Andy Arnold

Historical drama and physical comedy combine in an enjoyable ‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

It’s 1939 and film studio chief David O. Selznick has staked his career on adapting Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel Gone with the Wind for the screen. Still, Selznick shuts down production after...

Walt Whitman’s vivid accounts of the Civil War come to life in ‘Leaves of America’

Chris Dwyer uses Walt Whitman’s poetry and his many hospital visits to bring vivid accounts of the Civil War to life in Leaves of America: Walt Whitman’s Stories of the Civil War. Whitman fans be...

Agatha Christie’s ‘A Daughter’s a Daughter’ by The Arlington Players depicts biting family strife

Agatha Christie’s A Daughter’s a Daughter at The Arlington Players features the character of Sarah Prentice: the most hateful, self-centered, pampered, jealous, possessive, resentful, rotten little...

‘Yellow Face’ at Silver Spring Stage sparks important conversations

Is racism a taboo subject in the arts? Of course not. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Porgy and Bess to the whitewashing of the Oscars, artists have used their platform to explore America’s history of...

Encore Stage & Studio’s ‘CSI: Christmas Scene Investigators’ is a comedic crowd-pleaser

You know it’s going to be a long night when Santa Claus goes missing. Either Stage Manager Meaghan Leahy made a whopper of a mistake, or some fiend stole jolly old St. Nick, thus threatening the...

Young adventurer Milo learns how to use time in Greenbelt Arts Center’s ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’

If you know a bored child who doesn’t know what to do with their time, a trip through Susan Nanus’ The Phantom Tollbooth just might be the answer. It certainly works for Milo in Greenbelt Arts...

Past, present clash in Aquila Theatre’s ‘1984’

Viewing Aquila Theatre’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 at the Center for the Arts at George Mason University, I couldn’t help but wonder which came first “newspeak” or “alternative facts.”...

Set and staging steal the show at 2nd Star’s ‘A Christmas Carol’

The set and staging steal the show at 2nd Star Productions’ A Christmas Carol: The Musical. That is almost a shame because the acting, singing, and dancing are also first-rate; however, the special...

Wolf Pack’s ‘Rocky Horror Show’ seduces Brentwood

If you are into corsets, fishnets, glitter, high heels, bold makeup, sexual innuendo and cussing as art, Wolf Pack Theatre Company’s (WPTC) rendition of Richard O’Brien’s cult classic Rocky Horror...

‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ rouses audience at Goddard Music and Drama Club with exuberant performance

If you are looking for some enjoyable entertainment before the holiday rush sets in, see The Drowsy Chaperone by the Goddard Music and Drama Club at the Barney & Bea Recreation Center. This production...

Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at Rockville Little Theatre

Although three murders, or “helping lonely men to find peace,” as the aunts see it, take place in the first two minutes, Rockville Little Theatre’s current presentation of Joseph Kesselring’s classic...

Review: ‘The Mousetrap’ by Thunderous Productions

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is a serious whodunit in which strangers are thrown together at a remote place and cut off from the outside world, with a police inspector unlocking a murder mystery in...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: The Little Senator That Could

The Little Senator That Could held its world premiere at Capital Fringe on July 12, 2019, and it is nearly perfect for Washington, DC. Billed as a comedy, playwright Kirsten Grady’s show is actually a...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Flirting Like an American’

George Washington University researcher Sufian Zhemukhov is a popular guy around Washington. He has several awards for his storytelling and some of the stories he relies on in Flirting Like an...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘CRAPSHOOT!’

It turns out Al Stone (Todd Blakesley) is that guy – the one who admits to voting for Donald Trump in 2016. His participation in the democratic experiment turns his life upside down. Stone lives in an...

‘Mamma Mia!’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

The musical Mamma Mia! is playing in Frederick, Maryland for the first time at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre. If opening night is any indication, WOB has a hit on its hands. Director Jordan...

Review: ‘Grease’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Grease can be a sad tale of peer pressure, teen pregnancy, insecure futures, and violence. Based on a book of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, the story was about greasers, pre-Beatles...