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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 Ghost Light

Reviews for The Wild Bride

Reviews for How to Write a New Book for the Bible

Reviews for Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup

Feature stories on recent shows

Best features on Berkeley Rep

reviews for ghost light

“Brave, evocative and surprisingly funny…It’s an impressive and courageous project…Taccone’s sharp, acerbic humor keeps the show afloat. The historic material is enlightening and, in the end, the play’s emotional core comes through in some deeply moving images of the charming and elusive father.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Beautifully written…Undeniably powerful. Ghost Light burns with the need to burnish a father’s legacy…Fuses the personal and the political with explosive results. From cheeky inside jokes about the theatuh to penetrating insights about the nature of grief, Ghost Light is radiant indeed in its world premiere co-production at Berkeley Rep…The play bubbles over with insights into the way the death of a loved one can spiral into an inconsolable sense of loss, how our memories shape our identity and how vulnerable children are to the fickle hand of fate. All of this unfolds on a set dominated by the august facade of San Francisco City Hall (design by Todd Rosenthal), which is fitting, because it’s the weight of history that gives Ghost Light its intensity…The combination of Moscone’s bracing candor, Taccone’s lacerating wit and San Francisco’s legendary history imbues the play with a deeply cathartic sense of the tragicomedy of existence.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Haunting, insightful and often mordantly funny…Taccone’s cerebral script slips freely between anguished dreams, sexual advances and political discourse. At the heart of the play is Jon’s struggle to restore his father’s place in history…Moore is outstanding. Sarcastic, fiercely intelligent and deeply wounded, his Jon is a riveting portrait of a man at odds with himself. When, like Hamlet, he finally claims his birthright, it’s the stuff of great theater.”—San Francisco Examiner
“This is a brave piece of work and an artful demonstration of fact and fiction fusing into something authentic and undeniably powerful…I expected Ghost Light, a co-production of Berkeley Repertory Theatre (where Taccone is artistic director) and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where the play had the first leg of its world premiere last summer, to be about grief and the complicated relationship between fathers and sons. It is about those things. How could it not be, seeing as how it deals primarily with the effect of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone’s assassination in 1978, when his son Jon was 14 years old. But what struck me about the play—a strange, fascinating, complex and challenging drama—was how much it’s about art and the act of creativity.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for the wild bride

“Enthralling…Acrobatic and expressive…The Devil is at the crossroads, a girl is in peril and love is gloriously indestructible in the exhilarating The Wild Bride that opened Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This latest taste of the inexhaustible creativity of England’s Kneehigh Theatre is a feast of timeless story, irresistible music and wildly imaginative theatricality…It’s enchantingly realized through the magic of Rice’s ingenious theatrics as executed by this brilliant cast…Bride is a gift that keeps on giving. What starts in an enchanted, bluesy folktale world dips into creepy nightmare terrain and sails aloft on wings of grit, resolution and fantasy. It’s a fairy tale for adults.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Hypnotic…The Wild Bride will steal your heart from start to finish…One of the most enchanting holiday shows in recent memory, this whimsical tale of wonder and woe runs through Jan. 1 at Berkeley Rep. The Brothers Grimm enter distinctly Southern Gothic territory in this fiendishly clever fairy tale…Rice makes the adventure magical and unexpectedly moving [with] an ingenious marriage of dance, theater, puppetry and music…Once upon a time has rarely been so intoxicating.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Wild Bride is a devilishly entertaining fairy tale. The best fairy tales have always been a mix of the magical and the macabre, and The Wild Bride achieves an ideal blend. Emma Rice’s Kneehigh Theatre production, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre last week, is no cuddly bedtime story. Deliciously dark and endlessly imaginative, it turns a minor tale from Grimm’s into a gripping theatrical event…The Wild Bride is a wild ride. Anyone who believes in magic should see it.”—San Francisco Examiner
“Magnificent…Such joy. Such wicked, delicious, heart-pounding joy. That’s what it feels like at the end of The Wild Bride, the dark fairy tale come to life on Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda stage. This is, without question, the great treat of the holiday theater season…The Wild Bride is unrestrained and magnificent. Rice and her performers dazzle us with humor, surprise us with movement and blow us away with the sheer force and imagination of their storytelling…Here comes the Bride indeed—in the most unexpectedly charming and poignant fashion you can imagine…Wild Bride feels organically wild, bold and brave and full of the kind of sights, sounds and stories that make theater the most thrilling art form on the planet.”—Theater Dogs

