Reviews

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at Wolf Trap

Few people in the world have a voice so iconic that they are recognizable after only one note. What was inescapable last night in that bandstand in Virginia is that Frankie Valli is without a doubt...

‘John’ at Signature Theatre in New York City

There are many plays that are known for their sparkling dialogue, others for their rapid fire words that require actors who can deliver them in machine gun manner. Now we have the prolific and...

‘The Pillowman’ at 4615 Theater Company

Two days before seeing the closing performance of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman by the newish 4615 Theater Company, I received an email from director and 4615 Artistic Director Jordan Friend: “About...

‘Henry IV Part I’ at the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

“What is honor?” It’s what King Henry IV is fighting to uphold. It’s what Harry Percy, the Hotspur, is fighting to defend. It’s what Prince Henry is trying to gain. But what is it? Falstaff, the old...

‘Summer Hummer IV: Foreplay!’ at Signature Theatre Benefits theatreWashington’s ‘Taking Care of Our Own’

Summer Hummer IV: Foreplay! made its two-show debut last night at Signature Theatre. If you didn’t plan properly or were on vacation, you missed a provocative evening of fun and frolic at Signature’s...

‘Next Fall’ at Upcounty Theatre

Next Fall, Geoffrey Nauffts’ mind-bending play opened Friday for a brief run at Upcounty Theatre at Germantown’s Black Rock Center for the Arts. It is an excellent production with a superb acting...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘#DeathParty’: ‘How We Died of Disease-Related Illness’ and ‘Bones in Whispers’ at Longacre Lea

The eagerly anticipated Women’s Voices Theatre Festival kicked off with the opening of Longacre Lea’s production of two world-premiere one-acts, which the company collectively dubs #DeathParty. The...

‘Ode to Peace: A Symphonic Choral Concert’ at The Clarice

Lights dim as the sirens of an air raid swarm the area. A sea of blue gowns dazzle up top, while black and white tuxedos populate an expansive auditorium. A moment of silence brings memories of fallen...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Summer 2015 Scene Stealers: Part 1

The summer of 2015 brought many Scene Stealing moments and here is Part 1 of some of our favorites. ______ Hassan Allen as Hero and Molly Janiga as Philia Singing “Lovely’ in A Funny Happened on the...

‘Tying the Knot’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Michael Paulsen has news for his nearest and dearest; he’s getting married! Word of the impending nuptials is not being taken well, however. You see, Michael is only three months out from ending a...

‘Shrek the Musical’ at Glyndon Area Players

All the components of a phenomenal production march across the stage of the Sacred Heart School Auditorium for the Glyndon Area Players’ (GAP) 2015 summer musical: Shrek The Musical. There are clever...

Lyle Lovett & His Large Band at Wolf Trap

Genre-bending artist Lyle Lovett tore up the stage at the Filene Center with his Large Band. It feels like three bands in one – a country band heavy on guitar and fiddle, a blues band with a full horn...

‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged!)’ at The District Players

All the world’s a stage, and all the Shakespearean plays merely subject to minor editing in the name of comedy. Whether it’s breaking down the beats of an Othello rap or perfecting the sous-vide...

Counting Crows at Wolf Trap

With the ascension of their seventh studio album, Somewhere Under Wonderland, California-based folk-rock band Counting Crows returned to Wolf Trap last night, reunifying droves of primarily 30 to...

‘Solomon and Marion’ at Anacostia Playhouse

Anacostia Playhouse hosts “dog days of summer theater festival” this August 2015 and for its mid-August show they have Solomon and Marion, Lara Foot Newton’s touching drama about the search for...

Tom Teasley’s Musical Accompaniment of the 1926 Animated Film, ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’ at Constellation Theatre Company

In his own singular musical fashion, Tom Teasley skillfully hooked his Constellation Theatre Company audience to take a venture to the long ago and far away but in a most modern manner. Teasley was a...

