Reviews

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Self Portrait’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Upon reading the short blurb attached to Sasha Sinclair’s new solo performance piece Self Portrait here, I must confess I found myself a bit curious. Armed with my...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Coriolanas’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Shakespeare’s Coriolanus has been played, memorably, by some of the greatest actors. Richard Burton played it; Laurence Olivier played it twice, and here in D.C., Patrick...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Bethesda’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Did you know Bethesda means House of Mercy? In Jennie Berman Eng’s new play , the city may be anything but merciful. She also directs and produces this tight, hilarious...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Not Every Card’

Not Every Card is a 50’s style caper in an occupied country which may or may not exist when the underground resistance conceives to win a card game and thus the war. It was written and directed...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: “Master Harold”…And the Boys

The Rude Mechanicals of Virginia present “Master Harold”… and the Boys, a play by Athol Fugard. It’s a piece of theater that lends itself to subtle choices in order to express complex ideas...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘I Fucked Your Country’

Twanna Hines is fun and sexy. Which is great for someone who talks about sex for a living. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show, so I was happily surprised when I discovered it wasn’t going to...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Intrigue, A Mystery on Marley…’

Within in the first five minutes of draMAStic dance works’ production of Intrigue, a mystery on marley…, the audience hears a blood-curdling scream and sees a man in a chalk outline on the ground. If...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Bitch: A Play About Antigone’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Though you travel the perilous river of the Fringe and are beset on all sides by ravening flyer bearers and incoherent plots. Though you are forced to cringe so forcefully...

‘The Spanish Tragedy’ at The Mobtown Players

Revenge. A dark, twisted and sinister emotion run afoul from the depths of scorn and tragedy; a human emotion vocalized when things go wrong. And despite springtime flooding costing them their...

‘The Music Man’ at Rockville Musical Theatre

Can music really save your mortal soul? Could the right mixture of song and human kindness reform a career swindler? These questions emerge in Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey’s The Music Man. This...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Goddess Diaries’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) The Goddess Diaries, returning for its third year in Capital Fringe, started off with a bang! Written by Carol Lee Campbell and Directed by Rebecca Wahls, this simply...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Districtland’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Bucharest inside the Beltway had a very successful world premiere of Districtland to Capital Fringe! Providing a unique look on the world of the “rat race” that is...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Writing Miss Clark’s Résumé’

In cases of sexual contact between teachers and minor students, the perpetrator is usually assumed to be male. But there are cases of such inappropriate and criminal behavior by female teachers...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ’13 Men – Cabaret’

(Best of the Capital Fringe 2014) If by 13 Men — A Cabaret you were expecting a beefy crop of men in tights traipsing in and out of the followspot, that ain’t it, kid. The “it” here: marquee-worthy...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Refresh: Stories of Love, Sex, and the Internet’

Refresh: Stories of Love, Sex, and the Internet takes an unflinching and unglorified look at the less talked about aspects of the middle class suburban male’s adolescence in the age of the internet....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review ‘What Would Tina and Amy Do?’

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all have some stellar, successful person be our own personal mentor? That’s what Annie (Catie Carlton) and Tinley (Larissa Kruesi, also one of the two playwrights)...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ’27 Club’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Carolyn Agan’s rock-and-roll musical creates an in-depth examination of the lives of six rock stars who all died at age 27 by combining pieces of their stories with the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Homeboy Thanksgiving’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Homeboy Thanksgiving, written by Jose Zarate and directed by Rhiannon Cooper is a story of the healing nature of family and friendship. Ernesto (Silas Gordon Brigham) is a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘About a Girl’

Eddy Roger Parker both wrote and produced About A Girl, his debut play. The byline is “Drugs, Sex, and Texas.” It takes place in 80’s and is indeed a drama about a girl, her best friend, her...

‘Sex Please We’re Sixty’ at Bowie Community Theatre

Bowie Community Theatre’s production of Sex Please We’re Sixty, is an American farce of charming, vivacious, and funny explorations into the libidos and trysts of men and women over a certain age who...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘#albatross’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet, a DC-based company founded in 2010, presents #albatross in this summer’s Capital Fringe Festival, with a program of three works. The decision...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Persephone’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Usually when someone tells you a Fringe show is different every night, it means “improv showcase” or “audience participation.” Sometimes it means “we didn’t really...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Macbeth: The Instruments of Darkness’

When it comes to Fringe, Shakespeare is an ace in the hole. Audiences find it familiar, but they also expect more in the bargain. Rude Mechanicals’ production of Macbeth: Instruments of Darkness is a...

