A hit across the country, The Hunchback of Notre Dame makes its Bay Area premiere at the Victoria Theatre under Bay Area Musicals. This production ends their season with a bang, ringing all the right bells as the audience watched from the parapets.

A country should always learn from their past, but what if there is something to learn from the history of a country and ocean away? Z Space presents their production of A Lesson From Aloes by Athol Fugard, which examines an era of racial tension and oppressive government in South Africa that is unfortunately familiar to issues we are facing today.

The queens return to Theatre Rhinoceros for a limited engagement of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, after a celebrated run of the production last season. Filled with popular music and colorful characters, Priscilla brings a night of fun, campiness, and acceptance to the theater.

Based on the 1994 Australian comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; the musical follows Anthony (or Tick) as he travels across the Australian desert on the bus christened “Priscilla.” Tick is performing in a show run by his ex-wife, but plans to reunite with his son, unbeknownst to his fellow queens on this trip: the legendary transgender performer Bernadette and the young, saucy upcoming queen Adam. Along their trip, they encounter loving fans as well as homophobic crowds, and learn to grow closer together as a sisterhood.

When you combine the infectious beats of The Go-Go’s with the prose romance The Arcadia, you get an interesting mix of pop punk Renaissance flair. Head Over Heels opened Wednesday at The Curran, bringing the beat to San Francisco before heading to Broadway later this summer. The team that brought you unique musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, and Avenue Q redefines the musical comedy with this funky Elizabethan story.

From gospel music to sweet potato pie, Marcus Gardley’s play Dance of the Holy Ghosts follows the life of Oscar Clifton through rose-colored glasses. However, the ghosts of his past and present tell the audience a much different story than the life Oscar remembers. 

Playwright Julia Cho challenges a pressing issue in our country right now, gun violence, in her new play Office Hour at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Cho’s approach to this topic is one that adds new layers to the conversation, which is fresh in all of our minds.

Straight from the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Weightless is an innovative new musical playing in one of San Francisco’s newest and most innovative theaters spaces, Z Space.  A performance combining indie-rock music, technology, and mythology; Weightless redefines what the modern musical can do by reexamining stories from the past.

When soldiers returned home from World War II, many protected their families and loved ones from what they experienced on the battlefield. However, in Anne Yumi Kobori’s new play Seeds, these secrets haunt these soldiers, as they attempt to readapt to life after the war.

Shaw is not an easy playwright to decipher, and Aurora Theatre Company was able to make a thoughtful interpretation that entertained while teaching the audience, through societal concepts of another era.

While traditionally seen in a bigger production, this version of Streetcar benefited from the smaller playing space. The focus shifts on the characters and their many complicated relationships, garnering the attention from the audience. Director Emilie Whelan did an excellent job making William’s writing really shine in this classic story of passion and betrayal.

Aziza Barnes looks at life in the city from the perspective of a black woman, bringing her poetic flair and contemporary voice to the Upstairs Theatre with her new play BLKS, at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. While Barnes’ voice speaks to a specific audience, the themes and characters in BLKS translate to a universal audience.