Reviews

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Apocalypse Picnic’ by Mariya Danilenko

Apocalypse Picnic is a sketch comedy show about life in a post-apocalyptic world. The show is comprised of nine different sketches that show how the apocalypse has affected all kinds of people,...

Cabaret Review: Carolyn Cole’s ‘Born to Take the BELTway’ at Signature Theatre

Some time ago, I went to see a No Rules Theatre Company production of The Stephen Schwartz Project and I remember being impressed by a petite brunette with a really, really fierce belt. That brunette,...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Thumbs Up!’ by Grace Kim

Thumbs Up, written and performed by Michael Venske, with technical direction by Anthony Logan Cole, is a one-man show deftly performed by Michael Venske. It’s a good story with some great lines. In...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Me and the Devil Blues’ by Mike Spain

The steamy heat of a Washington summer night added to the ambiance of the World Premiere of Me and the Devil Blues by Seamus Sullivan, after all the play is set in Hell. The band played smooth jams as...

Wilco at Wolf Trap by Mike Spain

The Lee Ranaldo Band opened for Wilco on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. Ranaldo is best known for his time spent with Sonic Youth – a band he founded and spent three decades as the band’s lead guitarist. I...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Planet Egg’ by Mariya Danilenko

Planet Egg is one of the most ingenious shows at the Capital Fringe Festival. It is a puppet cinema performance, which means that the artists create a puppet show in front of a live camera while the...

Capital Fringe Review: Almost, “Almost Maine” by Grace Kim

I’m full of love for Almost, “Almost, Maine’s” actors – Christian Beltran and Mandy Nicole Moore, who sublimely perform 7 different characters each over 7 vignettes about love in relationships. In...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Stone Age Recreation: An Operetta’ by Francine Schwartz

Stone Age Recreation is an operetta developed by The Apron Theatre Company. It is a “physical comedy” by DC-area writer/producer Tyler Budde and director Maria Benson which minimizes dialogue in favor...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Burlesque and Belly Laughs’ by Jessica Vaughan

Burlesque and Belly Laughs provides plenty of both. With a cast of improv actors and burlesque dancers from troupes around DC, the evening alternates between improv sketches and more traditional...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Night In (Or The Night My Wife Left)’ by Julia L. Exline

LIV Creations presents A Night In (Or The Night My Wife Left), a quirky show about a man who delves into his psyche after he comes home to a half-empty apartment, a vanished wife, and a note that...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘In the Company of De Sade’ by Amanda Gunther

In The Company of De Sade presented by the King’s Players at the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival is the show to see if you can only see one. It is well composed; thoroughly outlined with an actual plot...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass The Vetting’ by Mariya Danilenko

All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass The Vetting is a hilarious autobiographical one-woman show performed and written by Lisa Faith Phillips. Inspired by a recent lawsuit from the Franklin...

Cabaret Review: ‘What I See’ – Natascia Diaz at Signature Theatre by Jennifer Perry

Natascia Diaz has several NYC/Broadway credits and has been a mainstay in the DC theatre scene for nearly an entire decade. Given her well-established musical theatre pedigree, I arrived at Signature...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Year of Giving’ by Jessica Vaughan

Rockville Little Theatre’s production of A Year of Giving is an extraordinary story and it makes for an extraordinary play. Reed Sandridge was laid off in ’09 and decided to give $10 a day to a...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘BFF’ by Natalie McCabe

Brian Feldman’s one-man “show” BFF takes its single audience member on a two-hour journey- literally- to becoming Feldman’s, well, “BFF.” Feldman’s “friend-building excursion” may take the audience...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Making Love Legal’ by Jessica Vaughan

Making Love Legal is clearly a labor of love. Sara Schabach, a first-time director, and her cast infused every odd-ball scene with enthusiasm. It is an ambitious and sensitive topic to explore and...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Post Reality Show: Talk Media!’ by Derek Mong

The Post Reality Show: Talk Media! claims to be the avant-garde of the avant-garde of the Capital Fringe Festival. While it is true that it is the first ever Capital Fringe performance over webcast...

