Ravelle Brickman

Review: ‘All Shook Up’ at Act Two at Levine

Seeing All Shook Up at Act Two at Levine last weekend was like an adventure in time travel. The show, which played for one weekend only, offered a glimpse of a long-ago world—1955, when Elvis Presley...

Review #2: ‘The Father’ at The Studio Theatre

It’s taken five years for The Father—the highly-acclaimed drama by Florian Zeller that shook Paris in 2012—to arrive in the Washington area. But now that it’s here—following sold-out performances in...

Review #1: ‘Outside Mullingar’ at The Keegan Theatre

Theatre-lovers searching for a sequel to Doubt—John Patrick Shanley’s prize-winning (and frequently revived) play about nuns and priests in an Irish-American enclave of New York—will be surprised to...

Review: ‘Blood Knot’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

South African playwright Athol Fugard’s early masterpiece, Blood Knot, has finally returned to DC. And, judging by the roaring ovation on opening night, those who can see this production during its...

Review: ‘SISSY Accompanied by Johann Sebastian Bach and a Mouse’ at The Catholic University of America’s Hartke Theatre

If you can imagine a play that captures bits and pieces of The Wizard of Oz and Greek Mytholgy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a Tom and Jerry comic, then you will have some idea of what goes into...

Review: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The How and the Why – Sarah Treem’s celebrated play about science, feminism and generational rivalry – has just made its long-awaited DC debut at Theater J. The two-handed play is billed as a “fitting...

Review: ‘I Too Speak of the Rose’ (‘Yo También Hablo de la Rosa’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

US Premiere of Mexican Classic Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre Some might think of it as a Mexican version of Rashomon—Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1950 film in which each of the characters describes...

Interview: Co-Directors Serge Seiden and Vaughn Ryan Midder on ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies,’ Now in World Premiere at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

I first encountered Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies five months ago, when it was presented at The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival. Hearing the play at that first public reading was an...

Interview: Playwright Chris Stezin on ‘Mack, Beth,’ Playing Now at The Keegan Theatre

Chris Stezin is a playwright, actor, and director whose work—on and off the stage—has brightened the marquees of DC theatres for more than two decades. The author of roughly 25 plays in as many years,...

Review: ‘Charm’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

If you think teaching manners to a group of outcast runaways sounds like a joke—ridiculous at best, and irrelevant or possibly dangerous at worst—then think again. Because the idea of offering lessons...

Review: Second City’s ‘Twist Your Dickens’ at The Kennedy Center

If you’re looking for something to laugh at in this wintry political season, then you’d better move fast. That’s because tickets for Twist Your Dickens, Second City’s parody of A Christmas Carol—now...

Review: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

Yes, the rumors are true. The Christians—now making its DC debut at Theater J—is amazing. It’s amazing for its sheer audacity—first, in turning the nation’s leading Jewish theater into a...

Review: The Second City’s ‘Black Side of the Moon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The Second City’s Black Side of the Moon— the Chicago-based comedy troupe’s first foray into post-Obama politics—launched the holiday season this week with an African-American cast and a show that is...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Georgetown Day School

If the idea of “sophisticated family entertainment” sounds like a contradiction in terms—an oxymoron if ever there were one—then Peter and the Starcatcher, which just opened for a quick run at...

Review: ‘Salvador’ by Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company at GALA Hispanic Theatre

There’s good news and bad news floating out of GALA Hispanic Theatre this week. First, the bad news. Salvador—the full-length autobiographical dance drama, choreographed by the great Flamenco dancer,...

Review: ‘Milk Like Sugar’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Milk Like Sugar, the Obie Award-winning play that just opened at Mosaic Theater Company of DC, starts off as badass comedy, the kind where the word “shit”—repeated like an “amen” at the end of each...

Review: ‘Witch’ at Convergence Theatre at Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint

Whatever your choice in Hallowe’en fare, Witch—an adaptation of a Jacobean melodrama now having its world premiere at The Mead Theatre Lab—has it all. There’s murder, mayhem, and blood on the...

Review: The Second City’s ‘Unelectable You’ at The Kennedy Center

Billed as “The Second City’s Completely Unbiased Political Revue,” Unelectable You—now in the middle of a four month pre-election national tour—paused in Washington, DC last weekend for a stop at The...

Review: ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Theater J

There have been so many plays about dysfunctional families—think about August: Osage County, for example, or The Sisters Rosensweig—that it’s hard to believe that anyone would try to produce another...

Review: ‘Cervantes:The Last Quixote’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve probably never heard of Cervantes. Or you know him only as the creator of Don Quixote, a book you last picked up in high school. But don’t let that deter you from...

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival: ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Mosaic Theater Company of DC Unveils Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies. Full Production Set for World Premiere in January 2017 One of the most highly anticipated new plays of the 2016-17...

Review: ‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

It’s poignant and painful, funny and moving. Yet most of all, Satchmo at the Waldorf—the beautifully-wrought one-man show that opened to a packed house Monday night—is vastly entertaining. As such,...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Underneath the Lintel’

Pat O’Brien’s solo performance in Underneath the Lintel has been captivating US and Canadian Fringe audiences for eight years now, and it’s not hard to see why. Seeing O’Brien—a longtime star of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Whisper Into My Good Ear’

The scene is deceptively simple. It’s winter. Two old men—one shivering in a sweater, the other swaddled in layers of coats and hats—are sitting on a park bench, contemplating the emptiness of what’s...

