press coverage

In its 40-year history, 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…

 

passing strange rocks on broadway

What can we say except “WOW!” Recently, Berkeley Rep and our partners celebrated the Broadway opening of Passing Strange—and the only thing that rocks harder than this show are the rave reviews!

In addition to the fantastic reviews below, check out this huge feature story on Berkeley Rep in the Sunday’s New York Times (PDF).

  • “EXUBERANT…Please don’t call it a Broadway musical. You could scare away too many people who might actually enjoy it. Call it a rock concert with a story to tell, trimmed with a lot of great jokes. Or call it a sprawling work of performance art, complete with angry rants and scary drag queens. Call it whatever you want, really. I’ll just call it wonderful, and a welcome anomaly on Broadway, which can use all the vigorous new artistic blood it can get.”—New York Times
  • “ILLICITLY ENTERTAINING…wicked and often wonderful…It’s a witty, boisterous, often heretical dissection of racial identity in all its modern-day fluidity. It’s also a hell of a good time.”—New York Sun
  • “PLAYFUL, PASSIONATE…Passing Strange is Broadway at its best! It uses impeccably crafted, decidedly contemporary pop songs to propel a compelling story…Let’s hope that it helps inspire more musical-theater artists—and producers—to dare to be different.”—USA Today
  • “PROPULSIVE and viscerally exciting…Passing Strange breaks the mold with electrifying inventiveness…a magical mystery tour that fuses aspects of concert, concept album, cabaret and revivalist meeting…It’s boldly atypical Broadway fare that pulses with a new kind of vitality…In a sector often criticized for its aversion to risk, the producing team deserves kudos for allowing this bracingly original work a broader platform on which to blossom.”—Variety
  • “FULL OF PUNCH…they rock harder than anything else on Broadway…The best part about Passing Strange is the book, which shows us a side of black life in America that rarely gets talked about…and my guess is that it is headed for a long, profitable and influential run.”—Wall Street Journal
  • “EXCELLENT…Passing Strange is a mesmerizing experience that probes what it means to be gloriously, sometimes painfully, alive…This genre-busting musical pulses with the energy of a rock concert.”—Entertainment Weekly
  • “AUTHENTIC…Tuesday night I saw a musical called Passing Strange (that’s right, my hipster colleagues, I said ‘musical’), and, listen up: It’s fantastic. Hardly your typical theater piece, Passing Strange is an autobiographical story told through rock ‘n’ roll—and real rock ‘n’ roll, too, not some derivative imitation you merely tolerate…And because this piece was written by and is fronted by an authentic, soulful musician, this theater actually rocks. You’ll be happy, you’ll be sad, and you’ll rock along with Stew. (If you’re the affable older couple next to me, you may cover your ears for all of Act Two, but still never stop smiling.)”—MTV’s You R Here
  • “ELECTRIC…positively ballsy…marrying cunning lyrics with sharp hooks and power chords, [Stew] sends shockwaves with his brash musicianship…groundbreaking terrain in the portrayal of the black experience on the American stage.”—Backstage
  • “RAUCOUS…Let’s not get too distracted figuring out how to categorize Passing Strange, the stranger-in-a-strange-land original passing for a Broadway musical at the Belasco Theatre. What’s important is that the thing—part indie-rock concert, part boho-art project, part coming-of-age black-identity crisis, part hipster travelogue—is all smart and all enjoyable and all very good for the theater.”—Newsday
  • “GUTSY…Passing Strange smashes Broadway clichés with an electric guitar…there’s a rebuke to the corny, fusty excesses of most musicals in every noisy second…The show attains true pop transcendence.”—New York Magazine
  • “EUPHORIC…the most exciting show to hit Broadway in recent memory, and it’s not to be missed. The blistering onstage band [delivers] an irresistible, cross-genre score, warm hearted humor, inspired staging and a brilliant ensemble. Go see it!”—Gothamist (March 2, 2008)
  • “EXUBERANT…Theatergoers will marvel at it…What makes the show fresh is the music, which Stew wrote with Heidi Rodewald. Its rhythms and sounds go from hard-thumping rock and groovy blues to funk, punk and gospel.”—Daily News
  • “VERY WITTY and very smart…Stew’s amped-up Passing Strange is the newest, mostly likable entry on a growing slate of new, rock-oriented musicals looking either to test the limits of what constitutes a Broadway musical or (if you prefer more revolutionary rhetoric) crash through the prior rules of engagement.”—Chicago Tribune
  • “FRESH…A roly-poly guy with distinctive eyeglasses and wearing a suit and sneakers, Stew is unlike anyone else on Broadway. The result is a wonderful show that is more rock ‘n’ roll performance art than Broadway musical.”—Chicago Sun-Times
  • “EMINENTLY THEATRICAL…a mock bohemian story with knowing, sharply observant humour and a buoyant, hard-driving score…Broadway is a surprisingly comfortable fit for Passing Strange, a testament to the universality of its appeal and the genial personality of its rockin’ ringmaster”—Associated Press
  • “THE REAL DEAL: funky, electric, thumping, progressive, exhilarating…a phenomenal experience that deserves a run ten times longer than Cats and Phantom combined…Passing Strange is an ingeniously staged tour through the disorienting funhouse of African American identity. And what a fun, strange trip it is—one you’ll probably want to take more than once, Broadway be damned.”—Gothamist (March 4, 2008)
  • “FREEWHEELING…Passing Strange looks and sounds more like a rock concert than a conventional Broadway attraction. But the offbeat show soon proves to be one smart and extremely hip musical…The talented, sexy ensemble easily morphs into characters ranging from schoolkids to German high-brows. And the band really rocks.”—Newark Star Ledger
  • “FINE AND FUNKY…Stew weaves his tale with wit and withering self-examination…Passing Strange is as much the portrait of a musical artist as a young man as it is a self-conscious redefinition of the musical theater art form…his journey takes him through the whirlwind of cutting-edge American and European musical styles that begins with gospel and travels through punk, blues, jazz, and rock.”—Theatermania

If you’d been at the post-show party—as many people were who worked on its world premiere at Berkeley Rep—you would’ve heard legendary actress Marian Seldes deliver a delicious dramatic reading of the Times review in its entirety. We’re not sure which was better—her passionate delivery or Charles Isherwood’s wonderful words! Other folks spotted at opening night included Debbie Harry, Edward Albee, Spike Lee, Martha Plimpton, Bobby Cannavale, James Snyder, Michael Ealy, Cheryl “Salt” James, Julie Halston, Jerry Stiller, and Anne Meara—who exclaimed to one of our staff, “I loved it. That’s the best thing I ever saw!”

