"Tokyo Fish Story" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

Be hungry, you're going to want sushi.

Idaho-raised Kimber Lee takes us on a journey to tradition-bound Japan, where sushi master Koji (Francis Jue) is reluctant to lower his exacting standards, as he works with his son and heir Takashi (James Seol). Koji is certain things can only be done the way they've always been done. But times are changing around him and the crowds have begun to favor Koji's competition across the street, where they offer appetizers, a sushi boat and dessert.

Takashi is caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Linden Tailor plays Nobu, Takashi's assistant, whose hip-hop language represents the new world within the old.


Likewise, Nicole Javier's Ama brings a female into the shop, something that would never have been allowed in the old days, for a woman's hands were said to be too cold to make perfect sushi.

We love Koji's monologues, especially the opening one where he speaks to the tuna in the fishmonger's shop. They are no longer so numerous, nor of the superior quality Koji desires. Later, as he is aging, he speaks to the river: "My old friend. We flow backwards these days. Where have all the fish gone?"

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Tokyo Fish Story" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise. The ensemble of actors earns one, Kirsten Brandt's direction another and Wilson Chin's spectacular staging another. The Bangle is for the graceful ballet with the blue cloths. This show looks as good as it tastes.

"Tokyo Fish Story"

Lucie Stern Theatre

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto 

Through April 3

$13-$80 

"Colossal" ☼ ☼ ☼

Andrew Hinderaker's "Colossal" attempts to break down barriers. The idea that a gay love story could take place between football players is not as outlandish as it once might have been. Conflating modern dance and football grace is perhaps a larger leap but not impossible to believe. But thinking that one football player, during a game, would hurl himself recklessly through the air simply to protect the man he loves from getting hurt is a bigger stretch.

Mike (Jason Stojanovski) is in a wheelchair now. It takes half the show to realize that Young Mike (Thomas Gorrebeeck) is really Pre-Injury Mike. Part of the reason is that Young Mike can be overbearing, probably compensating for being gay by acting extra-tough.

Meanwhile, Mike is in love with Marcus (Cameron Matthews). But Marcus has further football ambitions and is afraid to let his relationship with Mike become public. And after the injury he is nowhere to be found.

Matthews and the rest of the cast have well-developed upper bodies. Duly noted. They take their shirts off a lot.

Robert Parsons, one of our favorite local actors, plays Damon, Mike's Dad. The basic twist here is that Damon is said to be a world-class dancer. This Billy Elliot-in-reverse story cries out for development, but we get none. As a result, the ending, while touching from an acting standpoint, seems forced and incomplete.

Mike's physical rehabilitation specialist, Jerry (played by Wiley Naman Strasser) has a more detailed relationship with Mike. Jerry and Mike share the show's more intimate moments.

For us, the idea of "Colossal" is fascinating. But it is disjointed. So far, as a play, the main characters really need beefing up.

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Colossal" Three Stars. The production itself is eye-catching, especially the "pre-game show" and musical cues. There is plenty of flash, but we want to know more. We feel like we only got to halftime.

"Colossal"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post Street, San Francisco

Second Floor, Kensington Park Hotel

Through April 30

$20-$120

Word for Word: "Night Vision" and "Silence" ☼ ☼ ☼

As always, Word for Word has chosen to perform two complicated but delightful short stories. Emma Donoghue's "Night Vision" and Colm Tóibín's "Silence" bring us delightful characters, a beginning, an ending and much to talk about in between.

We can't applaud the two women leads enough. Rosie Hallett in the opening piece, Donoghue's "Night Vision," manages to place herself into the heart and soul of a blind nine-year-old from the 1820s, and with a perfect Irish accent! It is quite remarkable that we follow so intently as we watch her personal drama unfold in a world of twelve children in a one room house. Hallett also plays a minor role as Lady Anne Blunt in Tóibín's "Silence," which comes on after intermission. In this show, Stephanie Hunt is magnificent as Lady Gregory, whose indiscretion is made even harder for her because nobody knows about it yet.

 The ensemble makes every word count. Standouts are Richard Farrell as the Scottish minister in the first piece and Rudy Guerrero as Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Lady Gregory's love toy. Guerrero also has a humorous role as a Spanish dinner guest.

