Victor Cordell
Bio:
Recent Articles:
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Anything Goes at Alterena Playhouse Front Page
Cole Porter's Beloved Chestnut
By: - Mar 29th, 2026Billy Crocker impulsively stows away on a cruise ship crossing to London. Avoiding his boss, who is onboard, and the captain prove a challenge. Pratfalls ensue, but so do amorous couples.
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A Traveler's Commentary on a Seychelles to Singapore Cruise and a Comparison of Singapore and Bangkok Front Page
Exotic, Less-Traveled Destinations and More
By: - Mar 22nd, 2026Indian Ocean cruise ports-of-call recommended for the experienced travelers plus the contrast of Southeast Asia's two most popular destinations.
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||:GIRLS:|| ||:CHANCE:|| ||:MUSIC:|| Front Page
World Premiere about High School Girls and Music
By: - Mar 20th, 2026Four high schoolers meet in a summer music program for girls in Berkeley, California. Despite differences in performance preference, classical vs. improv, as well as life styles, the four find an ability to mesh their skills and form friendships.
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Primary Trust Front Page
The Effect of Disruption on Routine
By: - Mar 15th, 2026His whole adult life, Kenneth's world has been comprised of working at an independent bookstore and drinking Mai Tais during happy hour at a local tiki bar in upstate New York. When the bookstore is to close, his life is thrown into disarray, but sometimes disruption leads to opportunity. This Pulitzer Prize winning play investigates loneliness and the ability of connectedness to lead to a better life.
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Arms and the Man Front Page
G. B. Shaw's Classic Comedy
By: - Mar 13th, 2026During the Serbo-Bulgarian War, a Swiss mercenary fighting for Serbia sneaks into the home of a Bulgarian military leader and establishes a relationship with his daughter. Shaw's anti-war tract also skewers issues of social class and traditional notions of honor.
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Salome Front Page
West Bay Offers Solid Production of Strass's Classic
By: - Feb 16th, 2026In a psychopathic rage, Herod's adopted daughter, Salome, calls for the beheading of John the Baptist. Tense music underscores the tense drama.
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M. Butterfly Front Page
The Story of an Unbelievable Relationship
By: - Feb 14th, 2026In this fictionalized true story, a French diplomat has a 20-year relationship with a singer of Chinese opera. Despite carnal encounters, the Frenchman claims never having known that the modest and delicate creature was a man. David Henry Hwang's story and themes are interlaced with those of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly.
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The Mountaintop Front Page
Oakland Theater Project's Powerful Fantasy About Martin Luther King, Jr.
By: - Feb 09th, 2026Katori Hall's fantasy of MLK speculates his last night before his assassination. He asks a maid who delivers coffee to him in his motel room to keep him company. He finds that this is no working-class simpleton, but a challenge to his assumptions in more ways than one.
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The Cherry Orchard Front Page
Marin Theatre's Take on Chekhov's Classic
By: - Feb 05th, 2026The aristocratic Liubov returns from Paris as she can't keep up with mortgage payments on her estate. The rich parvenu Lopkhin, whose family had worked the estate, has a viable plan to save Liubov and her brother financially, but it would involve destroying her beloved cherry orchard. Sometimes nostalgia gets in the way of sound thinking.
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The Hello Girls Front Page
Ross Valley Players' Homage to Brave Young Women in WW I
By: - Feb 02nd, 2026Building on true events and characters, the musical tells of the contributions made by a particular class of women in World War I. For vital battlefield communications in France, General Pershing needed personnel with both telephone operator and French language skills. The answer was ultimately over 200 staff members recruited from the U.S. They were all women. They were The Hello Girls.
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What the Constitution Means to Me Front Page
A Tour de Force on a Topic of Great Import
By: - Jan 26th, 2026In an autobiographical context, Heidi Schreck analyzes aspects of our Constitution, particularly those that resonate in our current conflictual times. She also contemplates whether it is better to continue amending the existing document or scrap it and start all over again. Jefferson advocated the latter every 20 years.
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Hershey Felder: The Piano & Me Front Page
The King of Composer Bios Tells His Own Story
By: - Jan 25th, 2026Hershey Felder's career has been dominated by his creation of one-man plays in which he portrays a composer and performs the composer's works on piano. After Felder's constructing eight well received musical biographies, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents his autobiography set in the same format, with the artist performing works of his own preference and those which were important in his professional development.