 

reviews for figaro and other shows

about figaro

  • “Figaro brilliantly mixes drama and opera, humor and pain…The music of Mozart fills Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, lifting spirits with beautifully sung passages from The Marriage of Figaro. The masterful comic actors of Theatre de la Jeune Lune set off gales of laughter with a twitch, flinch, futile gesture or slow-motion pratfall. But nothing in Jeune Lune’s Figaro quite prepares you for the impact of a live-video close-up of a proud man’s face as he’s told about his wife’s infidelity. The genius of Figaro, which opened Tuesday as another jewel in the crown of the Rep’s 40th season, [is] the inspired work of Dominique Serrand and Steven Epp, who lit up the Rep with Molière’s The Miser two years ago…Figaro touches chords as deep as the heights to which it soars on Mozart’s glorious melodies.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Inspired…an array of wild stories of romance, mystery, mistaken identity, and true love…The adaptation of the two scripts, by Steven Epp and Dominique Serrand, exploded from the Berkeley Rep stage Tuesday in a colorful burst of high-tech theatrical fireworks and a dazzling display of imagination…It is no less than a lavish theatrical feast, and a worthy successor to The Miser, a landmark production by Theatre de la Jeune Lune the last time the company visited Berkeley.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “High tech and high art mesh in Figaro at Berkeley Rep…Jeune Lune, a Minneapolis-based ensemble widely hailed for their revival of Moliere’s The Miser last year, is famous for casting off on adventures but Figaro takes their experimental aesthetic over the top to scoff against the dictates of form…the music invokes sheer bliss.”—San Jose Mercury News
  • “A new take on a classic can leave an indelible mark by changing viewers’ perception on both the original work and the world around them. It is this type of success that the Theatre de la Jeune Lune achieves in Figaro…The production doesn’t just captivate its audience for its three-hour duration; it does so in a revolutionary manner, providing a different perspective through which the audience thinks about and views the two characters of Pierre Beaumarchais’ trilogy…The chemistry between them enraptures throughout the production.”—Daily Californian
  • “Cleverness and beauty abound in Figaro, a work of high art and low pretension…the chance to hear beautiful, unamplified voices in the Roda is reason enough to buy a ticket. This is not opera lite. This is serious opera mixed in with a funny, sometimes ruminative play about aging and our roles in society…This is a signature piece from the celebrated Minneapolis-based theater company.”—Theater Dogs

about tragedy: a tragedy

  • “Will Eno concocts dazzlingly comic flights of verbal absurdities as four TV reporters attempt to cover what might be the final setting of the sun—or perhaps not—in Les Waters’ crisply staged, 75-minute American premiere of a serious comedy that seeks to probe a world without meaning…A very sharp cast’s handling of Eno’s surreal wit make for a very funny apocalypse.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “A wickedly funny satire…Director Les Waters and the cast have done an incredibly accurate job of capturing not only the sound, but the feel of a nightly news broadcast, which not only heightens the humor in the piece, but also underlines the delicious absurdity of the entire premise.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “Tragedy is a shining farce on the unbearable darkness of being…One of the hottest playwrights around, Eno worships at the church of the absurd…Les Waters’ keenly understated production thrums with an undercurrent of anarchy that’s as uproariously funny as it is profoundly sad…The playwright so ferociously captures the surreal banality of television, the lonely pools of silence welling up between stammered inanities, that it takes a few beats to realize Tragedy really has less to do with the media than the message.”—San Jose Mercury News
  • “A guffaw-inducing satire on media ineptitude…Les Waters’ stylishly minimalist production for Berkeley Repertory Theatre reveals that a news report about an event as seemingly unnewsworthy as day turning into night is symptomatic of something much more disturbing. That’s where the tragic element comes in. It’s really about humanity’s inability to express through words, let alone come to terms with its self-destructive streak…The gravitas of the performers’ speaking style lends an extra absurd quality to Eno’s already absurd lines.”—NPR’s Artery
  • “A charming display of witty satire in the face of Armageddon. Sharply written and perfectly performed, this 75-minute play serves as a big ol’ poke in the eye to media in an age of geopolitical uncertainty, pending disaster, and a preoccupation with ratings.”—Theatermania

about wishful drinking

  • “Hilarious…Fisher knows how to write wickedly comic material and, better still, how to deliver it. It’s also quite brave, in the take-no-prisoners attitude she applies to herself and her family—a kind of beat-the-tabloids-at-their-own-game gambit…It isn’t every solo show that can boast a supporting cast that includes Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher, George Lucas (all seated in the audience) and Paul Simon (on tape). Carrie Fisher’s does…Welcome to the curious world of tabloid theater.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Addiction, mental illness, movie-star parents, bad marriages, really bad hair…Carrie Fisher, right? You got it: Princess Leia has recycled her nightmarish life yet again, this time putting it onstage in the form of an exceedingly clever one-woman show called Wishful Drinking. Berkeley Rep, which brought Passing Strange into the world a year and a half ago, is now giving the hapless daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher an opportunity to be drop-dead funny about a string of personal crises so horrific that the only alternative to laughing at them is slashing your wrists in sympathy.”—Wall Street Journal
  • “Convulsively funny…A lightsaber-sharp comedy about the dark side of celebrity…the zing of this titillating tell-all lies in its embrace of theater as therapy session…Wishful proves the farce is strong with this one.”—San Jose Mercury News
  • “Wildly funny…Right there in Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, in front of George Lucas and everybody, she talked candidly about sexual excess, drug excess, celebrity excess, marital excess…she does it so cleverly and entertainingly, and with such charm and engaging personality that it becomes a wonderfully memorable evening…a wry commentary on the contemporary arts of recovery and survival.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “Amazing show…my highest rating of four hats! And hats off to this fabulous, funny, wild ride through showbiz with a remarkable woman! I love this show and so will you!”—Jan Wahl, KCBS radio / KRON TV / Alice radio
  • “Unbelievably hilarious…She’s an absolute riot…Hurry to the box office as fast as you can and get your tickets to Carrie Fisher in Wishful Drinking…You’ll double over laughing at the skeletons in Carrie’s closet.”—KGO radio

about taking over

  • “The remarkable Danny Hoch lights up the stage like a dynamo, illuminating the entire Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg through nine impeccably drawn, vividly diverse characters (including himself) in an angry, funny, nuanced and provocative 100-minute look at the perils, complexities and injustices of gentrification. Sharply staged by Tony Taccone for its world premiere, Hoch’s latest solo tour de force is hard-hitting, riveting, gritty and irresistible.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “Stunning…Danny Hoch is an artist who paints political pictures with a blowtorch—searing portraits from all sides of an issue where everyone gets burned…Watching Hoch’s show is like leafing through a sketchbook and enjoying his vividly drawn and colorfully flawed characters. The characters sketches are so well drawn, in fact, each really belongs in an elegant frame, surrounding it with equal portions of rage, irony, humor and clarity.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “The gentrification of his native Brooklyn provides a terrific focus for Danny Hoch’s patented brand of multi-character, multi-ethnic solo theater in Taking Over. Helmed by Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone, this intermissionless show is brash, richly characterful and frequently very funny…Hoch and Taccone have every gesture and beat tuned to perfection…Hoch is in such sharp form here it’s startling to realize this is his first solo stage show in a decade.”—Variety
  • “Flawlessly performed…a gem of a show starring Danny Hoch, who you can be sure is from New York…It’s brilliantly directed by Berkeley Rep’s artistic director, Tony Taccone. Danny Hoch is one of the most energetic performers I’ve ever seen, and his comedic ability is priceless…Don’t miss this dynamic comic entertainer…You’ll laugh your head off with appreciation.”—KGO radio
  • “Let there be no question about Danny Hoch’s genius. To throw around a few adjectives, the man is fascinating, funny, provocative, entertaining and powerful…In a hefty 100 minutes, Hoch plays nine characters (including himself) of different races, cultures and genders…a collection of deft characterizations and finely tuned accents…Taking Over is an extraordinary evening spent in the company of one man who fills the stage with compelling people and a compelling argument for living a more examined life.”—Theater Dogs

