Reviews

’84, Charing Cross Road’ at Off the Quill

In James Roose-Evan’s stage adaptation of Helene Hanff’s classic memoir, 84, Charing Cross Road, Off The Quill tackles something quite different from their usual M.O. A self-labeled “collaborative”...

Source Festival: ‘Quests’-Six 10-Minute Plays

We travel to seek the unknown, and we undertake quests to find or achieve something of life-altering importance. The characters in Quests are seeking mementos of the past, self-understanding, complete...

Watch Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of ‘Jersey Boys’

Kyle Osborne reviews Clint Eastwood’s film version of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys. Here are showtimes for Jersey Boys in the DC area. LINKS Kyle Osborne’s video movie review of Chef....

‘Enter Ophelia, distracted’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The madness and subsequent suicide of Ophelia is one of the most famous scenes from one of the most famous Shakespearean tragedies. It is this aspect of Hamlet that Taffety Punk Theatre Company...

Magic Time! The DC Black Theatre Festival: ‘Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star’

The DC Black Theatre Festival, which runs through June 26, this year offers some 45 self-produced shows, most one time only. Organized annually by the DC Drama Department, a nonprofit educational...

Meet the Cast of ‘Ghost The Musical’–Lauren Alberg, Shannon Taylor, and Aly Murphy and The Production Team-Erin MacDonald, Amy Rawe Weimer, & Iris Shih at Drama Learning Center

TYA Teen Professionals at Drama Learning Center closes its area premiere of Ghost the Musical today at 2 PM. After getting special permission from Theatrical Rights Worldwide to present this title...

‘Pride and Prejudice’ at Castaways Repertory Theatre’s Youth Theater and Homeschool Theatre Troupe

In an adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, Castaways Repertory Theatre and Homeschool Theatre Troupe provide an evening of laughs coupled with a heartwarming love-story. The...

Cinema Speak with Sydney-Chanele: AFI DOCS FESTIVAL: Jennifer Grausman – ‘Art and Craft’

Cinema Speak with Sydney-Chanele is a new column that embraces the landscape of film, filmmakers, and film festivals. This will be a canvas where film reviews, and in-depth interviews into the...

‘Seussical’ at Montgomery College Summer Dinner Theatre

“Hear it like a whisper, smell it on the summer breeze.” It’s the sound of story and whimsy—the smell of childhood and daydreams. These sensations are brought to life in Seussical the Musical, (with...

‘Buyer & Cellar’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The laughs come so fast in Buyer & Cellar—and Michael Urie’s solo performance is so brilliantly engaging—that the words “funny” and “fun” seem too puny, utterly inadequate to convey the extraordinary...

‘Side Show’ at The Kennedy Center

Come Look at the Freaks!” intones the carnival barker at the opening of the unique and musically eclectic and beloved cult musical Side Show and you cannot look away. Now playing at The Kennedy...

‘Peter Pan’ at Cockpit in Court

The second star to the right is shining in the light of the Baltimore moon this summer as Cockpit in Court kicks off its main stage season with Peter Pan. Directed by Diane Smith with Musical...

‘The Odd Couple’ at Cockpit in Court

Life goes on for the divorced, broke, and sloppy. -or so Oscar Madison is learning. Couple that with a neurotic nutbag of a roommate and you’ve got Cockpit in Court’s first Cabaret show of the 2014...

‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ at Colonial Players

We have entered the era where if something is ringing you must answer it. This time the ringing is Colonial Players calling with word of their final production of season 65, Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s...

‘Distracted’ at Arcturus Theater Company

When is a boy just being a boy and when does a boy need meds for ADD/ADHD? Arcturus Theater Company’s production of Distracted, from Playwright Lisa Loomer, tackles this question with humor,...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: Naked Theatre Company’s ‘BITCH: A Play About Antigone’ by Rachael Murray

What ever happened to…..Naked Theatre Company? So, what ever happened to us? Well, we’re back, with a vengeance. This summer, this bitch is back with Bitch: A Play About Antigone, a play by Andy Boyd....

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Jane Franklin Dance: Blue Moon/Red River’ With Composer Tom Teasley by Jane Franklin

Blue Moon/Red River started as a hint of an idea last summer when percussionist Tom Teasley and I decided to collaborate. This project provided a route to integrating live music and dance and the...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright Marine Gassier on Her Play: ‘The Reluctant Genie of Niamey’

The Playwright’s Playground is a monthly in-depth conversation with a local female playwright in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in...

‘As You Like It’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Call me not fool ‘til heaven hath sent me fortune. Well you be fool if Chesapeake Shakespeare Company be heaven for they have sent you the great fortune of their production of As You Like It. Embrace...

Performing at The Howard Theatre on Friday and Saturday – Up Close with Alice Smith

Two or three times a year, Alice Smith seduces D.C. audiences with an intoxicating cacophony of R&B, pop, jazz and blues influences, the tension of an aching, volcanic sound and her soul-revealing,...

‘Cloak and Dagger’ at Signature Theatre

You know you’re in the presence of a legend when the material doesn’t matter as much as the immaterial. With the world premiere of Cloak and Dagger: Or the Case of the Golden Venus — Ed Dixon’s...

Ed Dixon on Writing and Appearing in ‘Cloak and Dagger’ at Signature Theatre

I am a huge fan of Ed Dixon’s work. I was thrilled to be able to catch up with him, and to see the press performance of his new musical Cloak and Dagger on Sunday night at Signature Theatre. Joel: Why...

‘The Wizard of Oz’ at The Puppet Co.

Back by popular demand, The Puppet Co. presents The Wizard of Oz, adapted from Frank Oz’s beloved tale with a script and puppets by Christopher Piper, and directed by Allan Stevens. Set and Costume...