Coming to The Capital Fringe Festival: ‘Stone Age Recreation: An Operetta.’ by Rick Westerkamp

Imagine you’re at your local diner with six of your closest friends. It’s your circle’s ‘Cheers Bar’ or Central Perk. Then all of a sudden, one of you creates a hypothetical situationin which you’re...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Shock/Trauma’ by Tzvi Kahn

If the cinematic car crash constitutes the cliché that never dies (or kills or wounds its action hero passengers, for that matter), the new play presented by Unstrung Harpist Productions and directed...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Language From the Land’ by Joel Markowitz

This was my second dance Fringe experience that featured young dancers. Before the show began we were informed that what we were about to see was put together in one week with 25 young dancers from...

Capital Fringe Review:’ I <3 Hummels' by Ally Jenkins

Raymond (James Radack) loves Hummels. No, I mean he REALLY loves them. For those not in the know, Hummels are porcelain figurines depicting apple-cheeked boys and girls in all sorts of settings. They...

National Symphony Orchestra: The Wizard of Oz’ at Wolf Trap by Jane Coyne

Lions and tigers and bears … and a live orchestra … oh, my! It’s hard to imagine a better outdoor movie experience than one could have found Saturday night than by heading over to Wolf Trap to watch...

‘Legally Blonde – The Musical’ at McLean Community Players by Julia L. Exline

McLean Community Players presents Legally Blonde—The Musical, an infectiously silly show carried by actors with great dance moves, voices, and comedic timing. Directed by Mike Replogle, Legally Blonde...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Jesus Le Momo’ by Don Michael Mendoza

JR Foley’s play Jesus Le Momo is an exciting 50 minutes of a wild ride through the story of a wife and husband’s prayer meeting interrupted by the ghost of mad playwright Antonin Artaud. A meeting led...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rolling By’ by Amanda Gunther

Rolling By presented by Patchwork Productions is not one of the shows you’ll want to roll on by. It’s actually a fairly decent work in progress. Written by A.R. Lange the show’s central concept is...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Capital Anthropological, Inquisitorial Probe’ by Julia L. Exline

Cecily Marlborough and Gwendolyn Hamm (otherwise known as Karen Getz and Kelly A. Jennings) are two time-traveling cultural anthropologists here to study our culture. What you won’t really find in...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘James Judd’s Funny Stories’ by Julia L. Exline

I’m not sure I have ever laughed that hard in my whole life! That being said, James Judd’s Funny Stories is an absolute Fringe must-see! Are you looking for something deep? Something that makes you...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Beef Encounter’ by Grace Kim

Take pause from your daily grind and go on a walking holiday with Belinda Donovan (Claire Carroll, and writer of the play) as she walks through the English countryside. Becoming lost as her husband...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘LapBand Texas’ by Julia L. Exline

LaGoDi presents Lapband Texas, a production that packs a lot of laughs before taking an awkward turn. In a clever, Hairspray-style casting choice, Michael Brassfield commands the stage as Mamma, an...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Superhero Celebrity Rehab: The Musical’ by Cyle Durkee

Who hasn’t wondered what keeps Superman up at all hours? Why can’t Batman sleep? Why are Wonder Woman’s breasts so perky? The answer to the first two is obviously drugs (the answer to the third is, of...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Sweet Painted Lady’ by Cyle Durkee

Oh, the oldest story in the world. Boy has girl. Girl buys boy’s painting. Boy takes drugs and painting comes to life. Boy has affair with painting. Boy freaks out. Boy overdoses and kills painting. I...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The City of God’ – A New Opera’ by Cyle Durkee

Here goes. First, I’m not going to mention any names because these are college kids and they will learn better (and I’d like for them to get a chance to do so without the albatross of a bad review...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘3rd Annual “Fool for All”: Tales of Marriage and Mozzarella’ by Cyle Durkee

Over the years I have seen Faction of Fools develop beautifully. They are developing a cast of regulars that have real chemistry and obviously enjoy working with each other enormously. Let’s just get...

