Lily Janiak
@lilyjaniak.bsky.social
San Francisco Chronicle theater critic, wheelwoman, How can there be any sin in sincere?
Love being the first one in the theater! At Berkeley Rep!
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 AM
Love being the first one in the theater! At Berkeley Rep!
There is now new Anh Phoong fashion merch, it came about because an S.F. designer dressed up as an Anh Phoong *billboard* for Halloween, and now I know what I want for Christmas. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Bay Area billboard queen Anh Phoong drops streetwear line with a charitable twist
The $25 T-shirt and $50 hoodie both feature a pocket-size illustration of the ubiquitous billboard lawyer on the side of a box of Asian takeout.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
There is now new Anh Phoong fashion merch, it came about because an S.F. designer dressed up as an Anh Phoong *billboard* for Halloween, and now I know what I want for Christmas. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Two nights in a row at SF Opera !!!
November 15, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Two nights in a row at SF Opera !!!
The touring cast of "Stereophonic" wasn't going to perform in the Bay Area without visiting the Sausalito studio where their show is set — and where Fleetwood Mac recorded "Rumours."
On Monday, 2025 met 1976 in a totally surreal, beautifully fluid way. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
On Monday, 2025 met 1976 in a totally surreal, beautifully fluid way. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
The ‘Stereophonic’ cast visited Fleetwood Mac’s studio. Here’s what it was like
The touring cast of David Adjmi’s Tony Award-winning play took a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to 2200 Studios, formerly known as the Record Plant, where Fleetwood Mac recorded “Rumours.”
www.sfchronicle.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
The touring cast of "Stereophonic" wasn't going to perform in the Bay Area without visiting the Sausalito studio where their show is set — and where Fleetwood Mac recorded "Rumours."
On Monday, 2025 met 1976 in a totally surreal, beautifully fluid way. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
On Monday, 2025 met 1976 in a totally surreal, beautifully fluid way. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
It's not every opening night that gets interrupted by a fire alarm. On Actors' Reading Collective's "Mary Jane": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
‘Mary Jane’ review: A real fire alarm echoes the play’s constant sense of crisis
As Republicans block Affordable Care Act subsidies, Amy Herzog’s “Mary Jane” spotlights the human cost of America’s broken health care system.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:36 AM
It's not every opening night that gets interrupted by a fire alarm. On Actors' Reading Collective's "Mary Jane": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
This one didn’t work for me, but I hope it finds its audience. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Review: TheatreWorks’ ‘A Driving Beat’ breaks down on the roadside
TheatreWorks’ mother-son road trip play feels like a life skills skit at a school assembly.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 8, 2025 at 9:31 PM
This one didn’t work for me, but I hope it finds its audience. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Belatedly catching some TheatreWorks!
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Belatedly catching some TheatreWorks!
I love plays about great big horrible family secrets. On "The Hills of California" at Berkeley Repertory Theatre: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Review: In ‘The Hills of California,’ four sisters harmonize — and scream — beautifully
Jez Butterworth’s play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre time-travels from an adolescent quartet of would-be Andrews Sisters to their jaundiced older selves.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:03 AM
I love plays about great big horrible family secrets. On "The Hills of California" at Berkeley Repertory Theatre: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Lily Janiak
in my heart I know that Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to play Zohran Mamdani on SNL so bad it physically hurts him
November 5, 2025 at 10:28 AM
in my heart I know that Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to play Zohran Mamdani on SNL so bad it physically hurts him
As a former wannabe Andrews Sister myself, I am jazzed for Berkeley Rep’s latest!
November 6, 2025 at 3:49 AM
As a former wannabe Andrews Sister myself, I am jazzed for Berkeley Rep’s latest!
Very grateful to have experienced this work of theater by these artists. On Marin Theatre's "Sally & Tom," which shows how art can set free: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
‘Sally & Tom’ at Marin Theatre frees Sally Hemings of Thomas Jefferson
Suzan-Lori Parks’ backstage drama follows the making of a play-within-a-play about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Very grateful to have experienced this work of theater by these artists. On Marin Theatre's "Sally & Tom," which shows how art can set free: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Big night at Marin Theatre! My feature on the show at the link in bio.
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Big night at Marin Theatre! My feature on the show at the link in bio.
We don’t often get to see Broadway tours like this one. On “Stereophonic”:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Wonder what it was like when Fleetwood Mac recorded ‘Rumours’? ‘Stereophonic’ captures that chaos brilliantly
David Adjmi’s play, in an American Conservatory Theater and BroadwaySF presentation, is as intricate as a Bosch painting and musically satisfying as a Bach invention.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:30 PM
We don’t often get to see Broadway tours like this one. On “Stereophonic”:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Eight years ago, the play "Thomas and Sally," about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, upended the Bay Area theater community.
Now the same theater is mounting a very different play about those same two characters.
Can it help us heal?
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Now the same theater is mounting a very different play about those same two characters.
Can it help us heal?
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
A Sally Hemings play nearly broke this Bay Area theater. Now it’s mounting another one
Marin Theatre Executive Artistic Director Lance Gardner is adamant that Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Sally & Tom” is not a response to Thomas Bradshaw’s much-maligned “Thomas and Sally.”
www.sfchronicle.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Eight years ago, the play "Thomas and Sally," about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, upended the Bay Area theater community.
