Reviews

‘Uncle Vanya’ at Round House Theatre

In a funky, fresh interpretation of what Irish Theatre Magazine has called “[Anton] Chekhov’s greatest play” and hailed as one of the top 10 shows of 2012 by both The New York Times and New York...

‘The Frog Prince’ at Pumpkin Theatre

There’s a whole lot of hopping going on at Pumpkin Theatre this month. The Frog Prince is the penultimate show of Pumpkin Theatre’s 47th season. Written by Donald J. Leonard Jr. with music and lyrics...

‘Candice Bergen In Conversation with Madhulika Sikka’ at Sixth and I Synagogue

Candice Bergen is strongly linked to her famous character Murphy Brown. After Madhulika Sikka, the Executive Editor for NPR News, interviewed her Monday night, the similarities between the character...

‘Don’t Die in the Dark’ at Studio 1469

Last night, on the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, I was in a DC theater venue of a very different sort: a tiny white-box art-gallery space down an...

‘It Shoulda Been You’ at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York City

If you leave your sense of disbelief checked in the cloak room at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway, you might just have a fun time as you watch this marriage romp unwind, filled with twists and...

‘Very Still & Hard to See’ at Rorschach Theatre Company

Very Still & Hard to See is neither quiet nor a challenge to perceive. Its aural and optical pleasures are bountiful. For this production of Steve Yockey’s cycle of supernatural short plays, directed...

‘The King and I’ at Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children’s Theater

The King and I at Washington County Playhouse really is “Something Wonderful,” as the classic musical receives a visually stunning reinterpretation from a very gifted cast. Splendidly directed by...

‘The Elephant Man’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

The Elephant Man, fantastically directed by Julie Herber, poses some interesting morality questions for a modern audience, though it is set in Victorian-era England. Based on a real-life story, The...

‘Next To Normal’ at Rockville Musical Theatre at The Gaithersburg Arts Barn

I am a Next to Normal fan and have been since I saw it Off-Broadway and then at Arena Stage, and then several times on Broadway, and I have seen several local productions at universities and in...

‘Greater Tuna’ at Compass Rose Theater by Danielle Angeline

Greater Tuna by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard is a good ol’ down-home laugh-out-loud fest. Director Lucinda Merry-Browne and Founding Artistic Director of Compass Rose Theater, always...

‘Peter Pan’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players presents Peter Pan, based on the play by Sir J.M. Barrie, with music by Morris (Moose) Charlap and additional music by Jule Styne,with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and additional...

Bach’s ‘St. John Passion’ with the National Philharmonic at Strathmore

Johann Sebastian Bach wasn’t just fulfilling a professional responsibility when he wrote religious music. A devout Lutheran, Bach meant what he wrote and sought musical texts and texture that would...

‘Old Wicked Songs’ at 1st Stage

Occasionally, a show blows me away and I want to grab the arm of people walking by on the street and steer them to the production. “Come. Join in experiencing this beautiful piece of art.” This is the...

Neil Simon’s ‘Fools’ at APL Drama Club

Fools by Neil Simon opened this weekend presented by the APL Drama Club located on the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab campus in Laurel, MD. The members and performers are mostly the scientists,...

‘Drunkle Vanya’ at LiveArtDC

When I arrived to see Drunkle Vanya last night, the first thing I did was order a vodka. I don’t typically drink before I review, but in this circumstance it seemed part of my job, since the show was...

‘The Typographer’s Dream’ at The Hub Theatre

In this town of powerful out-sized personalities of all persuasions, and the ever-increasing shift to delivery of entertainment through pixels and with headsets on, The Hub Theatre’s satisfying...

‘Greater Tuna’ at Compass Rose Theater by Sophia Howes

Hail, Tuna! Greater Tuna will delight you, whether you have ever lived in a small town or whether the closest you have ever been to one is the East Village in New York. As directed by Lucinda...

‘Emerge’ at Howard University

Watching the annual student spring dance concert last night at Howard University, I was taken aback from the get-go. What I saw was so impressive in conception and execution, so powerful in its...

‘The Language Archive’ at Silver Spring Stage

The Language Archive at the Silver Spring Stage, is not a play about the language of love but of language and love, or more specifically, communication and emotion. The play centers on the marriage,...

Synetic Teen Company’s ‘Hamlet…the rest is silence’ at Synetic Theater

Fans of Synetic Theater: it’s time to celebrate! While the original company members of Hamlet…the rest is silence are maturing, the new generation of brilliant performers is being groomed for...

‘Nunsense’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church has been taken over by Catholics! And they’re doing the Time Warp? Last night, St. John’s and Wolf Pack Theatre Company premiered their spring show, Nunsense, a...

‘The Secret Garden’ at The Theatre Lab School for The Dramatic Arts

Director Deb Gottesman and Musical Director Buzz Mauro could not have chosen a better piece for The Theatre Lab’s “Creating a Musical Role” class than the Marsha Norman/Lucy Simon musical. The Secret...

Magic Time!: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater by John Stoltenberg

There is no humor in one’s own unhappiness. To be lonely and disappointed in life is not to be amused. To feel empty and over the hill is not to be tickled. Yet when we laugh at the woes and sorrows...

‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater by Michael Poandl

You really don’t need to know anything about Chekhov or his work to enjoy Arena Stage’s hilarious production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the 2013 smash hit by comedy playwright...

‘4000 Miles’ at Centerstage

Sometimes, odd couples make the perfect pairings, such is the case in Amy Herzog’s Obie Award-winning play 4000 Miles (finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Time Magazine ‘s #1 Play or...

‘The Laramie Project’ at McLean High School

A well-cast and convincing docudrama directed by Amy Poe is giving audiences a lot to talk about, opening a few minds, and lending high school students with fluid gender identities a degree of...