‘Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson’ at The Studio Theatre by David Friscic

With a randy impudence and audacity – occasionally bordering on the sophomoric – Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson pokes fun at our seventh president of the United States with the anarchistic verve of a...

‘Love, Sex, and the I.R.$.’ at Bowie Community Theatre by Amanda Gunther

Everybody wants to save money on their taxes. And when you room with your best friend post college and his first name happens to be an ambiguous unisex name the logical thing to do is to change his...

‘Dames at Sea’ at Infinity Theatre Company by Amanda Gunther

Get ready to tap your toes along with the beat as Infinity Theatre Company presents the tap-happy navy-crazy musical Dames At Sea. With all the high energy of a swinging lively night on Broadway this...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘My Princess Bride’ by Andrew L. Baughman

Joe Brack is treading on hallowed ground with his production of My Princess Bride, a one-man show inspired by the William Goldman film and novel that is fanatically beloved by generations....

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Airswimming’ (Abridged) by Mike Spain

Airswimming (Abridged) is a play written by Charlotte Jones about two ladies in a London asylum. It stars Charlotte Jones (Dora/Dorph) and Julia Smith (Persephone/Porph) who also presented this drama....

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Bareback Ink’ by Andrew Baughman

Bareback Ink, a new play written and directed by Bob Bartlett, is a work of art based on the Ganymede myth that will speak to each beholder in its own way. For me, it made me contemplate volatile...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Comedy of Mirrors’ by Mike Spain

The Pallas Theatre Collective production of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Mirrors does exactly what a comedy is supposed to do, make you laugh. The laughs come often from the talented casts’...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Mercy Seat’ by Sydney-Chanele Dawkins

Life can be tough. Some people are born with the cards stacked against them. For others, life is a series of miscalculations and bad decisions… It’s the day after 09-11-2001. Life is tough for the two...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Arlen & Berlin Occupy the Fringe!” by Jennifer Georgia

Arlen & Berlin Occupy the Fringe! tries to gain Fringe-worthy edginess for its loving review of classic songs from the 30s and 40s by setting it in Freedom Plaza and linking it to the Occupy D.C....

‘Big Love’ at The Hub Theatre by Sydney-Chanele Dawkins

Love, Marriage, and Mayhem. Aeschylus is often described as the father of Greek tragedy. In his play The Suppliants, Danaids unveils the original tale of a King who tries to form political alliances...

An Interview with ‘A Year of Giving’s’ Reed Sandridge by Kevin O’Connell

Though he’s reluctant to take credit for any of these things, Reed Sandridge is the subject, star, and co-author of A Year of Giving, Rockville Little Theatre’s entry into the 2012 Capital Fringe...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Cupcake Cabaret: A Brief History of “Bad” Women’ by Julia L. Exline

If you’re hoping for some impressive dance moves in Cupcake Cabaret, then don’t let those hopes get too high. When an older, conservative woman (Julie Chapin as Sherry Somebody) discovers that her...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘HeHEE! or “What It’s Not Glee?” by Jessica Vaughan

HeHEE! or “What It’s Not Glee? is a production of The Comedy Academy, Inc., which is a non-profit that teaches middle and high school and college students to write sketch comedy. I know, watching...

‘Legally Blonde’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia by Amanda Gunther

Oh My God! Omigod, you guys! Looks like Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia wins the prize of super fantastic amazing entertainment for the summer of 2012 as they present the area premier of Legally...

‘Sandy Bainum: Something to Sing About’ at Signature Theatre by Kim Moeller

In an age of big splashy music-based reality contest shows, concerts as multimedia extravaganzas, technically-altered recordings, and TV shows manufactured around large musical ensembles, it’s a...

‘Church’ at Forum Theatre Company by Lauren Katz

Forum Theatre’s mission is to bring controversial and discussion inspiring theater to society. From what I witnessed on Saturday July 13, they seem to have met their goal. Church, written by...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lauren Katz

The Greenbelt Arts Center presents the popular children’s tale Alice in Wonderland, with a twist. The basic storyline is still present: Alice (Liz Cassedy) falls down a rabbit hole and meets a series...