The Police — a soul act? The notion may be a stretch, but not by much, judging by the reunited band’s performance Wednesday at the sold-out McAfee Coliseum in Oakland.Fans expecting the rough-edged, punky, jazzy rock that characterized the group’s early years may have been disappointed; others, particularly those who enjoy Sting’s solo career, found the show completely satisfying from start to finish. (I’m one of the latter.)For nearly two hours, the biggest band of the early ’80s served up shaded and warm — yes, bordering on soulful — renditions of its hits.
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The words and world of Charles Dickens come alive in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s current production of "Oliver Twist," a show that clearly does justice to the literary master’s intentions. Yet while it captures the viewers’ intellect and imagination, it doesn’t quite fill the heart.
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"Cozy" isn’t a term typically used to describe Prince, but that’s the feel the musical great brought to his show at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday.It was somewhat of a Bay Area family affair, too. He shared the stage with the Latin jazzy Escovedo family, with a special emphasis on Sheila E., one of his longtime musical associates.
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The songs on R&B singer Ryan Shaw’s first album are, by design, different from what’s on mainstream radio. Shaw, 26, says he doesn’t often watch videos of contemporary songs. For one thing, they aren’t very musical. For another, he doesn’t "get" the theme of most popular music."It creates this whole self-hatred thing," he says, talking about tunes where the singer declares "I’m hot — and you’re not." Playing tonight, opening for Joss Stone at the Warfield in San Francisco, Shaw says, "People can be judgmental. My job is to show them love. My message is love."
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"Hi, Bob." With glee and a few giggles, I greet Bob Newhart over the phone, thrilled to be talking to the veteran comic, known not only for his great TV sitcoms, but also for comedy routines in which he’s talking on the phone."I’m used to nobody being on the other end," he laughs, ready to talk about his career and his upcoming gigs in Northern California, including a date Saturday night at the Marin Center in San Rafael.
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Comedians Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna have a one-of-a-kind, odd little show at the Empire Plush Room that’s got a lot of heart and good for at least a few laughs. Now celebrating more than 40 years of marriage — they wed in 1965 — the couple has put together a low-key, 70-minute hodge-podge of an act, with standup bits, snippets of home video, clips from their movies, and live re-enactment of scenes from their stage plays.
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Note: This review was written when the show first opened in December. A local favorite, "Jersey Boys" now has a new cast and the run has been extended through September.Toward the end of the Tony Award-winning musical "Jersey Boys," as Frankie Valli sums up his life with the Four Seasons, the good times and the bad, he says, "All there was, was the music — that was the best."
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It’s a good thing that Michelle Richmond’s book is titled "The Year of Fog," for it gives readers a hint that the anguish and frustration experienced by Abby, the appealing protagonist, may not last much longer than that. Involving, heart-rending and immediately readable, "The Year of Fog" (Delacorte Press, $20), Richmond’s second novel — her first was "Dream of the Blue Room" — is a story about what happens when a 6-year-old girl literally disappears.
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Victoria Recaño is thrilled to be grand marshal of the 2007 ING Bay to Breakers race."It’s a great celebration. It’s for a cause," says the bubbly TV reporter, best known for interviewing Hollywood A-listers on "The Insider" and "Entertainment Tonight."The West Los Angeles resident, who grew up in St. Louis and spent some five years in the Bay Area working for TechTV and KNTV, admits that, up till now, she only has been a bystander to San Francisco’s biggest party, which is May 20 this year.
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Director Adam Shankman cruised into San Francisco to sneak-preview scenes from the highly anticipated new movie musical "Hairspray," set for a July release. "I call it my Frankentrailer," he said, introducing the 20-minute reel at a screening and reception Thursday for invited guests at Dolby Laboratories.
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For those who missed the works of Henry James in their high school or college literature classes, foolsFURY theater company may just well provide an enticing, if unorthodox, introduction to the writer, with its compact, invigorating interpretation of the novella "The Turn of the Screw."
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Twenty-two-year-old Sunkrish Bala’s acting career has gotten off to a good start, and he’s the first to say so."It’s very lucky and serendipitous that it happened so soon," the well-spoken, great-looking Bala says, talking about his co-starring role on the new ABC series "Notes From the Underbelly," which moves to its new time slot, 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, this week.Bala, who grew up in San Jose, plays a guy who’s embarking on parenthood. Being a 2006 graduate of UCLA, Bala isn’t much like his character Eric, an obsessive-compulsive husband and businessman in his 30s.
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"Journey From the Fall" has an air of authenticity about it, and for good reason. Writer-director Ham Tran meticulously spent years gathering the long-untold stories of what happened to millions of Vietnamese people after the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. For many, it was just the beginning of their problems. "Journey From the Fall" reveals, in sumptuous, often horrifying detail, the lives of people forced into difficult futures — in re-education camps, where they suffered abuse and indignities, or fleeing on boats, where the terror of the unknown was equally real.
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee takesa minute to talk about his most famous work, 1962’s "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?":"It’s not a bad play, it’s an OK play," he says on the phone from New York, in a tone that’s as wry as his words.He admits it falls into the category of "famous for being famous."
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"The Cop, the Criminal and the Clown" is a fun, charming mistaken-identity comedy that’s got the perfect light touch and the kind of whimsy that isn’t seen in mainstream Hollywood movies.There’s nothing too complicated, yet it’s not vapid, either. There’s even a teeny lesson about doing the right thing that goes down easy.
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