about argonautika

  • “Stunningly imaginative, engagingly comic, affecting and invigoratingly immediate…Jason and the Argonauts’ quest for the Golden Fleece, and his ill-fated romance with the virginal sorceress Medea, is a 2 ½-hour treat in its Berkeley Rep West Coast premiere. Graced with beautiful, deceptively simple design, inventive stagings, beguilingly wry puppets and a thoroughly engaging cast, it’s a modern take on an old tale of ambition, deception, heroism, love and unintended consequences.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “The adventure of a lifetime…wonderful, wild and fanciful…The experience of seeing the show really is like going on an adventure into some uncharted theatrical territory, and returning with memories to treasure for a long time.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “Argonautika fuses the elegance of a ritual with the full-throttle thrill of adventure…In its sublime West Coast premiere at Berkeley Rep, Argonautika revels in not just Zimmerman’s trademark visual fantasia but also her mastery of form and motif…The visionary director once again sets sail for the age of gods and monsters and channels the power of myth to touch us where we live today…This is a ballet of details, danced to perfection.”—San Jose Mercury News

about after the quake

  • “Spellbinding storytelling…Frank Galati skillfully interweaves two evocative short stories by Haruki Murakami and a haunting cello-and-koto score in a visually stunning, slyly comic and subtly affecting, multifaceted 80-minute reflection on fear, love, loneliness and the transformative powers of art…The emotional epicenter of Quake, like its reflections on the power of narrative, lies beneath the surface, where it continues to send out evocative tremors well after the play has ended.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “beautifully introspective…Comic book heroes battle Kafkaesque insects in a mysteriously poetic evening of theater…Haruki Murakami maps the fault lines of love, fear and loss in After the Quake [and] Galati has a genius for transforming literature from page to stage…he gently watercolors the stage with the surreal images and wry post-modern wit that make Murakami’s eccentric narrative as eerie as it is elusive…The exquisitely chiseled performances give the play a sense of delicacy that grounds Murakami’s leaps into the fantastical.”—San Jose Mercury News
  • “It’s an incredible gift wrapped in a very unusual package…a seductive theatrical invitation into the slightly off-kilter, pop-culture-rich world of Japanese author Haruki Murakami…surreal at times, quite fanciful and filled with sharp turns and dangerous curves…Galati’s direction is crisp and filled with wonderful surprises…The acting in the piece is charmingly open and inviting—and often a bit tongue-in-cheek.”—Contra Costa Times
  • “An intellectual pleasure…There’s plenty to enjoy, from Galati’s simple, fluid staging on James Schuette’s dark, elegant set (think of a hip advertising agency lobby beautifully lit by James F. Ingalls), to the warm, charming performances from the cast. Best of all is the live music performed by Jason McDermott on cello and Jeff Wichmann on koto (a stringed instrument that, like the accordion does for Paris, immediately conjures Japan)…Notions of anxiety, safety and finding equilibrium on shifting grounds course through each of the stories.”—Oakland Tribune

about heartbreak house

  • “smart and bracingly funny…Laughter beats at the heart of this Heartbreak House…The deliciously eccentric characters are sharply limned and the punch lines hit with the unerring accuracy of Shaw’s masterful blend of comedy of manners with acute social and economic satire in Associate Artistic Director Les Waters’ crisp, well acted and exquisitely designed staging.”—San Francisco Chronicle
  • “As you watch, nearly breathless with laughter, you don’t think much about the soul tweaking George Bernard Shaw gives you in his Heartbreak House…the play, getting an elegant and timely revival by Berkeley Rep, remains as fresh and contemporary as it was when the last bits of Victorian innocence were falling away in the trenches of the war to end all wars…Les Waters has infused the play with a delightful spirit of fun and high style that begins with a wildly innovative, yet elegant, set designed by Annie Smart…The acting was nothing short of superb…And all of that is presented hilariously, and painlessly to an audience that, with only a little bit of introspection, can see itself in the very characters being poked at in this saga of love, marriage, sex, money and warfare.”—Contra Costa Times / Bay Area News Group
  • “Les Waters’ exquisitely bracing revival christens the Rep’s 40th anniversary season on a disquieting note, leaving the viewer simultaneously electrified and terrified by the play’s relevance. By turns brightly comic and intellectually rigorous, this Heartbreak House tickles the funny bone as keenly as the brain…the playwright’s condemnation of an apathetic generation smiling in the face of oblivion now seems more prophetic than ever.”—San Jose Mercury News
  • “A delightful 40th birthday treat…This social satire is beautifully performed by a well-chosen, extremely talented cast of ten who provide a perfect evening of classic theatre. Besides glamorous costumes of the period, there is a beautiful set, which received applause when the curtain rose…It’s theatre you’ll truly enjoy.”—KGO radio

 

feature stories on our new season and other topics

about our upcoming season

about figaro

about tragedy: a tragedy

about wishful drinking

about taking over

about argonautika

about after the quake

about our directors

about our 40th birthday

 

the critics name us best of 2007

As the media looked back at 2007, they celebrated the shows that are born and performed at Berkeley Rep…

We’re thrilled to announce that, for the second year in a row, a show developed at Berkeley Rep made Charles Isherwood’s Top 10 in the New York Times! Last year, both Eurydice and Bridge & Tunnel made the grade. This year, Passing Strange is on the list. Strange also made the Top 10 in New York magazine and the Star-Ledger.

We’re also excited to report that Eurydice made this year’s Top 10 in Time Magazine!

In California, our shows ranked among the year’s best in publications throughout the state:

  • In the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Hurwitt picked The Pillowman as the theatrical highpoint of the year. Argonautika and after the quake were also in his Top 10—and the Chronicle’s Steven Winn praised quake as well.
  • Down south, our co-production of after the quake topped the list in the Los Angeles Times and was also honored by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
  • In the Contra Costa Times, two of our shows made the cut. In fact, Pat Craig said that Argonautika “will likely end up on my lifetime Top 10 list.”
  • In the San Jose Mercury News, when it came to time to talk theatre, The Pillowman topped the list of “What We Loved This Year.”
  • When the Bay Area Reporter, Daily Californian and East Bay Express made their Top 10 lists, each of them reserved three spots for Berkeley Rep shows!
  • When the Pacific Sun named Seven Pleasures of the Stage from 2007, two of our shows made the cut.
  • And Chad Jones, the Marin Independent Journal, the San Francisco Bay Times and Talkin’ Broadway all picked one of our productions for their Top 10 lists as well.

