Reviews

‘One Man Star Wars Trilogy’ at Baltimore Soundstage

“Artoo, What are we doing here…in Baltimore?” It’s not uncommon for a show to open with a musical number. It’s also not uncommon for the opening number to be sung by a single performer. It is unusual...

‘Driving Miss Daisy’ at Other Voices Theatre

The touching and humorous production of Driving Miss Daisy, currently running at Other Voices Theatre, is well-worth the drive to the theater. A beautiful story of a prejudice turned into friendship...

DC Black Theatre Festival: ‘Finally Quiet in My Head’

Madness has been dramatized in theater at least since the ancient Greeks. The mind come loose from its moorings, the persona altered, a terror deep in the self—whether in life or on stage, this...

‘Jack vs. Rapunzel: The Musical’ at Infinity Theatre Company

Infinity Children’s Theatre presents the world premiere of Jack vs. Rapunzel: The Musical, with book and lyrics by Co-Founder Alan Ostroff, and music by Clayton Colwell. The production is directed and...

‘Fools’ at Parlor Room Theater

Fools, staged by Parlor Room Theater at Callan Theatre, is an entertaining romp through love and ignorance in a small Ukrainian village in the late 1800s. Though the play, written by Neil Simon and...

Celtic Woman 10th Anniversary World Tour at Wolf Trap

The four women from Ireland who make up Celtic Woman, along with backup singers, dancers, and musicians returned to Wolf Trap for a very special performance, not least because it’s their 10th...

Comedy at the Kennedy Center: Kathy Griffin at The Kennedy Center

Guinness World Record-setter (with 23 stand-up specials), two-time Emmy and Grammy Award–winning comedian Kathy Griffin officially kicked off her 80-city tour last night at The Kennedy Center’s...

Columbia Festival of the Arts: Part 5: ‘Butcher Holler Here We Come’

Imagine you are in a West Virginia coal mine, and there is a cave it. It is cold, and the only light is from the tiny one on top of your helmet or the helmet of a coworker. That is what Aztec Economy...

‘Garfield, The Musical With Cattitude’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Garfield: The Musical With Cattitude Provides Plenty of Laughs for All Ages Adventure Theatre MTC serves up the charm for all ages with its original musical Garfield: The Musical with Cattitude,...

Columbia Festival of the Arts: Part 4: The Blind Boys of Alabama and Andy Poxon Band

The indoor performances of the Columbia Festival of the Arts began on Friday, June 20, 2015, at the Jim Rouse Theatre in Columbia, MD. It could not have picked a more inspirational group to start the...

DC Black Theatre Festival: ‘Letters from Zora: In Her Own Words’

The Harlem Renaissance was magically rebirthed through Vanessa Bell Calloway’s phenomenal one-woman performance of Letters from Zora: In Her Own Words at the gala opening for the 6th Annual DC Black...

Lindsey Stirling at Wolf Trap

After the rain comes the rainbow—tonight the rainbow was Lindsey Stirling’s sublime performance at Wolf Trap following this afternoon’s thunder and hailstorms. With her own effervescent style, she won...

‘The Book of Mormon’ at The Kennedy Center

Two years ago I saw the touring production of The Book of Mormon at The Kennedy Center and was utterly blown away. I wrote a column at the time about the profound content of The Book of Mormon,...

‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ at the Youth Theatre of Northern Baltimore County

People say that theatre has a magical quality to it and that when an actor appears onstage, he is transformed in such a way that you no longer think of the actor and only think of the character. Part...

‘Murder for Two’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Whodunit? Who killed the famous author? Was it his wife, his mistress, or his psychiatrist? Maybe it was the author’s friends Murray and Barb, the ones who introduce themselves as “the feisty old...

‘The Comedy of Errors’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

“This is not my beautiful house! This is not my beautiful wife!” sings Matthew Ancarrow at the end of Act 1, as Antipholus of Syracuse finds himself confusingly entrenched in the life of a stranger...

‘The Little Prince’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron at ArtSpace presents The Little Prince, based on the book by Antione de Saint Exupery, with music by Rick Cummins and book and lyrics by John Scoullar. Directors Denise Perrino and...

‘West Side Story’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre is presenting one of American Theater’s timeless classics: West Side Story. With book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim,...

Columbia Festival of the Arts: Part 3: Last Day at Lakefront

Mother Nature was kind to the Festival this weekend. Thunderstorms were predicted but there was only one close call. So, though many were sweltering, it was a wonderful day to listen to good music....

‘I Think I Love You’ Cabaret to Benefit Playwright’s Family on Saturday, June 27, 2015 at 7:30 PM at Clifton Town Hall

Area performers will be performing a good deed on June 27th to help a theater family in need. On June 1, Kelly Hennessa, a social studies teacher for children with special needs at Centreville High...

‘(a love story)’ at Source Festival 2015

Sponsored by CulturalDC, the Source Festival presents 24 new plays over the course of three weeks that showcase the talents of a variety of artists from across the nation. These plays fall into three...

Spine: ‘In Session’ by La Petite Noiseuse Productions

Mónica López-González’s new play, In Session, now playing at Johns Hopkins’ Swirnow Theatre, ripples with ideas — rich ideas, fascinating ideas on such subjects as artificial intelligence (nay–life),...

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Wolf Trap

On June 13, 2015, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players presented Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, a two-act operetta that was first...

‘Ruddigore’ at The Victorian Lyric Opera Company

On Saturday night, I walked into the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre with certain anticipations. As my third Victorian Lyric Opera Company production, I expected phenomenal singing, beautiful costumes,...

The British Players’ 51st Old Time Music Hall

When Malcolm Edwards, the emcee and Mr. Chairman of the British Players Old Time Music Hall, stepped on the stage and asked the packed house, “Are we going to have some fun this afternoon?” he...

