"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." What's happening Bay Area? Turns out, a lot. A mind-boggling assortment of a lot. So to make your planning life -- and perhaps to appease Aristotle -- a little easier we've rounded up some...

I go backstage at the Golden Gate Theatre and re-discover some 80's magic.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

Tanya Barfield’s The Call is nominally a play about adoption. As such, the premise (an exploration of a couple’s excitement and doubts about adopting a daughter from Africa) intrigued me. Two of my siblings are adopted from abroad, and I imagined I would connect with the characters’ struggles. In...

This Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) 1963 musical looks forward as well. The new energy is palpable, but it’s not all there yet.

Three a cappella group members walk into the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It’s not the start of a joke; it’s the birth of a musical. Or a rock opera. Or a staged concept album. It’s hard to pin down what, precisely The Unfortunates is, but it doesn’t need to be...

The Orpheum has a history of big lunacy, undoubtedly bearing psychedelic traces that permanently alter the chemistry of the ceiling ornaments so that 'The Illusionists' fit right, in ways that just don’t work in a San Jose venue.

Valley of the Heart is that big: an epic multi-generational story, larger in scope than the Grapes of Wrath, and worth every one of the 180 minutes making up its run time.

Ilana Walder-Biesanz reviews the World Premiere of a new play by Katharine Sherman about Ondine, a water sprite.

Cameron Mackintosh's new production of Andrew Llyod Webber's famed The Phantom of the Opera leads the upcoming Broadway San Jose season. Revealed today, the eight show line-up features a thoughtful mix of classic musicals such as Cabaret, Annie and The Sound of Music, alongside contemporary hits like Kinky Boots, Matilda...