Reviews

Review: ‘Swimming With Whales’ at 1st Stage

In its world premiere first professional performance, Swimming With Whales at 1st Stage has already built an impressive record in its preparation. It was part of the Sigworks Readings at Signature...

Review: ‘Ragtime’ at 2nd Star Productions

The Golden Age of D.C. area shows this spring continues with the opening of Ragtime by 2nd Star Productions. Excellent performances by Carl Williams, Ashley Lyles, Stephen Yednock, Heather McMunigal,...

Review: ‘Hairspray’ by Tantallon Community Players

Tantallon Community Players’ current production of Hairspray is one of those shows where this reviewer wouldn’t mind seeing every performance. It’s just that damn good. I’m saying that despite driving...

Review: ‘The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity’ at Cohesion Theatre

Talk about a political farce! The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity might as well be titled Divided America in the Time of Trump as Analogized Through TV Wrestling. Cohesion Theatre’s production of the...

Review: ‘Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret’ at Monumental Theatre Company

For the fourth year in a row, Monumental Theatre Company has hosted their annual event, featuring top millennial talent from the DC area. Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret is the latest presentation of the...

Review: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre

“Strip me naked. Take my name. Make me an animal. So you can kill me. Then forget all about me. Like I never happened. Like I don’t matter.” No, those unsettling words are not reactions to a racially...

Review: ‘Don Quixote’ by Ballet Nacional de Cuba at the Kennedy Center

With apologies to T.S. Elliot, Ballet Nacional de Cuba ends the Kennedy Center Ballet 2017-2018 season not with a whimper but a bang. A big bang! An explosive Don Quixote opened last night and repeats...

Review: ‘Camelot’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech. As threats to his life mounted, King seemed resigned to his fate. “I’m not concerned about...

Review: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at Creative Cauldron

I first read E.B. White’s classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web in my second grade English class. I remember being amazed by how a story so simple could be instilled with something so beautiful. I...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at the Vagabond Players

A battle between assimilation and affiliation, the personal and historical, Jewish versus Jew-ish. This is Bad Jews, Joshua Harmon’s bitingly witty maiden voyage that put him on the playwriting map....

Review: ‘New Releases Choreographers Showcase’ at Dance Place

Back in the ’60s, Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are a-Changing,” an ode to protest, social change and the country’s mood moment. Dance Place’s New Releases Choreographers Showcase vamped Dylan’s...

Magic Time!: ‘Republic Undone’ at The Metropolitan Club

Going back to Ancient Greece, theater has functioned as a forum for informed public debate—about war, religion, politics, all the issues relevant to the citizenry of the day. The Greeks had a word for...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at NextStop Theatre

What must their mothers have been like? Certainly, cousins Daphna and Liam (Sophie Schulman and Noah Schaefer), the antagonists in Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews, now playing at Herndon’s NextStop Theater –...

Review: ‘A View from the Bridge’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

The 1950s Brooklyn waterfront setting of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge has long since disappeared. The container revolution, beginning in the 1970s, ended forever the traditional...

Review: ‘Casa Valentina’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina, first produced in 2014, offers a powerful look at a still-misunderstood subject. Directed by Mickey Lund, it features...

Magic Time!: ’10 Million’ and ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ at The Kennedy Center

Among the rich offerings in The Kennedy Center’s Artes de Cuba festival were two extraordinary works of theater, each performed but twice: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, from Teatro El Público,...

Review: ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ at Vineyard Theatre

An imaginative, lyrical, and bittersweet stage adaptation of Henry James’ heartbreaking novella of 1903, The Beast in the Jungle reunites the celebrated team of John Kander (music), David Thompson...

Review: ‘The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs’ at Spooky Action

Looking for something well-crafted, suspenseful, and with plenty of lingering moments of anxiety? Then head on to Spooky Action Theater’s production of The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs. Written...

Review: ‘The Remains’ at Studio Theatre

They have such a tasteful, immaculate, picture-perfect kitchen, how could their marriage be such a sorry mess? That’s a crass way to ask the question, but the answers are beautifully nuanced in Ken...

Review: ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’ at the Greenbelt Arts Center

Greenbelt Arts Center’s production of Return to the Forbidden Planet, written by Bob Carlton and directed by Jeffrey Lesniak, takes the audience for a rowdy rocket ship ride from earth to d’Illyria,...

Review: ‘Today’s Classical and Jazz Masters’ by the National Chamber Ensemble

As was announced at the beginning of the National Chamber Ensemble’s recent musical offering Today’s Classical and Jazz Masters —in a veiled reference to the British Royal Wedding —the audience was...

Review: ‘Always Patsy Cline’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts and Producing Artistic Director Patrick A’Hearn present Always Patsy Cline. Created by Ted Swindley, the show is inspired by the true story of an unlikely...

Review: ‘Flood City’ at Theater Alliance

I would not have thought that a play about dreadful disaster could be done as a droll and delightfully dark comedy, but Playwright Gabrielle Reisman did. Having lived through Hurricane Katrina in 2005...

Review: ‘The Cherry Orchard’ by Faction of Fools

Though it has commonly been staged as a tragedy or psychological drama since its Moscow premiere, Anton Chekhov always insisted that The Cherry Orchard was a comedy. A story about an aristocratic...

Review: ‘Let’s Misbehave: Cole Porter After Dark’ with The American Pops Orchestra at Arena Stage

What does the American songbook mean to you? For many, I’m sure it brings to mind those delightful tunes of old with their lilting melodies, simple lyrics, and squeaky clean imagery. If you are of...

Review: ‘Pericles’ by We Happy Few

Let’s be clear, Pericles is pretty much a first draft play that Shakespeare never quite finished. Now to be fair, the work is not wholly attributed to him, but with more than a few murderous plots,...