‘Occupied Territories’ at Theater Alliance

The theater is no a stranger to the wounds of war. Countless plays and performance pieces have opened our hearts and minds to that which is unhealed and raw, to that which persists as pain and trauma,...

‘Bring It On’ at Drama Learning Center

The wonderful young talents at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia are pushing youth theater ahead by leaps and bounds — literally. There are so many back flips required by their newest TYA...

Columbia Festival of the Arts: Day Two at the Lakefront

It was a hot day and a hotter night at the Lakefront but that did not keep the crowds away. Good music, especially free for the listening, is always a way to attract an audience. Folks listened while...

‘The Wedding Singer’ at Cockpit in Court

As someone who grew up in the 1980’s, I desperate try to forget my penchant for crimped hair, huge bangs and shoulder pads. Cockpit in Court’s production of The Wedding Singer, however, manages to...

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic at Wolf Trap

Who knew metro Washington was also the nation’s nerd capital? A sold-out crowd — many ectomorphs in geeky garb, monk/Jedi robes, foil caps, riotous colors, vintage tour shirts, and even one randy...

Columbia Festival of the Arts Part 1: Opening Night at the Lakefront

Last night the Columbia Festival of the Arts began on the Lakefront in Columbia. (This review is of the last two performances of the evening as those were the ones that were viewed and not to ignore...

‘The Wedding Singer’ at Damascus Theatre Company

Hearken back to New Jersey in the 1980s when self-absorbed Yuppies worshipped Wall Street, hair gel, and blow dryers, and you have the setting for the 2006 Tony-nominated Broadway musical, The Wedding...

The Marriage of Figaro’ at Wolf Trap

Wedding season is in full swing here in the DC area, and Wolf Trap is no exception, with their stellar production of The Marriage of Figaro. Opening tonight and running through Saturday, June 20,...

Flying V Fights: ’Heroes & Monsters’ at Flying V Theatre

Bold, gallant heroes; terrifying, grim monsters; beautiful young love; fear; heroism; nostalgia; excitement: these are just a few of the things you’ll experience at Heroes & Monsters. In its first...

‘Candide’ with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore

The musical inventiveness and dramatic craziness of one of Leonard Bernstein’s most challenging pieces of all, his 1956 musical Candide, must flow right through Marin Alsop’s veins. The music director...

‘The Sound of Music’ at Bravo Productions

Thirty-four aspiring actors and singers starred in a heavenly production of Bravo Productions’ The Sound of Music last weekend at The Randolph Road Theatre. Under the direction of Producer/Director...

’The Word and the Wasteland’ at The Source Festival (Review)

A “seemingly guilty mass-murdering white supremacist terrorist” is the phrase dramaturg Alan Katz uses to describe the character at the heart of “The Word and the Wasteland, a full-length play...

Magic Time! ’The Word and the Wasteland’ at The Source Festival

At the center of this taut, trenchant play by Timothy Guillot is a fascinatingly enigmatic character named Benjamin Harding. He has very few lines. For the better part of two hours, Joshua Simon...

‘Las Polacas: The Jewish Girls of Buenos Aires’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Many times, and perhaps too often, theater is used as a vehicle to escape life, to tell a story that is far from the reality of the world we live in and come from. I respect the artists who use...

‘The Madwoman of Chaillot’ at WSC Avant Bard

Under the lively, animated touch of director Christopher Henley, a merry little band of eager Avant Bard players bring The Madwoman of Chaillot, by French playwright Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944) to...

The Royal Ballet’s ‘Don Quixote’ at The Kennedy Center

Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote is a Royal treat Sometimes balletomanes can only distinguish between a truly great dance concert and a very fine one by noting how many goose bumps pop up on their arms....

‘Alice in Wonderland’ at Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio presents Tim Kelly’s theatrical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, a beloved classic by Lewis Carroll. Artistic Director Susan Alison Keady and Director Chuck Leonard lead a...

‘NEWSIES’ at The National Theatre

Disney’s high-octane Newsies of New York have pirouetted their way to Pennsylvania Avenue in the Washington, DC, premiere engagement of the Tony Award-winning smash hit musical Disney’s NEWSIES. With...

‘Lend Me a Tenor’ at the Washington County Playhouse

Lend Me a Tenor at the Washington County Playhouse is a rollercoaster ride of laughs. Director Laura Martin brings this well-known Ken Ludwig farce to life with the help of a talented cast of...

Source Theatre Festival 2015: ‘Science and Soulmates’ 10-Minute Plays

Quadratic equations and heart palpitations dominate Science and Soulmates, one third of the 2015 Source Festival’s series of ten minute plays. These six short plays succeed at what few theatres (or...

‘The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife’ at Theater J

A hit Broadway comedy, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, rounds out Theater J’s 2014–2015 season in a production smartly directed by Eleanor Holdridge. Written in a mainstream mode by Charles...

‘Tartuffe’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

“People do not mind being wicked,” said Moliere, “but they do object to being made ridiculous.” In Moliere’s great play Tartuffe, the merchant Orgon is made ridiculous by his overwhelming...

‘The Good Counselor’ at 1st Stage

“You will never know the truth of my life,” says Rita Heffernon (Deidra LaWan Starnes) to her son, Vincent (Manu Kumasi), in a moment of heart-wrenching honesty. “Children never know.” The Good...

‘Why Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them’ at The Colonial Players

Colonial Players current production of Christopher Durang’s Why Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them is an affectionate treatment of a wondrously wacky, life-enriching masterwork. Durang’s...

‘The Oldest Profession’ at Rainbow Theatre Project

For female actors over 40, a familiar and monotonous list of character types dominates the theatre: mother, grandmother, beloved domestic worker. That’s why it is so satisfying to watch the five...