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A Streetcar Named Desire Front Page
An Innovative Adaptation of a Classic at ACT
By: - Jan 23rd, 2026Having lost the family plantation in Mississippi, Blanche DuBois arrives on the doorstep of her sister Stella and husband Stanley in a working class neighborhood of New Orleans. Sparks fly between the fragile Blanche and the rough Stanley from the outset. No good is likely to come from this punishing relationship.
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Stomp Front Page
30th Anniversary Tour of Percussion Extravaganza
By: - Dec 08th, 2025For 90 minutes, a cast of eight produces sounds from a slew of props. The additions of rhythm and combinations of sounds produce an orchestration of beats. Together with choreographed movement, the result is a unique and energetic show.
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The Monkey King Front Page
Spectacular World Premiere by San Francisco Opera
By: - Nov 21st, 2025Drawing from one of the four classic novels of Chinese literature, the opera tells the story of the Monkey King who claims to be more powerful than any being on earth other than the Buddha. Nonetheless, his story begins with 500 years of imprisonment but ends with his learning the ultimate lesson in life. It is hard to imagine an opera being more stunning visually.
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Madama Butterfly Front Page
One of Opera's Most Beloved by Opera San Jose
By: - Nov 18th, 2025Against social norms, the naive ingenue Cio Cio San marries the footloose U.S. Naval officer Pinkerton. On leaving, he promises to return to her before the robins nest. Some three years later, his return brings surprise and tragedy.
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Liberation Front Page
Reflection on Feminism in the 70s on Broadway
By: - Nov 17th, 2025Lizzie wants to learn more about her deceased mother who was committed to women's liberation. The scene shifts between her mother's "conscious raising" group in Ohio in the '70s and Lizzie's interviewing group members in present time.
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Reunions Front Page
Two Stories of Revisiting Set to Music Off-Broadway
By: - Nov 17th, 2025In the first of these turn-of-the-20th-century stories, a typist in England is sent unawares on a job that happens to be for her ex-husband who is being knighted. In the other, two Spanish lovers in youth find one another in their 70s.
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Romy & Michele: The Musical Front Page
The Movie Comes Alive Off-Broadway
By: - Nov 17th, 2025The two ditsy women who left Tucson for LA are invited to their 10th high school reunion. Wanting to appear successful, they hatch the plot that they invented Post-Its. Sounds plausible. Right?
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Six: The Musical Front Page
Long Running Broadway Production
By: - Nov 17th, 2025In this high energy musical, the six deceased wives of Henry VIII compete to find who is the best singer among them. Verbal jabs punctuate heavy rock solos by the contestants.
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The Woman in Black Front Page
London Production at Center Rep
By: - Nov 16th, 2025An attorney is dispatched to the creepy marshlands of eastern England to clear up the estate of a recently deceased widow. The attorney faces resistance from the local populace, a mountain of unexpected papers to be reviewed, and worse yet, earmarks of the supernatural - furnishings moved when no human is around and appearances of an apparition.
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Introduction to Four Shows on The Great White Way Front Page
Liberation, Reunions, Romy & Michele, Six
By: - Nov 14th, 2025While at the American Theatre Critics Conference in NYC, I attended four shows. By coincidence, the common theme of revisiting or reunion emerged. Women's relationships and rights surfaced as another binding element. Reviews of each play will appear separately.
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Parsifal Front Page
San Francisco Opera's Stellar Production
By: - Oct 30th, 2025Wagner's final opera boasts some of his most organic music and lyrics in a tale of redemption. The piece demands enormous resources of every kind, and San Francisco Opera has produced a matchless experience that excels in every way.
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The Wisdom of Eve Front Page
The Metatheatrical Treatise on Ambition
By: - Oct 27th, 2025The theatrical version of the movie "All About Eve" differs around the edges but carries the same impact. The fading star Margo Channing faces the rise of the talented but unprincipled Eve Harrington.
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Dada Teen Musical: The Play Front Page
Central Work's Provocative World Premiere
By: - Oct 24th, 2025High achieving Anabel wants to enhance her Harvard application by creating and producing a Dada version of a popular musical for her high school's theater group. To bring it off, she calls on two unlikely collaborators - self-indulgent Tyler who has money and people resources, and gothic Mariah, who has some music cred. Radical complications ensue.
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