In yet another brave season of new plays, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre has come up with a winner. The world premiere of Betty Shamieh’s "Territories" provides a gripping play of sustained interest. Thoughtful, provocative, well-acted, this a vitally contemporary story, although set in the time of the Crusades. Except for a few meaningful but half-hidden references to the situation in the Middle East today, "Territories" speaks of timelessly important issues.
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The famous love story of an American boy and a Puerto Rican girl set against the backdrop of clashing street gangs in New York remains true to its Shakespearean "Romeo and Juliet" model. Of course, the show is "West Side Story"; a new production by San Mateo High School comes to the stage Feb. 1-3 and Feb. 8-10. The musical, featuring a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, combines drama, opera and ballet. It’s a classic tragedy in a modern setting.
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How many times do we need to be subjected to a remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? With each iteration, the original film’s brilliance continues to fade. We’ve gone from the 1956 classic to the suspenseful 1978 remake to the terrible 1994 remake to this re-imagining, which stars Nicole Kidman.
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I often write this column late at night or early in the morning, but today I am taking time on this rainy, cold afternoon to think about wine and wish that I had a glass within reach.
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It’s easy to forget that the story of John Rambo began 36 years ago with a novel by Canadian author David Morrell, whose distaste for the Vietnam War fueled his vision of a shell-shocked veteran on a murderous rampage in the Kentucky backwoods. Morrell painted Rambo as a merciless killer whose harrowing tours of duty had left him despairing and emotionally comatose. He was a menace, a savage unleashed on a hostile society, and in the end he took his own life.
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"How She Move" is a girl-meets-stomp story that dazzles as a dance showcase, stumbles as an urban melodrama, and serves up enough agreeably natural current among its dynamic young protagonists to emerge above the middling mark.
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Of all the lauded healthy Mediterranean diets, Turkish, for me, is the most scrumptious. It represents the best of Mediterranean cooking, full of vegetables, olive oil, yogurt, whole grains, fresh and wild greens, aromatic herbs, Eastern Mediterranean spices and just enough meat or fish to satisfy without heaviness. The preparations are vibrant.
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Golden Thread Productions’ presents ReOrient. The annual festival of short plays about the Middle East is back for another thought-provoking season.
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With a name like Vermillion Lies, one can’t help but wonder what Zoe and Kim Boekbinder, the sister cabaret duo behind the twisted folk outfit, were thinking about when they arrived at the name.Choosing a band name, after all, is a serious endeavor and hardly a game. Well, that’s not how the siblings saw it — the two actually devised a sport of sorts to find just the right moniker for their musical efforts.
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America's oldest ballet company celebrated its 75th birthday Wednesday night with grace, power, Americana and youth. Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson could have opened the gala with some of the company's top stars dancing in a 19th-century French or Russian classic, but instead he opted for something brave, meaningful and "right."
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/21/21?page=591