It was an excellent decision to see this performance on St. Patrick's Day. Not that we needed to taste all four complementary quaffs of Irish Whiskey after the show, but we felt lifted by an Irish brotherhood which became more pronounced after each taste. With or without whiskey, do go and see Donoghue's and Tóibín's stories with Word for Word.

Ratings: ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants Three Stars to Word for Word's "Night Vision" and "Silence." There are no bad seats in the house -- buy the less expensive. This ensemble never fails to leave us exhilarated with the power of both live theater and the spoken word.

Word for Word's "Night Vision" and "Silence"  

Z-Below Theater

470 Florida Street, San Francisco

Through April 3

$35-$55

Little Erik: ☼

To review a show I love, or like a lot, is easy. Writing flows from the rich memory of what I saw the night before. And with other shows, I almost always can find something about which I can wax enthusiastically, even in a show that may not meet my minimum standards for recommendation. And then there are theater companies I just like, those who don't have huge budgets but take chances. With these, such as the Magic or Theatreworks or San Francisco Playhouse or the Aurora, I often feel like an evangelist, anxious to spread the good news.

But I cannot recommend Aurora's latest production "Little Erik," billed as a contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's "Little Eyolf."  Switching gender roles to make it hip, and changing the locale to the tech-savvy Northern California of 2016, can be seen as daring. Our local RN (Reviewer of Note) thought so.

But for me, it all seems kind of silly.  Not one performer makes me believe a word he or she says. Perhaps this is the fault of Mark Jackson, who wrote and directed the show. Perhaps the lack of chemistry between the two leads (Marline Talkington as Joie and Joe Eastlack as Freddie) can be explained by how unrelentingly awful a woman Joie is made out to be. Freddie's ooh-wow revelations about nature might have made sense in the time of Walden, but in 2016 he's just dreary. Plus, he's a leach and a worm. It doesn't matter how many times Joie and Freddie toss around the f-bomb, the sexual undertones are neither subtle nor sexy. We are left with a relationship that makes no sense. These are our leads.

Don't ask about Bernie. Greg Ayres is asked to be both a prancing nerd and attractive to Andi (Mariah Castle) at the same time. It's an impossible task. And what game is Andi playing, anyway?

Folks: it's 2016. Making the Rat-Wife (Wilma Bonet) a Latina cleaning woman is just plain insulting.

They really need to work on the ending. As the droning music builds for the final scenes, we know it's either going to be Terrorism or ... well, the other apocalyptic choice, which would be over the top in a Stephen Colbert spoof. Guess which they choose? (In fairness, Ibsen's ending of Little Eyolf, which was kind of tacked on to his vision of economic and social dislocation, was not great either.)

RATINGS: ☼ 

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Little Erik" One Star. The One Star is for Ibsen, one of the master playwrights of the 19th Century. The Aurora and other companies have done exemplary productions of his plays. Little Eyolf was always a minor Ibsen play. Sadly, at this point (we are commenting on the World Premiere),  Little Erik still is.

"Little Erik"

The Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison Street, Berkeley

Through February 28, 2016

$32-$50

The Nether: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Hello uncomfortable.  Jennifer Haley's "The Nether," having its Bay Area Premiere at San Francisco Playhouse, is brilliant and unique, but it also deals with subject matter guaranteed to make you squirm. 

We're not going to describe the plot -- the action is not chronological and anything we tell you will probably be a spoiler. It's enough to say a virtual world has been developed by Mr. Sims (Warren David Keith) to give an outlet to men to indulge the fantasies that in the real world would have them committed. Their goal is to "live without consequence," and this virtual world, or "The Nether," has been valuable for Mr. Sims in several important ways.

You can't talk about the SFP production without mentioning Nina Ball's brilliant revolving set. We are transported from reality to virtuality and back, as well as from real people to their avatars in the virtual world. It would be hopelessly confusing without these set changes. 

