Ilana Walder-Biesanz
Ilana is an Associate Product Manager at Yahoo! and a freelance theater and opera critic. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College and an M.Phil. in European Literature from the University of Cambridge. She currently reviews for Stark Insider, Bachtrack, and San Francisco Classical Voice. [Web Site]
A delightful Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche
When it comes to musical theater, the only thing more fun than a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is thirteen Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. If you agree, you’ll love the Lamplighters’ A Song to Sing, O!, a pastiche of the duo’s shows that tells their creators’ story.
Dialogue between songs offers...
Lepage makes high-tech magic at the ACT
The production’s deft use of technology gives 'Needles and Opium' a major “wow” factor.
‘New Girl in Town’ a catchy classic
If you asked me to name playwrights whose works were suitable for adaptation into musicals, Eugene O’Neill would be one of the last to come to mind. Length and gloom don’t lend themselves well to song and dance routines. But Bob Merrill boldly wrote not one but two musicals...
‘John’ provokes yawns at A.C.T. San Francisco
The American Conservatory Theater’s newest offering, John, is almost a ghost story. Creepy dolls, spooky stories, battlefield lore, flickering lights, and temperamental rooms all feature, but the story stays within the natural (no “super”). That’s not a bad thing: there are plenty of good shows about crumbling relationships. Pulitzer...
‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ breaks hearts in spite of its flaws
Khaled Hosseini’s novel A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two Afghani women, Laila and Mariam. Both end up married to the abusive Rasheed during the oppressive reign of the Taliban, but their friendship flourishes in these harsh conditions. Ursula Rani Sarma’s theatrical adaptation, currently receiving its world...
A powerful ‘Fun Home’, and a new theatrical home for San Francisco
Fun Home doesn’t need my praise. The show, by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (lyrics and book) won rave reviews and the 2015 Best Musical Tony Award for its Broadway run. But I can’t restrain myself: go, go, go see this! I laughed, I teared up, I sunk...
She Loves Me: A rare and romantic holiday musical at SF Playhouse
Every theater company (and symphony and ballet) seems to want to put on a good Christmas show. This results in the predictable November and December line-up of Christmas Carols, Messiahs, and Nutcrackers. Make no mistake—those are excellent works. But it’s nice to see something different. One solution: a world...
Stoppard’s ‘The Hard Problem’ has problems
Tom Stoppard, one of the most acclaimed living playwrights, jokes about being “the house playwright” for the American Conservatory Theater. Program notes inform me that he is second only to Shakespeare in number of productions mounted here (17 to Shakespeare’s 21). Stoppard’s fame is rightly deserved, and we’re lucky...
Why bother having a revolution?: Andrea Chénier at San Francisco Opera
You can’t help leaving this Andrea Chénier admiring what a good job San Francisco Opera has done with a tricky piece.