Now the same theater is mounting a very different play about those same two characters.
Can it help us heal?
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Now the same theater is mounting a very different play about those same two characters.
Can it help us heal?
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
No offense to my brother, but this play made me wish I had a sister. Yes, Sosan and Nadia are ruthless with each other, but still. On Golden Thread Productions and Z Space's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Review: ‘Pilgrimage’ portrays Muslim women with the complexity they deserve
Golden Thread Productions and Z Space are billing the script as the first world premiere co-written by an Afghan American woman in the United States.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:53 PM
No offense to my brother, but this play made me wish I had a sister. Yes, Sosan and Nadia are ruthless with each other, but still. On Golden Thread Productions and Z Space's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
In the round at Z Space for Golden Thread !
October 28, 2025 at 2:57 AM
In the round at Z Space for Golden Thread !
I needed to see this show. Maybe you do, too. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Why ‘Suffs’ looks just like Trump protests at the East Bay Coast Guard base
Shaina Taub’s Tony Award-winning musical “Suffs” parallels modern protests, linking the suffrage struggle to Trump-era activism in the Bay Area and beyond.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:47 PM
I needed to see this show. Maybe you do, too. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
How do you look as good as Fleetwood Mac when you have only a few weeks to rehearse?
On the touring cast of "Stereophonic," in BroadwaySF and ACT performances beginning next week! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
On the touring cast of "Stereophonic," in BroadwaySF and ACT performances beginning next week! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
These ‘Stereophonic’ actors had one concert to get as good as Fleetwood Mac
When David Adjmi’s Tony Award-winning play tours to the Curran, its cast members are supposed to play together like a band that could record a rock masterpiece.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
How do you look as good as Fleetwood Mac when you have only a few weeks to rehearse?
On the touring cast of "Stereophonic," in BroadwaySF and ACT performances beginning next week! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
On the touring cast of "Stereophonic," in BroadwaySF and ACT performances beginning next week! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
In January Berkeley Rep unveiled artwork for "The The Thing About Jellyfish" with an AI credit.
Since then I've talked to artists and designers who love it as a tool, who use it as a spur, who loathe it as a threat.
Also: How do they even use it? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Since then I've talked to artists and designers who love it as a tool, who use it as a spur, who loathe it as a threat.
Also: How do they even use it? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Bay Area theaters are struggling. Will AI help, or hurt?
As AI encroaches on more and more stages, artists are confronting its ethical and artistic dilemmas in the Bay Area.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 22, 2025 at 10:12 PM
In January Berkeley Rep unveiled artwork for "The The Thing About Jellyfish" with an AI credit.
Since then I've talked to artists and designers who love it as a tool, who use it as a spur, who loathe it as a threat.
Also: How do they even use it? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Since then I've talked to artists and designers who love it as a tool, who use it as a spur, who loathe it as a threat.
Also: How do they even use it? www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Lily Janiak
So much better than Sweet James!
October 21, 2025 at 7:56 PM
So much better than Sweet James!
The journalist Ida B. Wells is a character in "Suffs," and she has descendants — one of whom lives in the Bay Area. I got to talk to two of her heirs about what it was like to grow up with her legacy and crusading for justice in their own ways, on their own terms. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
‘I was here’: Ida B. Wells’ family still feels her fight against erasure — and ‘Suffs’ shows why
Family legacy is complicated for the descendants of Ida B. Wells, in a way that only underlines the message of Shaina Taub’s musical “Suff,” touring to BroadwaySF’s Orpheum Theatre.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM
The journalist Ida B. Wells is a character in "Suffs," and she has descendants — one of whom lives in the Bay Area. I got to talk to two of her heirs about what it was like to grow up with her legacy and crusading for justice in their own ways, on their own terms. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
For any Bay Area theater fans reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist,” Daniel Pollack-Pelzner has planted a jaw-dropping Easter egg.
My marginalia? OFF THE CHARTS. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
My marginalia? OFF THE CHARTS. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Before ‘Hamilton,’ Lin-Manuel Miranda had a college crush on this Bay Area theater director
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s college days with S.F. director M. Graham Smith is only one morsel in a new biography packed with revelations and insights that should make musical theater nerds squeal.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 16, 2025 at 11:40 PM
For any Bay Area theater fans reading “Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist,” Daniel Pollack-Pelzner has planted a jaw-dropping Easter egg.
My marginalia? OFF THE CHARTS. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
My marginalia? OFF THE CHARTS. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
It's pretty badass to still be writing plays at 87. On Ishmael Reed, the vile Disney movie "Song of the South" and Reed's new play “The Amanuensis,” now in a staged reading: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Disney buried its racist ‘Song of the South.’ Now an Oakland playwright is digging it back up
In “The Amanuensis,” the prolific satirist Ishmael Reed takes on dreck from the Disney vault and its equally racist back story.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 16, 2025 at 6:44 PM
It's pretty badass to still be writing plays at 87. On Ishmael Reed, the vile Disney movie "Song of the South" and Reed's new play “The Amanuensis,” now in a staged reading: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...