Robert Michael Oliver

Review: ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Elevator Repair Service’s production of The Select (The Sun also Rises) opened at the Lansburgh Theatre Monday, and I’m certain that Earnest Hemingway’s 1926 debut novel, known for its spare,...

Review: Regina Carter: ‘Simply Ella’ at The Kennedy Center

Regina Carter and her violin: a human voice has never sounded so true. If you get a chance to experience Regina Carter: Simply Ella, the jazz quintet composed of Regina Carter (violin), Marvin Sewell...

Review: ‘All My Sons’ at The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance

Some plays survive the test of time. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is such a play. And the production mounted by The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance makes that point...

Spine: ‘King Charles III’ at The Shakespeare Theatre Company

They sure don’t make kings like they used to. And maybe that’s a good thing. Mike Bartlett’s historical fantasy, King Charles III, based loosely (very loosely) on the current royal family of England,...

Review: Jazzmeia Horn at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club

To understand the voice of Jazzmeia Horn — whether it’s embodying her own ballad, the cleverly romantic, soft “Legs and Arms,” or taking on the role of an instrumentalist — is to understand what it...

Review: ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine came to DC for a command performance on January 25, 1942. The occasion: Franklin Roosevelt’s 60th birthday. America had just entered World War II and the fight...

Review: ‘Baby Screams Miracle’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

What does one say about a play that has a Superstorm as its protagonist? With Clare Barron’s Baby Screams Miracle, now showing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, just such a storm is nature’s supreme...

Spine: Love and Wit in ‘As You Like It’ at the Folger Theatre

Now playing at the Folger Theatre, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch and produced in association with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, is sure to...

Spine: ‘Mack, Beth’ a ‘Macbeth’ for the Cyber Age at Keegan Theatre

Mack, Beth by Chris Stezin, now playing at The Keegan Theatre, is a Macbeth for the Cyber Age. Set in a world where death by dagger is replaced by death by fake news, Mack, Beth makes a person’s brand...

Spine: Consciousness, Conscience, and ‘The Hard Problem’ at The Studio Theatre

Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem isn’t so much about consciousness and the existence of subjectivity, “the hard problem” elucidated by contemporary Australian philosopher David Chalmers, as it is about...

Spine: ‘Silent Sky’ at Silver Spring Stage

On occasion, a play comes along with a bit of history, a bit of uncovered history, and that history changes the nature of the universe. Silent Sky is that sort of play. Lauren Gunderson’s biography...

Review: ‘The Gabriels’ at the Kennedy Center

For those who are familiar with Richard Nelson’s 4-play cycle, The Apple Family Plays, his The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, now on stage at the Kennedy Center’s Lab Theatre, will...

Spine: ‘Charm’ at the Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Philip Dawkins’ Charm takes on a high order: it wants to charm you. And to do that its lead character, Mama, has to be more than charming. She has to charm your disbelief, your cynical 21st century...

Review: Handel’s ‘Messiah’ by NSO at The Kennedy Center

Messiah is perhaps the best known of the German-born but London-settled composer George Frideric Handel. Profoundly religious, the three-part Oratorio moves from the prophecy of Christ to his death...

Spine: Pointless Theatre’s ‘King Ubu’—No, That’s Not Donald Trump You See Sitting on That Crapper

Ironically, and full of unintended consequences, while watching Pointless Theatre’s production of Alfred Jarry’s King Ubu (yes, that’s who wrote this play, translated afresh by Google), I couldn’t...

Review: ‘The Greatest Holiday Special (N)ever’ at Silver Spring Stage

The Greatest Holiday Special (N)ever, by Silver Spring Stage in collaboration with The Coil Project (a local company that writes and produces original work), is the perfect Christmas show for those...

Review: ‘Picnic’ at The Catholic University of America

Picnic comes to Catholic. And by the time it’s over, lives are overturned, dreams are rekindled, and who knows what will happen next. William Inge, master playwright of the heartland, captured...

