San Francisco Spotlight: November 2006

It’s a month of big premieres for the City by the Bay, with the biggest one — the national tour of Jersey Boys — due here on December 1.

British director and choreographer Matthew Bourne’s much-anticipated musical Edward Scissorhands (November 11-December 10) begins its U.S. tour at the Orpheum Theatre. Based on filmmaker Tim Burton’s original motion picture, Edward Scissorhands is the darkly charming story of a boy destined to live out the rest of his life with dangerous daggers instead of hands. The cast comes from the original London company, with actors Sam Archer and Richard Winsor alternating in the role of Edward. Composer Terry Davies provides the production’s musical direction with a musical score also based on the same one written by Danny Elfman for the film

With only two actors, one act, and a plot centered on the topic of domestic abuse, To Hell and Back, part of a program entitled Metamorphoses (various venues, November 2-5), is not your typical opera. The legendary Patti LuPone stars in this semi-staged West Coast premiere, commissioned by the esteemed Philharmonia Baroque orchestra, alongside soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. The piece, which is inspired by the myth The Rape of Persephone, is composed by Jake Heggie with libretto by Gene Sheer.

Tired of seeing and hearing commercials peddling pills as if it was soda pop? So is playwright and social activist Jennifer Berry. Her one-woman show Big Pharma makes its San Francisco premiere at The Marsh (November 4-December 10). Through the course of the 75-minute show, Berry assumes 22 different personalities, all of whom have been persuaded to believe that their true happiness is only a prescription away. Also enjoying its West Coast premiere is playwright David Grimm’s farcical romp The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue (Theatreworks, November 29-December 23). This story of a high society couple lapping up every luxury despite being in the midst of the Great Depression, loosely based on the work of Moliere, features cabaret sensation Maureen McVerry as the show’s pseudo femme fatale Sylvia.

Vintage vaudeville and the silver screen come together for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of the slapstick, sleight-of-hand comedy, All Wear Bowlers, created by Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle (November 29-December 23). Always a crowd-pleaser, Michael Bennett’s award-winning musical A Chorus Line comes to the 6th Street Playhouse (November 3-December 2) just months after the departure of the new Broadway revival. The story of 17 aspiring dancers auditioning for eight coveted spots on a new show’s chorus line is directed by Joe Higgins and choreographed by Vicki Suemnicht.

Tis the season for holiday theater with nearly every company across the Bay Area, decking its stages with season-conscious productions. Inspired by the original script written by Langston Hughes that debuted in 1961, Black Nativity (Lorainne Hansberry Theater, November 24-December 24) is the retelling of the traditional Nativity story. Directed by Stanley E. Williams, the production features Yolando Cato-Freeman, Robin Hodge-Williams, and Faye Carol.

Celebrating the holidays in expected zany fashion, San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros presents its favorite naughty elf Marga Gomez in The Twelve Days of Cochina (November 16-December 17). Directed by the company’s artistic director, John Fisher, this adults-only production injects a hefty helping of raunch and raucous into all those innocuous and innocent holiday tales.

Over at the War Memorial Opera House, families can watch an abridged version of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (November 5), staged by the San Francisco Opera to accommodate all ages (although it is recommended for children over the age of 12). The two-hour production is narrated in English, while the opera’s score is sung in Italian and translated with supertitles.