It’s not always fun to be proven right. As dear Cassandra taught us, it can be an absolute burden to scream how danger is on its way, only for everyone around you to scoff. When the danger finally comes, those same skeptics are the ones whining “Why did no one warn us?!” As SF’s own Violet Blue recently posted, “[W]e desperately need a support group for this.” (And she’d know: she’s been warning about a certain South African long before he was shoehorned into the White House soap opera.)
Back in January, I wrote about Bay Area arts groups inevitably backsliding on their DEI gains from the past five years. I never wanted that to happen, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that arts institutions—even in the “oh-so liberal Bay Area”—would restore their Eurocentric hierarchies as soon as they felt they could get away with it. I felt this because one, they’ve been trying to do just that over the course of those five years, and two, they’d already created a road map on how to do so with how they’d rolled back COVID safety measures.
Well, here we are in June of 2025, and what happened? Shannon Faulise of KQED reports on Bay Area arts institutions “quietly quitting on DEI” and Bobby Brainworms wants to replace the CDC’s vaccine overseers during another massive wave of COVID, measles, and H5N1. I’d give anything to have been wrong about what I wrote in January.
So, now what? We keep pushing back. And it could work. Every single idiot in the White House is stabbing each other in the back, when they’re not pissing their pants about Waymos burning across California (the only fire in this state I welcome). The Establishment is in a panic it hasn’t been in since it sent armed troops to shoot Kent State students and Black Panthers in the streets of Oakland. That may seem ominous, but it proves a point: the power is/was/always-has-been with the people.
The only thing I’d change about the anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian demonstrations is the way even Democrats implore protestors to be “not be violent” when it’s the police, National Guard, and now the goddamn U.S. Marines responsible. Stop victim blaming the people oppressed. Acknowledging your anger isn’t the same as violent action, so stop conflating the two, Democrats! You have the opportunity to take advantage of these dumb dogs chasing their own tails, but once again, you’re blaming the very people bitten by those dogs.
We protect us. We support us.
Now’s the time to hold your ground and support work and companies that make good on their commitments to inclusion. If I must make one more prediction, it’s that once this is all over, the biggest regrets people will have will be the actions they didn’t take, for freedom’s sake.
THE BIG REVEAL AT BERKELEY REP
To this day, I’ve never seen RuPaul’s Drag Race. Even putting aside my personal feelings about RuPaul (who has a horrible, Scott Wiener-esque habit of watering down queerness to not offend the Establishment), I’ve just never found time in my life to sit down and watch it. Maybe it’s because I’m in a city that once had more drag clubs than coffee shops, but I guess I don’t need to see any edited-for-television take on that most glamorous of performance styles.
That’s why I didn’t know anything about Berkeley-born Sasha Velour until I sat down to watch The Big Reveal (through Sun/15 at Berkeley Rep), in which Velour stars, having wrote the titular book that serves as its basis.
The show serves as both autobiography for Velour (blessed to have grown up with a family supportive of their queerness), an abridged history of drag as an art form, and a big-budget proper drag show. The latter is where it truly thrives, with Cosette “Ettie” Pin’s gorgeous kitsch set and the army of costumers and video artists turning Velour into a truly larger-than-life spectacle from which one can’t stop staring. It’s an Oasis show with a Taylor Mac budget and it is glorious.
It’s not that Velour’s life story and the brief drag history bits are bad; quite the contrary, both are enlightening. It’s that this 90-minute show would have to be dedicated solely to one or the other to do them justice. Sure, we can read the book, but we almost feel short-changed by not hearing more of it. I say “almost” because—well, aforementioned spectacle.
If I have a question about the show, it’s “Who turned up the AC in the Rep’s Roda Theatre?” Yes, it made for great airflow (CO² levels on my Aranet4 peaked at 698ppm), but it made the theatre a meat locker. Unfortunately, the short run means no masked performances, so show up with a good mask and thick clothing.
Besides, it’s the very sort of show that pisses off homophobes, which is one’s duty during Pride month.
THE BIG REVEAL runs through Sun/15. Berkeley Rep. Tickets and more info here.
A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL AT GOLDEN GATE THEATRE
As a writer, I hate being dismissive, but sometimes you’ve just got too little to work with. A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (through June 22 at Golden Gate Theatre) is exactly what you think: a speedy run-through of the storied career of the eponymous musician, with emphasis on his biggest hits. It was a Broadway hit and will, no doubt, add to his already-lucrative catalogue for years.
The show is what the kids today call “mid”: not really bad (though the actors playing Elder Neil and his therapist are grating in their scenery-chewing), but not really attempting to be more than what it is. It knows that the audiences showed up to sing along to “Sweet Caroline”, so that’s what they do—both in the play proper and the post-curtain encore. If that’s all you want, you’ll be satisfied. For the rest of us, the house is kept bright enough that we won’t fall asleep.
It’s also performed in a well-ventilated theatre. My Aranet4 peaked around 776ppm during the two-act show. Be advised of flashing lights and loud audio. You may want to bring earplugs along with your masks.
A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL runs through June 22. Golden Gate Theatre, SF. Tickets and more info here.
HAPPY PLEASANT VALLEY WORLD PREMIERE AT LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
If the first show in this column was gloriously over-the-top and the second a would-be valentine to older folks, Min Kahng’s Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder-Mystery Musical (world premiere runs through June 29 at Lesher Center for the Arts) has some of the best elements of the two. You’ll never know how much the world needed a sex-positive musical farce about randy seniors until you see this one, produced by CenterRep and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
In the HPV (get it?), resident June (Emily Kuroda) has once again gone to bed with a blue-pill-popping partner who didn’t wake up. Needless to say, this has put her residency in jeopardy. Fortunately, the murder-mystery aficionado—she even has a framed Jessica Fletcher photo hung on her wall—is determined to prove her innocence through old-fashioned sleuthing. Assisting her are her influencer granddaughter, Self-Made Jade (Sophie Oda and her wall-shaking voice) and Jade’s production partner Dean (the ever-talented Ezra Reaves). Sure, Jade needs some good PR after being caught saying dumb things about seniors, but she and Dean are eager to help June on her adventure involving elder visibility, late-stage queer epiphanies, and family secrets.
There are only a few real flaws going against this show. Director Jeffrey Lo sometimes confines the actors to one area, when the scene clearly calls for blocking exploring the space. Kahng’s script begins to drag in the dénouement, as it becomes the prerequisite exposition-dump of every murder-mystery.
Other than that, the cast (which includes the always-watchable Rinabeth Apostol) delivers a funny, naughty show that’s a wonderful combination of Clue and a raunchy ‘80s comedy. It’s sincere enough to make us care about the characters, yet outlandish enough to embrace its own silliness. Add in the Lesher Center’s fine HVAC (my Aranet4 peaked around 690ppm during the two-act production) and it all makes for a fine show and welcome relief from current dire headlines.
HAPPY PLEASANT VALLEY: A SENIOR SEX SCANDAL MURDER-MYSTERY MUSICAL runs through June 29. Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek. Tickets and further info here.
