Reviews

In the Moment: ‘Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush’ at MetroStage

Brimming with heart, musical numbers to elicit smiles, a unique wit, some audience sing-alongs, and moments that disrupt theatrical norms, MetroStage’s Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush is a charmer....

Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Kennedy Center

Glistening The Kennedy Center’s lush Opera House with feted Hollywood glitz and glamour, the national tour of the 2015 multi-Tony-winning musical, An American in Paris, debuted Tuesday for a...

New Records: Listening to ‘Bandstand’ and the Music of Alan Menken

This report on New Records includes three Alan Menken shows that recently received fresh recordings, plus a Broadway show from this year that unfortunately closed after a modest run. God Bless You,...

Review: ‘The Christmas Revels: A French-Canadian Winter Celebration’ at Washington Revels

Washington Revels presents us with a festive holiday offering for a 35th year. This season, we take a trip to the winter wonderland of Quebec in The Christmas Revels: A French-Canadian Winter...

Review: ‘An Irish Carol’ at Keegan Theatre

Now in its seventh year, the Keegan Theatre’s annual production of Matthew J. Keenan’s An Irish Carol has become a favorite Washington DC holiday tradition. It’s easy to see why. A quintessentially...

Review: ‘Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG Playhouse Christmas Show’ at Bucks County Playhouse

How many versions of A Christmas Carol have you seen? Probably too many to count. But I can guarantee you’ve never seen one that mentions Doylestown, Lambertville and Peddler’s Village before. They...

Review: ‘A Tuna Christmas’ at Parlor Room Theater

Classic holiday productions, like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, always show up around the theater circuit this time of year. But there are also many modern...

Review: ‘Urban Scuba: Adult Swim’ at Brian Sanders’ JUNK

Part of the popular Urban Scuba Series, this year’s holiday offering by Brian Sanders’ JUNK is one that’s sure to land you on Santa’s naughty list! Urban Scuba: Adult Swim presents a sequence of saucy...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Fifth House Ensemble + Jason Vieaux at World Cafe Live

LiveConnections Presents kicked off its new season in rousing fashion with an evening of music from the Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble and classical guitarist Jason Vieaux – introduced, in keeping...

Review: ‘The Revolutionists’ at Everyman Theatre

“It’s a powerful thing to come together and laugh in a scary time.” – Playwright Lauren Gunderson Mon Dieu! I had no idea how much I needed a good laugh until I attended a performance of Everyman...

Report: Violinist Tessa Lark in the Phillips Collection’s Sunday Music Concert Series

Nothing is quite as draining as endless discussions in the classical music world about how concerts “should” work to recapture their prominence in the cultural fabric. So nothing is quite as...

Review: ‘The Color Purple’ at the Forrest Theatre

It may take place in rural Georgia circa 1909, but because of today’s headlines about the mistreatment of women, The Color Purple is more relevant than ever. The tour of the recent Broadway hit...

Review: ‘The Parisian Woman’ at Hudson Theater

Drawing room comedy is back for the moment, thanks to Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman. Genuine high wattage star Uma Thurman is riding in this vehicle which deals with the powerful people in...

Get into the Holiday Spirits with Tinsel Christmas Pop-Up Bar!

Philadelphia’s Midtown Village is a whole lot brighter this year with the opening of Tinsel, a new Christmas pop-up bar in the space occupied for over 100 years by Simpson’s Jewelry. The sparkle of...

Review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater’s production of Fiddler on the Roof is a lovely revival of the classic 1964 musical. With book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and directed by...

Review: Hilary Hahn Plays Bernstein with The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Leonard Bernstein Centenary continues with concerts by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Last weekend’s performances featured one of Bernstein’s most interesting (and relatively...

Review: ‘An Operetta Holiday’ at The In Series

The In Series’ An Operetta Holiday, written and directed by Nick Olcott, is a charming aural journey through the era between opera and musicals. Four male and four female singers delivered a wonderful...

Review: ‘Aladdin: A Musical Panto’ at People’s Light

Continuing its signature holiday tradition this year with the company’s 14th annual panto – a family-friendly seasonal brand of musical-comedy entertainment, with origins dating back to the...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at McCarter Theatre Center

A snowy Princeton afternoon may be the most festive of conditions in which to see the great McCarter Theatre holiday tradition of A Christmas Carol. Add to that a host of Dickensian characters...

Review: ‘Duke Ellington’s Neighborhood’ from The In Series performing at Gala Hispanic Theatre

Engaging, sophisticated entertainment and education that didn’t talk down to the intended audience; children who may not have been familiar with the grand musical and cultural figure, DC’s very own...

Review: ‘Meteor Shower’ at the Booth Theatre

This 90-minute sketch by Steve Martin begins as a situation comedy. Until fairly recently there were always several lighting up Broadway; and they were usually written by the likes of Neil Simon, Jean...

Review: ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ at the Palace Theatre

At last, a musical version of the SpongeBob family of characters who first appeared in a film cartoon in 1999. The title character and his friends have always lived in the fictional underwater city of...

Review: ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ at Providence Players of Fairfax and The Young Hearts

Need a break from Christmas music? Providence Players of Fairfax and The Young Hearts’s production of The Phantom Tollbooth delivers all the joy of the holiday season without the jingle. Based on the...

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at The British Players

Director Robert Leembruggen and The British Players have created a delightfully funny and energizing interactive theater experience that is a not-miss this holiday season. Get thy backside to this...

Review: ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ at Silver Spring Stage

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is not your typical holiday story. Adapted from the best-selling book by Barbara Robinson, this rendition is laced with hilarity, mischief, and wonder. Andrea Spitz...