For 2008, we resolve to continue introducing innovations that make theatre a luxury everyone can afford. Think about it…In 2007, we launched lower ticket prices, a gourmet menu, pre-show tastings, a free book club and parties for folks under 30. What’s not to like?

and the critics named us best of 2006

As they looked back at 2006, the critics continue to applaud our artists. Shows born at Berkeley Rep made the Top 10 lists at major papers across the nation—including the New York Times! Here’s the news…

top 10—new york times

In his list of the year’s best plays, Charles Isherwood included two shows that headed east after being developed at Berkeley Rep and embraced by our audiences: he said Tony Taccone’s Broadway production of Bridge & Tunnel and Les Waters’ staging of Eurydice were the “cream-of-the-crop” and “highlights of my 2006 in theater.” Here are his exact words:

“Bridge & Tunnel: I could probably fill a 10-worst list with solo shows, but Sarah Jones’s ebullient panorama of the immigrant experience in New York City made me forget all those endless 90-minute nights of angst-ridden self-indulgence. The ease with which Ms. Jones slipped into a dozen different souls was matched by a rare gift for defining a character with a precise, indelible sound or image: the crook of a wagging finger or the musical lilt of an accent…

“Meanwhile, Les Waters’s lyrical production of Ms. Ruhl’s equally venturesome meditation on grief and loss, Eurydice, found a grateful home at Yale Repertory Theater (where The Clean House had its premiere two years ago). Happily, that production comes to the Second Stage Theater this spring.”

#1—san francisco chronicle

“HIGHPOINT OF THE YEAR: The Miser—Hilarity bared its teeth in Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre in May. From Steven Epp’s almost insanely inspired, monumentally avaricious performance in the title role to the remarkably active set, every aspect of director Dominique Serrand’s riveting, inventive production worked to convey the hilarity and darker, deeper textures of Molière’s classic comedy of a world in the grips of a profit motive run amok.”

#1—contra costa times

“9 Parts of Desire—The bar for theater excellence was set early, in January, by Berkeley Rep with this one-woman show. It was a moving and emotional look at the war in Iraq and its various kinds of carnage. The Heather Raffo show was a masterpiece.” Our productions of The Miser and Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell also made this Top 10 list.

#1—hartford courant

“SHOW OF THE YEAR: Comedy on the Bridge / Brundibar— Sometimes—love it or not—you just need a big, bold and emotional theatrical event to get the juices flowing [like this] grand production of two short operas (one meant for a children’s audience, the other for more adult sensibilities). Tony Kushner adapted a moving children’s parable with its Holocaust subtext, with Maurice Sendak creating a stunning visual work.” In this story, critic Frank Rizzo also praised Maria Dizzia’s performance and Scott Bradley’s set for Eurydice.

hottest score—san jose mercury news

“Passing Strange—Don’t funk with Stew. The musician best known for his band The Negro Problem brought some serious rock mojo to bear for this premiere production, which was kinda, sorta auto-bio but was lit by groovalicious tunes…I’m still humming.”

In addition, the paper congratulated Berkeley Rep for successfully transferring shows to the Big Apple: “The Bay Area also enhanced its status as a launch pad for NYC this year with tons of shows debuting here, from splashy Broadway fare to edgier work like Brundibar and Passing Strange.”

#2—san diego union tribune

“Zorro in Hell—Culture Clash capped a year of growth to saddle up and deconstruct California’s original masked man in an exuberant evening of savagely entertaining agit-prop, co-commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Rep.”

#2—new york sun

“Bridge & Tunnel—Virtuosity, uplift, wit, pathos, joy: Just about everything you could hope to see on Broadway was on glorious display in Sarah Jones’s one-woman show about an outer-borough immigrant poetry slam. Rarely has a week gone by in the last year without my thinking of Ms. Jones’s timid Dominican student, maladroit Pakistani emcee, or heartbreaking Chinese mother.”

#2—oakland tribune

“The Glass Menagerie at Berkeley Rep—The news that Rita Moreno, the Bay Area’s resident living legend, would tackle the role of Amanda in this Tennessee Williams classic was intriguing. Could Moreno handle it? Anyone who doubted Moreno’s chops was quickly proven wrong by her powerhouse portrayal of a mother desperate to see her children succeed in a harsh world. Director Les Waters gave us such a fresh approach to the play that it almost seemed newly minted.”

#3—san francisco chronicle

Not only did The Miser top Robert Hurwitt’s list of the year’s best theatre, it made Steven Winn’s list of the most significant Bay Area cultural events for 2006: “In this hilariously bleak adaptation of Molière’s 17th century text, Theatre de la Jeune Lune uncorked the theatrical miracle of the year at Berkeley Rep. The show got funnier and shrewder as it went, mounting to a heady depiction of greed, desolation and human cunning.”

#3—san francisco bay times

“The Glass Menagerie at Berkeley Rep—Rita Moreno astounded us with her tour de force performance of Amanda Wingfield. Berkeley Rep offers visually outstanding stagings, top-notch tech, strong performances, great new scripts, and anti-war politics. Also fantastic last year were 9 Parts of Desire, Mother Courage, Ennio, and Zorro in Hell.”

#3—daily californian

“The Glass Menagerie—Rita Moreno’s stunning performance in Berkeley Rep’s triumphant production of The Glass Menagerie showcased drama at its finest. Themes such as the fragility of human nature and the pitting of illusion against reality were deftly interwoven with emphasis on dark humor, which brought a breath of fresh air to a venerated play. Familial tragedy had never seemed so hauntingly beautiful.” All Wear Bowlers and Passing Strange also made this Top 10 list.

and don’t miss…

 

our shows hit it big in manhattan…and nationwide

“Suddenly the Rep is one of the Bay Area’s leading export companies,” exclaimed the San Francisco Chronicle in a recent story that celebrated how our shows have been traveling to cities nationwide. In fact, six recent plays have seen out-of-town success with ten sensational runs in Manhattan, Los Angeles, La Jolla, Minneapolis, New Haven—even Juneau, Alaska! Here are the rave reviews for shows that you saw locally before they were reborn abroad…

passing strange rocks off broadway

When we presented the world premiere of Passing Strange in 2006, no one had seen anything like it. Then this wild rock musical transferred to an off-Broadway run at The Public Theatre. Thanks to rave reviews—like these in The New Yorker and the New York Times (PDFs)—the show was extended for four weeks.

