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Press coverage

In four decades, Berkeley Repertory Theatre has built an international reputation for work that is adventurous, ambitious, provocative and intelligent. Our shows aren’t just embraced by audiences and praised by critics—they’re also frequently the topic of major news stories. Here’s a look at the media’s recent coverage of Berkeley Rep…

Reviews for George Gershwin Alone

Reviews for Dear Elizabeth

Reviews for Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Reviews for Fallaci

Reviews for Troublemaker

Reviews for The White Snake

Reviews for An Iliad

Reviews for Chinglish

Feature stories on recent shows

Best features on Berkeley Rep

reviews for george gershwin alone

“Simply glorious…The incomparable genius of George Gershwin lights up Berkeley Rep…Felder’s show, which he’s been touring internationally since 2000—including Broadway and West End runs—is a cavalcade of immortal standards: “I Got Rhythm,” “The Man I Love,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “‘S Wonderful,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” not to mention selections from Porgy and Bess, An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue…Felder is a terrific musician. His fingers fly over the keys with pinpoint precision and Gershwin-like dynamism…He enriches the presentation with enlightening musicology material as well…A delight from beginning to end.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“A heartfelt valentine to the American songbook that goes down as smoothly as a bourbon Manhattan with a bright red cherry on top. As a tuneful antidote to a weary world, George Gershwin Alone…is pretty darn close to s’wonderful…The mind-boggling depth and breadth of Gershwin’s catalog is reverently showcased here. Buoyantly directed by Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Gershwin zips along from the composer’s salad days to his biggest triumphs…He’s got rhythm, and he’s got music as he channels the genius of Gershwin for almost two hours. Who could ask for anything more?”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group

reviews for dear elizabeth

“Watching poets, even eminent poets, read and write to each other shouldn’t be half as gripping as playwright Sarah Ruhl and director Les Waters make it in Dear Elizabeth…with more intellectual, artistic and emotional vigor than might be expected in any epistolary drama. It’s her artful selection from the letters and poems, combined with Waters’ inventive stagings, that makes the words take flight. It’s a treat simply to have Ruhl and Waters…working together again at the Rep, home of his memorable stagings of her Eurydice and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play). The West Coast premiere…works best when their collaborative efforts make the complicated, distant relationship between the poets come alive in the imagery they use and details from their lives. Annie Smart’s elongated room of a set transforms itself from academic haunts to domestic study or Library of Congress. Then it exerts sheer magic, as she and Waters bring poetic metaphors to life in remarkable stage effects—the most exciting of which elaborates on a similar effect in Eurydice.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Certainly Ruhl’s gentle treatment of the poems, the way she finds the breathing space between life and art, can’t be overpraised. She crystallizes the magic of what is left unsaid and the piercing intimacy of regret in one beguiling passage after another. The playwright and director live up to their reputation for plumbing the unspoken in quiet moments filled with yearning…At its best, the play captures both the enchantment of poetry and the alienation of reality in equal measure…Ruhl and Waters have an affinity for stage pictures that radiate quiet longing (Eurydice, Three Sisters) and never is this quality more apparent than in the elegiac Dear Elizabeth…Nelis nails Lowell’s charmingly rumpled attempts at wooing but also his volatility…Fisher speaks volumes with Bishop’s wry looks of appraisal and the way she scrambles for the bottle of hooch hidden in the bookshelves. These two gifted actors sweep us away in the tide of time as youth slips away and mortality casts its long shadow. The vulnerability of the performances is startling.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Waters and Ruhl could easily have sat their poets at a table (Love Letters style) and had them read. But there’s a lot more to this production, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect of the dynamic Waters–Ruhl pairing we’ve seen at Berkeley Rep in Eurydice and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play). In two acts and running just under two hours, we are treated to a sort of visual poetry from Annie Smart’s surprise-laden set washed with color and mood by Russell Champa’s gorgeous lights…a placid piece of theater, filled with lovely, lively writing and gorgeous images…Fisher and Nelis have warm chemistry with one another, and Fisher especially conveys the tremendous intelligence and complex emotional life of Bishop with an understated but heartfelt performance.”—Theater Dogs
“Leave it to playwright Sarah Ruhl (In the Next Room (the Vibrator Play), Dead Man’s Cell Phone) to dust off the genre and present it with fresh, articulate power in the form of Dear Elizabeth…she and director Les Waters have crafted a piece of theater in which we are allowed to see and hear each character’s yearnings, joys, and sorrows, and occasionally watch them touch each other beyond space and time, between letters…[A] powerful piece that would appeal to any romantic who’s shed a tear over someone who got away.”—SFist
“The poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell have never sounded so fresh and beautiful. But it’s their letters that dazzle in Dear Elizabeth…Those who come to Dear Elizabeth expecting a dry and dusty recounting of literary history may be surprised at the yearning and intensity of the lives of these poets.”—San Francisco Examiner
“The core of [Dear Elizabeth], the correspondence itself, is handled remarkably well. Ruhl weaves the letters together so they play like a conversation…It’s a touching portrait of a friendship between two delightfully clever people that’s as intriguing for what it leaves out as for what it tells…it’s sure to be of interest to American poetry buffs.”—KQED Arts & Culture

