Reviews

Review: ‘Eclipsed’ at Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts

Howard University presented the powerful new play, Eclipsed, in their black box theater this past weekend. Eclipsed was written in 2015 by Danai Gurira (well-known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s...

Review: ‘Top Girls’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

The adage, “more things change, the more they stay the same” comes to mind when weighing British playwright Caryl Churchill’s seminal Obie-winning classic, Top Girls, which was first produced in 1982...

Review: ‘Last of the Red Hot Lovers’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

Neil Simon writes terrific comedy. Tonight, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, directed by Theater J’s Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr, performed by Walnut Street Theatre at George Mason University’s Center...

Review: Jazzmeia Horn at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club

To understand the voice of Jazzmeia Horn — whether it’s embodying her own ballad, the cleverly romantic, soft “Legs and Arms,” or taking on the role of an instrumentalist — is to understand what it...

Review: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Ghost in the Machine Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III premiered in 2014, at London’s Almeida Theatre. Both the original production and the Broadway production won numerous awards. This new...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at The Clarice

Oscar Wilde’s final show is subtitled “a trivial comedy for serious people,” and when it premiered in 1895, it was comparatively trivial. Two men, each pretending to be a man named Ernest, two women...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Black Stache is bringing his pirate ship to Source Theatre, in Constellation Theatre Company’s fantastic production of the 2012 Tony Award-winning play Peter and the Starcatcher. Equipped with lost...

Review: ‘Blues in the Night’ at Creative Cauldron

Ready for top-notch singing talent that brings the “blues” to vibrant, spicy full life? Then high tail-it to Creative Cauldron (Falls Church) to take-in a cabaret-like revue called Blues in the Night....

Review: ‘The Freshest Snow Whyte’ at Imagination Stage

Far off the radar of most grownup theatergoers, the writer/director Psalmayene 24 has been creating an extraordinary body of work for children. I’ve been an admirer of the trenchant work he has...

Review #2: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is back at The Kennedy Center for a week-long run. Now 57 years old, the company pulls from a repertoire dating back to 1960. Using a combination of...

Review: ‘After Birth of a Nation’ at City Theater Company

Today’s audiences need farce. Wild men chasing beautiful women through many doors, visual running gags, women dressed as men, and vice versa, all enhanced by a desperation throttled performing style...

NSO: An Evening with Joshua Bell at The Kennedy Center

It has been said that Joshua Bell may be the greatest violinist active today. After listening to him play, as well as conduct, at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra...

Review: ‘Tancredi’ at Opera Philadelphia

A company premiere and part of its Opera at the Academy series presented in the historic Academy of Music, Opera Philadelphia’s production of Tancredi, from Opéra de Lausanne and Teatro Municipal de...

Review: ‘Richard III’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

It’s notable that a play based on England’s War of the Roses has many parallels to power plays that take place today, both in everyday life and TV and film. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC)...

Review: ‘Willy Wonka’ at Other Voices Theatre

From the opening moments of the Other Voices Theatre’s production of Willy Wonka, the audience is swept away into a “world of pure imagination.” The show is based on s classic children’s novel, with...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at 2nd Star Productions

2nd Star Productions’ over-the-top presentation of Peter and The Starcatcher is a recent addition to the cannon of lore surrounding the first appearance of that ever-young, pre-tween character, Peter...

Review: ‘I Love You, Because’ at Damascus Theatre Company

Pop-rock musicals are having a moment. With Dear Evan Hanson ruling on Broadway and Freaky Friday recently debuting at Signature Theatre, fun, upbeat musicals are all the rage. While lesser known than...

Review: ‘Lagan’ at Villanova Theatre

About halfway through Villanova Theatre’s ultimately engaging production of Lagan, by Northern Ireland playwright Stacey Gregg, is a scene between two young people, Emmet (Patrick McAndrew) and Fiona...

In the Moment: The Soundscape of MetroStage’s ‘The Gin Game’ Rocks!

I love being surprised when I go to theater. Recently, I went to a play, MetroStage’s comely The Gin Game, and became totally smitten with the textures of its music design. It was a soundscape that...

Review: ‘The Enchanted’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium

A colorful clearing outside a provincial French village is visited by the spirit of a murderer who enthralls Isabel, an innocent young schoolteacher obsessed with the enigma of death. Aided by the...

Review: ‘Grand Concourse’ at Theatre Horizon

Heidi Schreck’s fascinating play Grand Concourse is set in a church soup kitchen, among people who need a hand and those who help them. The play deals with poverty, but its biggest concern is the...

Review: ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine came to DC for a command performance on January 25, 1942. The occasion: Franklin Roosevelt’s 60th birthday. America had just entered World War II and the fight...

Review: ‘Sans Everything’ by Lightning Rod Special + Strange Attractor at FringeArts

Sans Everything is a collaboration between the theater companies Lightning Rod Special (“LRS”) and Strange Attractor Theatre Co. (“SATC”). The title comes from Jaques’ famous “Seven ages of man”...

Review: ‘The Object Lesson’ at New York Theatre Workshop

As an avid collector of art, antiques, and memorabilia, with a PhD in Art History, I have spent a lot of time around objects, studying, explaining, and appreciating them. And I’ve always known that...

From the Artful Dodger and Peter Pan to Romeo: An Interview with Brandon O’Rourke of The Media Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’

Henrik: You left quite an impression portraying the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (2009) and Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher (2016) — both at the Walnut Street Theatre. Seen from the perspective of...

Review: ‘The Seagull’ at EgoPo Classic Theater

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is one of the most durable of all 19th century plays. But it’s a play that producers, directors, and playwrights love to tinker with. In the last few years, audiences in...

