Just for laughs: Let’s face it, we need comedy now like never before, whether to escape or to bore into the existential truth of our utterly surreal world. In the first of a new ongoing comedy roundup, one of this week’s local shows is free (and there a lot of no-cost joke-fests in bars and eateries around the region) featuring longtime Bay Area stand-up comedian, author, playwright and devoted pencil musician Danny Dechi, who plays the Bazaar Cafe, 5927 California St., San Francisco (bazaarcafe.com) on Friday. Meanwhile, San Jose Improv hosts New York comedian Abby Govindan and her hit solo show “How to Embarrass Your Immigrant Parents” at 8 p.m. Thursday ($31.14-$83.16; improv.com/sanjose); rising-star comedian and Tony Award winner Alex Edelman headlines at Stanford University’s Studio venue at 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, presented by Stanford Live ($40-$65; live.stanford.edu); veteran comedian and radio personality Nathaniel Stroman, aka Earthquake, holds forth at Tommy T’s comedy joint in Pleasanton for five shows Friday through Sunday ($40-$50; tommyts.com); and Sacramento Filipino comedian JR De Guzman brings his “Boyfriend Material” show to Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco for five shows Friday through Sunday ($43-$68, subject to change; cobbscomedy.com).
Freebie of the week: The San Francisco Civic Music Association is an outgrowth of sorts of the Civic Symphony, founded nearly a century ago by a woman whose name local lovers of free music recognize—Mrs. Sigmund Stern. Today, the association continues to be associated with free music, as a community orchestra welcoming musicians of all levels, and as a source of free concerts, including one on Saturday afternoon. The program kicks off with 20th-century Irish/English composer Elizabeth Maconchy’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 15. It also features Bay Area composer, musician, teacher and self-described “inner-child advocate” Kadie Kelly, who, with her quartet, performs her “Storied Generations,” a composition of “memory, lineage and transformation” for three flutes and piano. Also on the program is Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25. The performance runs 3 to 5 p.m. at the Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez St., San Francisco. It’s a lovely spot that hosts a wide variety of musical acts and other performers. For more information on Civic Music Association and free concerts, go to www.sfcivicmusic.org.
Hearts for sale: In an age when immigrants in the U.S. are being targeted for deportation, harassment and blaming and shaming, it’s nice to come across a work that recalls a time when those seeking to take part in the American dream were treated with common-sense compassion. One such show is “The Heart Sellers,” Lloyd Suh’s 2023 play about two Asian women, immigrants to the U.S. in the 1970s, who meet and bond over a makeshift Thanksgiving meal while their husbands are working. There’s not much more to the story than that, yet the observations of two women who are greeting a new life in a new world make for a comedic and occasionally poignant production. The show’s title plays off the Hart Cellar Act, which abolished immigrant quotas for some and paved the way for more immigrant professionals to settle in the U.S. Suh took a much different look at immigration with “The Far Country,” his Pulitzer Prize-finalist play about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which played at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in spring of 2024. “Heart Sellers,” a co-production between Aurora Theatre in Berkeley and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto and directed by Jennifer Chang, plays at Aurora Theatre through March 9, and can be streamed March 4-9; tickets are $23-$46 at auroratheatre.org. The production moves to TheatreWorks territory, the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, for an April 2-27 run. Tickets are $26.75-$54 at theatreworks.org.
Love and transformation: Is there a sadder tale from Greek mythology than the story of the doomed lovers Acis the shepherd and the sea nymph Galatea? As Ovid relates it in “Metamorphoses,” the Cyclops Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant, seething with jealousy, smashed the gallant Acis to a pulp with a boulder. But the bereft Galatea, both beautiful and resourceful, changed Acis into an immortal spirit of a river so that their love would never die. Many have been captivated by the tale, but Baroque composer George Frideric Handel in 1718 turned it into a pastoral opera, “Acis and Galatea,” that became the most popular work of his prolific output and is the only one of his operas that has never been out of the repertoire. American Bach Soloists, with an orchestra led by conductor Jeffrey Thomas, has engaged superb singers to bring it to four stages across the Bay Area this weekend. Singing the role of Galatea is soprano Nola Richardson, with tenor James Reese at her side as Acis and bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams as the brutish Polyphemus. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday at St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, 7 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Church in San Francisco and 7 p.m. Monday at Davis Community Church. Find tickets, $44-$111, at americanbach.org.
Merriment from Mozart: A lecherous lord of the manor is scheming to sabotage upcoming nuptials between two faithful servants. In a later development in a leafy garden at night, the selfsame lecherous lord puts the moves on what he thinks is the object of his lust, only to discover he is propositioning his own wife. These are just two elements of the convoluted, hilarious plot of “The Marriage of Figaro,” the Mozart opera that has enjoyed enduring popularity ever since its debut in 1786. San Francisco’s beloved Pocket Opera opens its new season with a reimagined version set in New York’s the Gilded Age, and, as always with Pocket Opera, its English libretto was cleverly devised by the late, great Donald Pippin. Heading the cast are Andrew Pardini as Figaro, the lord’s manservant, and Morgan Balfour as his beloved Susanna, maid to the lady of the house. Spencer Dodd is the philandering Count Almaviva, and Julia Mulholland is his long-suffering wife. The opera is onstage at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, and 2 p.m. March 2 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Find tickets, $30-$84, at pocketopera.org.
The post Best Bets: Abby Govindan and more comedy, SF Civic Symphony, ‘Heart Sellers,’ American Bach Soloists, Pocket Opera appeared first on Local News Matters.