The San Francisco Theater Festival

The crowd waits for Beach Blanket Babylon.

Performers from Beach Blanket Babylon.
(Closest I could get were the planters to the side and behind the stage.)

Performers from Broadway Bound.

Captain Jack Spareribs performs for the kiddies.

More Captain Jack.

Blue Blanket Improv.

The other shows I saw were indoors and couldn't get photos of. But The Marsh packed the Metreon's Action Theater with Don Reed, Wayne Harris and Kenny Yun. Charlie Varon nailed an excerpt of his Rabbi Sam for a packed house in the Goldman Theater (Contemporary Jewish Museum), followed by Dan Wolf and Tommy Shepherd's preview of Stateless, which opens at The Jewish Theatre (formerly Traveling Jewish Theatre) in October. Varon also brings Rabbi Sam back in October at The Marsh. I tried to see Dan Hoyle right after Stateless, but it was already "sold out."

It was sort of an embarrassment of riches this year. It was a huge crowd, and most indoor shows had long lines, and in some cases, like with Dan Hoyle, people were turned away. But the theatre people I spoke to were all really impressed with the big names (Wicked and Beach Blanket especially) this year and thought the festival was just getting bigger and better. So congratulations to Bill Schwartz and the rest of the SF Theater Festival crew for pulling off an excellent event--and bringing the sunshine out to boot.