Review: ‘Madagascar—A Musical Adventure’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Chalk up one more cartoon feature making a dash for freedom under the footlights. Madagascar—A Musical Adventure is now filling the intimate Red Branch Theatre with a veritable Noah’s Ark of singing,...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

The annual productions throughout this region of Charles Dickens’s nearly 175-year-old tale, A Christmas Carol, are as timeless and an integral part of the holiday experience as nativity scenes,...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Who isn’t familiar with the story of Ebenezer Scrooge? Wolf Pack Theatre has retold the familiar story of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, in a different way each year, for the past four years....

Review: ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ at City Theater Company

Wilmington’s City Theater Company presents Sunday in the Park with George like you’ve never seen it before, in an original deconstruction conceived by Co-Directors Michael Gray and Tom Shade. But if...

Review: ‘A Wonderful Life: The Musical’ by Third Wall Productions

It was an enjoyable time last night seeing all the hard work Third Wall’s cast put into A Wonderful Life: The Musical. The show is an adaptation of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life with many great...

Review: ‘Holiday Memories’ at HCC Art’s Collective

Holiday Memories plays this weekend only at Howard Community College in the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center’s Studio Theatre produced by the Howard County Arts Collective and directed by...

Review: ‘Twist Your Dickens’ at Second City

If you’re yearning to kick off your holiday season with goodnatured hilarity, get thee to the Kennedy Center and grab a seat at the Theater Lab, where The Second City’s Twist Your Dickens is holding...

Review: ‘The Art of Swimming’ at Tiny Dynamite

Opening Tiny Dynamite’s seventh season of “A Play, A Pie, and A Pint” – its popular happy-hour series of one-act plays, which includes a slice of pizza and a beer or soft drink with every ticket – is...

Review: ‘Forever Balanchine Farewell Performances’ at The Kennedy Center

It was bittersweet last evening when The Suzanne Farrell Ballet performed the Forever Balanchine Farewell at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House. Sweet because the muse of dance master George Balanchine...

Review: ‘Lookingglass Alice’ at Baltimore Center Stage

Throughout December, visitors entering the Baltimore Center Stage lobby will immediately notice the strange goings-on and the Wonderland-like atmosphere bestowed upon the venue. Over to the left is...

Review: ‘The SantaLand Diaries’ at Drafthouse Comedy Theater in DC

If you are barely in the mood to do something Christmassy, if Tiny Tim gives you hives, and learning lessons is anathema, The SantaLand Diaries is the bracing Christmas cocktail for you. The one-man...

Review: ‘Private Confessions’ at The Kennedy Center

How might one react to finding and reading their mother’s diary after her death? Did she purposely leave the diary so it would be found and read, rather than destroy it? And, how in Heaven’s name,...

Review: ‘Holiday Follies’ at Signature Theatre

It’s that time of year again. Signature Theatre opened their annual Holiday Follies this week. The seasonal cabaret is packed with a set of over twenty songs including Christmas classics, tunes from...

Interview: Playwright Andrew Watring on ‘Shakespeare is a White Supremacist,’ Opening TONIGHT at American University Rude Mechanicals

Andrew Watring, a Junior at American University, has penned Shakespeare is a White Supremacist – a new play that analyzes race in the context of classical theater. Watring’s original play is being...

Review: ‘The Book of Will’ at Round House Theatre

For the love of Shakespeare! There’s no doubt that Americans love their Shakespeare. In fact, many consider him America’s best playwright—? Then again, many Americans also love their fake news. But,...

Review: ‘The Last Night of Ballyhoo’ at Theater J

Tinsel and garlands are festooned about a beautiful 10 foot tall Christmas tree. Easy to be captivated with such an exquisite Christmas touch. But, wait, the tree is standing tall on the Edlavitch...

Review: ‘Curve of Departure’ at Studio Theatre

Rachel Bonds’ new play, Curve of Departure, now playing at Studio Theatre, is that rarity among modern plays: it’s traditional storytelling at its most engaging. Enter Rudy, played with a glorious...

Review: ‘In Conversation with Samantha Bee…A Moderated Q&A’ at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall

It was a match made in heaven: Rebecca Traister, author and commentator on feminism and politics; and Samantha Bee, Canadian-American writer, comedian, producer, and (according to TIME) one of the top...

Review: ‘Citizens’ Watch’ at Washington Improv Theater

One of the best things about improv is that no two shows are alike. And Citizens’ Watch, the improvisational mystery now unfolding at Washington Improv Theater, is no exception.

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Holidays can bring out the blues, but A Christmas Carol will get you in the Christmas spirit of gratitude and love. The Little Theatre of Alexandria transforms you to the Dickensian time of Victorian...

Review: ‘Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

What better venue for a production of Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play – an ensemble piece set in a dystopian future where the power grid has failed, sending all our nuclear power...

Review: ‘Draw the Circle’ at Mosaic Theater Company

Draw the Circle is no ordinary one-man show. Nor is it an ordinary autobiographical play. Because Mashuq Mushtaq Deen—its transgender playwright and solo performer—has a singularly fascinating life...

Review: ‘Snow Day’ at Arts on the Horizon

Arts on the Horizon makes the most of a sparse, simple stage for their entertaining production of Rex Daugherty’s “Snow Day.” The performance starts with nothing more than a sheet spread across a...

Review: ‘ink’ at The Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

In ink, choreographer/dancer Camille A. Brown’s final installment in her trilogy examining African-American identity, an entire history of a people is written indelibly on the bodies of her six...

Review: ‘Once On This Island’ at the Circle in the Square Theatre

The first Broadway revival of the 1990 Tony-nominated hit musical Once On This Island, with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, brings an innovative vision to an old...