Reviews

‘Broadway’s Next Hit Musical’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center

Cue the bright lights. Quick witted, theatrically smart, and skillful improv artistry took to the stage of the gleaming Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas bringing good cheer to the full-house...

‘You’re Gonna Love Tomorrrow’ at the Red Branch Theatre Company

Musical theater doesn’t get more challenging than Stephen Sondheim — for audiences and performers alike. So hurrah for Columbia’s fearless Red Branch Theatre Co. for bringing us the Sondheim revue...

‘Godspell’ at Port Tobacco Players

One of the challenges of staging Godspell, Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s charming and oft-revived production of the Gospel according to Matthew, is to find ways to reinvent the story...

‘Marie Antoinette’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

In Woolly Mammoth’s Marie Antoinette the doomed, dark-shades donning Queen of France enters with two ladies-in-waiting. She slips off her robe, revealing an oh-so-modern two-piece bathing suit. She...

‘The Reel Deal’: Watch Kyle Osborne’s Movie Review Video of ‘The Maze Runner’ AND ‘This Is Where I Leave You’

Here are the Washington, DC area showtimes for The Maze Runner AND This Is Where I Leave You. The Maze Runner website. This Is Where I Leave You website. LINKS Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major at Strathmore

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has been pleasing the ears of its patrons for almost a century. Established in 1816, the Orchestra is the first and only orchestra in the United States to have home...

Magic Time: ‘Toast’ at dog & ponydc

I last partook of this tasty audience-integration treat from dog&pony dc last December when I saw Toast as a workshop production in the Kogod Cradle Series. The immersive experience was all about...

‘Nevermore’ at Pandemonium Theatrical Productions

Pandemonium’s Workhouse Arts Center could not have been more well-suited for Nevermore, a dark and intimate musical about the life of Edgar Allan Poe, with music by Matt Conner and the book by Grace...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Scene Stealers-Week Ending 9/18/14

Here are this week’s Scene Stealers. Congrats to all our honorees. ______ Jennifer Berry as Blanche DuBois and Anna Fagan as Stella Kowalski in the Final Scene of The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s A...

The Playwright’s Playground: Michele Shay Discusses the Influence of August Wilson, Her Artistic Journey, and Lessons Learned from a Life in the Theater

For Michele Shay, directing Seven Guitars is not simply directing another play; it’s personal and a vivid part of her story. “We are addicted to ‘story’ and we become inspired by each others lives,”...

‘The Shoplifters’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

The under-affluent of this country find small change on America’s stages: under-represented more often than not, they are the butt of jokes and edgy satires and, on DC stages, are presented as...

‘Masquerade’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

When I was watching Wolf Pack Theatre Company’s intense Masquerade last night, written and directed by William D. Leary, I shook my head several times and covered my ears at other times because what I...

‘Public Affairs’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Fells Point Corner Theatre presents a wonderful production of A.R. Gurney’s Public Affairs, which encompasses two of his one act plays – The Love Course and The Open Meeting. In “The Love Course”-...

‘Clybourne Park’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

A Then and Now Tour: Clybourne Park at Maryland Ensemble Theatre Taking a modern twist on Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal play, A Raisin in the Sun, Bruce Norris in his 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning...

‘Annie Get Your Gun’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

Dinner and a movie. Better yet, dinner and a live show! What better way to spend an evening? And Annie Get Your Gun is designed to give you exactly that! Can a woman get a man with a gun? Set Designer...

‘Take Me Out’ at 1st Stage

Just over ten years old, Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out has already been widely accepted into the canon of Great American Plays. This is for good reason, as Greenberg’s tale of a baseball superstar...

‘Toast’ at dog & pony dc

After a two-year incubation period, local company dog & pony dc brings their new devised theater piece Toast to the stage. It is billed as an exploration of innovation and scientific discovery –...

‘Game Show’ at Spotlighters Theatre

The hilarious and thrilling Game Show at Spotlighters Theatre (The Comedy YOU Play), by Jeffrey Finn and Bob Walton,- offers an intimate look and feel of an ever-popular television trivia game show....

Jackson Browne at The Kennedy Center

Performing before a sold-out crowd in the acoustically perfect Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center, Jackson Browne and his crackerjack band led the aging hipster audience through a mix of his older...

‘Venus and Adonis (U-Venas No Adonisi)’ by the Isango Ensemble’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Playing in repertory with Mozart’s The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo at Shakespeare Theatre Company is the season opener of their STC: Presentation Series – the passionate and innovative William...

‘Metamorphosis’ at Alliance for New Music-Theatre

How does one begin a review about a boy turned into a dung beetle? I suppose, just like that. And, no, I’m not giving anything away, unless you have never had even a cursory acquaintance with foreign...

‘The Complete History of America (abridged)’ at Reduced Shakespeare Company at Reston Community Center

Is it possible that the bullet that killed JFK was also the one fired from the Lexington and Concord book depository, and took off in a white Ford Bronco? Or that the Bill of Rights was supposed to be...

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ at Little Theatre of Alexandria

“I don’t want realism, I want magic!” exclaims Blanche DuBois in the distinguished Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. Well, Director Kristina Friedgen and The Little Theatre of...

‘Cancun’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Last night, I attended the U.S. premiere of the play Cancun at GALA Hispanic Theatre. Written by internationally renowned Spanish-Catalan playwright Jordi Galceran and directed by Jose Zayas, this...

‘Dailey & Vincent LIVE: A Live Recording Event’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center

Award-winning bluegrass duo Dailey & Vincent explained onstage at the Hylton Performing Arts Center Saturday night that they usually model themselves after The Statler Brothers (a member of whom, Don...