The Washington Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ at The Kennedy Center

Swooning over the first ‘Swan’ Step aside, Baryshnikov. There’s a new kid on the block and he’s taking the dance world by storm. The Washington Ballet’s Brooklyn Mack took his royal place last night...

‘Skylight’ at The Golden Theatre in New York City

For those of you who love live theatre enough to cherish the teamwork of two major acting talents, Skylight by David Hare should motivate you to book yourself a seat this spring, for the run is...

New York City Ballet: Program B: 21st-Century Choreographers’ at The Kennedy Center

Principal dancer Teresa Reichlen unwraps her leg into a développé, a blade curling a bow, then—suspends—playfully, before hiding it away. Her partner, principal Zachary Catazaro, approaches with a...

Jay Leno at The Kennedy Center

A magnificent stage usually filled with a full orchestra and a hundred-person chorus might feel empty with just a stool, a microphone, and a lone person, but not when Jay Leno is in control. With the...

‘Gigi’ at The Neil Simon Theatre in New York City

The current stage revival on Broadway of Lerner and Loewe’s film Gigi is lovely to look at. It’s filled with principal performers in supporting roles, who have played leads on Broadway, and for those...

New York City Ballet at The Kennedy Center-Program A: 20th Century Classics

There’s no company like the New York City Ballet, performing the old, new, and, especially, Serenade. Last night was one of those magical evenings of ballet and beauty. First it was a smooth ride to...

‘Gone Country’ at Signature Theatre

Three accomplished performers are singing their hearts out in a real crowd-pleaser at Signature Theatre’s Gone Country cabaret, a short engagement conceived and directed by Walter Ware II. Maria...

The Philadelphia Orchestra with Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center

Subtext abounded as the Philadelphia Orchestra arrived at The Kennedy Center Tuesday night. In Washington, rising politicians are “mentioned for president.” In classical music, rising conductors are...

Post-Play Palaver: Robert Michael Oliver and John Stoltenberg Look at ‘Light Rises on Grace’

Robert Michael Oliver and John Stoltenberg saw and wrote about the same opening night performance of Lights Rise on Grace at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, but they seem not to have seen the same...

‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Adventure Theatre MTC presents the famed classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, based on the novel by L. Frank Baum and adapted by Jacqueline E. Lawton. Roberta Gasbarre directs this highly anticipated...

Here Are The Recipients of This Year’s 2015 Helen Hayes Awards – in Order of Presentation With 2 Videos

Here are the recipients of the 2015 Helen Hayes Awards in the order they were announced tonight at The Lincoln Theatre. THE RECIPIENTS ARE IN RED! https://youtu.be/acNtQ0cq6Tw Outstanding Supporting...

‘Being Leonardo da Vinci (An Impossible Interview)’ at The Kennedy Center

Italian director and actor Massimiliano Finazzer Flory brought his latest project, Being Leonardo da Vinci (An Impossible Interview), to The Kennedy Center on April 2, 2015, for a single engagement....

‘An Experiment with an Air Pump’ at George Mason University

Shelagh Stephenson’s 1997 An Experiment with an Air Pump toggles between the dawn of the 19th and 21st centuries to examine the role of science in society, bioethics and the status of women at the...

‘The Margins’ at Molotov Theatre Group by John Stoltenberg

There be eerie goings-on inside the DC Arts Center black box where Molotov Theatre Group is staging a spell-binder of a show about a psychic experiment to create a ghost by occultish committee....

‘Simply Sondheim’ at Signature Theatre

Including everything from Sunday in the Park with George to Company to Into the Woods and everything in between, the work of has graced the stages of Signature Theatre an astounding twenty-four times;...

DCMTA Scene Stealers-Week Ending March 31, 2015 Part 2

Here is Part 2 of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Scene Stealers ending March 31, 2015. Congrats to our honorees! ______ Charles Edwards as Charles in a Ghostly Encounter he National Theatre “Not even Angela...

Magic Time! ‘Lights Rise on Grace’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by John Stoltenberg

Now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a depiction of eroticism so intimate and artful that it left me woozy with awe and wonder. No one takes their clothes off. There are no phony porny...

‘Lights Rise on Grace’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Robert Michael Oliver

Lights Rise on Grace, the world premiere by Chad Beckim, now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, has all the elements of a compelling drama. The play takes us into the dynamics of an intricate set of...

‘Ghosts’ at Everyman Theatre

Wonderfully directed by Donald Hicken, the production of Ghosts at Everyman Theater is a moving drama set in the distant past, but updated with a new attitude and understanding for modern audiences....

‘Wicked’ at Hippodrome Theatre at France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Have you ever wondered what happened before Dorothy’s arrival in the Land of Oz in the classic 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz? How did the Wicked Witch become so wicked? How did the Good Witch become so...

DCMTA Scene Stealers-Week Ending March 31, 2015 Part 1

Here is Part 1 of our favorite ‘Scene Stealers’ in March 2015. Congrats to our honorees! ______ Alex Alburqueque, as Leporello, in Don Giovanni at The In Series singing “Lovely Lady” “Don Giovanni...

‘Slow Falling Bird’ at Georgetown University

The final production of the 2014-2015 Georgetown University Theatre season is Slow Falling Bird, as part of the 2014-15 Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program’s “Where We’re From:...

‘The Island’ at MetroStage

There are so many way to demand justice. In 1973 South Africans Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona found their voices to take on South Africa’s apartheid through the words of and connections...

‘Cinderella’ at The Russian National Ballet Theatre at Hylton Performing Arts Center

I attended the Russian National Ballet Theatre’s enchanting Cinderella on Friday night at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Cinderella moves to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on April...