  • “fresh, exuberant and bitingly funny…full of heart…this bracingly inventive show introduces an exciting new voice to contemporary musical theater, a witty wordsmith, composer and performer who goes by the single name Stew…Stew’s gift for smart comic wordplay would be the envy of many a rapper, but the more lyrical passages in Passing Strange are carefully sculptured, considered and reflective…Professor Stew can also play a mean guitar, and when necessary, he strides the stage like an evangelical preacher, or a preening rocker, to whip the audience into a froth.”—New York Times
  • “Propulsive…Passing Strange is a brilliant work about migration—a geographical migration but also its hero’s migration beyond the tenets of ‘blackness’ and toward selfhood…the Narrator, a short, stocky charmer, with a shaved head, yellow-tinted glasses, and a cotton-candy goatee, wins us over almost at once. Given the rock-and-roll element of the show, we are somewhat jadedly expecting a more colored version of Rent, with a bit of Hedwig and the Angry Inch thrown in. Instead, the Narrator establishes himself as an ironist with a comfortable, middle-class pedigree…Stew and the show’s exceptionally gifted director, Annie Dorsen, skewer the scene in which the Youth leaves his long-suffering mother by making it look and sound like an Antonioni movie. What the Narrator calls the Youth’s ‘search for the real’ begins here. And we marvel at his bravery…With Passing Strange, Stew, Rodewald, and Dorsen have created a work of such singularity that it prompts comparisons less to traditional theatre than to the eccentric iconoclasm of the producer Prince Paul, who, in works like his 1999 hip-hop opera, A Prince Among Thieves, ushered in the sound of the New Negro. Whether he knows it or not, Stew has picked up the baton…such a finely crafted, ethnic-minded American musical.”—The New Yorker (June 11, 2007)
  • “sharp and effective, both as visceral entertainment and an intellectual statement on race and performance…the songs are honest-to-god rock ‘n’ roll, boiling with energy whether they’re sung by characters or by Stew himself, who often leaves his narrator’s perch to work the crowd…The achievement is even more exciting because its creators are essentially novices…Stew and Rodewald had no experience as dramatists. No matter. The first time is the charm.”—Variety
  • “A savvy rock memoir by the singer-songwriter Stew, who presides over a musical retelling of his prodigal youth…Loud and smart and lit by neon, Stew’s stylish creation playfully flouts the conventions of the Künstlerroman, setting folly and wisdom alike to a heady beat.”—The New Yorker (May 28, 2007)
  • “deeply theatrical…Stew and his crew deftly work the English language into a jokey, charged, poetic frenzy of clever lyrics and cool-sounding dialogue. Beyond mere cleverness, though, Stew’s knife-edge racial commentary is both upsetting and unexpectedly funny…This guy doesn’t just sing his songs, he tears into each one as if he can’t wait to taste it…The result of all this rock and roll and painstaking craftsmanship is a musical of individual discovery that belongs on the shelf next to standards such as John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”—Newsday
  • “soulful and entertaining…The book and lyrics of Passing Strange are infused with a rhythmic and poetic sense of style…His writing brings to mind the sardonic lyricism of Randy Newman. His singing style echoes the wry conviction of Cat Stevens. His songs are composed with a playful irreverence reminiscent of Frank Zappa…The strength of Passing Strange lies in its original songs, funky band and talented cast.”—Associated Press
  • “a new musical that—amazing!—actually feels relevant…Stew and director Annie Dorsen convey the easy pleasure of a show that doesn’t feel the need to explain itself…They play straight-ahead rock when it suits them, or traipse off into some other style, like Baptist revival (when the Youth discovers music in church) or punk (when he starts a garage band) or psychedelia (in Amsterdam, obviously)…It’s yet another sign that smart theater composers are edging out of the sonic museum and into the world of 21st-century pop, discovering the joys of bright lights and loud music.”—New York Magazine
  • “Stew, the eye of the freewheeling sonic hurricane that is Passing Strange, spends much of this strange and satisfying musical knocking various chips off his own shoulder and replacing them with new ones…Stew’s whipsmart lyrics graft the nimble virtuosity of spoken-word poetry onto a dense indie-soul score that incorporates everyone from Joe Jackson to John Legend to Jimi Hendrix…He tweaks the received wisdom of racial identity as cannily and wittily as any playwright since George C. Wolfe when he unleashed The Colored Museum in 1986.”—New York Sun
  • “Funky…the music is first-rate…its propulsive score and witty lyrics demonstrate a prodigious musical talent…The performers, particularly Breaker as Stew’s alter-ego, do terrific work, and the creator/narrator is a highly engaging presence.”—New York Post
  • “fine and funky…a new show with a downtown rock ‘n’ roll sensibility…Stew tells this tale making no concessions to musical theater expectations…his journey takes him through the whirlwind of cutting-edge American and European musical styles that begins with gospel and travels through punk, blues, jazz, and rock…Stew weaves his tale with wit and withering self-examination.”—Theatermania
  • “Ingenious…Passing Strange is smart, funny, noisy, and eclectic, and like Spring Awakening it trades in an essential currency of youth and rock: the urge to find out who you are…Passing Strange is further reinvigorating the rock musical…with artists like Sheik and Stew turning their attention to the stage, theater music—for the first time in half a century—is plugged into the sound of popular music. Of course part of the credit goes to those shows’ innovative young directors, Michael Mayer and Annie Dorsen, who are helping to fashion a fresh set of values for the rock musical.”—Boston Globe

les waters brings eurydice back to life in new haven

After making the show a local hit in 2004, Associate Artistic Director Les Waters took Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice to Yale Repertory Theatre in 2006. Read the rave review in the New York Times. (4.5MB PDF)

  • “DEVASTATINGLY LOVELY…realized, impeccably, by the director Les Waters…it may just be the most moving exploration of the theme of loss that the American theater has produced since the events of Sept. 11, 2001…you may find yourself taken to heights of emotion (sad depths, really) that theater too rarely achieves. Maybe it was all the water imagery, but I fought off tears for half the play…Like all fine poems, songs and paintings, it’s a love letter to the world that deserves to be remembered for a good long time.”—New York Times
  • “POWERFUL…Along Eurydice’s journey as imagined by Ruhl and realized by Waters are moments of aching beauty…heartfelt performaces, individual scenes of exquisite beauty and some stunning production feats…Ruhl’s leading characters captivate the audience at hello, which helps later as both go to hell and (almost) back.”—Variety
  • “PAINFULLY HUMAN and exquisitely otherworldly…A stunningly beautiful production of a profoundly resonate play by an infinitely astute playwright…Director Waters’ sensitive staging [makes] this one of the most simple yet heartrending love scenes on any stage in an elephant’s memory…an exemplary production of a such a mature and fresh work.”—New Haven Register
  • “Eurydice is GREAT THEATER…What a mythical, magical and sometimes watery enchantment…Director Les Waters reinforces the combined realms of Ruhl’s imaginative and freewheeling script [in] a bravura mix of linguistic, acting, costume and musical styles.”—Hartford Courant
  • “PRAISE THE GODS…an unexpected tale of love, loss, rebirth, and temporary shelter…the true wonder of Eurydice is not its sustained illusions, marvelous as they are, but the depth of the emotions it channels…endlessly surprising.”—New Haven Advocate

tony taccone debuts on broadway with bridge & tunnel

After the stunning success of Surface Transit, Artistic Director Tony Taccone teamed up again with solo performer Sarah Jones for Bridge & Tunnel. They workshopped the show with audiences at Berkeley Rep before taking it to Broadway. The show became a huge hit, extending for five months and winning a Tony Award for its star…

