Lily Janiak

San Francisco

Theatre Critic at San Francisco Chronicle

Theater Critic @SFChronicle @sfc_datebook. 🚲. Copy editor stan account. 👋: [email protected] she/her.

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Articles

Review: ‘The Nightingale’ shows you can use circus to talk about AI

2 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Cami Boni in People’s Circus Theatre’s “The Nightingale.”Rowan Littell/People's Circus TheatreAs the husband gets home from work, he doesn’t just tell his wife about his day. He flips her around his arm or his shoulder, as if she’s a wheel or toy. There’s nothing unnatural or gimmicky here; it’s expressive. Theirs, you can tell without words, is a playful, loving, close relationship.
Review: Just because you’re a pop star doesn’t mean you deserve a musical

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Nick Fradiani as Neil — Then, center, and the ensemble of “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical,” which tours to BroadwaySF’s Golden Gate Theatre. Jeremy Daniel/BroadwaySFIf “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical” were instead a Neil Diamond cover band, this review would be a qualified rave. And if all you care about in your jukebox musicals is persuasive covers of your favorite hits, sparkly costumes and bright lights, you can stop reading right now and go and have a wonderful time.
Sasha Velour’s ‘Big Reveal’ redraws the boundaries of drag and theater

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Sasha Velour in “The Big Reveal Live Show!” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Greg Endries/Berkeley Repertory TheatreOther performers might dread glitches during shows. Sasha Velour makes them her co-stars. Her “The Big Reveal Live Show!” offers no straightforward lip sync.
Inside the challenges — and successes — of staging Shakespeare at a California state prison

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Incarcerated men perform “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in San Quentin on May 23. Marin Shakespeare Company has taught Shakespeare at San Quentin for decades. Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. ChronicleKelon Williams as the King of Navarre took a beat-length pause, savoring the suspense. His character was introducing “the Navarre model,” a scheme in which he and his buddies renounce women and indulgence to better themselves through study.
Uncompromising Bay Area theater director Erin Merritt dies at 57

3 weeks ago | modbee.com | Lily Janiak

Few theater artists know in advance when their last show will be. Maybe one more call will come along and end a dry spell. Maybe the perfect project will come together, tempting back an actor or director who'd sworn off the art form forever. But Erin Merritt knew with more certainty than most that "Tea Party" would be her last work of art.
Dementia and ‘the virus of fame’: Erica Jong’s daughter maps mother’s decline

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Erica Jong on the 30th anniversary of her seminal novel “Fear of Flying” at Stanford University in 2004. Her daughter, writer Molly Jong-Fast, maps her mother’s decline in her memoir “How to Lose Your Mother.”Chris Hardy/S.F. ChronicleNovelist and poet Erica Jong helped bring unvarnished female sexual desire into the literary mainstream. Now her daughter, writer Molly Jong-Fast, is mapping her mother’s decline.
Uncompromising Bay Area theater director Erin Merritt dies at 57

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Assistant Director Alicia Nelson, left, and Director Erin Merritt during a rehearsal of Gordon Dahlquist’s “Tea Party,” directed by Merritt at Shotgun Studios in Berkeley on Feb. 16, 2023. In 2022, Merritt went public with her diagnosis of ALS, a fatal disease that gradually takes away the ability to speak, move, breathe and eat. Her friends in the theater world banded together to make sure she could direct one last time.
Why ‘Next to Normal’ is your grief and rage catharsis in 2025

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Maia Campbell as Natalie, from left, Andrew Cope as Henry, Anne Warren Clark as Diana, Courtney Merrell as Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine, Albert Hodge as Dan and Roeen Nooran as Gabe in Ray of Light Theatre’s “Next to Normal.”Ben Krantz/Ray of Light TheatreMany of us might want to yowl like a rock star, shut ourselves off in a fantasy world, alternately numb ourselves with pills and fling them in the trash or simply indulge a fit of histrionics. But we can’t, we tell ourselves.
Rarely performed Sondheim musical speaks volumes in our tariff era

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Sarah Jiang, from left, Ryan Marchand and Edward Im in Kunoichi Productions’ “Pacific Overtures.”Jon Bauer/Kunoichi ProductionsTo feel the scourge of imperialism, listen to a song that doesn’t dictate feeling at all. In the musical “Pacific Overtures,” an unlikely governor in Japan ticks off the Western imports that have wormed their way into his life since Americans forced open his country to trade in 1853.
San Francisco arts agencies to unite in historic realignment

4 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Lily Janiak

Carolina Czechowska and Claire Fisher-Mendez in “Wheel,” a Margaret Jenkins Dance Company production at Z Space in San Francisco. Kegan MarlingSan Francisco’s three big arts agencies — Grants for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Film Commission —will be under one roof starting in January.