Performance

Christmas, John Waters style

The director of cult classics like "Hairspray" and "Pink Flamingos" shares holiday survival tips with a S.F. audience at the Roxie Theater.

Leaping at the chance

Graham Lustig, artistic director of Oakland Ballet Company, has found a welcomed challenge in the East Bay company.

From Russia with love

Elena Kazakova and Artem Yachmennikov, who fell in love when they danced with the Bolshoi in 2008, will perform in S.F. Ballet's "Nutcracker."

Music with your fruitcake

"A Christmas Memory," Truman Capote's childhood memoir, has never been a full-scale stage musical until now.

The power of storytelling

The holiday fare at Berkeley Rep favors camels over reindeer as "The Arabian Nights" returns for a limited engagement.

Surrounded by puppets

Geoff Hoyle is the only human actor in Berkeley Rep's "Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead," which features 100 puppets.

'Shrek' for the holidays

You've got Scrooge, "Nutcrackers" - and a green ogre. Kicking off the holiday season this year is "Shrek the Musical." Theater | Dance

All the right moves

Only one show could bring the hip-hop dance styles of France, Belgium and South Africa to a single stage: the S.F. Hip Hop DanceFest.

Having a blast with the past

Christopher McGovern, who penned the Ginger Rogers–inspired musical "Backwards in High Heels," loves the glamour of the 30s and 40s.

Vividly told

The gods are almost as messed up as they are mesmerizing in Shotgun Players' "Of the Earth: The Salt Plays: Part 2."

A toast to Tiny Tim

ACT's "A Christmas Carol" is energetic, warmhearted and well paced, full of marvelous special effects.

Cut the trimmings

TheatreWorks' "A Christmas Memory" is a generally engaging show with a good heart, but it needs to lose the fat.

Too sentimental

As stirring as its dance numbers, "Backwards in High Heels" suffers from hero worship and sentiment.

Something all its own

"Lemony Snicket's The Composer Is Dead" isn't quite a play but a curiously engaging concoction of theater, film and musical elements.

Madcap musical

There's a lot to love in the national tour of "Shrek the Musical" that opened at the Orpheum Theatre in SHN's Best of Broadway series.

A beguiling mix

Graham Lustig's staging of "Nutcracker" may be the work that helps to restore the Oakland Ballet Company to its former glory.

Key steps missing

"Forever Tango" resembles a string of high-voltage nightclub acts that could be rearranged without inflicting any harm.

Smuin's holiday send-up

"Classical Christmas" is the real deal: challenging, often formally inventive choreography.

S.F. Opera's trainees shine

The S.F. Opera's singers-in-training, the Adler Fellows, proved just as expert as their professional counterparts.

No subtlety here

Verdi's "Aida" returned to the War Memorial Opera House to conclude the San Francisco Opera's fall season with a bang - a loud and often ungainly one.

Thrillingly beautiful

S.F. Opera's "Cyrano de Bergerac" it was worth attending just to hear Plácido Domingo do his first staged opera since 1994.