reviews for pericles, prince of tyre

“It’s a picaresque romp full of multiethnic humor, close calls and sentimentality, with a veritable deus ex machina—the old hoist carrying a goddess—and one of the most joyous, bounciest sex scenes ever staged…Inventive director Mark Wing-Davey throws so many ideas at the old play—in performance styles, musical interventions, pop culture references, actors wearing paper plates for masks—that at times it seems like a cartoon or even a lampoon. But when all the trials and tribulations get resolved in the long-expected happy ending, don’t be surprised if you feel tears well up in your eyes…They succeed in showing why Pericles was the biggest hit of 1608 and has regained so much popularity in recent decades…It works…The cast brings it to life, headed by Anita Carey…and David Barlow as an engagingly noble, kind and dangerously innocent Pericles…Jessica Kitchens is a radiant delight as a blithely evil queen, with a drunk scene out of 1940s Hollywood, and Pericles’ girlishly earthy true love Thaïsa. James Carpenter shines—literally, in a Gustav Klimt-like reflective robe—as one evil king and again as Thaïsa’s hearty royal father. Annapurna Sriram is a feisty, earnest Marina and the long-lost daughter, and is captivating in other roles…A shape-shifting Rami Margron, sharp Evan Zes and James Patrick Nelson fill out a wild variety of parts—including a pirate crew, brothel and tournament full of knights—aided by the extra heads and eclecticism of Meg Neville’s imaginative costumes.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Insanely inventive…A rough and tumble theatrical playground where anything goes. Starting with an interactive sing-along and chockablock with pop culture references from Batman to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this is a wild and woolly Bard mashup…Certainly, Wing-Davey—the Obie-winning director (36 Views, Angels in America)—lives up to his reputation for being insanely inventive…He’s overstuffed the epic with cheeky allusions and bravura bits of stagecraft…Make no mistake, there are many lovely moments…When Pericles changes his baby’s diaper and hands her over to another’s care or when Dionyza (Jessica Kitchens), ruler of Tarsus, bemoans the starvation of her people, the intimacy of the piece hits home. Suddenly it’s clear that Pericles’ fantastical journey is a metaphor for all of our lives, the way we each brave the elements of loss, aging and death.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Captivating…This production has some dazzle and some heft and definitely some humor…The actors hurtle through the various episodes with verve. They bring a zesty humor to the proceedings, which range from the truly lovely…to the ribald…to the just plain goofy.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for fallaci

“Fascinating…Compelling…The subject is Oriana Fallaci, whose confrontational interviews made her the most famous—and, in many ways, influential—journalists of her era. The playwright is a longtime, award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker and author of eight books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower (about radical Islam) and the much-in-the-news Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. He’s also no stranger to drama; Wright has written four other plays, two of them solos that he’s performed. He’s set up this play, not surprisingly given the topic, as an interview…a verbal tango sharply and often seductively executed by Tomei and Neshat…It’s a good format for exploring Fallaci’s personal life—from teenage World War II anti-Fascist resistance fighter alongside her father, on through her prejudices and early celebrity as a dogged war correspondent—and for highlighting some of her most famous interviews (Fidel Castro, Henry Kissinger, Moammar Khadafy et al)…The fascination of watching Maryam become a mirror and reverse image of her subject is reflected in our sense that she reflects Wright’s relationship to Fallaci as well.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Fascinating…Provocative…Oriana Fallaci basks in the limelight once more in the new play Fallaci, now in its world premiere at Berkeley Rep. The iconic journalist was no stranger to the realm of the celebrity…Hailed as a fearless and combative interviewer, she never deferred to authority. If a politician was foolish enough to try and pass off a lie to her, she reveled in their destruction. She coaxed them into admitting things they would later regret and influenced the course of world events. Tomei (TV’s China Beach and Providence) nails that regal air of courage and entitlement, the way Fallaci ‘leaned in’ to her skyrocketing journalism career. Certainly she earned her reputation for heroism covering wars across the globe…Toward the end of her life, she stirred up controversy for her denunciations of Islam. In Wright’s two-hander, those views break the heart of cub reporter Maryam (Marjan Neshat) who had idolized Fallaci from afar. When she finally meets her hero up close, she realizes that world leaders are not the only ones with feet of clay…As astutely portrayed by the formidable Concetta Tomei, Fallaci comes across as half warrior, half diva.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Gripping…Fallaci fascinates at Berkeley Rep…Oriana Fallaci was a fascinating, riveting person in real life, a crusading, eviscerating journalist whose intensity often made her part of the story. In journalist and playwright Lawrence Wright’s world-premeire play Fallaci at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Fallaci lives again, and true to form, she’s a compelling personality whose intelligence, drive and complicated emotional life provide an abundance of drama. As played by Concetta Tomei, Fallaci may be dealing with illness by shutting herself into her New York apartment, but she’s still ferocious and prickly. When a young journalist from the New York Times wheedles her way into Fallaci’s apartment to snag an interview with the reclusive writer, Fallaci reluctantly warms to the reporter as an audience for her vehemence, her humor and her wisdom.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for troublemaker, or the freakin kick-a adventures of bradley boatright

