David Siegel

In The Moment: An Interview With Playwright D. L. Coburn on The MetroStage Production of ‘The Gin Game’

At a comfortable table at Alexandria’s Extra Perks Coffee Shop and Café, I had the happy opportunity to spend some delightful one-on-one time with The Gin Game‘s playwright D. L. Coburn. Coburn had...

In the Moment: Q&A with Minister Becky May Jenkins, Leader of the Women’s Ecumenical Choir Performing ‘The Gospel of Colonus’ at Avant Bard

An ensemble is very key to the success of a theatrical production. Whenever I go to a theater performance, I make sure to take in those who, while not in the spotlight, still pack a visual and aural...

Review: ‘Marx in Soho’ at Nu Sass Productions

Nu Sass’ latest Small Batch production is Howard Zinn’s one-actor Marx in Soho. It is another highly successfully, nervy production by Nu Sass with it mantra, “strong women, great theatre.” It is...

Review: ‘Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing’ at Signature Theatre

With gentleness and clear affection for an unexpected heroine, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine has written and directed with a disarming touch an endearing new play “with music”;...

In the Moment: Q&A With Bob Telson, Composer of ‘The Gospel at Colonus’ – Now Playing at Avant Bard

Avant Bard’s The Gospel of Colonus is a gorgeous, rapturous musical. Taking a phrase from the Bible, specifically Psalm 100, I found The Gospel of Colonus a “joyful noise” to witness and highly...

In The Moment: Elevator Repair Service’s ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises’) at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Come April 7th, it will be a full century since the United Stated entered World War I or The Great War as it was known until WW II came along. The Air and Space Museum here in DC is having an...

Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic’s The Taming of the Shrew is disarming, decadent, and a great visual rush. It is also great, dialogue-free storytelling with its own edge and outlook. The Synetic production simply cast a...

In the Moment: Atlas Intersections Festival 2017: Four Dance Troupes: Company Danzante, Jane Franklin Dance, Gin Dance Company, and Rebollar Dance.

This year’s Atlas Intersections Festival has a theme of “where the art world and the real world intersect. The Festival aims to “engage audiences and artists alike by sparking conversation, deeper...

In the Moment: A Talk with the Pipeline Playwrights: Part One: Ann Timmons and Soo-Jin Lee

Northern Virginia is very much alive and supporting original play development by local playwrights. The diversity of the Northern Virginia demographic provides for fresh experiences to base a play on....

Review: ‘No Solemn Silence: A Gilbert & Sullivan Review’ at George Mason University’s Center For the Arts

George Mason University (GMU) launched its Year of Gilbert and Sullivan Celebration with a clever, bright, joyfully sung musical homage to the masterful Gilbert and Sullivan team and its invented...

In the Moment: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III is a stunner. It is a clever look into a usually unseen political hall-of-mirrors. It is also a most telling tale of...

Review: ‘Blues in the Night’ at Creative Cauldron

Ready for top-notch singing talent that brings the “blues” to vibrant, spicy full life? Then high tail-it to Creative Cauldron (Falls Church) to take-in a cabaret-like revue called Blues in the Night....

In the Moment: The Soundscape of MetroStage’s ‘The Gin Game’ Rocks!

I love being surprised when I go to theater. Recently, I went to a play, MetroStage’s comely The Gin Game, and became totally smitten with the textures of its music design. It was a soundscape that...

In the Moment: ‘What’s Going On: The Marvin Gaye Project’ at Reston’s CenterStage

As DC area performing arts companies continue to grapple with advancing issues of social justice into the public realm in these stressful days, DC is certainly not alone. In 2015 the Ford Foundation...

In the Moment: ‘Trevor’ at 1st Stage

Under the crafty direction of Alex Levy, 1st Stage’s production of Trevor, penned by Nick Jones, had me in agreement with a recent American Theatre headline calling Jones the “Deadpan Puppet Master of...

In the Moment: Jewish Plays Project at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia

We in DC theater community are constantly on the prowl for new voices with diverse mindsets and new plays on emerging issues to be open to the upcoming generation of possible theater-goers. Whether...

