Tales of the City
Avenue Q creator Jeff Whitty and song writers Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters bring Armistead Maupin's quirky universe to the stage.
American Conservatory Theater
(415) 749-2228
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
***
No musical would be able to contain “all the characters, incidents, secrets, coincidences, and sly commentary” that Armistead Maupin packed into his first two Tales of the City novels, said Robert Hurwitt in the San Francisco Chronicle. Those books, about a bohemian 1970s boarding house in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, are full of enough “interconnected plots and people” to fill several shows. As adapted by Avenue Q creator Jeff Whitty, with a hodgepodge of period-style songs by Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters, this musical is an enjoyable three-hour “celebration of sex, drugs, and all kinds of coming out.” But it could use some further pruning—a few songs should be cut, and though the production features several “deftly sketched” characters, too many are underdeveloped.
The show’s infectious charm makes its weaknesses forgivable, said Karen D’Souza in the San Jose Mercury News. Whitty skillfully captures Maupin’s quirky universe. Mary Ann Singleton, the wide-eyed young heroine from Ohio, is fetchingly played by Betsy Wolfe, even though she’s upstaged by Mary Birdsong’s “white-hot turn as a pill-popping hippie chick.” Absolutely nothing should be changed about Judy Kaye’s turn as Mrs. Madrigal, “the bohemian goddess-cum-landlady” who floats around in psychedelic robes and dispenses “sage bits of weed-infused wisdom” along with her strangely addictive brownies. “Some polishing and tightening” are needed elsewhere, but already “this Age of Aquarius flashback deserves to be seen on a Broadway stage.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's opposition
The Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
-
How the woke right gained power in the US
Under the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
By The Week Staff
-
If/Then
feature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
By The Week Staff
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
By The Week Staff
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
By The Week Staff
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
By The Week Staff
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
By The Week Staff
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
By The Week Staff
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
By The Week Staff
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.
By The Week Staff