The award-winning musical "Dreamgirls" is back on stage after an absence of 25 years, and it is an excellent production. This story of a girl singing group whose meteoric rise coincides with a sea change in American popular music never grows old. Some of our readers probably saw the 2006 film version with Beyonce, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson. Nicely done there, but the continuing excitement of this musical legend comes through best in the immediacy of a stage performance. And the Curran Theatre in San Francisco is the perfect venue with its deep stage and great acoustics.

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If someone mentions art, slam poetry, fiction writing and live music -- you think of San Francisco, right? Of course you do, unless you're from Berkeley, but that's another story.

However, if you are talking about the first weekend of April 2009, you would be wrong. Pleasanton -- yes, Pleasanton -- hosted its "8th Annual Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival" and you missed a lot of good stuff if you weren't present for those two days.

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Word for Word Performing Arts Company has a mission -- to tell great stories with elegant theatricality. It stages performances of fiction, both classical and contemporary.

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Currently playing at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT) in San Francisco is a comedy/drama by William A. Parker, entitled "Waitin' 2 End Hell."

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