“A wild ride…as fantastical as a superhero comic book, and thrice as funny…The actors’ dexterity with LeFranc’s wildly imaginative tween expletives is as essential to the story’s success as Paloma Young’s hilarious zombie-pirate and other fantasy costumes. Neugebauer’s clever use of Kris Stone’s deceptively simple, urban-dreary set evokes the restless pace of young minds…The inventiveness of LeFranc’s superhero fantasies are enhanced by the solid emotional grounding he achieves.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Wildly fun…The playwright has created a juicy new lexicon for the digital generation that hints at obscenity without actually being vulgar. Only the adults, the arch-villains in this universe, are left speaking everyday English, which comes off as quite dreary and mundane in comparison. Steeped in the kick-ass aesthetic of video games and comic books, the action barrels along at warp-speed for three utterly outrageous acts. Our backpack-toting, hoodie-clad hero Bradley battles zombies, pirates, Nazis, bullies and his mom (a moving turn by Jennifer Regan) in a zany coming of age saga that takes place in the ‘nineteen-mighties,’ a mashup of the ‘80s, ‘90s and aughts.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Hysterical…Berkeley Rep’s Troublemaker Is a Rock-‘Em, Sock-‘Em Riot…It’s the first show to hit the main stage from the Rep’s new play development lab, The Ground Floor, which kicked off last year with a bustling summer residency. Director Lila Neugebauer’s beautifully paced staging makes the play’s two and a half hours (with two intermissions) seem to fly by…LeFranc’s dialogue is the star attraction. It’s crisp, inventive and often hilarious, mixing adventure-serial bombast (‘Give this little Ms. Pac-Man the concussion of his tweens’) with quirky catchphrases and near-constant euphemistic expletives (‘funny as farts but loyal as freak’). Troublemaker’s fabulously flashy exterior invites comparisons to the comic book and movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but at root it’s a bittersweet story about growing up and getting by at one of life’s hardest ages, when just getting through the school day takes heroic fortitude.”—KQED Arts & Culture
“Loads of fun…Berkeley Rep’s Troublemaker is freakin A for awesome…LeFranc has a fresh voice, and director Lila Nuegebauer gets fully committed, adrenaline-fueled performances from her cast…Troublemaker is an exhilarating new play not just for its inventive language and extraordinary energy but also for how compassionate LeFranc is toward the emotional lives of kids who are too often dismissed as old enough to know better but too young to really matter.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for the white snake

“Fabulous…Enchanting…A buoyant Armageddon of human and puppet actions…The White Snake has been transformed from evil, man-eating demon to tragic romantic heroine, a history slyly invoked by Zimmerman at every ‘fork’ (get it?) in her tale…Wondrous puppetry delights the eye, the ink clouds of Shawn Sagady’s projections dissolve into Chinese landscapes and Daniel Ostling’s set sprouts cabinets that may open to reveal a boudoir or something more startling.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Intoxicating…Mary Zimmerman has long been a theatrical wizard…In The White Snake, which runs through Dec. 23 at Berkeley Rep, she dazzles with a shimmering spectacle about two snakes who dare to cross over into the human world. The seventh Zimmerman creation to play Berkeley Rep, it’s the ideal holiday fare, gorgeously-appointed and whimsical but also quite meaningful…There’s not a moment in this 100-minute visual feast when the eye isn’t entranced and the heart touched…While there’s no denying the ravishing physical beauty of any Zimmeran work, the real pleasure lies in hearing the echo of the ancient in our own lives.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Wonderful…an epic adventure and an intimate love story…Fall in love with the stunning serpents at the heart of Mary Zimmerman’s The White Snake, a poignant, colorful tale from ancient China that arrives at Berkeley Repertory Theatre like a giant holiday gift just waiting to be unwrapped and savored by audiences. This is Zimmerman’s seventh show at Berkeley Rep, following in the wake of such stunners as Metamorphoses, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and, most recently,The Arabian Nights. Like these previous outings, The White Snake is theatrical storytelling at its very best, a fusion of stunning imagery, captivating music and, best of all, characters whose stories cut straight to the heart…It’s all just gorgeous and beautiful and utterly enchanting.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for an iliad

