Reviews

Review: ‘Brother Mario’ at Flying V Theatre

At first consideration, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly Chekhovian about Mario, the iconic red capped plumber whose mustachioed visage has been imprinted on the mind of every casual...

Review: ‘The Gift’ at Walnut Street Theatre

The fun, and perhaps coyness, of The Gift, Will Stutts’ gentle and constantly engaging play at the Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio through March 19th, is the way it uses the personae of...

Review: ‘Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues’ at Arena Players-ONE MORE PERFORMANCE TODAY AT 4 PM

One More Performance – See Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues at Arena Players TODAY at 4:00 PM This Friday, it was my good fortune – courtesy of Artistic Director Donald Owens – to experience Arena...

Review: ‘The Women’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Fangs for the Memories The Women by Clare Booth Luce, which opened on Broadway Christmas week in 1936 after its premiere in Philadelphia three weeks earlier, and included an actress named Doris Day in...

Review: “Key for Two” at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

When I hear the words “British” and “Farce” together, I usually think of the stereotypical over-the-top show involving: a. slamming doors, b. cheating spouses, and c. people running around a couch....

Review: ‘Motherhood Out Loud’ at Vagabond Players

There’s no one like your mother, as an old song goes. Vagabond Players’ production of Motherhood Out Loud, wonderfully directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell, explores that theme and nearly every angle of...

Review: ‘R.U.R.’ and ‘The Insect Play’ at Once More Theatre

It’s a theme which has appeared in countless books and movies: If we build robots to do all of our work, what would happen if those robots grew smarter and rose up against their masters? This concept...

Review: ‘Anton in Show Business’ at Silver Spring Stage

Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin opened last night at Silver Spring Stage. The show is produced by Jim Robertson and directed by Erin Bone Steele. The plot is a strange one that satirizes the...

Review: ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at Dundalk Community Theatre

“It’s Shakespeare! Which is like algebra on stage!” If you’ve ever struggled with The Bard, you’ll appreciate the character Gary Peter Leftkowitz’s sentiments on the subject. In I Hate Hamlet, by Paul...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Harlem Quartet + Arturo Stable

Once again, LiveConnections Presents (“LCP”) curator Mary Wheelock Javian’s musical matchmaking has produced a lively evening of musical discovery. This time it was the pairing of the Harlem Quartet...

Review: ‘Lost Girls’ at Theatre Exile

For Maggie, life has been, ever since childhood, one crisis after another. Now, as a winter storm is blanketing her New Hampshire hometown, several more crises have struck at once: her car has been...

Review: ‘Famous Contemporaries: Music by Gliere, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tcherepnin’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

As a novice opera aficionado, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Masterpieces of Russian Vocal Music: Famous Contemporaries, the Russian Chamber Art Society’s most recent offering at La Maison...

Review: ‘SISSY Accompanied by Johann Sebastian Bach and a Mouse’ at The Catholic University of America’s Hartke Theatre

If you can imagine a play that captures bits and pieces of The Wizard of Oz and Greek Mytholgy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a Tom and Jerry comic, then you will have some idea of what goes into...

Review: ‘The Hot New Deal’ at Glenelg Country School

The Great Depression sure had a great soundtrack. That’s one take-away from the debut of a new “jukebox musical” named The Hot New Deal, now through February 25th at Glenelg Country School. Carole...

Magic Time!: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The very title poses a puzzle. How what? Why what? Yet the definite articles assert certitude. The what. The how. Turns out in this brainy play about two smart women, perplexity and uncertainty...

Review #2: ‘Kid Victory’ at Vineyard Theatre

When seventeen-year-old Luke returns home to small-town Kansas after being missing for a year, he must come to terms with what transpired and face the aftermath with his family, church, and community,...

Review #1: ‘Kid Victory’ at Vineyard Theatre

John Kander, who will soon be celebrating his 90th birthday, has now confirmed that his collaboration with 39 year-old playwright Greg Pierce, is on solid ground, and offers us great promise for more...

Review: “The Bodyguard: The Musical” at the Academy of Music

Whitney Houston is a tough act to follow, especially in a version of the vehicle created just for her to showcase her most popular songs. Deborah Cox, as the star singer Rachel Marron, holds her own...

Review: ‘Great Expectations’ at Everyman Theatre

Everyman Theatre (“Everyman”) continues its 2016/2017 season with an ambitious production: Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. A work of literature epic in scope and scale, the most notable challenge...

Review: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The How and the Why – Sarah Treem’s celebrated play about science, feminism and generational rivalry – has just made its long-awaited DC debut at Theater J. The two-handed play is billed as a “fitting...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Mozart and Brahms

During the 44 years when Eugene Ormandy was music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra (1936 to 1980), he led almost every concert. There was scant need for guest conductors. Now the symphonic world...

Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic’s The Taming of the Shrew is disarming, decadent, and a great visual rush. It is also great, dialogue-free storytelling with its own edge and outlook. The Synetic production simply cast a...

Review: ‘Calendar Girls’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

The Colonial Players’ production of Calendar Girls is a screamingly funny, yet poignant comedy. Written by Tim Firth, who co-wrote the 2003 movie, and directed by Debbie Barber-Eaton, it’s an...

Review: ‘The Trojan Women’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The feminist movement has been on the rise for decades, but with our current political and social climate, saturated with patriarchal overreach into women’s lives (and even their bodies), years of...

Review: ‘Luther Re-Lives’ at the Publick Playhouse

The velvet voice and beautiful love ballads of one of the greatest R &B crooners of all time, Luther Vandross, lives on through the magnetic stage presence of William “Smooth” Wardlaw’s Luther...