What a cast. The 12 year-old Carmen Steele alternates with Matilda Holtz to play Iris, a role that would be disastrous is not played by a surprisingly mature actor. Louis Parnell is perfect as Mr. Doyle, deeply damaged in the real world and seeking redemption in the other. Ruibo Qian plays the Inspector and Josh Schell is Mr. Woodnut. Don't ask, because we're not going to tell you who they are.

RATINGS:  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Nether" Four Stars. It intrigues you without letting up for eighty minutes. Virtual worlds exist about which most of us have no idea and the relationship between reality and virtuality has never been more difficult to define. Jennifer Haley logs us in and we're happy to go along for the ride.

"The Nether"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post Street, San Francisco

2d Floor of Kensington Park Hotel

Through March 5

$20-$120

"Gem of the Ocean" ☼ ☼ ☼

August Wilson's master work is a ten play cycle dealing with the lives of the black population of Pittsburgh's Hill District, where Wilson grew up. Each decade of the Twentieth Century gets one play, with "Gem of the Ocean" taking place first. Set in 1904, in the home of the shadowy 285-year-old Aunt Esther, the play is rich in historical significance.  Wilson completed "Gem" in 2003, two years before his death.

Margo Hall is terrific as Aunt Esther, the role originated on Broadway by Phylicia Rashad. She gives down-home depth to the character hinted at (but never seen) in other plays in the cycle. Excellent as well are Omoze Idehendre as Black Mary and especially Namir Smallwood as Citizen Barlow.

There are many themes in play here, but perhaps the most relevant is how difficult the lives of black people have continued to be after slavery, in 1904 on up to the present day. As Solly Two Kings (played by Juney Smith) says, himself old enough to have been born into slavery: "What is freedom? I got it, but what is it?

Director Daniel Alexander Jones is using the original unedited script with which Wilson always began his rehearsals. He would write extra and winnow it down as time went on. So this Marin Playhouse production contains scenes the author eliminated, segments never before seen. It does not help: the production runs only fifteen minutes shy of three hours. Act One holds our attention while Act Two does not. The music is great but the pace of the show drags, especially in Act Two.

 RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Gem of the Ocean" Three Stars. It's definitely worth seeing, especially for August Wilson scholars. We love this cast. It's always a pleasure to watch Margo Hall. But that's a really long Act Two.

"Gem of the Ocean"

Marin Theater Company

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley

EXTENDED Through February 14

$10-$48

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

Irving Berlin's songs still make all other songwriters take their Ipads and rap themselves on their high-tech foreheads, saying: Why can't I write:

"Not for just one hour, 

Not for just one day, 

Not for just one year, 

But always...?"

The answer is you can't, because Irving Berlin did it first, and, anyway, it's 2016, not 1919, and we want car crashes. Who wants to hear that soppy stuff anymore?

Everybody, that's who, especially every person in the Opening Night audience lucky enough to hear the phenomenal Hershey Felder play and sing Irving Berlin's songs. He also takes us on a theatrical odyssey through the long life of the Byelorussian immigrant (1888-1989 ) who became the most acclaimed American songwriter of the Twentieth Century.

Hershey Felder makes a habit of getting inside great composers, with humor and pianistic genius  -- previous shows have showcased the likes of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. But the arc of Irving Berlin's life encompasses more than music. It is the history of an entire century, featuring songs written during two World Wars and The Great Depression.  And we get to hear the stories behind such iconic Berlin classics as "White Christmas," "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" and "There's No Business like Show Business." What else? How about "Easter Parade?" Not satisfied, for God's sake: how about "God Bless America?"

The show comes with a thick spatula of shmaltz, for sure. But so did Berlin. For an hour and a half Hershey Felder becomes Irving Berlin. The overheads and old recordings help, but we never really take our eyes away from the performer. 

Felder has become an international treasure, one you should never miss the opportunity to see. We truly love this show, and we would happily give it our top rating of Five Stars if there were only a few car crashes.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division happily and hummingly awards "Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin" Four Stars with a Bangle of Praise. Felder earns all of them, as performer and book writer, and the Bangle is for the chills we get when the audience is singing along. No one has the right to remain silent. We can't anyway.  Don't miss this show.

"Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin"

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

500 Castro Street, Mountain View

Through February 14

$35-$100