Spine: ‘Moby Dick’ Inside Jonah’s Whale at Arena Stage

“Jonah,” I said to myself as soon as I laid eyes upon the set of Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Moby Dick. Large, curved rib-bones thrusting upward, form a cradle: “It’s happening inside the whale.”...

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

“We are not a monolith! We are not a monolith! We are not a monolith!” chanted the six-member cast at the start of Woolly Mammoth’s Second City’s Black Side of the Moon. And, indeed, that large...

Spine: ‘Straight White Men’ by Young Jean Lee at The Studio Theatre

Young Jean Lee’s theatre, entitled Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company (2003-2016), was dedicated to producing “shows written and directed by Young Jean Lee.” The company produced 12 of Ms. Lee’s...

Spine: ‘Milk Like Sugar’ at Mosaic Theater Company

America is but an expensive iPhone. If you’ve got that, and its Pink with a sexy ringtone, then you’re in, as in the “in” crowd. Now, all you need is a baby. Or so seems the mind-set of Margie,...

Review: Sheila Jordan at the KC Jazz Club

Sheila Jordan loves jazz. Sheila Jordan loves singing. Sheila Jordan really loves jazz singing. And we feel truly blessed to have spent an evening in the presence of that love. For those who have not...

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

The 18th century French playwright and philosopher Denis Diderot is known best among theatre folk for his theoretical writings: on the actor, the 4th Wall, and the emergence of scenography as an...

Review: ‘City of Angels’ at The Catholic University of America

The 1989 musical City of Angels opened last night at Catholic University’s Hartke Theatre, offering its appreciative audience a glimpse into the past through its double filtered lens. There’s no doubt...

Review: ’43 1/2: The Greatest Deaths of Shakespeare’s Tragedies’ at the Logan Fringe Arts Space

Five actors, a stage manager, an audience, and a lot of blood. Nu Sass Productions has remounted its 2013 Capital Fringe hit, complete with gags and cornball and puppets. The pace might not be up to...

Review: ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’ at UrbanArias

Oliver Sacks’ non-fiction book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, consists of a series of neurological case studies. Each study examines one of Sacks’ patients, each of whom is suffering from...

Review: ‘Wild Lines: Jane Ira Bloom Plays Emily Dickinson’ at the KC Jazz Club

There is nothing quite like “a vast morsel.” When Jane Ira Bloom plays her soprano saxophone, her wiry body jutting and jagging to the notes popping out of her horn, vastness of her petite frame...

Review: The Gary Bartz Quartet at The Kennedy Center Jazz Club

The KC Jazz Club opened its 14th season last Friday with a soul-tossing river of jazz. Gary Bartz starts the evening with a prayer: “Sadness must leave this room,” as Paul Bollenback’s guitar, James...

Review: The Gary Bartz Quartet at The Kennedy Center Jazz Club

The KC Jazz Club opened its 14th season last Friday with a soul-tossing river of jazz. Gary Bartz starts the evening with a prayer: “Sadness must leave this room,” as Paul Bollenback’s guitar, James...

Spine: For the Love of ‘Angels in America: Perestroika’ at Round House Theatre

Part II of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America opened last weekend at the Round House Theatre. A joint production with the Olney Theatre Center, the restaging of Kushner’s modern day epic has been long...

Review: ‘Dante’s Inferno’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic Theatre, which gave Washington a Silent Hamlet, now brings audiences a wordless Dante’s Inferno. And a silent 100 minutes never sounded so good. Created by Paata Tsikurishvili and directed by...

SPINE: Theresa Rebeck’s ‘What We’re Up Against’ at Keegan Theatre

Theresa Rebeck’s sharp-knuckled comedy, What We’re Up Against, received its regional premiere at Keegan Theatre this week, and the laughs abound. An architectural firm hires a young talented architect...

Spine: Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Oh, what a difference 200 years make! Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published anonymously in 1811. Folger’s Sense and Sensibility, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker,...