Review: ‘The Matchmaker’ at People’s Light

An effervescent all-star ensemble of fourteen actors and two musicians under the ebullient direction of Abigail Adams brings to life the eccentric characters, madcap situations, and old-fashioned...

Review: ‘God of Carnage’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater does it again with another smart and dramatic production. God of Carnage is remarkable, this time with Director Steven Carpenter at the helm. Lucinda Merry-Browne is the Producer...

Review: ‘Mary Martello: Songs My Mother Taught Me’ at the Arden Theatre Cabaret Series

I’ve seen Mary Martello onstage more times than I can count. The 5-time Barrymore Award winner has played everyone from Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd to Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, from Abby Brewster in...

Review: ‘Trust’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

What’s the nature of trust? What specifically makes a person choose one partner over another? These questions and more are brought up by Fells Point Corner Theatre’s production of Trust, by Steven...

Review: ‘Vive la France: The Magic of Saint-Saens’ at The National Chamber Ensemble

Love was in the air as The National Chamber Ensemble presented their Valentine’s Day performance called Vive la France: The Magic of Saint-Saens. The concert was described as: Celebrate Valentine’s...

Review: Ahamefule J. Oluo’s ‘Now I’m Fine’ at The Clarice

It takes bravery to decide that your story is worth telling. It’s even more admirable to have the courage to tell your story onstage with a 16-piece orchestra. That’s what Ahamefule J. Oluo did at The...

Review: ‘No Solemn Silence: A Gilbert & Sullivan Review’ at George Mason University’s Center For the Arts

George Mason University (GMU) launched its Year of Gilbert and Sullivan Celebration with a clever, bright, joyfully sung musical homage to the masterful Gilbert and Sullivan team and its invented...

Review: ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Hedgerow Theatre

A group of people are seated at a dinner table. They discuss the weather. Meanwhile, their lives are falling apart. With the revealing use of subtext like this, Anton Chekhov and others introduced...

Review: ‘H20’ at Rep Stage

Not everyone who attends Jane Martin’s H20 at Rep Stage will necessarily agree, but the case could be made for its taking place in one of Dante’s outer circles of Hell. As the play opens, a cynical...

Review: ‘The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus’ at Restoration Stage

A long-ago love story inspired this richly textured play with 1920s music. When Playwright Steven A. Butler Jr. was growing up, he heard family stories about how his great-great grandparents, Ruby...

Review: ‘Leper + Chip’ at Inis Nua Theatre Company

The goal of Inis Nua Theatre Company is to “tell the story.” In its American premiere of Irish playwright Lee Coffey’s Leper + Chip we get not only the story, but the big picture. As with...

Review: ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Politics, laughter, and lunacy come together in this lesser known Neil Simon comedy, Laughter on the 23rd Floor which opened last night at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Directed by John D’Amato and produced...

Review: Balé Folclórico da Bahia at the Merriam Theater

They say “music is the universal language.” Balé Folclórico da Bahia definitely proved that in their one-night-only performance in Philadelphia at the Merriam Theater. The show, Bahia of All Colors,...

Review: Regina Carter: ‘Simply Ella’ at The Kennedy Center

Regina Carter and her violin: a human voice has never sounded so true. If you get a chance to experience Regina Carter: Simply Ella, the jazz quintet composed of Regina Carter (violin), Marvin Sewell...

Review: ‘Two Rooms’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

International diplomacy is like a game of chess, full of strategy, maneuvering and calculation. You take risks you hope won’t prove fatal and you never want to be the pawn. Two Rooms, by playwright...

Review: ‘Little Women’ at The Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music’s production of Little Women is nearly three hours of spectacular musical merriment. Directed by faculty member Jay D. Brock and with a book by...

Review: ‘Sunset Boulevard’ at The Palace Theatre

The Palace Theatre is back in business with a big time headliner on the bill. It’s Glenn Close, returning to the role of Norma Desmond, direct from her recent great success in it at London’s Coliseum...

Review: ‘All My Sons’ at The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance

Some plays survive the test of time. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is such a play. And the production mounted by The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance makes that point...

Review: ‘Brooklyn Doo Wop Explosion’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Who put the bomp in the bomp be bomp bah bomp? Who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong? It these lyrics fill you with happiness in the remembrance of days gone by, then run to the Bristol Riverside...

Review: ‘Dracula’ at American University

The famous novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, has been adapted for countless film and stage productions, thrilling audiences since 1897. With a cinematic look and feel, some stand out performances, and...

In the Moment: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III is a stunner. It is a clever look into a usually unseen political hall-of-mirrors. It is also a most telling tale of...

Spine: ‘King Charles III’ at The Shakespeare Theatre Company

They sure don’t make kings like they used to. And maybe that’s a good thing. Mike Bartlett’s historical fantasy, King Charles III, based loosely (very loosely) on the current royal family of England,...

Review: ‘Waiting for Godot’ at Curio Theatre Company

Waiting for Godot is generally considered a comedy. Samuel Beckett himself called this, his most famous play, a “tragicomedy.” But its reputation as an important, monumental piece of art can have a...

Arts Collective @ HCC’s What Improv Group?!’s ‘Love Synchs!’

As part of a 2-show Valentine Affair on Feb. 10 and 11, What Improv Group?! of the Howard Community College’s Arts Collective performed the second half of their venue, “Love Synchs!.” (The first part...

Review: ‘White Guy on the Bus’ at Delaware Theatre Company

White Guy on the Bus, at Wilmington’s Delaware Theatre Company through Sunday, February 19, is easily the prolific Bruce Graham’s most important and most accomplished play, even more than Coyote on a...