Jim Gaffigan’s ‘Contagious Tour’ at Wolf Trap

Jim Gaffigan brought his “Contagious” tour to Wolf Trap on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, treating the sold-out crowd to jokes and quips about the oddities of life that made for near-constant laughter....

Culture Club at Wolf Trap

They say that timing is everything, and that certainly seemed to be the case for reunited iconic ’80s sensation Culture Club who returned to Wolf Trap last night to ecstatic embrace. The nearly...

‘The Pretties’ at Glass Mind Theatre

The Pretties, written by Ann Turiano, and directed by Lynn Morton, is a retelling of Aeschylus’ ancient trilogy, The Oresteia. The Oresteia tells the story of Orestes and his quest to avenge his...

‘2015 Page-to-Stage Festival’ Schedule for Saturday, September 5-Monday, September 7, 2015 at The Kennedy Center

This year’s 14th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival takes place: Saturday, September 5th from 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m. Sunday, September 6th from 6–7 p.m. Monday, September 7, from 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m. Venues...

‘Really Rosie’ at The Heritage Players

Heritage Players is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and so is its newest production, Really Rosie, which is directed by Stuart C. Kazanow. Written by Maurice Sendak, with music by Carole...

‘The Wiz’ at The Gaithersburg Arts Barn

Opening almost a half a century ago, in 1974, The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is a fun evening based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum. Featuring a rock, gospel,...

National Symphony Orchestra: ‘The Music of John Williams’ at Wolf Trap

It was as good as it gets. A glorious DC area midsummer, low-humidity evening. There was a full house at the Filene Center; with demographically and generationally diverse picnickers filling the lawn...

‘One in the Chamber’ at The Mead Theatre Lab

The authenticity and specificity of Katie Sullivan’s scenic and properties design for One in the Chamber could qualify it as a character in this engrossing new play by Marja-Lewis Ryan. Even before we...

‘Spamalot’ at Port Tobacco Players

Summer Silliness: Port Tobacco Players Frolic in Spamalot What happens in Camelot stays in Camelot…and the Port Tobacco Players gamely give it their all in a sparkling and entertaining performance of...

‘Emily Skinner: Broadway Her Way’ at AMP

At the Strathmore’s new AMP venue last night, musical theater star and singer extraordinaire Emily Skinner, dazzled the crowd-with her always winning combination of a soaring purity of tone and the...

‘My Fair Lady’ at Zemfira Stage

Northern Virginia’s non-equity, professional theater company, Zemfira Stage, continues to strive to provide ambitious, motivated entertainment with its current production of the much beloved musical,...

‘Mary Poppins’ at September Song Musical Theatre

The sure remedy for domestic dysfunction (or boredom on a summer evening) is a spoonful of sugar, a pinch of magic, and a practically perfect nanny, all of which can be acquired with a ticket to...

‘The Addams Family’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Yes, they’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, but they’re altogether ooky – and that’s just the “normal” members of the dynamic cast of The Addams Family, directed by Debbie...

‘Cabaret’ at The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

The Theatre Lab lived up to its reputation as one of the most beloved and well-respected acting training grounds in the DC metro area with its teen production of Cabaret, directed by Caroline Angell...

‘Bat Boy: The Musical’ at Stillpointe Theatre Initiative

When I announced to my coworkers that I was reviewing a musical entitled Bat Boy, it raised a flurry of questions. What is Bat Boy? Is it about baseball? Is it a Batman prequel? After seeing this show...

‘The Piano Guys’ at Wolf Trap

The Piano Guys blew into Wolf Trap at 8 pm on Thursday, August 6, 2015 with their originality, humor, and sheer musical skill like the refreshing cool air after the heat wave of the past few days,...

Boz Scaggs at Strathmore

Blue-Eyed Soul Singer Boz Scaggs Seduces a Sold out Strathmore Audience Call Boz Scagg’s music blue-eyed soul, rock, blues rock, soft rock, jazz rock, whatever – he rocked the house. Despite a wild...