‘The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo’ by the Isango Ensemble at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The South African Isango Ensemble makes a joyful noise with soaring, full of life signature flair performing catchy rhythms, and singing beautiful melodies fusing classical arias and ethnic ululations...

‘Seven Guitars’ at No Rules Theatre Company

Under the affecting direction of Michele Shay, No Rules Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson‘s Seven Guitars raises an intimate, open-eyed awareness of lives without long-term satisfaction,...

‘Black Hole’ at Port City Playhouse

Black Hole is a show about people with emotional baggage. Not the cute little carryon kind of baggage but the its-going-to-cost-you-money-because-it’s-over-fifty-pounds kind of baggage. It’s a...

‘Memphis-The Musical’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Memphis—The Musical may have won the 2010 Tony on Broadway but it seems made-to-order for Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Here is a show that dazzles with performers rather than spectacle, and reaches across...

‘The Devil in His Own Words’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The Devil Made Me Do It: An Evening with the Antichrist A dying man, said to be, among others, Voltaire, Machiavelli, or an anonymous Irishman, is exhorted by a priest to renounce Satan. “Now, now, my...

‘Breast in Show’ at The Gaithersburg Arts Barn

Poignant. Sophisticated. Elevating. Witty. These are just some of the adjectives to describe Breast in Show, now appearing at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn. First conceived in 2009 by Executive Producer...

Filichia on Friday: This Musn’t Be The Place by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. THIS WEEK: This Musn’t Be The Place Peter Filichia is the New...

Pink Martini and The von Trapps With NSO Pops at The Kennedy Center

The NSO Pops season kicked off with a bang last night as conductor Steven Reineke and his musicians welcomed Pops-favorite Pink Martini featuring vocalist China Forbes to The Kennedy Center stage....

Magic Time! ‘Metamorphosis’ at Alliance for New Music-Theatre

As a short story by Franz Kafka awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, it found itself onstage transformed into a live action graphic novel. Wait, what? Translation: The adventurous Alliance for New...

‘Breast in Show’ Begins Run at Arts Barn in Gaithersburg, MD Tonight and Runs Through September 27th

Breast in Show opens tonight at Arts on the Green at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn with the critically acclaimed cast from this year’s Capital Fringe Festival. The show was honored as ‘Best of the...

Washington National Opera Presents: An Evening with Ailyn Pérez

Amore! Amour! Amor! The eagerly anticipated concert by the couple memorably dubbed by a leading British newspaper “the Jay-Z and Beyoncé of opera,” tenor Stephen Costello and soprano Ailyn Pérez,...

‘Fatal Song: The Great Opera Murders’ at The In Series

The In Series continues the launch of the 2014-2015 season with the hilarious Fatal Song: The Great Opera Murders. Kathleen Cahill wrote a comic English language libretto and stitched together the...

Scene Stealers-Week Ending 9/11/14

Here are this week’s Scene Stealers. Congrats to all our honorees. ______ Shayna Blass as Anshul Getting Tipsy in Yentl at Theater J “As Yentl— the Jewish girl who dresses as a Yeshiva boy (Anshul) in...

Spine: Who’s the Fool in ‘Fool for Love’?

Round House Theatre has opened its 2014 season with Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love (1983), one of his many scripts–Curse of the Starving Class (1976), Buried Child (1979), True West (1980) and A Lie of...

‘Once’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre unfurls a fresh season with a rowdy millennial musical about star-crossed lovers set in the big, blue-collar heart of Ireland. Once is the 2012 Tony Award-winning Best...

‘Rocket Man’ at Colonial Players

The Colonial Players of Annapolis open their 66th season with Rocket Man, their 344th season production. Rocket Man, the 21st play written by the prolific Steven Dietz, was first produced in 1998. It...

‘Fool for Love’ at Round House Theatre

Burnished to an earthy golden, Director Ryan Rilette’s absorbing, sensually deep, measured take on Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love(1983) is full of the stickiness of love and repulsion. There are...

Colbie Caillat at Wolf Trap

Three is a Charm for Colbie Caillat at Wolf Trap Wolf Trap got a dazzling bolt of California sunshine last night from Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum songstress Colbie Caillat, as she returned...

‘Belleville’ at The Studio Theatre

Life is Beautiful is more than an Academy Award-winning film title; that savored notion is a mantra generations of Americans are nurtured to hope, dream, and believe. The adventure and escape to the...

‘Drew the Dramatic Fool’ at Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center

Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center made a very astute choice in hosting the production of Drew the Dramatic Fool. On Saturday, September 6, 2014 Silver Spring saw a wonderfully complex...

‘We Are Samurai’ at Venus Theatre

Experiencing Venus Theatre’s production of Daria Miyeko Marinelli’s We Are Samurai feels something like when your dad threw you into the deep end so you could learn to swim. At first, it is scary and...

Nation Beat and Alma Tropicalia at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club

The music to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club Saturday night drove most of the attendees onto the dance floor. Both Alma Tropicalia and Nation Beat amped up...

Globe Theatre’s ‘King Lear’ at Folger Theatre

The power of Shakespeare’s tragedies lies in their ability to speak to both the political and the personal. King Lear is an exemplar in this regard. Not only does the empire collapse and the royal...

‘Spark’ at Theater Alliance

For all who were wondering: there is, in fact, a whole world across the river in Anacostia. In that world sits a lovely little theater called the Anacostia Playhouse. And, if you ever have the...

‘The Charlatan’ Semi-Staged Concert at The Victorian Lyric Opera Company

John Philip Sousa, one of America’s greatest composers, was primarily known for his famous marches. Over the course of his career, however, he also wrote a number of operettas. One of the lesser-known...