Victor Cordell
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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Nobody Loves You Front Page
ACT's Sparkling Musical Send-up of Reality Dating Shows
By: - Mar 14th, 2025Jeff is a PhD candidate in philosophy who ridicules reality shows. But chasing after his ex-girlfriend, he finds himself in the studio of such a show. Although he's candid about hating everything about them, the show runner anticipates good audience response if Jeff becomes a contestant. Like oil and water, they don't mix. But comedy ensues.
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Fly by Night Front Page
Hillbarn's Charming Rendition of a Musical About Hope, Love, and Loss
By: - Mar 11th, 2025Daphne leaves South Dakota for New York City along with sister Miriam. Set over a year leading up to the Northeast Blackout of 1965, one sister seeks stardom on Broadway and the other is happy as a diner waitress. Their aspirations, relationships, and random events are the basis for a thoughtful pop musical.
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Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical Front Page
Min Kahng Creates Another Lively Stage Piece for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
By: - Mar 10th, 2025Korean-American June lives in an assisted living facility. She swears up a storm; has major sex urges; and unfortunately, two men have died in her bed. Granddaughter Jade is an influencer and vloger who insinuates herself into June's life for her own selfish purposes, but when June is accused of murder, they will work toward common purpose in this comedy musical.
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The Pigeon Keeper Front Page
Opera Parallele's World Premiere of a Timely Fable
By: - Mar 08th, 2025During a time of drought and poor fish catch, a fisherman and his daughter save a young boy from the sea, but he is from a different land and does not speak their language. Clashes ensue over how to deal with this involuntary interloper. The touching and well-produced opera benefits from its relevance to our current times and from the large role played by the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
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Don Giovanni Front Page
Livermore Valley Opera's Fine Rendering of Mozart and da Ponte's Masterpiece
By: - Mar 03rd, 2025In this great serio-comic fantasy, the famed lothario Don Giovanni "courts" three ladies in short order. He also slays the father of one, setting off a man hunt and revenge by the spirit of the deceased.
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Jesus Christ Superstar Front Page
A Super Production by Berkeley Playhouse
By: - Feb 25th, 2025Jesus Christ's betrayal and crucifixion as rendered by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's stands as one of the long running musicals in history. To many theatergoers, it is simply a beautifully crafted work with fine music and intense drama. Yet to some, it teems with controversy as the character representations don't fit in traditionalists' boxes.
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Bluebeard's Castle Front Page
Opera San Jose Excels in Production of Bartok's Gem
By: - Feb 17th, 2025Count Bluebeard's new wife, Judith, arrives at his castle to find seven doors that lead from the great room. Opening each door reveals something about Bluebeard's character and history. The findings are not all that she had hoped for.
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La Sonnambula Front Page
Bellini's Bel Canto Masterpiece About a Sleepwalker
By: - Feb 16th, 2025Amina's sleepwalking incident creates a scandal when she's seen at the lodgings of a visiting Count. Fiance Elvino cancels his planned nuptials with Amina, but will truth and love win out? Hint: this opera is not a tragedy.
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The Heart Sellers Front Page
A Day With Two Young Asian Immigrant Women
By: - Feb 15th, 2025Filipina Luna and Korean Jane's husbands are both resident physicians working on Thanksgiving. The new acquaintances share the day. Luna is manic from beginning to end, while Jane opens up over time. The basis for friendship develops.
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Waste Front Page
1906 British Play Resonates in Today's Political Environment
By: - Feb 13th, 2025A politician tapped for a cabinet position in a new government impregnates a married woman. The narrative reveals women's rights of the time; men's attitudes toward women; the relationship of church and state; and the effect of scandal on political figures. Contrasts with conditions today are considered.
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Calendar Girls Front Page
Charity Receives a New Twist From Middle Aged Women
By: - Feb 11th, 2025To raise money for a local hospital, members of the Women's Institutes decide on a novel approach. Rather than display staid sites of Yorkshire in their annual calendar, they agree to go cheesecake. This comedy is based on a true story.
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The Thing About Jellyfish Front Page
Berkeley Rep's Outstanding World Premiere
By: - Feb 07th, 2025Sixth grader Suzy loses her best friend Franny to drowning. Since Franny was an accomplished swimmer, Suzy feels that there must have been a more specific cause, which leads her on a deep dive into jellyfish research. Interesting revelations occur in a visually stunning production.
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Exotic Deadly: or The MSG Play Front Page
A Japanese-American Teen Girl Confronts Challenges
By: - Feb 06th, 2025Ami wants to be invisible, but the smelly bento box lunches she must take to school bedevil her. She is also haunted by the fact that her grandfather was a scientist at Ajinomoto where the vilified MSG was commercialized. In a hilarious Japanese anime and pop culture framework, the heroine tries to overcome obstacles.