  • “REMARKABLE…a sweet-spirited valentine to New York City…smoothly directed by Tony Taccone…Admire, please. Gasp and applaud to your heart’s content.”—New York Times
  • “FRESH and forward-thinking…The world could use more of the wit, warmth and profound empathy that Jones’ Bridge is built on.”—USA Today
  • “DAZZLING…poignant and powerful…a generous, funny valentine to the kaleidoscopic, cacophonous melting pot of New York…after further workshopping at Berkeley Rep (where Taccone is artistic director), the show has been seamlessly fine-tuned.”—Variety
  • “The nicest show on Broadway…a welcome-to-New York destination event.”—New York Newsday
  • “AMAZING…hilarious…accomplished with rapid-fire speed thanks to Tony Taccone’s efficient direction.”—Associated Press
  • “The best new play on Broadway…rich, boisterous, and enormously touching…Director Tony Taccone uses Jones’ lanky body, supple alto, and hard-to-pin-down ethnicity to masterful effect.”—New York Sun
  • “In focusing on the immigrant experience, Ms. Jones is honoring anew, and embodying in theatrical form, the durable dream that keeps drawing immigrants to America…it happens to be the subject of that popular performance piece that has been playing in New York Harbor for more than a century now. That one is also a solo show, starring a big green dame with a torch. Ms. Jones’s Bridge & Tunnel is naturally somewhat smaller in scale, but it’s a worthy sequel. A lot funnier, too.”—New York Times

taccone, kushner and sendak take brundibar to new york city

After making it a holiday hit at Berkeley Rep, Artistic Director Tony Taccone brought Brundibar to New Haven and New York City. His stunning collaboration with Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak played to sold-out houses and was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards…

  • “A little musical charmer…lively comic performances…evocative sets…Mr. Kushner and his collaborators, the celebrated children’s book author Maurice Sendak and Kris Stone, who designed the production, and the director, Tony Taccone, allow this essentially frolicsome opera to sing for itself…Euan Morton, of Taboo fame, tears into the tasty role of Brundibar with infectious relish…as the unlikely survival of this opera suggests, the joy and beauty that music and art express can outlast evil even when they cannot defeat it.”—New York Times
  • “Like all good fairy tales, Brundibar is composed of lightness and shadows, both elements scrupulously observed in Tony Taccone’s gorgeously designed and remarkably well choreographed production.”—Variety
  • “Tony Kushner has now adapted the piece with tender intelligence…the peerless illustrator Maurice Sendak has contributed designs that bulge with lumpy loveliness…Brundibar does not skimp on entertainment—but neither does it shy from the shadows of its history.”—Time Out New York
  • “light, flavorful fun…Tyranny has proven remarkably resilient, of course, but so, thank God, has Brundibar.”—Newsday
  • “delightful…irresistible…an experience as ineffably moving as it is enjoyable…The production has been done at Yale Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, whose artistic director, Tony Taccone, re-creates his lovely staging”—Backstage
  • “brilliantly played by Euan Morton…we never lose sight of Hoffmeister and Krása’s intention: to show the power of the community, and the grit to be found in hope. Maurice Sendak’s beautiful sets add to the reality and the fairy-tale nature of it all.”—The New Yorker
  • “Off-Broadway’s most fascinating new show…Brundibar is a unique, smart and very enjoyable musical play that will speak to children, intrigue adults and entertain nearly all of us.”—AM New York

taccone rides south with culture clash’s zorro in hell

Last year, Tony Taccone directed the world premiere of Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell at Berkeley Rep, and the show received rave reviews. Then our heroes headed south to La Jolla Playhouse, where they once again left audiences rolling in the aisles…

  • “REFUSES TO PULL PUNCHES…There’s no denying that the trio of performers who make up Culture Clash know how to seduce an audience with clownish everyman charm…The punch lines are delivered with crack timing, and many are quite daring in their sentiments…La Jolla residents can sleep easier now that Zorro has landed on their shores.”—Los Angeles Times
  • “EXUBERANT…hellzapoppin’…hilarious (and expertly performed)…Zorro in Hell is one wily, ambitious, sometimes hectic, yet savagely entertaining piece of agit-prop…Sharon Lockwood is one-of-a-kind—with technique and intelligence for any kind of role but the principled spirit to shape a career in socially conscious theater that melts cynicism into admiration.”—San Diego Union Tribune
  • “A GUILTY PLEASURE…Zorro in Hell is an exhilarating return to what Culture Clash does best…some of the funniest, smartest satire you’ll see on a California stage this year…Director Tony Taccone keeps the pace at light speed…Just remember to leave your sensitivities and political leanings at home, because whatever they are they’ll be mocked, lustily and cheerfully.”—Orange County Register
  • “ENORMOUS FUN…a milestone…a swaggering, outrageous, name-dropping banquet of pranky chauvinism that leaves no stereotype untweaked…a spectacle with no expense seemingly spared…I’m convinced. I’m aboard. I’m considering going back to laugh some more.”—San Diego Arts

 