Review: ‘Woman and Scarecrow’ at Irish Repertory Theatre

Marking its first production of a work by the internationally-lauded Dublin-born playwright Marina Carr, Irish Repertory Theatre’s New York premiere of Woman and Scarecrow, potently directed by Ciaran...

In the Moment: ‘Saint Joan’ by Bedlam Theater Company at Folger Theatre

Bedlam’s take on George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan will resonate with many Blue State denizens with its updated, coolness factors and fine acting. Under Eric Tucker’s direction, Bedlam has taken a...

Review: ‘Waitress’ at The National Theatre

Waitress at the National Theatre is sweet as “Sugar.” The word resonates during scene shifts, as an immensely talented piemaker, Jenna (Desi Oakley), lists the ingredients for the new pie she is...

Review: ‘Rock of Ages’ at the Workhouse Arts Center

Rock of Ages is more of a rock concert than a musical. The musical comedy, created by Chris D’Arienzo, is currently running at the Workhouse in Lorton to sold-out audiences, and with good reason. With...

Review: ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ at The Kennedy Center

Obsessional unrequited love is what prompts Petra von Kant’s bitter tears in the 1972 German film by Rainier Werner Fassbinder. The movie is a languid immersion in the self-absorption of a...

Review: ‘Saint Joan’ by Bedlam Theater Company

Long before he wrote about her, George Bernard Shaw referred to Saint Joan as one of those “half-witted geniuses, enjoying the worship accorded by all races to certain forms of insanity.” He came to...

Review: ‘The Book of Joseph’ at Everyman Theatre

With the advent and popularity of exploratory DNA tools like 23andMe and Ancestry.com to unearth family lineage, people are increasingly fascinated with discovering who they are and where they come...

Review: ‘Incredibly Dead!’ by the Baltimore Rock Opera Society

The Baltimore Rock Opera Society’s latest creation, Incredibly Dead!, is a damn good time. From the flying severed heads to the ridiculous collection of characters, the B-horror original musical spoof...

Review: ‘Farce of Nature’ by The Potomac Playmakers

By Karen Lane Spring is in the air and the current production in the Potomac Playmaker’s season, Farce of Nature by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten, is here to tickle your funny bone....

Review: ‘The Invisible Hand’ at Olney Theatre Center

The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar is a riveting political drama now playing at Olney Theatre Center under the direction of Michael Bloom. It will move you and keep you on the edge of your seat while...

Review: ‘The Frederick Douglass Project’ by Solas Nua

Imagine yourself sitting on a creaky ship as a passenger en route to the Emerald Isle of Ireland. Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, is on board with you. The year is 1845. The ship gently...

Review: ‘Deathtrap’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

The first thing you notice about Deathtrap is its busy and detailed set. The set contains posters of plays by the fictional playwright Sidney Bruhl on the wall; a skull with a pipe between its teeth;...

Review: ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ at Other Voices Theatre

World’s Fairs – those gaudy showcases of civic and national pride, corporate promotion, new technology, consumerism, over-the-top temporary architecture, sideshow entertainment, and an occasional...

Review: ‘Burst’ at Parlor Room Theater

The sudden incapacity of their mother is the occasion for three siblings and their cousin to gather at a Boston hospital in Amy Leigh Horan’s touching and perceptive new family dramedy Burst, just...

Review: ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

Priscilla Queen of the Desert started life as a film by Stephan Elliott who adapted it into a ’70s jukebox musical with Allan Scott. The ambitious and enthusiastic community production at Kensington...

Review: ‘Big Fish’ by Silhouette Stages at Slayton House

Big Fish, directed by TJ Lukacsina, opened this weekend at Slayton House in Columbia, Maryland. With the musical, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and book by John August, Big Fish opened on Broadway...

Review: ‘Gypsy’ at the Cumberland Theatre

The original full title of the show now playing at the Cumberland Theatre was Gypsy: A Musical Fable. Emphasize that final word. Gypsy Rose Lee was none too particular about the facts of her life in...

Review: ‘Carol Burnett: An Evening of Laughter and Reflection’ at the Kennedy Center

In 2018, our list of living legends is dwindling. So to be in the same room with one of the greatest comediennes of all time– Emmy, Golden Globe, People’s Choice, Horatio Alger, Ace Award, Peabody,...

In the Moment: Interview with Emily Whitworth, Synetic Theater’s ‘Titus Andronicus’ Adaptor

Synetic Theater’s marvels of silent Shakespeare begin with a superstructure; the adaptation of one of The Bard’s works and his words into audacious silences of the human voice. Over the years those of...

Review: Malpaso Dance Company at the Kennedy Center’s “Artes de Cuba” Festival

Make no mistake about it, there were no missteps in the lusciously agile performance of the Malpaso Dance Company at the Kennedy Center on Friday night. The company has been growing strong since 2012...

In the Moment: Interviews with Storytellers of Better Said Than Done

Seven years ago, Better Said Than Done stepped out onto the theatrical stage as a storytelling organization. The idea behind the establishment of Better Said Than Done was to bring storytellers from...

Review: ‘SOUL The Stax Musical’ at Baltimore Center Stage

Holy Mother of all that is funky! SOUL The Stax Musical is the most fun I’ve had as a reviewer. A musical this magnificent comes around once in many a shady blue moon. SOUL The Stax Musical has a...

Review: ‘The Undeniable Sound of Right Now’ at The Keegan Theatre

If KISS were starting out today, they’d be trying to get noticed on a streaming music site like Spotify. And followers would find their tour dates on apps like Bandsintown. Or maybe the masked marvels...

Review: ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies’ by Mosaic Theater Company

In today’s political climate, discussions of race and privilege between those with opposing views have become near to impossible. Our battles of conflicting perspectives, opinions, and impassioned...