Reviews

Review: ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ at The Kennedy Center

It’s hard to believe that almost 20 years have passed since John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s ground-breaking, genre-bending, glam-rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch first emerged, but the...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Shakespeare in the park is a long-held American tradition. From venues in places such as New York City’s Central Park and Washington, DC’s Carter Barron Amphitheater, watching the Bard’s works under...

Review: ‘Julius Caesar’ at The Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park

We are in the streets of Rome. The lights onstage bump up and immediately we are in the midst of controversy. Flavius and Marullus are admonishing the crowd to break up and get on with their business....

Review: ‘An Enemy of the People’ at Wheelhouse Theater Company

Economic self-interest, an ‘inconvenient truth,’ a ruthless politician, a whistleblower, ‘fake news,’ closed-door meetings, a bureaucratic cover-up, the refusal to work together for the common good,...

Review: ‘Cost of Living’ at The Manhattan Theatre Club

The Manhattan Theatre Club is presently offering a 4-character play set in “the urban east of America” in the “near present day.” That description in the Playbill is a bit cryptic, but that may be...

Review: ‘Fun Home’ at the Forrest Theatre

Winner of five Tony Awards in 2015 – including the first-ever Best Musical honors given to a show written entirely by a team of women – Fun Home, with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine...

Review: ‘Godspell JR’ at Bravo Productions

BRAVO Productions Theatre for Young Artists strives to nurture young, local talent and offers the opportunity for those budding entertainers to perform both mainstream and classic shows on the stage....

Review: ‘A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline’ at Infinity Theatre Company

Patsy Cline’s spirit inhabited the theater when Laura Stracko sang some of Cline’s later and best known songs including “Sweet Dreams,” “She’s Got You,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy.” Directed by...

Review: ‘How I Learned What I Learned’ at Round House Theatre

August Wilson was a high school dropout who went on to receive two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama and he’s regarded as one of the five most celebrated playwrights in the history of American theater. After...

Review: ‘She Speaks’ at The Rude Mechanicals

William Shakespeare wrote memorable female characters, many of them laced within male-dominated plays. The Rude Mechanicals’ She Speaks came about when director Leanne G. Stump realized that “If you...

Review: ‘The Return’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC, Part of the 2017 Voice From a Changing Middle East Festival

Mosaic Theatre Company of DC concluded their 2017 season with a riveting, deeply provocative examination of a State’s National Security apparatus on dissident individuals living and loving beneath it....

Review: ‘Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, a gorgeous, glamorous revue that celebrates the works of two greats from the Golden Age...

Review: ‘The Mikado’ at The Victorian Lyric Opera Company

From the moment the curtains opened, we knew we were not going to see a traditional version of The Mikado. The Victorian Lyric Opera Company’s production, directed by Helen Aberger, at the F. Scott...

Review: ‘Shakespeare in Hollywood’ at the Stagecrafters Theater

A good American farce is as rare as a diamond. If you can write a crazy comedy that will keep audiences laughing, regional and community theaters will beat a path to your door. Ken Ludwig,...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Sister Act, directed by Clare Shaffer, is a funny spectacle of a musical. Based on the movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics...

Review: ‘BootyCandy’ at Iron Crow Theatre

You need to take up some sports. This weekend, Iron Crow Theatre (“Iron Crow”) opened the final show of its 2016-17 Season of Dark Play – the Baltimore premiere of Robert O’Hara’s Lambda Literary...

Review: ‘Still Life with Rocket’ at Theater Alliance

A few facts are laid at your feet as you move through a couple of simple rooms. Black and white video on old portable television shows a boxing match, which is no match for the clutter. A person...

DC Mega Hits ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and ‘Come From Away’ Honored at The Tony Awards

DC Mega Hits Dear Evan Hansen and Come From Away were honored at last night’s Tony Awards. The shows had sold-out runs at Arena Stage and Ford’s Theatre. Dear Evan Hansen was victorious in six...

Review: ‘Swing!’ at the Gateway Performing Arts Centre of Suffolk County

Currently playing at the Gateway Performing Arts Centre of Suffolk County is Swing! a song and dance showcase celebrating the classic sounds and dance steps of the swing era. It is a swirling,...

Review: ‘The Gospel According to…’ at Lantern Theater Company

The new play at Lantern Theater Company is smart, funny, fascinating and entertaining. At times, though, it’s also rude, frustrating, predictable, and morally troubling. But then again, all those...

Review: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Creative Cauldron

America’s beloved franchise The Wizard of Oz gets a sprightly and spectacular makeover at Creative Cauldron this month. The musical — with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, as adapted...

Review: ‘School Play’ at Tribe of Fools

What is education? Just because you attend school and sit in a desk doesn’t mean you learn something. In addition, learning can happen beyond the traditional classroom. In School Play, Terry Brennan...

Review: Source Festival 2017: ‘Exquisite Depths’: Artistic Blind Date

One of the elements of the Source Festival 2017 is two Artistic Blind Dates. These collective creations bring together area artists from different disciplines to devise an original performance piece....

Review: ‘Morning’s at Seven’ at Old Academy Players in Philadelphia

Alone. Lonesome. Free. These three words appear often in Paul Osborn’s classic Morning’s at Seven, now on view at Old Academy Players in East Falls. This play has become a staple of regional and...

Review: ‘Gilligan’s Fire Island’ at Dominion Stage

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a cheeky flip, begun with fun by castaways, who do everything but strip. Gilligan’s Fire Island is a parody, bringing back nostalgic memories of...

Review: ‘Jean and Dinah – The Play’ at The Essential Theatre

A disheveled bedroom in Port of Spain, Trinidad — home to the nearly incapacitated Dinah – is playwright Tony Hall’s incubator for an important and wide-ranging drama about the destructive effects of...