acclaim for our organization

about berkeley rep

  • “Berkeley Rep occupies two sleek, custom-built theaters. Gone are the days when actors had to dash outside and down an alley to enter on the stage’s far side. Yet under Tony Taccone, who is just its third artistic director in four decades, the company continues to pride itself on producing provocative, often overtly political theater, the kind that generates loud and clamorous debate…Berkeley Rep has a tradition of playing host to formidable talents before their big breaks, like Anna Deavere Smith, Mary Zimmerman, and Mary-Louise Parker. And it has long been a leader in producing writers of color. In recent years Mr. Taccone has put his weight behind producing another underserved group: emerging writers, including Stew, Ms. Ruhl (a recent recipient of a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant), and Jordan Harrison. Mr. Taccone’s approach—to offer emerging writers the same resources as established ones and to hold them to the same standards—has helped yield a string of hits. He is also able to offer new plays a very educated, broad-minded audience…And artists appreciate Berkeley Rep’s intimate 600- and 400-seat theatres, in which no seat is more than 49 feet from the stage…Increasingly, Berkeley Rep’s galvanizing productions have been traveling to New York. The rock musical Passing Strange, which opened on Broadway on Thursday, is the fourth show in two years with Berkeley lineage to transfer to a major New York stage…It is a striking body of work, a reminder of the importance of regional theaters as feeders to New York.”—Joy Goodwin, New York Times
  • “With a well-deserved reputation for producing a steady stream of challenging work that earned it the 1997 Tony Award for outstanding regional theater, Berkeley Rep continues to confound expectations…Founded in 1968, the Rep has grown into one heavyweight regional theater.”—Sam Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
  • “One of the more adventurous American theatrical enterprises outside of New York.”—David Littlejohn, Wall Street Journal
  • “Berkeley Rep, which won a Tony Award in 1997 for outstanding regional theater, was begun in a storefront by some university graduate students in 1968…It soon became a cultural tradition in Berkeley, with a yearly offering of seven or eight plays, a mix of classic and contemporary works…By design, it’s an eclectic and wide-ranging program.”—Bernard Weinraub, New York Times
  • “Known for stellar productions of the works of contemporary playwrights with political bents.”—Jean Schiffman, Variety
  • “In the past 10 years, Berkeley Rep has gained a national reputation as a theatre on the cutting edge of artistic expression.“—Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune
  • “One could see this string of accomplishments as inevitable, given the quality of the artists who seek out Taccone’s talent, or as the hard-earned culmination of a career as one of American theatre’s most versatile and generous collaborators.”—Ellen McLaughlin, American Theatre
  • “Berkeley Rep rules. Yeah, yeah, way to state the obvious, I know. This may be old news in these parts but the East Coast is just now catching on to the trend.”—Karen D’Souza, San Jose Mercury News
  • “It can’t be true that every old script that Berkeley Repertory Theatre touches turns to gold. It just seems that way.”—Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Examiner
  • “Let’s not quibble…Nobody’s perfect…But Berkeley Rep comes close with more consistency than any theatre in the region.”—Leo Stutzin, Modesto Bee
  • “Berkeley Rep offers visually outstanding stagings, top-notch tech, strong performances, great new scripts, and anti-war politics.”—Tom Kelly, SF Bay Times
  • “Berkeley Rep is the Bay Area’s most consistently excellent theater company.”—Judy Richter, Aisle Say
  • “Had I my druthers, every play would run at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, easily the most theatregoer-friendly house in the Bay Area.”—Gerald Nachman, San Francisco Chronicle

about the downtown berkeley arts district

  • “What is happening is the transformation of some forlorn streets of empty buildings and auto body shops into a potentially flourishing neighborhood anchored by a sleek new 600-seat theater that is the second stage for the 400-seat Berkeley Repertory Theatre…With the opening of the $20 million theater, which adjoins, via a courtyard, the older one, the Addison Street neighborhood is pulsing with activity…The second theater [is] the nucleus of a revitalized downtown.”—Bernard Weinraub, New York Times
  • “The new $20 million Berkeley Repertory Theatre is the anchor in downtown Berkeley’s revival.”—Kim Severson, San Francisco Chronicle
  • “It’s been a long struggle to make downtown Berkeley come alive again, and Berkeley Rep has been the driving force that has turned its block of Addison Street into an official, city-supported Downtown Arts District. That in turn has generated the growth of theater and live music attractions nearby.”—Robert Taylor, Contra Costa Times
  • “Artistic Director Tony Taccone and Managing Director Susan Medak met the challenge of creating a larger theater without sacrificing the intimacy for which Berkeley Rep is known and admired…Berkeley Rep’s two-theatre complex, along with the adjacent new Nevo Education Center, forms the lynchpin to the city’s emerging arts district.”—Belinda Taylor, Callboard
  • “Art envelops you in this town. On Addison Street, you can read poetry etched in the sidewalk, view paintings in a parking garage, catch a show at three stages run by two outstanding theater companies and hear some hot music at one of the nation’s only schools devoted entirely to jazz. And that’s just in one block.”—Sunset Magazine
  • “A world-class stage, state-of-the-art sound and lighting, brilliant acoustics and great sightlines…The new stage will help the theater operation look as brawny as its reputation. The relatively small Berkeley Rep, and its original 360-seat house, has an enormous reputation throughout the country, along with the regional Tony Award it received in 1997…The new theater will be the keystone of Berkeley’s new Addison Street Arts District, and Berkeley Rep will be a major player, not only with the two theaters, but with a new educational facility as well, located just on the other side of the existing theater.”—Pat Craig, Contra Costa Times

about the roda theatre

  • “The vast stage—which can be reconfigured, lighted and set in an almost infinite number of ways—is remarkably intimate. With long ranks of seats facing forward, clear sightlines and acoustics and nothing in the house to distract you, the play is definitely the thing.”—David Littlejohn, Wall Street Journal
  • “When the burgundy curtain rose, The Roda got down to business and did what it will clearly do best for years to come. The new theater became a strikingly responsive instrument, tuned to the actors and spectacle on stage. The relationship of audience to art is everything the Rep had hoped it would be…a stunningly big picture on intimate terms…Lines spoken in a husky whisper carry cleanly to the back of the house…The deep cherry-wood wall surfaces and a towering airspace crowned with lofty catwalks and exposed air ducts vanish into plush darkness when the house lights go down. The show, as it always should be, is the thing.”—Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
  • “It’s certainly not too early to sing the praises of the newly dubbed Roda Theatre: it’s a warm, elegant, vibrant space that manages to combine scale and intimacy, featuring great acoustics and a state-of-the-art proscenium that makes some truly striking stage imagery possible. As performances spaces in the Bay Area disappear at an alarming rate, this handsome brand-new theater is little short of a miracle.”—Brad Rosenstein, SF Bay Guardian
  • “The new theater and the arts development along Addison Street signals an eastward shift in the Bay Area theater scene. The theater already had a national reputation, winning a regional Tony Award in 1997. Now it’s getting facilities to match…The new, 27,000-square-foot auditorium features state-of-the-art lighting and acoustics, great views from every seat, and a design heavy on wood-textured concrete and real wood…Berkeley Rep is the centerpiece.”—Tony Hicks, Contra Costa Times
  • “Check out the spacious yet intimate new theater and all of its bells and whistles: a 90-foot scenery storage tower, state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems and—something of which Berkeley Rep is extremely proud—13 stalls in the women’s room. But if you’re not a woman, please knock before going in.”—Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune
  • “The most dominant characteristic of the company’s new proscenium theater is its intimacy…its design whispers Berkeley. With an architectural flavor that at times suggests the Maybeck style—think Craftsman crossbred with Frank Lloyd Wright—the theater [has] a rawness and elegance that is undeniably East Bay.”—Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury News
  • “In 1968, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre occupied a simple storefront. Things have changed since then: This month, a new three-story, 600-seat theater premieres with a grand-opening dinner and a performance of The Oresteia. The addition joins an existing 401-seat facility as well as a theater school in the Nevo Education Center next door. Together, the three comprise a true performance complex on the Addison Street arts corridor in downtown Berkeley.”—Chiori Santiago, Sunset Magazine
  • “For a year and a half, the 2000 block of Addison Street has been a hive of activity, reminiscent of the bustle and community involvement that attended the construction of medieval cathedrals…Politics and enlightened citizenry can be found in the gifts that have helped make the theatre possible: $4 million from the City of Berkeley, $2 million from Ask Jeeves, Inc., and a spectacular sound system by the world-famous Berkeley-based Meyer Sound Laboratories…The ingenious design from ELS Architects keeps the audience close to the action. No seat is farther than 49 feet from the stage, and the stage itself is large, with capacious trap room below and fly room above, increasing scenic possibilities.”—Belinda Taylor, Performing Arts Magazine
  • “Yes, it’s going to be different, but it’s going to be a good different. The Rep has made every effort to retain the things that matter most to its dedicated audience: intimacy, clarity, and a lack of pretension…even the cheap-ticket SRO area is going to be a better ‘seat’ than you can find in the expensive part of certain other theatres.”—Lisa Drostova, East Bay Express
  • “Indeed, the closeness of the boxes and the loge to the stage lend the intimately scaled site the feel of a European jewel box theater…The mixed elements of stone and wood evoke Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Waters house. The theater is masculine and majestic in its strong lines and rough textures…Entering the tech booth, there’s a feeling you’ve stepped into the cockpit of the starship Enterprise. The sleekly molded console is studded with gazillions of sliding buttons and gadgets.”—Pamela Fisher, San Francisco Examiner
  • “Berkeley Repertory Theatre has created a classic of its own: a facility capable of housing epic productions while maintaining the intimacy between actor and viewer that is live theater’s greatest reason for existence…Even viewers at the rear of the orchestra or mezzanine should be able to see every grin and grimace without resorting to binoculars: No seat is more than 49 feet from the stage…The two stages will give the company a one-two punch in theatrical flexibility.”—Leo Stutzin, Modesto Bee
  • “Berkeley Repertory Theatre has sprouted wings and Bay Area theatergoers will be uplifted as well in the sleek new theater that seats 600 but has the same intimate feel as the one next door.”—Lee Brady, Pacific Sun
  • “A lovely 600-seat proscenium theater with a huge stage opening and terrific sight lines.”—Erika Milvy, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
  • “Berkeley Rep has given the Bay Area the glorious gift of a major new theatrical venue…the expansive stage of the new Roda Theatre. The auditorium itself, a hard-edged modernist take on traditional proscenium theatres, proves a surprisingly intimate companion to such a large stage.”—Richard Dodds, Bay Area Reporter

