Reviews

Capital Fringe 2014 ‘Saving Private Poo’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) “As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh. A mashup of Saving Private Ryan and Winnie the Pooh may not seem like...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Other Day’

About an hour into The Other Day as performed at The Shop, a Dutch airport clerk named Steven (played by a very dashing Dash King), shows a young American named Mark (a puppy-dog-sweet Matthew...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Porch’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) What a pleasure to happen upon this gem of a show. Featuring three exceptionally truthful and touching performances on a plain platform with next-to-no production values...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Breast in Show’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) At last. A show that has taken the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 theme to heart: Move Me. Breast in Show, conceived and produced by Eileen Mitchard, is arguably the best...

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ at The Flying Muskrat Theatre Company

You mustn’t miss The Flying Muskrat Theatre Company’s production of Gruesome Playground Injuries. The play debuted with Alley Theatre (Houston) in 2009, then migrated east to Woolly Mammoth (2010) and...

Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller at The Kennedy Center

Dana Carvey and Dennis Miller performed at the Kennedy Center on Saturday night, and what I expected to hear and see was right on! These guys are on top of their game, relevant, and funny as hell! No...

Karen Mason at NextStop Theatre Company

They say a truly great performer has the power to transform a song that you might have heard a million times before into a new experience—to take a classic and make it his or her own while still doing...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Luv, American Style’

Are there any fans of the sitcom Love, American Style out there? If you count yourself as one, then you should certainly see Infinite Jest’s Luv, American Style, which is essentially a modernized and...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Waiting for Armageddon’

In DC Trash’s Waiting for Armageddon, Ron Litman and Composer Tom Pile string together a series of songs and stand-up comedy, all producing the same message: The end of days is upon us. The question...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Tango, Cabaret, Love!’

Tango, Cabaret, Love! is not for the faint of heart nor lack of appetite. Conceived, directed by and starring Cecilia De Feo, Laura Quiroga and Lorena Sabogal, the show is a bilingual escapade mixing...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Tumbling’

Stephen Notes’s expressionistic play The Tumbling takes the classic Jack and Jill nursery rhyme to new heights (and lows) with sci-fi spies, murderous mothers, and lots and lots of adult material....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Ten Principles )'(‘

(Best of the Capital Fringe) “There are so much worse things to be greeted with than warm silliness.” TD Smith grins as he utters this mantra. In AWoL Productions’ 10 Principles )'(, TD recounts the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Interpersonal Underworld’

This review will be in two parts. One part about the dance (yes, this is a dance show) and one about the spoken aspects of the show (which, due to a proclivity for answering any question asked in my...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Isis and Vesco Investigate the Curious Death of Dr. Freud’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Longtime DC theater company Guillotine Theatre mounts a new play by Monique LaForce that is a crazy mash-up between Egyptian gods, the fathers of psychology, and the NYPD....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘DECADES’

Improv comedy is a form of theater where it is created in the moment at the performance. Some of the great comedians of our time; Amy Poehler, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell – to name a few – were born...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Joiceville 101.3 LIVE’

Joiceville is directed and written by Rodrigo G. Pool Arce, composed by Justin Paschalides, and stars Rodrigo G. Pool Arce, Will MacLeod and Carrie Helton Parsons. This is The Office on speed at a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Circle’

The Circle by banished? Productions might be one of your most unique experiences at the Fringe. The entire play takes place outside using Dupont Circle, Connecticut Avenue, and some surrounding shops...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Seance’

“Save Madame MacGuffin’s shop!” The actors greet audience members as they walk in the door, invite them to browse the shop and inquire about their spiritual or psychic needs. Many audience members...

‘Guys and Dolls’ at McLean Community Players

A guy will do crazy things for the doll that he’s sweet on. Bet, cheat, lie, steal…and give up doing all that stuff too. The McLean Community Players dove headfirst into the riotous situations caused...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘SELF’

There are countless plays (and movies, songs, paintings, stories….) about people falling in love with other people. But what about loving yourself? If you can’t love yourself, are you even capable of...

Capital Fringe 2014: ‘The Matty Matthews Foundation’

What is to be said of a democratic political system that rewards connections over talent, charisma over hard work, and money over principles? This is the subject Eagle Wings Theater Company tackles...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Dish’

If garbage puppets and singing Pears give you heartburn and you hunger for more accessible Fringe fare, then I recommend The Dish by Jenny Splitter. Chock full of DC-insider references and audience...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Do You See What I See?’

