Audiences who first experienced "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by way of the famous 1966 film version may come away from the current Best of Broadway production thinking they’ve seen an entirely different show. Anthony Page’s 2005 staging of Edward Albee’s 1962 play, which opened Friday at the Golden Gate Theatre after runs in Boston, New York and London, represents a significant departure from the brawling physicality portrayed by Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in the film. Read More

So, what’s the San Francisco Conservatory of Music doing in Cowell Theater, performing an opera? We are talking about the Conservatory which just in September opened an $80 million "teaching, performance, rehearsal and practice complex" on Oak Street. Oops: no facility for dramma per musica. Too bad. Still, this exported production of Benjamin Britten’s 1960 "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" went through swimmingly Thursday. Read More

The thing about edgy ensemble comedy/action flicks is that they rarely live up to the hype, given their star power, or rarely have a good plot. "Smokin’ Aces" is an example. Starring Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta and singer Alicia Keys in her movie debut, the film is about a drugged-out Mafia turncoat who enlists low-life hitmen and thugs to try to kill him for a supposed million-dollar reward. Read More

‘I did it!" Diane Rubin proclaims, a Julia Roberts smile lighting up her stunning, blue-eyed face. "These are my prized possessions — my favorite jewelry!" She pulls out two Oreo-cookie-sized shiny medals: one from the New York Marathon; the other, a brightly painted number from the San Diego Marathon. "I earned them," she beams, "I finished."A woman who seems to accomplish a whole panoply of things — with a surfeit of talent and flair, she’s the kind of tall, slender, sylph-like blonde who leaves stereotypes like Elle Woods and all the "Legally Blonde" acolytes in the dust. Read More