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Daisy by Sean Devine Front Page
This True Story Resonates in Today's Chilling Environment
By: - Feb 02nd, 2025In the 1964 presidential campaign, Doyle Dane Bernbach ad agency is commissioned to create an ad campaign for incumbent Lyndon Johnson. An innovative ad that ran only once on television instilled fear and is believed to have profoundly affected the election. Comparisons with today's political environment are frightful and inescapable.
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Former Ladies of The Supremes Front Page
A Nostalgic Concert at Marin Jazz
By: - Dec 21st, 2024Since 1986, this group has revived the music of the most successful girl group of all time. Memorable songs written by the great team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland and sung by this charming group take us back to 1964 and the years following.
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A Thousand Ships Front Page
Oakland Theater Project World Premiere
By: - Dec 20th, 2024Distinguished playwright Marcus Gardley creates an homage to the Black community in Oakland that he grew up in, and particularly to strong women and their contributions. Adeline and Laney are transplants from the South, and their beauty salon is an institution for decades before the women face economic and personal challenges.
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Ghost Quartet Front Page
A Spooky Look into the Afterlife Through Song
By: - Nov 05th, 2024Oakland Theater Project presents Dave Malloy's 23 dramatic vignettes about love, loss, whiskey, and the afterlife built into a song cycle. Calling on all manner of musical idioms, but with the constant of a mournful cello, it engages both musically and dramatically.
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The Matchbook Magic Flute Front Page
Mary Zimmerman's Adaptation of Mozart's Masterpiece
By: - Nov 03rd, 2024Aided by bird catcher Papageno, Prince Tamino sets out to rescue abducted Pamina, whom he has fallen in love with based only on a portrait. His quest faces the challenge of three trials and the threat of the Queen of the Night, mother of Pamina.
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The Thanksgiving Play Front Page
Altarena Playhouse Explores Marginalization of Native Americans
By: - Oct 27th, 2024Logan receives a grant to create a "First Thanksgiving" play for schools. She finds that the woman she hired as "the Native American" in the small cast is anything but. How should she proceed with political correctness when she lacks a Native American voice in a project for Native American Heritage Month? Farcical situations ensue.
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Fallen Angels Front Page
Aurora Theatre Makes the Most of Thin Noel Coward Play
By: - Oct 26th, 2024As their husbands depart for an overnight golf outing, Julia and Jane find that a French lover from before their marriages is coming to London. Both women have settled into marital boredom and are tantalized by the prospect of reviving their earlier passions. The playwright exposes class and gender issues amidst continuing laughter.
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Tristan & Isolde Front Page
San Francisco Opera's Fine Production of Wagner
By: - Oct 25th, 2024When composing this opera, Richard Wagner was obsessed with love fanned by his infatuation for the married poet Mathilde Wesendonck and death driven by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The two existential forces are melded in the opera's thematic thrust "liebestod" (love-death), which is also the dominant leitmotif in the music. While the orchestral score soars, the dramatic action is grounded, yet it remains a pioneer of modern music.
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Yaga Front Page
Marin Theatre's U.S. Premiere of Multi-genre Play
By: - Oct 17th, 2024The tradition of Baba Yaga, an old haggard witch, exists in many Slavic cultures. Playwright Kat Sandler integrates witchcraft themes into a comic detective mystery with three actors playing 14 parts.
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Angels in America - Part 2 - Perestroika Front Page
The Closing Episodes of Epic Drama of 1980s
By: - Oct 16th, 2024Part 2 - Perestroika provides closure on many of the relationships and issues raised in Part 1 - Millennium Approaches. Thematically, it invokes the need for change in order to go forward and thrive, rejecting the resistant bastions of vested interest - entrenched religions and conservative politics.
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Angels in America - Part 1 - Millenium Approaches Front Page
Classic Returns to Bay Area Home
By: - Oct 01st, 2024Tony Kushner's award-winning two-part classic centering on homosexuality and AIDS during the epidemic in the 1980s is given a magnificent production by Oakland Theater Project with taut direction and exceptional acting. Fiction that is anchored in reality with one real historical figure, also drifts into fantasy. Its powerful treatment finds corollaries in today's world.
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The Daughter of the Regiment Front Page
Livermore Valley Opera's Comic Charmer
By: - Sep 30th, 2024An orphan Marie was adopted by a French army regiment as an infant. She promised to marry only a member of the regiment but falls in love with an outsider. Complications ensue as she learns that she was born to a marquise and is spirited away to live a noble life and have an arranged marriage within her new station. But this is a comedy. Do you really think that's going to happen?
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