 

artists applaud berkeley rep

  • “At Berkeley Rep, I feel like a wanderer who has finally come home.”—Rita Moreno, legendary actress
  • “Working with Tony Taccone has been an intense, enlightening, fortifying experience…My creative partner, Steve Colman, and I have learned more about our own process through our collaborations with Tony than with anyone else. His generosity, passion, and dedication to the craft of honest expression are but a few of his many gifts. In other words, we think he kicks ass.”—Sarah Jones, Tony Award-winning solo performer
  • “Seeing a show at Berkeley Rep changed my life.”—Tom Hanks, Academy Award-winning actor
  • “Berkeley Rep was one of the first theatres in the country to do my work, ten years before it became ‘known.’ They have been big enough for experiments, but savvy enough to become a mainstay of American arts. They are the symbol of their generation: an exemplary one!”—Anna Deavere Smith, playwright, performer and MacArthur genius
  • “Tony [Taccone] is one of my oldest friends. We’ve done seven shows now, and I love the theatre he’s built. Any chance I get to work at Berkeley, I take it.”—Tony Kushner, Tony- and Pulitizer-winning playwright
  • “Rock and roll with extra hot sauce on it, baby! Che Guevera would be pleased, and he would probably be a subscriber. ¡Viva Berkeley Rep!”—Culture Clash, homegrown comedy troupe
  • “Berkeley was a comfort zone for us. I mean, we throw a lot of references at people—art history, literature, politics, language jokes. And we’re thinking, ‘If anybody’s going to get all this, it’s these people.’ Do you realize that there’s a homeless book club in Berkeley? If you’re going to throw a bag of cultural references at people, this is the place to do it.”—Stew, creator of Passing Strange
  • “Berkeley Rep is a smart, generous and forward-thinking theatre. The audience it serves is the most intelligent I’ve run into in America. And Berkeley Rep has the signal advantage of being the place where Les Waters, one of the great minds and hearts of the theatre world, happens to work. I can honestly say there’s nowhere I’d rather develop a new piece.”—Ellen McLaughlin, actress and playwright
  • “I like [Taccone’s] pugnaciousness. I like that he knows what he wants to do. Any artist these days who is brave enough to stand up for what he wants to do and not buckle, that’s rarer than the ivory-billed woodpecker.”—Maurice Sendak, beloved children’s author
  • “Working at Berkeley Rep is like playing with the smart kids: fun, challenging, surprising and fulfilling. There is a unique alchemy of audience and artists and staff at play here, and that makes it a magnetic operation.”—Lisa Peterson, Obie Award-winning director
  • “It gave me the opportunity to learn my craft as an actor. How better can you do that than by working in a repertory company for 10 years?”—Joe Spano, actor and Emmy nominee
  • “Berkeley Rep has been a West Coast home for my work, and I can’t think of another theatre that would be daring enough to help us realize a performance that is both epic in scale and extremely intimate in scope. Audiences here have always been receptive to new work that tests conventional wisdom.”—Mike Daisey, popular solo performer
  • “Berkeley Rep! O lucky me! A support system for comedy!”—Geoff Hoyle, renowned clown
  • “He [Les Waters] has been called a Zen director. He does it so quietly: by giving a generous enjoyment when something is working or someone tries something that opens up possibilities, and he questions the text and choices by raising his eyebrow, a gentle interrogation, that allows us to work in the room without censorship. He completely immerses himself in the tonality of feelings that a work summons up, and he feels his work deeply.”—Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
  • “Les goes with his gut rather than living in a place of cleverness. There is always something emotional, transcendent, at stake for him…His fearlessness in the rehearsal studio has become a beacon that draws playwrights to him. To find a director who is so virtuosic but also so caring, so loyal, to what you might describe as the-play-in-itself…that’s a playwright’s dream.”—Sarah Ruhl, playwright and MacArthur genius
  • “Berkeley Rep is home and always new cultural territory—as an artist I’m proud to be part of its life and growth.”—Sharon Lockwood, veteran Bay Area actor
  • “I remember when Michael Leibert announced he was going to make a professional repertory theatre in Berkeley, all the faculty at Berkeley—we were in grad school—all the professors said, ‘That’s crazy. You’ll never pull it off.’ But Michael just kept trucking. We were just flying by the seat of our pants, so it’s nice to know that all that work built a theatre that will last forever.”—Holly Barron, leading lady from Berkeley Rep’s early days

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