Do You See What I See? Opens with 9 actors sitting in a semi-circle. the recognizable trademark for group therapy. In this case referred to a “comic therapy,” where the audience is introduced to each...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Oh, What Can’t A Woman Do?’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) This production is not to be missed! It is clearly one of the ‘Best of the Capital Fringe.’ Hilary Morrow’s solo performance is riveting.Morrow is both playwright and...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Uniform’

You can easily miss him. Lying on the floor in dim light, dressed in grey, still as death, he is easily overlooked. It is the young woman, her dark blond hair held back with a tortoise-shell barrette,...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Call Steve Guttenberg’

If you are familiar with H.P. Lovecraft’s early writing about the fictional deity called Cthulhu, this play is hilarious. If you are not familiar with Lovecraft’s writing, take just a moment to look...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Marriage, Lizards and Love’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) The Capital Fringe festival is a remarkable venue where artists can show off and experiment with new work, playwright Jean P. Bordewhich brings Marriage, Lizards and Love...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Miss Emma’s Matchmaking Agency for Literary Characters’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) A modern incarnation of Emma Woodhouse runs a matchmaking business for literary lonely heats. With a little harmless manipulation and some help from a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Size Doesn’t Matter! Seven Shorts by DC Playwrights’

Fully Charged Productions is advertising Size Doesn’t Matter using an alluring, albeit risqué, image on their marketing materials. Audiences may think that the seven short plays within might be of a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Ben & Lucille’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Classified as a contemporary comedy, this production of Ben & Lucille is hands down the absolute best 45 minutes you will spend at The Capital Fringe Festival in 2014....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Report to An Academy’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Welcome to Franz Kafka’s bizarre and tortured world, in which the desperate fight for survival turns men into animals and animals into men, and in which, “human freedom is...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Name Game’

Before the show even begins, four dancers in full-body spandex suits float and twirl across the stage of the Lang Theatre. Vast and sparse, the set (designed by Thomas Carter II) for Mary Stone...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Secrets of the National Mall’

There has always been a lot of mysticism surrounding the creation of the capital and the National Mall. The walking tour Secrets of the National Mall promised to be an exciting thrill ride through the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Balloon Plays’

Balloon Plays is a great way to introduce kids to the wonders of Fringe. It is, to my knowledge, the only offering directed towards a younger audience. The approximately 10 kids and 40 adults...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Girl in Space’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Status Report: Not a Robot Theatre Company’s Girl in Space is not your typical “boy meets girl, girl meets asteroid, girl loses asteroid, boy loses girl” story although it...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘A Lesbian Belle Tells!’

Stories are a key to unlocking connections between people and hearing other’s stories can bring us deeper insights into our own lives. Elizabeth McCain’s personal stories delivered during her...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Brick Penguin Tries Its Best’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) According to their wesbite, Brick Penguin is a “DC-based comedy ‘tough-love’ sketch group, and it features members and teachers of the Washington Improv Theater. The group...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Sage of Blackwell’

Sage of Blackwell is a good example of the Capital Fringe Festival’s mission to provide “a showcase for…raw and authentic live performance work.” The world premiere of the drama from Lena Productions...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘We’ve Come to Play’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Who, indeed, has come to play? Five women in ten choreographic (no less compelling, for being non-cinematic) captures, their bodies conveying emotional captures that, as...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Inaugural Election for President of Mrs. Jacobson’s Sixth Grade Class’

In this delightful comedy, six 6th graders are running for President of Mrs. Jacobson’s Sixth Grade class. You, the audience, get to participate and choose the winner. In the age of Stephen Colbert...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Dracula. A Love Story’

(The Best of the Capital Fringe) When Lee Ordeman stalks his female prey as the title character in Dracula. A Love Story, he might just conjure more imagery of the American Psycho than Stoker’s gothic...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Giant Box of Porn’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Giant Box of Porn opened in the big Warehouse black box before a standing-room-only audience Saturday, and once the show got going I knew why: This humdinger is going to...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Letters To and From Me’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Letters To and From Me is an extraordinary hour of spoken word, story telling, singing, and dancing from the Wild Women Theatre company. The piece explores specifically...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Monster Songs’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Dr. Dour and Peach present a delightfully quirky and surprisingly physical performance in The Monster Songs, playing in the Gearbox on 7th St NW during this year’s Capital...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘R+J: Star-Cross’d Death Match’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) DC Reynolds Bar hosts an unconventional take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Sara Bickler, and originally performed by NYC’s Three day Hangover, R+J:...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Desire Moments’

When I first arrived to the theater, I met family members and friends of the playwight. Apparently she attended UVA, like me, so I was digging the Wahoowa spirit in the house. Desire Moments is...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Point…Blank…Period’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Point…Blank…Period, created by Tramaine Brathwaite and written along with Ryiesha Simms, Kenya D. Morris, and and Devynne Stevenson, is a hilarious, heartwarming, look...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘W3″

Just when I worried this year’s fringe was veering more mainstream than ever before, I found myself at Barking Fish Theatre Project’s surrealistic W3. Suddenly, there was garbage puppetry, and stark...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Boy Meets Girl and Other Dilemmas’

Four good comics, eight short skits and one ‘ha, ha, not so funny’synopsis made for a sporadically funny performance of this collection written by Robert Kittredge and directed by Lisa Hilling. Jackie...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Malevolence’

King’s Players, a young company in DC, named after Artistic Director and Founder Timothy R. King, has presented well-received original shows at the last two Capital Fringe festivals. Its 2014 offering...