Review: ‘The Curious Savage’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

The Curious Savage by John Patrick, directed by Nick Cherone and produced by Maureen Rogers, is a comedy which premiered in 1950, and it provides much laughter and warmth. The story seems simple. Mrs....

Review: Source Festival 2017: ‘Perfect Arrangement’

Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne was a smash hit at Source Festival when it debuted there four years ago, and the comedy’s return to Source on the occasion of the festival’s tenth anniversary is...

New Records: Listening to the Music of 3 Tony-Nominated Shows

New Records is a new column that discusses recordings of theatrical shows. It’s a companion to the theater reviews that appear here on DC Theater Arts. This week, in connection with the Tony Awards,...

Review: ‘Something’s Afoot’ at The British Players

A musical murder-mystery who-done-it is a strange bird indeed. But it can work if expertly executed. Something’s Afoot, with book, music and lyrics by James McDonald, David Vos and Robert Gerlach—and...

Review: ‘The Government Inspector’ at Red Bull Theater

The New York theatre scene continues to offer variety and great fun with this post-Tony production of Nikolai Gogol’s masterpiece, The Government Inspector, as adapted by American playwright Jeffrey...

Review: ‘Hir’ at Simpatico Theatre Project

Two staples of American drama have been the “kitchen-sink play,” which feature small casts and meticulously detailed, usually lower-middle class, settings, and what I’ll call “family reunion plays,”...

Review: ‘Inheritors: The Nature of Keys’ at Howard Community College’s Arts Collective

Inheritors: The Nature of Keys is an original collaborative drama by Howard Community College’s Art Collective, directed by S. G. Kramer, that opened at the HCC’s Horowitz Center Studio Theatre on...

Review: New York City Ballet: 2 Programs of Works by Balanchine, Peck, Ratmansky, and Wheeldon

Urgency propels them forward. In a blink there are flashes of precise articulation and rapid fluidity as sweeping curves carry a leg overhead or propel a body high in the air. Dancers merge from...

Report #2: ‘Callado Conmigo’ (‘Silenced Within Me’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

It was an informal gathering. Barefoot. Casual attire. Just a handful of women standing in a semi-circle, reciting words from a page. They were from a variety of South and Central American countries,...

Review: ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Quintessence Theatre Group

There’s something seriously wrong with this house. That’s what one character says early in Quintessence Theatre Group’s new production of Uncle Vanya, and boy, is she right. Uncle Vanya is set in a...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a hilarious reimagining of Chekhov in 21st Century Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Written by Christopher Durang and...

Review: ‘Promenade: Baltimore’ at Single Carrot Theatre

“We’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one.” – The Eleventh Doctor Have you ever been driving in a car or riding on the subway and seen a tussle on the street? A group of people all...

Review: ‘New York City Ballet: Works by Balanchine, Peck, and Ratmansky’ at The Kennedy Center

Last evening’s ballet concert at The Kennedy Center was one of those magical evenings of dance. Sipping champagne and not talking politics, balletomanes gathered on the sprawling deck that surrounds...

Review: ‘The School for Lies’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

David Ives brings the comedy of Molière, with this hilarious “translaptation,” into the 21st century to delight us all. With The School for Lies, Shakespeare Theatre Company presents another...

Review: ‘And the Tony Goes to…’ at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC, concerts never lack for inspired high concepts and ingenious themes. Whether featuring love songs, cowboy songs, nostalgia songs, or...

Review: ‘Men on Boats’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

MANifest Destiny, or Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls Cohesion Theatre Company (Cohesion) is closing its third season with playwright Jaclyn Backhaus’s historical adventure-with-a-twist, Men on Boats. It’s...

Report #1: ‘Callado Conmigo’ (‘Silenced Within Me’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The idea of using theater to educate people is not new. The Greeks were doing it way back when, using the great amphitheater at Epidaurus to teach the populace that murder and mayhem would not be...

From ‘Class Clown’ to Master of Clowning and Circus Arts: An Interview with Terry Brennan on Tribe of Fools’ ‘School Play’

Founder and Artistic Director of Tribe of Fools, Terry Brennan is back on stage this month in the Philadelphia SoLow Fest, with his company’s latest offering School Play. The original one-man show,...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Providence Players of Fairfax

The open living room has a well-lived in look: easy chairs, love seat, kitchen nook off to the side, and plenty of collected knick-knacks. It’s a cozy setting for an adolescent argument, except the...

Review: ‘Doubt: A Parable’ at SeeNoSun OnStage

We live in a world where self-righteous anger is the new god. It’s getting to the point where we can barely shift our torches and pitchforks aside long enough to tweet or post on Facebook. We hate so...

Review: ‘Independence Eve’ at UrbanArias

The two men stand at opposite ends of an urban park, on a day that is a mere heartbeat away from the landmark midpoint in the calendar year. Summer and it is an evening to capture the heat that won’t...

Review: ‘Red, White, and Tuna’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The title alone is fair warning. Red, White, and Tuna is irreverently reverse-patriotic. Let’s break it down: red state (Texas), mixed with a dash of white supremacy and a tangy, Southern flavor that...

Review: ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ at 1st Stage

The late self-taught playwright and poet August Wilson’s ten-play Century Cycle has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, with movie star Denzel Washington committing to bringing that cycle to the...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Elizabeth Zharoff + Xavier Foley at World Cafe Live

LiveConnections Presents ended its sixth season with soprano Elizabeth Zharoff and double bassist Xavier Foley. This season was devoted to pairing musicians in order to stretch musical boundaries, and...