Review: ‘Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose’ at The Loft at the Davenport Theatre

There is a delightful surprise in store for any of you who can manage to get to the Davenport’s 75-seat Loft Theatre to watch Ed Dixon’s one-man play in which he brings to vivid life the late great...

In the Moment: ‘Trevor’ at 1st Stage

Under the crafty direction of Alex Levy, 1st Stage’s production of Trevor, penned by Nick Jones, had me in agreement with a recent American Theatre headline calling Jones the “Deadpan Puppet Master of...

Review: ‘The Bikinis’ at Westchester Broadway Theatre

Currently playing on the Westchester Broadway Theatre stage is The Bikinis: A New Musical Beach Party. Produced by The Bikinis Tour Company, The Bikinis was created by Ray Roderick and James Hindman,...

Review: ‘I Too Speak of the Rose’ (‘Yo También Hablo de la Rosa’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

US Premiere of Mexican Classic Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre Some might think of it as a Mexican version of Rashomon—Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1950 film in which each of the characters describes...

Review: ‘Company’ at McLean Community Players

Stephen Sondheim’s gloriously urbane, stylistic and sophisticated musical Company was groundbreaking when it first arrived on Broadway in the Seventies and it still remains relevant today. McLean...

Review: ‘RIN: Tales From the Life of a Troubadour’ Starring Rinde Eckert at The Kennedy Center

The acclaimed writer, composer, librettist, physician, performer, and director Rinde Eckert delighted and amazed the crowd on Friday evening at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Eckert allowed the...

Magic Time! ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at Studio X

Friendships between fat girls and gay boys really are a thing, practically a cliché actually—or a trope, as Playwright Morgan Gould dignifies them when referring to just such a queer pairing in her...

Review: ‘The Gin Game’ at MetroStage

You observe a cozy setting, a two story structure slightly suggestive of institutional. There’s a gliding rocker and curtained windows that filter warm amber light, potted plants, scattered chairs, a...

Review: ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at The Studio Theatre

They are longtime friends who share an apartment, a hearty back-and-forth, and a splendid repartee of tease, criticism, support and jealousy, and multiple emotions that swirl as individuals...

Review: ‘Fucking A’ at Iron Crow Theatre

There is so much than can be talked about when it comes to Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2000 riff on The Scarlet Letter, the half-jokingly entitled Fucking A. There is the unsettling setting, the surprising...

Review: ‘The River’ at Spooky Action Theater

Jez Butterworth’s The River does not yield itself to easy interpretations. Uncertainty flows through the story, jostling us repeatedly. Its questions about truth and morality are specific and seismic...

Magic Time! ‘The River’ at Spooky Action Theater

A man has a remote rustic fishing cabin. There are lot of fish in the water nearby. He’s a rugged, outdoorsy guy and he loves to fish. In a Hemingway novel he would not be a fish out of water. This...

Review: ‘Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Sadie and Bessie Delany were one of a kind. Well, two of a kind. When we meet these two sisters, it’s 1993; Sadie is 103 years old, and Bessie is 101. (They both lived a few more years, with Sadie...

Review: ‘Any Given Monday’ at the Stagecrafters Theater

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they’ll kill you. That quote, usually attributed to George Bernard Shaw, aptly describes Any Given Monday, a play by Philadelphia’s...

Review: Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ at Everyman Theatre

Charles Dickens career as a writer, journalist, and editor was well-established when he wrote Great Expectations. He did not disappoint. Originally published in All Year Round, a weekly magazine...

Review: ‘The Last Waltz 40 Tour’ at The Theater at MGM National Harbor

Last night all twelve members of the tribute group for The Band gave a master class in blues, rockabilly, New Orleans jazz, country, honky-tonk and American roots music. The elite touring group...

Review: ‘The Big’ at The Sedgwick Theater

Lee Cortopassi’s The Big offers a fun, farcical take on classic film noir, loaded with ludicrous, laugh-out-load moments of sheer, nearly surreal silliness. Set between 1939 and 1942, The Big follows...

Review: ‘Trevor’ at 1st Stage

Trevor, directed by Alex Levy and written by Nick Jones, at 1st Stage, is equal parts emotional and thought-provoking. With strong performances throughout, this subversive show is dark comedy at its...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Olney Theatre Center

Revenge is sweet as pie in Olney Theatre Center’s Sweeney Todd. Director Jason Loewith serves up a grisly production of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 Tony Award-winning musical that captures the essence of...

Review: ‘Baby Screams Miracle’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

What does one say about a play that has a Superstorm as its protagonist? With Clare Barron’s Baby Screams Miracle, now showing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, just such a storm is nature’s supreme...

Review: ‘The Originalist’ at Asolo Repertory Theatre

Playing now in repertoire with The Great Society, a stunning new play that New York has not yet seen, called The Originalist, is keeping the good citizens of Sarasota who clearly love good theatre...

Review #2: ‘Caroline, Or Change’ at Round House Theatre

Caroline, or Change, now playing at Bethesda’s Round House Theatre, is a musical clarion call for change at all levels. Whether it is personal change and transformation at the most personal level,...

Film Review: ‘Oklahoma City’ at AFI in Silver Spring

The central insight of Barak Goodman’s new documentary, OKLAHOMA CITY, presented by American Experience and airing on February 7th, is that the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by...

Review #1: ‘Caroline, Or Change’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre continues to shine a spotlight on the works of Tony Kushner (Angels in America) as it explores life’s complexity through its seeming simplicity in Kushner’s autobiographical...