In the Moment: ‘As You Like It’ at Folger Theatre

Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s appealing direction gives Folger Theatre’s As You Like It a warm flirtatious essence with buffoonery galore masking over Shakespeare’s initial soulful melancholic core. With...

In the Moment: A Chat With Ethan Van Slyke on His Career and Understudying For ‘Watch On the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

A joy for a theater writer is to bring notice to young up-and-coming actors. In the past year I have the good fortune to see Ethan van Slyke perform with several professional theater companies in the...

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Zestful. Savvy. Crafty. Satisfying Director Abigail Isaac Fine’s feisty NextStop production of Shakespeare’s battle-of-wits, romantic-comedy Much Ado About Nothing is a stimulating, adult-depth...

In the Moment: The Studio Theatre’s ‘The Hard Problem’

Studio Theatre’s production of The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard charmed me with its intellectual and ideological turmoil fueled by verbal fierceness. With a shiny, contemporary veneer and Stoppard’s...

Review #1: ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand’ at The American Pops

Streisand came to DC for a quick pre-inauguration visit. Well almost, but not quite. Well, maybe my first sentence is a little bit of a “fake news” headline. I am writing about a blissful, musically...

Review: ‘Someone Is Going to Come’ at Scena Theatre

Scena Theatre’s Someone Is Going to Come is a tightly wound riddle about danger; the lightly concealed danger lurking in a couple’s push-pull of a relationship that is further inflamed with an...

Review: ‘Irving Berlin: A Simple Melody. A Tribute in Song’ at The In Series

How fortunate we are to have the In Series the past 2+ decades presenting a smart set mix of: innovative Pocket Opera, intimate Cabaret, and intriguing Latino programming. [from the company’s...

In the Moment: The Barter Players’ Touring Productions of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Giver at The Alden’

The Barter Theatre, the state theatre of Virginia, might not be as well known in the DC metro area as it once was. The Barter Theatre has had a long and continuing production history that began in...

In the Moment: Signature Theatre’s Epic ‘Titanic’ and its Backstage Unsung Heroes

Epic refined splendor comes to mind after seeing and hearing Signature Theatre’s production of the Tony Award-winning musical Titanic. Director Eric Schaeffer’s vision and implement of such a...

Review: ‘Fully Committed’ at MetroStage

Tom Story is a knockout in his one-actor, effortlessly frenetic, tour de force performance as 40 different characters who comprise the charming “controlled” frenzy of MetroStage’s Fully Committed....

In the Moment: ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Synetic Theater

Sleeping Beauty, Synetic Theater’s new dialogue-free production, is gorgeous, entertaining, and illuminating. This Sleeping Beauty is more than a fanciful, “white bread, white washed” Disney-like take...

Review: ‘The Second Shepherds’ Play’ at The Folger Theatre

Well beyond just comfort and joy, The Folger’s production of The Second Shepherds’ Play, a medieval English mystery about the ultimate power of faith to redeem and liberate, is the right play at the...

Review: ‘The Magi’ at The Hub Theatre

“A simple tale of love and hope,” is the way local playwright Helen Murray Pafumi describes her new work, The Magi. That is an understatement. In its premiere at Fairfax’s The Hub Theatre, The Magi is...

In the Moment: Interviews with the Cast, Composer, Director, and Artistic Director of The Hub Theatre’s ‘The Magi’ Opening This Weekend

The Hub Theatre will present a premiere musical, The Magi by local playwright Helen Murray Pafumi with music by singer/songwriter Eli Pafumi. This is a unique collaboration between them. The Magiis a...

Review: ‘Silver Belles’ at Signature Theatre

I needed it. A lot. A musical that reminded me that “life is a gift.” A new holiday musical with heart, humor, and great new tunes. A most-welcomed and pleasant swift sleigh ride during these dark...

In the Moment: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center

Even having inklings of what to expect, there was no protecting myself from the shattering production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge at the Kennedy Center. I don’t think even wearing a...

In the Moment: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

‘Inspired’ is the word that comes to mind for Adam Immerwahr’s selection of The Christians by Lucas Hnath for this, his first full season as Artistic Director for DC’s Theater J. What an exceptional...