‘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...

‘The Music Man’ at The Sterling Playmakers

“Seventy-six trombones led the big parade, with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand”!!! From the orchestra conductor’s starting whistle and the first strains of “76 Trombones” in the overture of...

‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged! Revised!)’ at Off the Quill

With our calendars getting increasingly crowded and revisiting the plays we read (were supposed to read/wanted to read/never thought of reading) in high school probably not high on our to-do list, it...

National Symphony Orchestra–‘Star Trek’ at Wolf Trap

On August 1st 2015, the National Symphony Orchestra presented Star Trek, the 2009 epic film drama by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment at Wolf Trap. Conductor Emil de Cou lead a 96-piece...

Magic Time!: A Love Letter to ‘Dear Evan Hansen’

Dear Dear Evan Hansen, I know it might sound odd, but this is a love letter to a musical. I saw you for the first time in my life last night, and I knew right away I had to write you to tell you it...

Indigo Girls at Wolf Trap With Michelle Malone

Infusing introspective folk rock with progressive political persuasions, the genre-defying, Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls returned to Wolf Trap last Tuesday night for a cerebral celebration of...

‘Family Portrait’ at DC Music Theatre Workshop

What do you do when home isn’t what it appears to be or even what you remember it to be? For the family of five at the heart of Family Portrait, with music and lyrics by Theo Jamieson, it’s a struggle...

‘code name: Cynthia’ at Pallas Theatre Collective

Stephen Sondheim would do well to watch his back. Pallas Theatre Collective has just mounted a new musical, code name: Cynthia, that is just as smart and pointed in its book and lyrics and just as...

‘Avenue Q’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Good news, theatergoers. Your favorite sassy surrogate love puppets are back at Red Branch Theatre Company performing at Columbia’s Drama Learning Center. Now through August 8th the neighborhood...

‘Murder at the Howard Johnson’s’ at the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children’s Theater

Murder at the Howard Johnson’s, written by Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick, is a laugh-out-loud riot featuring a woman, her husband and her lover hatching hilarious murder schemes in the classic chain hotel...

Spine: Review of ‘On Clover Road’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival

A mother has lost her child to a cult; its leader has taken her as his divine bride. A de-programmer, whose own child died mysteriously, has come to the mother’s aid, for a kidnapping and breaking of...

‘RENT’ at Metropolitan Youth Theatre

Metropolitan Youth Theatre’s production of RENT is a 100% student-run show from the director to the 17 actors who are making this flashback to the turn-of-the-century HIV/AIDS epidemic a moving...

‘Disney’s High School Musical’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Disney’s High School the Musical, at Laurel Mill Playhouse, is directed by TJ Lukacsina, and is produced by Maureen Rogers and Laila Riaz. This is the 12th year that LMP has given youth, this time...

Spine: Review of ‘We Are Pussy Riot’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival

Pussy Riot, punk truth tellers and guitar playing agitators and feminist rabble rousers who stood up to the Russian State and its Church affiliates under Vladimir Putin. They went into Moscow’s...

‘Too Marvelous for Words: The Songs of Johnny Mercer’ at AMP

Cabaret singers Linda Purl and Lee Lessack shone on July 31, 2015 in their concert tribute to Johnny Mercer, appropriately titled Too Marvelous for Words. In the delightfully-intimate new venue AMP by...

Spine: Review of ‘World Builders’ at Contemporary American Theater Festival

We are all populated by the images of main stream culture. Whether you’re 80 and still want Sam to play it again, or 50 and still believe in the Force or 30 and still imagine yourself at Hogwarts with...

Spine: Review of ‘Everything You Touch’ at the Contemporary American Theater Festival

Beauty culture is a mess; fashion culture is the messiest, starving the human body, while forcing it into impossibly harsh postures, all in the name of aesthetics: ribs might not be damaged for that...