‘Les Misérables’ at Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre

One show more! Another theatre another production of the epic musical Les Misérables. It is the summer of revolution and no theatre wishes to be left behind in this magnificent pursuit of the musical...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review ‘As We Are’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) A widowed father in his late 50s lies in bed on a morphine drip, his body rife with cancer. Beside him is his thirty-something gay son, who has traveled to his childhood...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘To The Outside/D.C. al Coda’

I attended In To The Outside/D.C. al Coda last night with my editor. As you may have heard, one of the actors sustained an injury the night before opening night. Playwright and Director John Sowalsky...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review ‘Cross the Line’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Six actors: three men, three women, all in all black—t’s, tanks, slacks, shoes, leggings—sitting, standing, walking upon; bounding, flipping, dancing across a square black...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Blue Moon/Red River’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Jane Franklin Dance is a Virginia based company known for its innovative works and collaborations; Blue Moon/Red River is a prime example of both. Jane Franklin is the...

The Daily Dish: Now Serving Tiffany MacIsaac by Jenny Splitter

She’s the former executive pastry chef for Neighborhood Restaurant Group. You might have tasted her creations at Buzz Bakery, Birch & Barley or GBD Fried Chicken and Doughnuts. Plus the James Beard...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Will Work For’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Dacyl Acevedo commands and transforms the stage at the intimate Gearbox in her one-woman, one-act heartbreaking look at the struggles of a part-time actress cum part-time...

Capital Fringe 2014 ‘Tour de Farce’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Set in a one bedroom apartment share in the Lower East Side of Manhattan Tour de Farce follows the adventures of Peter and his stationary bike, set in the bedroom of...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Lucretia Borgia’

The Small Batch Theater Co. succeeds with modern dance in its unique production of Lucretia Borgia. Back in Renaissance Italy, Lucretia Borgia was always the baddest girl on the block-or so we’ve been...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss? is written and performed powerfully and hilariously by Ronna J Levy and directed by Kel Haney. Originally conceived in Matt Hoverman’s Go...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘In To The Outside/D.C. al Coda’ #1

This review must start off as my show experience started off…with an apology… The writer/director John Sowalsky walked onto the stage tonight and announced that yesterday one of the two actresses...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘That Kind of Girl’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) “It takes a long time to write words about my body that taste good on my tongue,” espouses Natalie Piegari, one of the many talented women who created That Kind of Girl....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘A Fire in Water’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Sparse but beautiful, Silver Finch Art Collective’s a fire in water is a modern opera with an ancient theme – the impact of war particularly on loved ones, lost or left...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Walken In His Shoes’

Christopher Walken (for those who live under a rock) is a prolific American performer of stage and screen. He won an Oscar playing Russian Roulette with Robert Di Niro in 1978’s The Deer Hunter, and...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Tournament’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) What do you gather a team of actors who also happen to be some of the best fight choreographers in DC, and pair them with a writer that loves campy, silly jokes and 80’s...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Stone Tape Party’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Even before the show starts, Stone Tape Party, written by Danny Rovin and directed by Angela Pirko, immerses the audience in the vivacity that is the house where the party...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘À Demain’

Brendan O’Connell creates a memoir after the death of his friend. It’s a surprisingly funny show that nevertheless perfectly captures the permanence of grief. As he says at one point, “There is no day...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Road to High Street’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Juggling fire, riding a unicycle, living in a beer tank and eating raw eggs—these are just a few of the stops on The Road to High Street. Andrew Potter’s solo performance...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Capt. Tickle Britches’

In the words of the Captain himself, “Here at the Captain Tickle Britches Show, we set the bar low. Real Low.” This sort of sums up the type of humor and atmosphere you should expect when you walk...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Love Song To Miss Kitty’

With their tight jeans, high heeled boots, and well endowed means of transport, cowboys have always been pretty gay. But the homo western vibe is taken to new and outrageous heights in LaGoDi’s...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Everything I Do’

Everything I Do is a musical, loosely adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman by playwright and composer John Becker. Just as the tagline in the promos for the show say, “You’ve never seen...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Hey, Hey, LBJ!’

The unfolding story of one combat correspondent and his changing views on the Vietnam War, David Kleinberg’s solo performance Hey, Hey, LBJ! spans three decades and two continents. Hey, Hey, LBJ is an...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Antigone’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Fringe is well known for exposing audiences to exciting new works, but the festival can be equally exciting when it presents a fresh take on a theatre classic. Such was...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Perfect Liars Club’

P.T. Barnum was right. There’s a sucker born every minute, and Perfect Liars Club is out to prove it. In 90 minutes of fun-filled storytelling and audience participation, the Perfect Liars Club’s...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Dream Within a Dream’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) While I was in London a couple months ago, I attended a Punchdrunk Theatre Company production, and the play was like nothing I had seen before. Punchdrunk’s most defining...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Song of Myself: The Whitman Project’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Robert Michael Oliver is a tour-de-force in his one-man show It’s got to be tough to do a solo show, opening night at 9 p.m. on a sultry summer night, but remarkable,...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Olizzia’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) First-time playwright John Bavoso’s inventive and appealing script for Olizzia would make a terrific indie rom-com caper that would be a hit on the lesbian-and-gay film...