Spine: Anguish, Angels, and the Reagan Revolution: ‘Angels in America’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center have teamed up for a truly remarkable Washington event: Parts 1 & 2 of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Angels in America. On Monday, September 12th,...

Review: ‘Cloud 9’ at The Studio Theatre

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, now playing at Studio Theatre, is a fabulous, funny, smart, and ever more relevant vision of a world in the midst of upheaval. Director Michael Kahn, always the exquisite...

Review: ‘Aliens with Extraordinary Skills’ at the 4615 Theatre Company

The 4615 Theatre Company returns to Woolly Mammoth’s classroom theatre with its DC premiere of Saviana Stanescu’s Aliens with Extraordinary Skills. With its touching story, enthusiastic ensemble, and...

Spine: ‘The Lonesome West’ and Other Motherless Places at Keegan Theatre

Not long ago, Washington was the Murder-Capital of the USA. Crack Wars. Drive-Bys. Domestic Violence. Police Brutality. And all on a daily basis. The Murder-Capital of Europe in 1993 was apparently...

Review: ‘Fear’ at Longacre Lea

Let’s say a wealthy patron approaches an ensemble theatre company with a proposition: “Shakespeare? Why so much Shakespeare? Why so revered? Surely, other playwrights deserve having theatre companies...

2016 Capital Fringe Review ‘Act Like a Grrrl!’

Act Like a Grrrl! by the Actors Bridge Ensemble opened at the Martin Luther King Library this Thursday. More paratheatre than straight performance, this rendition of Act Like a Grrrl! represents the...

Review: ‘Riches’ at Anacostia Playhouse

Act 3 of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962) is entitled, “Exorcism” and, indeed, the infamous Martha and George exorcise their demons, as well as the demons of academia everywhere....

Spine: ‘We Know How You Die’ and an Oracular Upright Citizens Brigade

We Know How You Die, the Upright Citizens Brigade’s improvised, audience participation exploration of the Oracle, its predictive methodology, and its impact on the American political—STOP! You will...

Review: ‘8 Stops’ at Unexpected Stage Company

I’ll be frank: for much of 8 Stops, Deb Margolin’s newest solo performance piece, now at Unexpected Stage Company, I was bored. I didn’t necessarily want to commit suicide, as Margolin said she has...

Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF): ‘The Wedding Gift’

Chisa Hutchinson’ The Wedding Gift takes its audience into a fascinating world: an exotic “paradise” where matriarchy rules and the white / black power dynamic is turned on its head, where the...

Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF): ‘The Second Girl’

Ronan Noone’s The Second Girl received its second chance opening at the Contemporary American Theater Festival last weekend and, like its hardscrabble characters, it’s a well-deserved second chance....

Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF): ‘Not Medea’

Bags and umbrella in hands, a young woman arrives late for the theater, apologizing profusely and comically all the while. She notices the “live” caged bird on stage while proclaiming what a joy it is...

Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF): ‘20th Century Blues’

Susan Miller’s 20th Century Blues, which opened last weekend at Shepherdstown’s Contemporary American Festival, speaks right from the heart of successful, east coast boomer women. Four 60-something...

Review: Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF): ‘pen/man/ship’

The Contemporary American Theater Festival opened Friday, July 8, 2016, for the 26th time: five new plays with five new stories to tell. In Chistina Anderson’s pen/man/ship at the in-the-round...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Glacier: a climate change ballet’

Midway through Glacier: a climate change ballet, a lone dancer, Therese Gahl, glided onto the stage. Costumed in a vibrant blue tutu, her long legs and arms and their deep earth tones, she captured...

Spine: The 26th Contemporary American Theater Festival: Ed Herendeen’s 26th Snapshot of America’s Theatrical Culture

The Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is approaching its second quarter of a century of new American plays. This year’s rotating repertory...

Review: ‘Clybourne Park’ at Silver Spring Stage

At the center of Bruce Norris’ tragicomic exploration of American “community” hangs Kenneth (Win Britt), the Korean War Vet who returns home only to commit suicide in his family’s home. During the...