touchingly detailed with set pieces about his immigrant grandparents from Hungary and Poland, which includes the music of all the composers who influenced the young Hershey, such as Beethoven and Mozart and Bach, as well as the favorite composers of his grandparents from their homelands (Bartók from Hungary, Chopin from Poland). We also get the fascinating story about how the young Hershey got his start in Hollywood.

Admittedly, this show has special resonance for this reviewer, whose youth was spent hearing similar immigrant stories from his own grandparents, and learning to love the same music played by his mother on the piano in their living room. We can’t give a show a higher review. It is at once quite long and not long enough. 

At the end, as is his custom, Felder stands on stage and fields random questions from the audience.  One of the set pieces in “The Piano and Me” features a suitcase that his Hungarian grandparents kept by their front door, never opened, but never moved. The reason was “In case they come for us again.”

A lady in the audience shouted out: “Hershey, do you have your own suitcase packed by your front door?” This led to his honest reflections about the horrors he sees overtaking the world today. And then he sat down at the piano and played Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” to a hushed audience. And I cried. And that was that. Lights up. 

RATINGS  ★★★★★ 

The San Francisco Theater Blog gives its highest award possible to Hershey Felder’s “The Piano and Me:” FIVE STARS. We urge you to see this show, to understand the possibilities of live performance and music together, and how they can reach into your heart and tug at it until it hurts.

Hershey Felder’s “The Piano and Me”

Mountain View Center for Performing Arts

500 Castro Street, Mountain View

Through Feb 8, 2026

$34-$115

Circus Bella: "Starlight" ★ ★ ★

Circus Bella's 2025 show "Starlight" is another romp through impossible feats of human strength, balance and ingenuity. After all, Ori Quesada, how did you decide to specialize in bouncing tin bowls to the top of your head while balancing on a board which is rolling on a ball? 

And you, Natasha Kaluza, Super Duper Hula Hooper, whose hula hoopery we recognize from previous years, when did you realize you were able to spin a hula hoop both down and up? We have tried. Has no one told you this is not possible?

And the band - operating now without the late Rob Reich but as much fun and perhaps even more virtuosic than in previous years - how do you lose your leader but bounce back with such power and joy?

lt's a special pleasure to see Circus Bella under its little Big Top in the Crossing at East Cut downtown. We are happy this relatively new San Francisco holiday tradition seems to be set for now and into the future.

"Circus Bella"

The Crossing at East Cut

Howard and Beale Streets

San Francisco

Through Jan 4, 2025

$58-$78