Lily Janiak
@lilyjaniak.bsky.social
San Francisco Chronicle theater critic, wheelwoman, How can there be any sin in sincere?
I happened to see "Hamnet" the day after I saw Shotgun's "Sunday in the Park With George," and they felt like they were in conversation with each other —
How ‘Hamnet’ rewrites the tropes of the artist biopic
In Chloe Zhao’s feature film about Shakespeare’s family, Paul Mescal interprets a scene of “Hamlet” in a way I’ve never seen done in all my years as a theatergoer.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I happened to see "Hamnet" the day after I saw Shotgun's "Sunday in the Park With George," and they felt like they were in conversation with each other —
Reposted by Lily Janiak
food takes are what got jean valjean into trouble
November 25, 2025 at 10:20 PM
food takes are what got jean valjean into trouble
What imaginative riches. On Shotgun Players' "Sunday in the Park With George": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Why Shotgun Players’ ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ feels like an immersive experience
Shotgun Players’ production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 musical insists on the equal importance of every being who contributed to Seurat’s famous painting — artist and subject...
www.sfchronicle.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:26 PM
What imaginative riches. On Shotgun Players' "Sunday in the Park With George": www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Lily Janiak
Still thinking about the audience member the other night who shouted “You go, girl!” when Louise told Mary Todd Lincoln “You are not nice!”
November 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Still thinking about the audience member the other night who shouted “You go, girl!” when Louise told Mary Todd Lincoln “You are not nice!”
You know that feeling of “no one else could make theater like this”?
That’s what it’s like to see Manual Cinema.
On “The 4th Witch” at Cal Performances:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
That’s what it’s like to see Manual Cinema.
On “The 4th Witch” at Cal Performances:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
I went to see Manual Cinema’s ‘The 4th Witch’ — and it was spellbinding
In “The 4th Witch,” a Cal Performances co-commission, the inventive blend of theater, film and puppetry proves why this Chicago company deserves a place in your arts alerts.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:12 PM
You know that feeling of “no one else could make theater like this”?
That’s what it’s like to see Manual Cinema.
On “The 4th Witch” at Cal Performances:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
That’s what it’s like to see Manual Cinema.
On “The 4th Witch” at Cal Performances:
www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Huge news in Bay Area theater.
Slide into my DMs if you want to discuss favorite Pam projects — or trade fantasy theater football picks about who the successor should be! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Slide into my DMs if you want to discuss favorite Pam projects — or trade fantasy theater football picks about who the successor should be! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
The Bay Area’s top theater leader is stepping down
Pam MacKinnon told the Chronicle that she’s leaving American Conservatory Theater in order to return to her freelance directing career.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Huge news in Bay Area theater.
Slide into my DMs if you want to discuss favorite Pam projects — or trade fantasy theater football picks about who the successor should be! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Slide into my DMs if you want to discuss favorite Pam projects — or trade fantasy theater football picks about who the successor should be! www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
“What happens when an industry spends 15 years telling talented young journalists that personal brand is currency … that being a character in the story makes better content—and then acts shocked when someone takes that logic a few degrees too far?”
www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...
www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...
The Olivia Nuzzi Comeback Is Everything Wrong With Modern Media
Olivia Nuzzi’s comeback isn’t a personal scandal story—it’s proof that today’s media rewards access, personality, and controversy more than ethics.
www.mediaite.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:31 PM
“What happens when an industry spends 15 years telling talented young journalists that personal brand is currency … that being a character in the story makes better content—and then acts shocked when someone takes that logic a few degrees too far?”
www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...
www.mediaite.com/opinion/the-...
Wish I could give a more positive report on this one. On Berkeley Rep's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
‘Mother of Exiles’ tries to be a stirring immigration drama but feels more like a Zoom meeting
Jessica Huang’s play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre traces immigration journeys across three generations of a single multiracial family over more than a century.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Wish I could give a more positive report on this one. On Berkeley Rep's latest: www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
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 !