Review: ‘Miss Cuarenta’ Starring Paula Arcila at GALA Hispanic Theatre

GALA Hispanic Theatre—home of the National Center for Latino Performing Arts—kicked off its 41st season this weekend with the DC premiere of Miss Cuarenta. The dazzling solo performance—written and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Human Algorithm’

She’s been described as a stand-up comic, a multilingual humorist, a playwright and a director. But mostly CJ, as she likes to be called, is a master storyteller whose ability to laugh at herself—and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’35mm: A Musical Exhibition’

The idea of matching music to photographs is not new, but in 35mm—now having its DC premiere at the Atlas Performing Arts Center as part of this year’s Capital Fringe—the approach gets an energetic...

Review: ‘The Lady With the Little Dog’ at Quotidian Theatre Company

Stephanie Mumford’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short story, The Lady With the Little Dog—now at the Quotidian Theatre Company—is a stunning tribute to the literary classic and as faithful to its...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Do Not Disturb’

Anyone looking for a respite from this summer’s sultry heat need look no further than the stage at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, where Do Not Disturb—a cross between comic opera and bedroom...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Death Be Not Loud!’

Susan Jackson’s new play, Death Be Not Loud—produced by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company and billed as “a contemporary Southern comedy”—is a sweet reflection on love and loss, featuring two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ain’t That Rich’

In Ain’t that Rich, California-based writer and comedian Kate Robards delivers a dazzling solo performance, one as mesmerizing and powerful as it is funny. The show is now making its debut at the...

Review: ‘Another Way Home’ at Theater J

Is it a coincidence that Another Way Home—which opened at Theater J on Monday night—just happens to coincide with the start of sleepaway camp for kids in the DC area? Not at all. That’s because this...

Review: ‘El Paso Blue’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

‘El Paso Blue’ in long-awaited East Coast Premiere at GALA It took roughly 20 years for Octavio Solis’ El Paso Blue to make it to Washington, DC. But now that it has arrived, the play—written and...

Playwright Octavio Solis on His Play ‘El Paso Blue’ Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Texas-born Octavio Solis is one of America’s leading contemporary playwrights, yet he is relatively unknown in the DC area. Now El Paso Blue—one of his most powerful plays—introduces his work to the...

Review: ‘The Object Lesson’ at The Studio Theatre

The Object Lesson—a highly acclaimed one-man performance piece, set in a warehouse of the mind that is stacked with memories and the objects that evoke them—has finally arrived in DC, where it is...

Review: ‘The Pelican’ at Arcturus Theater Company

Rare Production of Strindberg’s Pelican at Arcturus The Pelican—a Victorian melodrama long abandoned by modern producers —has happily returned to the DC stage in a brilliantly staged one-act play....

Review: ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five thirty in the morning… So begins one of the most powerful works of literature ever written. Chronicle of a Death Foretold was...

Review #2: ‘No, No, Nanette’ at American University

A Frothy Revival of No, No, Nanette at American University After a week in which corpses—remembered and actual—have littered just about every stage I’ve visited this week (beginning with Falling Out...

Review: ‘Falling Out of Time’ at Theater J

When I attended the reading of Falling Out of Time at the Page-to-Stage Festival last fall, I wondered how on earth this poetic drama—half fairy tale, half allegory–could ever be mounted on a stage....

Review: ‘Marjorie Prime’ at Olney Theatre Center

Question: What does it take to get an award-winning New York-based actor to perform in a tiny suburban outpost, 20 miles from Washington, DC? Answer: If the actor is Kathleen Butler—now starring in...

Review: ‘Lost in the Stars’ at Washington National Opera #2

One of the most powerful musical dramas of the 20th century has just opened at The Kennedy Center, home of the Washington National Opera, for a one-week run. And theater lovers who long for the...

Review: ‘Senorita y Madame’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The rivalry between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden—two women who actually invented the cosmetics industry—is largely forgotten today. Yet the story of these feminist icons, who at one time...

A Valentine’s Day Treat: ‘Lovers and Lotharios’ at the Cultural Arts Center of Montgomery College

If you’re looking for a romantic date this Valentine’s Day, then check out the ‘Symphony of the Potomac’—Washington’s own community-based orchestra—which will be celebrating the art of love with a...

Review: ‘The Sisters Rosensweig’ at Theater J

There’s a strange sound erupting from the JCC most nights. The source is not burlesque or stand-up comedy—although there are elements of both—but a brand new production of Wendy Wasserstein’s...

China National Traditional Orchestra’s ‘Rediscover Chinese Music’ at The Kennedy Center

Having just returned from China—where one of the highlights of the trip was hearing traditional music performed casually in teahouses and parks—I was curious to see how these simple melodies would...

‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ at Washington Stage Guild

Live Radio Play Injects Comedy into a Christmas Classic Washington Stage Guild is presenting an entertaining radio play version of the 1940’s classic holiday film It’s a Wonderful Life. This retelling...

‘Danceworks Fall 2015’ at George Washington University’s Department of Theatre of Dance

International Guest Artists Bring Polish and Pizazz to MainStage at George Washington University Some of the most exciting new choreography in town is on view at this season’s DanceWorks 2015, where...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Animal’ at The Studio Theatre (Review #2)

When a leading Shakespearean actor changes hats—literally—to play a neurotic housewife whose comic riffs include a paean to a ballpoint pen, that’s news. And it’s very good news indeed for...

‘Private Eyes’ at Silver Spring Stage

Anyone who craves serious comedy—meaning humor leavened with wit and more than a dash of malice—will rejoice over Silver Spring Stage’s production of Private Eyes by Steven Dietz. The play was...

A Report from Page-to-Stage: Theater J’s ‘Falling Out of Time’ and ‘Love Godfrey/Love George’

Theater J offered a first look at its adaptation of Falling Out of Time, David Grossman’s powerful saga of parental loss, at this year’s Page-to-Stage Festival held at The Kennedy Center last weekend....