Review: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at Faction of Fools

Audiences can usually expect something distinct, and full of chutzpah, from the folk at DC’s scrappy Faction of Fools theater troupe with its Comedia dell’Arte mission. The recipient of the 2012 Helen...

In the Moment: A Report on The Edge of the Universe Players 2’s Workshop Production of Young Jean Lee’s ‘Pullman, WA’

The Edge of the Universe Players 2‘s workshop production of Young Jean Lee’s Pullman, WA was an evening that defies easy categorization. It was charming one moment, annoying the next. It was a...

Review: ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

In these jagged days immediately after the election, Studio Theatre’s richly revealing production of Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee is bracing, to say the least. It deserves our attention no...

In the Moment: ‘Birdman Live! at George Mason University Center

There has been a wealth of films about Broadway over the decades. Many oft these Broadway-related movies are from a too distant past even if still shown on AMC or Turner Classics. If the older films...

Review: ‘Tame.’ at Avant Bard

Audiences of all generations and emerging Millennial-aged playwrights should rejoice at Avant Bard’s production of DC playwright Jonelle Walker’s TAME. Avant Bard took a risky budgetary and audience...

In the Moment: Jane Franklin on ‘The Migration Project’ Opening Tomorrow Night at Theatre on the Run

With an interest in the stories of refugees and other wandering souls, which I presumed is based upon my own family fables of wanderings to and in America, along with my work as Director, US Office of...

In the Moment: Kenny Neal on his Sound Design for NextStop’s ‘Eurydice’

This is another of my columns that delves deeper into the technical design aspects of an area live theater production. In this case, it was the intriguing sound design of NextStop’s Eurydice that led...

Review: Laura Benanti’s ‘Tales from Soprano Isle’ at The Barns at Wolf Trap

From the moment Laura Benanti stepped onto the stage at The Barns at Wolf Trap to perform Tales from Soprano Isle she set the buoyant mood for the evening. She charmed and enchanted even as she spoke...

Review: ‘The Three Penny Opera’ at George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Building top-notch musical theater at George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) continues with its current snappy, sharp, nicely nasty production of Bertolt Brecht and...

Review: ‘Freaky Friday’ at Signature Theatre

In its world premiere at Signature Theatre, the musical Freaky Friday is a warm, sweet, accomplished family-friendly confection with a progressive message. It is a contemporary musical about...

Review: ‘Rameau’s Nephew’ at Spooky Action Theater

An intellectually manic world, propelled by a charming, whimsical disrupter with an abundance of prickly opinions aimed at the cultural elite, awaits audiences at Spooky Action Theater. It is Rameau’s...

In the Moment: Ping Chong & Company Comes to Reston’s CenterStage

A non-traditional, very timely theater experience is arriving at Reston’s CenterStage from the creative risk-taking minds of award-winning Ping Chong + Company. What the Ping Chong + Company will be...

In the Moment: The Arts Council of Fairfax County’s Arts Awards Announced

Celebrating outstanding achievements, leadership, and support to the arts in Fairfax County, the Cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, Virginia, the Arts Council of Fairfax County is presenting its...

In the Moment: Synetic Theater’s ‘Dante’s Inferno’

The roaring wordless “silence” of Synetic’s remount of Dante’s Inferno is potent; it will swiftly suck you into its ferment depicting what sin might look and feel like if you are in Hell. Don’t brush...

Review: ‘The Gulf’ at Signature Theatre

Signature’s premiere of The Gulf written by Audrey Cefaly is a daring dark venture about two women entwined with heartache and sadness. It is a scorching two-hander character study that takes place in...

In the Moment: NextStop Theatre Company’s ‘Paper-Free Programs’

Seeking out budget efficiencies with the often limited resources of a non-profit is a constant. Many of us known this from our own experiences as non-profit board members or on staff. In these current...

Review: The Midtown Men at ‘Arts By George’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

One of Northern Virginia’s bright jewel arts events, ARTS by George! returned to the Center for the Arts, George Mason University Fairfax campus with plenty of sharp, crisp, musical style from the...