Like their fellows all over the country, Bay Area theaters are still slowly recovering from the pandemic, rebuilding audiences while often cutting back on staff and shows in their seasons. Some, like Berkeley’s TheatreFIRST, have closed their doors, while others, such as TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, had emergency fundraising campaigns.
And then there’s a few that have proven unforgettable. Here are 10 standout shows that have stuck with us for one reason or another, or for all the reasons in the world.
“Chinglish,” San Francisco Playhouse: David Henry Hwang’s comedy about a fish-out-of-water American businessman trying to brazen his way through the intricate subtext of doing business in China was hilarious when it played Berkeley Rep back in 2012, and it’s only gotten better as Hwang has revised it. That was especially true in director Jeffrey Lo’s superb staging at SF Playhouse, with a terrific cast headed by Michael Barrett Austin as the hapless entrepreneur and Nicole Tung as the government functionary who helps him navigate for her own reasons.