“Absolutely riveting…Henry Woronicz gives a tour de force performance as he holds the stage almost alone for 100 uninterrupted minutes. He embodies the Trojan War, from the horrors of hand-to-hand carnage to the serenity of a pastoral lull, his body seeming to swell into the great warrior Achilles or coil into a seductive Helen of Troy…Woronicz slips easily from warrior bravado into the loving protectiveness of Hector’s wife Andromache and the heartbreaking grief of his aged father…He’s mesmerizing from the moment we first see him.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Mesmerizing…An Iliad is nothing less than breathtaking…Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s startling and visceral adaptation of Homer’s epic poem condenses the odyssey of the Trojan War into an explosive one-man show…Henry Woronicz, former head of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, delivers a spellbinding performance…He tells the tale with such clarity that arcane plot twists seem as relevant as reports from the frontlines in Afghanistan.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Devastating…An Iliad, the mesmerizing theater piece that opened Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, manages to create the sights and sounds, the epic sweep and tragic immediacy of the Trojan War in the performance of a single actor…In rich language—and pointed asides—he makes us feel each clanging sword, each fatal wound, each cry of pain from the vanquished. Peterson stages the action brilliantly.”—San Francisco Examiner
“Impressive…A master class in oration, and in classical storytelling, it works marvelously…Woronicz does a fantastic, laudatory job of taking on this play, which is as much endurance test as it is proving ground for an aging actors’ skill at holding an audience’s attention…A welcome respite from and accompaniment to Woronicz’s lone figure on stage is a bassist, Brian Ellington, who occupies a perch above the stage and provides a soundtrack to the war and the moments of intimacy in the tale.”—SFist

reviews for chinglish

“笑聲不斷”—World Journal
“Hilarious…a near-perfect production…Moggridge is a charmingly earnest innocent abroad, with some dark secrets in his past. Krusiec is a magnetically evolving revelation as Xi Yan, a cold negotiator, erotic lover and personification of her own moral code. Hwang, a past master of exploring the East-West culture clash—in such gems as M. Butterfly, FOB and Trying to Find Chinatown—has written a rich new chapter for a new world order with Chinglish…It’s a tale crisply and handsomely told.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Hilarious…It is probably the funniest show ever to cross Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre and could well be the funniest show the company has ever produced. While director Leigh Silverman delivers Hwang’s script at a slapstick pace, the comedy is sharp and intelligent, with Hwang playing with words in English and Chinese like a jazz musician plays with the notes…Everything in this comedy moves like clockwork, especially the mind-bending set by David Korins. It is a hugely inventive series of turntables that shuffles a meeting room, hotel room, a restaurant and hotel lobby around in something of a theatrical perpetual motion machine, gliding effortlessly—sometimes offering just a fleeting glance at characters before shifting to a different locale. As for the actors, they are all playing at the top of their game—not only the principals, who are astounding, but also the performers in the smallest roles. It seems each is making remarkable comic decisions to give the entire show a sense of being polished to near perfection.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Irresistible…a sublime comic performance…Leigh Silverman’s smart, stylish staging launches the company’s 2012-13 season on a hilarious high…Silverman’s production is note-perfect, with the designs—David Korins’ ingenious Chinese puzzle of a set, Brian MacDevitt’s punchy lights, Anita Yavich’s witty costumes and Darron L. West’s atmospheric sound—a constant delight. Hwang understands both cultures well enough to make the story resonate, and his use of mistranslation earns waves of laughter. But there’s something poignant about the way the play looks at language. It’s there in every awkward exchange between Daniel and Xi—all human communication is flawed, Hwang suggests, and that makes Chinglish a timeless play, not just a contemporary one.”—San Francisco Examiner
“Crackling comic energy…full of punches and tickles and provocations…Let there be no miscommunication here: Chinglish speaks the language of laughs, and that translates into a disarmingly delightful evening of theater…The laughs flow constantly, and the performances seem effortless, even as they straddle two very different worlds and languages. Set designer David Korins, re-creating the look of last fall’s Broadway production, deserves abundant credit for keeping things moving—literally. His set rotates and slides and moves with amazing efficiency as action shifts from an office to a restaurant to a hotel lobby to a hotel room. The set changes are thrilling to watch, especially when they’re injected with flashes of humor or action (just watch as characters navigate the giant moving pieces of the set, shifting from one location to another as if walking through real-world spaces). The set’s machinations might be too much if the actors weren’t so fantastic.”—Theater Dogs