‘Louisiana Swamp Romp’ at Wolf Trap

This much-anticipated yearly event at WolfTrap was a winner once again. The Stooges Brass Band, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet and Big Sam’s Funky Nation showcased the breadth of music in New Orleans...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright A.K. Forbes on Her Play: ‘Collateral Damage and Other Cosmic Consequences’

The Playwright’s Playground is a monthly in-depth conversation with a local female playwright in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in...

Source Festival: ‘Revenge: Six 10-Minute Plays’

Someone once said “revenge is sweet.” In the case of CulturalDC’s Source Festival show Revenge, not only is revenge sweet, but it is hilarious, thought-provoking, and at times a little frightening....

‘Plaza Suite’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Step into The Plaza, one of the most upscale venues and hotels in Upper Manhattan. Plaza Suite, a Tony Award-winning comedy written by Neil Simon in 1968, welcomes audiences to Room 719 as it captures...

‘Happy Days’ at SCENA Theatre

Rejoice, Beckett fans! Short of an actual festival, it’s rare to have the opportunity to see two productions of the same Beckett play in a single season. SCENA Theatre’s latest production of Happy...

Source Festival: “The Thrush and the Woodpecker’

As a self-described launching pad for plays, the Source Festival offers writers and artists an opportunity to incubate promising new work, even if scripts exist in but a fledgling state. Such is the...

‘BSO: Casablanca – Movie and Music’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

At the 16th Academy Awards in 1944, Casablanca took home Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Music Score. While I had never before seen the film, all my life I had heard about the film’s...

‘Avenue Q’ at Olney Theatre Center

It sucks to be you! Or at least it will suck to be you if you miss out on seeing Olney Theatre Center’s incredible production of Avenue Q! This Tony Award-winning, envelope-pushing, puppet-sex-having,...

‘Beauty and the Beast, JR’ at Fauquier Community Theatre’s Youth Program

Fauquier Community Theatre’s Youth Program tackles a “tale as old as time” with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, JR. The five-star cast of 60+ kindergarteners through high school seniors all give...

‘Menopause The Musical’ at The Warner Theatre

If a musical about not being able to the pay the rent or a plant that eats people can make it big, a musical about Menopause is following in a great tradition. It’s long run demonstrates it’s enduring...

“Spring Awakening’ at Little Butterfly Theatre Company

It wasn’t difficult to locate Little Butterfly Theatre Company’s production of Spring Awakening. All I had to do was follow the overpowering scent of teenage hormones coming from the theatre. Since...

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

The comedic style of the classic Victorian era theatrical collaborators Gilbert and Sullivan has regaled audiences for well over a century. Almost 135 years after the very first performance of Pirates...

‘The Apocalypse Comes at 6PM’ at Single Carrot Theatre

There are 8,670 hours in one year. Burnt food has a sad taste. Despite the title, the show will start at 7:30PM. The end of the world can be a very personal thing. In true Single Carrot Theatre...

‘Some Girl(s)’ at Unquiet Theatre Company

The message of Neil Labute’s Some Girl(s) is pretty well summed up by one of the characters, Bobbi, towards the end of Act II: “Guys always mean well right before they fuck somebody over.” Indeed, the...

‘The Producers’ at Sandy Spring Theater Group

In 2001, The Producers took home 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. Adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, the piece brilliantly captures the dark humor of...

‘Il Volo’ at Wolf Trap

Last night’s Il Volo concert is THE best show/concert I’ve seen at Wolf Trap in a long time! After every song, the singers received standing ovations from the crowd, which seemed to shock the humble...

Source Festival Review: ‘Countdown’

Countdown: An Interlude Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” This statement is particularly apposite to the CulturalDC Source Festival, which...

‘The British Players’ 50th Anniversary Old Time Music Hall’

Wine, beer, barmaids, and song—these are the mainstays of The British Players’ 50th Anniversary Old Time Music Hall. A salute to the popular British music halls of the 19th and early 20th century, the...

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron is presenting an artful rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with everyone in the huge cast under the age of 20 except for the king and queen of the faeries. The queen, Titania is...

‘Made in America: Celebrating American Choral Music’ at The Kennedy Center

“Made in the USA”: for generations, assurance that the product we were about to enjoy was produced upon the great land mass containing the contiguous 48, also known with patriotic pride, devotion and...

5 Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 6/13/14

Here are our 6 (We have a tie) Top Scene Stealers for the week ending June 13, 2014. Congrats to all our honorees! A Special Scene Stealer of The Week: Frank Britton Returns as Pontius Pilate in The...

Source Festival: ‘Mortality’-Six 10-Minute Plays

Last night I was back at CulturalDC’s Source Festival for Mortality, a series of six 10-minute plays inspired by the full length play, A Bid to Save the World. Mortality, one of the 3 themes of the...

‘Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band’ at Wolf Trap

Talk about adding to your own personal bucket list! Last night at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, a huge audience “got by with a little help from my friends” as Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band got...

‘Healing Wars’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wage on; in Syria, the blood still flows, as it does in Somalia and South Sudan; in Mexico, death continues to pile up bodies in the drug war, as they do in America’s...

The Playwright’s Playground: Part II: ‘Izumi Ashizawa -The Inspirations and Passions of a Japanese Interdisciplinary Artist’

Welcome back to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of...

Source Festival Review: ‘A Bid to Save the World’

Summer is theater festival season in DC and first up is CulturalDC’s Source Festival, now in its seventh year. Each year the festival is built around 3 themes which are each support by a full length...

‘Grounded’ at The Studio Theatre

America’s air war–first there was the B-17 Flying Fortress, then the B-52 Stratofortress, then the F-16 Fighting Falcon, then the Cruise Missile, then Precision Guided Munitions (or Smart Bombs), then...