reviews for how to write a new book for the bible

“Bracingly personal, smart, funny, affecting…The degree to which we like all these people, and the various doctors and others played by Blakely and Marks, not only draws us into the way they handle the natural process of dying but also strikes a refreshingly unique chord. Even their squabbles are endearing, not to mention funny. Nicholson, who directed the Marin Theatre premiere of 9 Circles, enhances the appeal with crisp, clear and seductively smooth stagings on Scott Bradley’s ingeniously lovely set of suspended windows, lamps, curtains and shards of glass.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Tenderly crafted…A profound meditation on the shared narratives that hold a family together through the vagaries of life and death. The intimacy of his remembrance gives this memory play its shattering resonance. The playwright is giving a blessing to his family in the form of theater, and there’s no denying the beauty of that ritual…We recognize ourselves or those we love in the minutiae of this family’s life.”—San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“Brilliant…Profoundly wonderful and deeply personal…An extraordinary play…Sometimes you experience a work of art—for me that art is usually theater—and it connects you with something bigger and more powerful than your individual experience. You connect with the other audience members, the actors, the designers and, especially, the writer. When that connection is made, the communal heart of theater is so alive, so vast and so inexplicably moving that transcendence does, however temporary, seem a viable option. Bill Cain’s How to Write a New Book for the Bible is one of those experiences…I was in tears multiple times, and it wasn’t always because what was happening on stage was sad. When you’re not being moved, chances are good Cain is making you laugh, often at his own expense.”—Theater Dogs
“Stunning…Some plays are more beguiling and moving than you expect them to be, at least upon hearing the basic outline, and that’s definitely the case with Bill Cain’s How to Write a New Book for the Bible…Bible is a meditation on suffering, and family that somehow manages to be incredibly funny at the same time…Cain’s point is that every family’s story, or at least every death, deserves this kind of holy recording. It’s a loving tribute, and at many moments a painful one to watch. But as Cain says in the program notes, ‘I think of the play as joyous,’ and when you hear the audience laugh for the fiftieth time in two hours, you’ll understand.”—SFist

reviews for rita moreno: life without makeup

“Moreno—past and present—is a pleasure…Written by Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone, in his local playwriting debut, developed with Moreno and directed by David Galligan, Rita is an idiosyncratic cross between star showcase and intimate memoir. Two backup dancers and music director-pianist César Cancino’s polished onstage quartet are on hand for the expected career-highlight numbers. But most of Rita is the story of a Puerto Rican girl’s journey from childhood through the highs, lows and racism of show biz. It’s the tale of the successes, missteps, passions and regrets of Rosita Dolores Alverio as she tried to make her way…She looks great and commands the stage with ease, in Annie Smart’s svelte gowns, as choreographer Lee Martino makes good use of the athletic Ray Garcia and Salvatore Vassallo to fill in Robbins-based or Gene Kelly-ish moves in numbers from West Side Story and Singin’ in the Rain. Her very funny recreation of her Tony-winning turn from Terrence McNally’s The Ritz is a show-stopper.”—Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“Rita Moreno has never been the kind of actress who needed sequins to sparkle. She started dancing her heart out when she was 5, and she’s been hoofing it ever since. Now almost 80, the star recounts her glitzy life story in Life Without Makeup. In its world premiere at Berkeley Rep, it’s a highly pleasurable showbiz memoir steeped in the nostalgia of the Golden Age of Hollywood…Moreno crafted the solo show with Tony Taccone (who had been trying to talk her into the project for years), and it’s definitely a showcase for her strengths, among them an absolute command of the spotlight. The first—and still one of only a few—performers to have nabbed an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, Moreno is an old hand at working a crowd…You feel like she’s an old friend spinning yarns over cocktails instead of a legend looking back on a storied career…She still electrifies in the musical numbers. Reprising her indelible performance as Anita in West Side Story or sending up her comic shtick from The Electric Company, Moreno mesmerizes.”—Karen D’Souza, San Jose Mercury News / Bay Area News Group
“An amazing, engaging, important night of theatre. From Singin’ in the Rain to Brando heartbreak to West Side Story, this remarkable woman has a story to tell. From the seemy underside of Hollywood and the glamour of Broadway, from climbing to the top, being knocked down and fighting to get back up, Rita gives us dancing, singing, true tales of Broadway slave drivers and Hollywood thugs. Raw, honest, fun, inspiring. What a life in show biz is all about. Hats off to Rita. Do not miss this show!”—Jan Wahl, KCBS-AM/KRON-TV
“Fabulous…It’s an astonishing evening of fantastic entertainment…Rita Moreno—winner of a Tony, an Oscar, a Grammy and two Emmys—tells her life story in song, dance and dialogue…There’s plenty of good humor and—at 79—some spry dancing by Rita. She hasn’t lost a step. And she looks terrific and wears some dazzling gowns. When I say, ‘not to miss,’ I really mean it with this show…Believe me, you’ll fall in love with her all over again.”—Jerry Friedman, KGO-AM
“Thrilling and moving…Life Without Makeup, had its world premiere Wednesday to a sold-out audience. The show was at turns funny, moving, exhilarating, and inspiring, not the least of which was because Moreno is as limber and probably twice as candid as most women half her age. It is a well-crafted piece of memoir, and for that we have to compliment Taccone, who took the often messy and epic pieces of a life story and distilled them into a first-rate piece of entertainment. But keeping the show moving, and keeping the audience agape at her enthusiasm and joy for performing, is Moreno herself…One leaves the theater feeling lucky to have seen and heard this woman’s story, performed in this way, while the woman herself is still so insistently alive and able to tell it.”—Jay Barmann, SFist
“Spectacular…A once in a lifetime experience…Speaking directly to the audience Moreno tells her story with candor and grace, her vibrant authenticity and charm shining through at every turn. One thing is for sure, Moreno knows how to entertain and for two hours we are treated to an actress whose life and work span from Garland and Gable to Hanks and Hallie Barry, not to mention TV’s Fran Dresher!…She is unstoppable. At age 79 the svelte Puerto Rican triple threat from Hollywood’s bygone golden age continues to bring the house down…Rita’s still got it!”—Linda Hodges, Broadway World