Anne Donnelly

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Midsummer’s Burlesque Dream’

Burlesque Classique’s mission is to reclaim the meaning of burlesque, not as something sleazy and demoralizing as many people assume, but as an energetic and titillating exaggeration of a story. Their...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Reflecting Antigone’

On my way to see Reflecting Antigone performed by The Rude Mechanicals, I got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a Black Lives Matter protest. I could not have known then, how fitting a circumstance...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Free Range’

Parenting seems to be a competitive sport these days. With everyone from well-meaning neighbors to the national media chiming in on what parents are doing wrong and how they are going to ruin their...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘BRYCE: Hydrogen Blonde’

Bryce walks onstage wearing a sequined jacket and spandex jumpsuit. He’s backed by two phenomenal dancers, Nia Calloway and Zhane’ Davis Smith. His first original pop song, Best Diq blasts through the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Lil’ Women: a rap musical’

Are you searching for a 19th century story set to 21st century hip-hop, but not willing to cough up thousands of dollars for Hamilton tickets? Lil’ Women: a rap musical may be exactly what you’re...

Review: ‘Into the Woods’ at Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

Decades before Angelina Jolie played Maleficent or Idina Menzel defied gravity in Wicked, lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim was fracturing a whole slew of fairy tales for his witty and Tony...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Synetic Theater

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet opens with a chorus announcing the fate that will befall the title characters in just two hours’ time. Synetic Theatre’s wordless Romeo and Juliet, distills that...

Review: ‘Une Education Manquée’ at Opera Lafayette

Opera Lafayette’s second offering of the season, Emmanuel Chabrier’s Une Education Manquée, is a far cry from the massive spectacle many people assume is synonymous with opera. This little known...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Gimme and Band, Gimme a Banana! The Carmen Miranda Story’ at Pointless Theatre Company

Say the name Carmen Miranda and your mind instantly conjures images of a flashy showgirl, red painted lips, feathers and sequins, and, most of all, bananas. For many, little else exists about the...

Review: ‘Wagner, Max! Wagner’ a Song Cycle at The Kennedy Center

Even those familiar with the work of Stew and Heidi Rodewald, the duo behind Obie and Tony-award winning musical Passing Strange, might find a description of their newest song cycle Wagner, Max!...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Inheritance Canyon’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

How did you get to where you are today? Was it with help from your loved ones, or in spite of them? Are you experiencing déjà vu? What is the price of fame? Can you really achieve greatness just by...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Caps for Sale The Musical’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

When I was in eighth grade, I wrote a ten-minute play based on Esphyr Siobodkina’s beloved picture book Caps for Sale. It was selected as one of a handful in our class to be performed and toured...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘The Oregon Trail’ at Flying V Theatre

Hitch up your wagon, take one last visit to Matt’s General Store, and say hello to your teenage years once again. Flying V is serving up a healthy dose of nostalgia with their current production of...

‘Bootleg Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

You know that nightmare where it’s opening night of a play and you realize you don’t know any of your lines and you’ve barely had any rehearsal but the curtain is about to go up to a packed house? Now...

2015 Capital Fringe ‘The Human Algorithm’

What do lion attacks, football fanatics, muppets, dog pee, and Vladimir Putin have in common? According to CJ in her most recent iteration of The Human Algorithm, they all describe the four basic...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dr. Freeman’s Motivational Inspirational Pill of a Million Secrets’

Imagine a pill that could eliminate boredom, stave off writer’s block, inspire the next great masterpiece. In Dr. Freeman’s Motivational Inspirational Pill of a Million Secrets, David Klinger tells...

2015 Capital Fringe Review ‘BrouHaHa’

What would you do at the end of the world? Happenstance Theatre’s newest show BrouHaHa answers this and more, as six clowns journey towards the apocalypse. What this means exactly and when it will...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘To Err is Falstaff’

There’s nothing a Fringe audience loves more than remixed Shakespeare. And there’s nothing DC loves more than politics. To Err is Falstaff goes right for the jugular, hitting Capital Fringe with both...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hero Complex’

Live Action Theatre more than lives up to its name in its recent production of Hero Complex. The Action starts right away, when aging superhero Eddie Lear (Peter Boyer) accounts his numerous exploits...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Breaking Character’

From The Breakfast Club and Mean Girls to High School Musical and Glee, high school stereotypes have been the popular subject of numerous writers. But often this exploration is missing a very...

2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’

Read a description of The Winter’s Tale, and you may think William Shakespeare imbibed a little too much while writing it. The absurdity of events seems outlandish, even for a man whose vast oeuvre...