Review: “She Loves Me” at San Francisco Playhouse

She Loves Me, the 1963 Bock and Harnick romantic musical comedy, has always gotten the short end of the stick, historically. Nobody who has ever seen it thinks its less than a miniature work of musical comedy gold, but the original production—which was directed by the great Harold Prince and starred the legendary Barbara Cook—ran less than a year. Since then, the only major New York revivals have been noncommercial productions that lasted less than half a year each. Thankfully, San Francisco has been gifted with a wonderful production of this wonderful musical, and you should not miss your chance to see She Loves Me while its at the San Francisco Playhouse.

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Review: “Safe House” at Aurora Repertory Theatre

How often do people yell in real life? In the past six months, I can only think of about two conversations that have resulted in raised voices that I personally participated in. Keith Josef Adkins, however, would have you believe that the natural colloquy of human beings is loud and emotional. At least, that’s how he presents his characters in his 2014 slavery drama Safe House, a loud and exasperatingly overwrought melodrama that hides its interesting sociopolitical themes in a thick coating of syrupy sentiment.