Reviews

Review: ‘Rock the Line’ at Venus Theatre Company

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, “Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar.” As it turns out, this...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) launches into its new season with fabulous flare, opening with lauded young playwright Joshua Harmon’s critically-acclaimed, off-Broadway drama/comedy hit Bad Jews....

Review: ‘brownsville song (b-side for tray)’ at Theater Alliance

Yesterday at The Anacostia Playhouse, the real world and the world onstage converged. It was like a communal emotion-meld through theater, the human heartbreak untold in too many headlines become the...

Review: ‘Balloonacy’ at NextStopTheatre Company

NextStop Theatre Company has been producing theatre for young audiences for almost 30 years. Their most recent show is a sweet and enjoyable story called Balloonacy from Playwright Barry Kornhauser....

Review: ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’ at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, NY

Legally Blonde: The Musical opened Saturday night, September 17, 2016, at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson. Based on the book written by Amanda Brown, and also the popular 2001 movie, Legally Blonde:...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Before I Die’ at Tongue & Groove

“Before I die I want to _________?” A serious question that I had to answer at Tongue & Groove’s Fringe show. Before I Die is an interactive show that asks audience members what they want to do before...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Bodas de Sangre’/’I Only Came to Use the Phone’: ‘The Duende Cycle’ at Asian Arts Initiative

The Duende Cycle, two plays performed in repertory created by Eliana Fabiyi and Tanaquil Márquez, is nothing if not exceptionally ambitious. Comprised of a bilingual adaptation of Federico García...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Happy Yummy Chicken’ at Love Drunk Life

A self-referencing mockumentary on the process of putting together a show, Happy Yummy Chicken is the first full-length film by Love Drunk Life–a New Jersey-based multi-genre company that presented a...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Billosophy: Life, Circus, Death’

Bill Forchion is an accomplished circus performer, a veteran of Cirque du Soleil, and Ringling Brothers. He’s also a real charmer, with a smile the size of a big top and the stage persona of an...

Review: ‘The War of the Roses’ at Delaware Theatre Company

Based on the iconic novel-turned-film of the same title, The War of the Roses follows the legendary Jonathan and Barbara Rose as their seemingly perfect marriage devolves into a deadly search and...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Speculum Diaries’

In the opening moments of Speculum Diaries, Irina Varina’s self-portrait-in-motion now playing at 1fiftyOne gallery, she bashfully confesses, “This is the story of a happy girl.” She adds, however,...

Review #2: ‘Collective Rage’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

“Can feminism be funny?” inquiring minds at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company want to know. For that is the conundrum that connects Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad, Woolly’s cheeky hit...

Review #1: ‘Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Let’s just get this out of the way. Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops (its full title is Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops; In Essence a Queer and Occasionally Hazardous...

Review: National Philharmonic: Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 7’ with Brian Ganz at The Music Center at Strathmore

The National Philharmonic kicked off its 2016-2017 Fall/Winter season with three of Beethoven’s most celebrated works, featuring a special appearance by pianist Brian Ganz performing Piano Concerto...

Review: ‘Othello’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company opened its 15th Season on Friday with one of the most tragic of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Othello. It was the first time in the history of the company that they have...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Media Theatre

While there seems to be a never-ending stream of books or movies remade into musicals, few compare to 2014 Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County. The book by Pulitzer Prize winning Marsha...

Review: ‘Bathing in Moonlight’ at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ

Bathing in Moonlight opens subtly with the hum of gentle organ music, a stained glass window looming high above, and Father Monroe (Raúl Méndez) warmly greeting his congregation as he takes center...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Pandæmonium’ at Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Early Morning Opera

A featured work in this year’s Curated Fringe, Pandæmonium, by Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Early Morning Opera, is a conceptual reflection on relationships, separation, isolation, and emptiness,...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Nuns are more fun in the round. That’s a catechism we learned at Toby’s Dinner Theatre via Nunsense and other shows so many times it became an article of faith. Now Toby’s is up to its wimples in old...

Review: NSO Pops: The Second City Guide to the Symphony Starring Colin Mochrie

What happens when you put together famous improv comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedy troupe The Second City, and the National Symphony Orchestra? A night of music and sketch comedy at the John F....

Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ at the Old Opera House Theatre Company

If you have to take a gamble with your theatrical options this weekend, this reviewer bets you will thoroughly enjoy the classic musical comedy Guys and Dolls at the Old Opera House Theatre Company!...

Review: ‘The Emperor of North America’ at Silver Spring Stage

Friday night was a very special night at Silver Spring Stage as they opened their 49th Season with Thomas Hischak’s play, The Emperor of North America. This production was presented as part of the...

Review: ‘Angel Street’ at the Stagecrafters Theater in Philadelphia.

“Gaslighting” is actually a word. My dictionary describes the verb as “a form of psychological abuse in which false information is provided to the victim with the purpose of making her doubt her own...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review ‘Scarlet Letters’

The lone actor set the portable stage onto the table and began to sing. The stage looked old with red cloth curtains and two knobs on top that she used to advance the paper on spools inside. The paper...

Review: ‘The 39 Steps’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laurel Mill Playhouse offers up a pleasing mix of comedy, melodrama, pathos and mystery in their amusingly fun production of The 39 Steps written by Patrick Barlow and directed by Stephen Deininger....

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Omeletto: Like Hamlet, Only Scrambled’ at Ombelico Mask Ensemble

Commedia dell’arte meets Shakespeare in Ombelico Mask Ensemble’s original deconstruction of Hamlet. Omeletto: Like Hamlet, Only Scrambled synthesizes all of Shakespeare’s dramatic characters with the...

Review: ‘You Have Made A Story on My Skin’ at Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint

You Have Made a Story on My Skin, created by the Production Team and led by writer/performer Rachel Hynes, uses personal stories to explore lingering memories and physical scars. This collaborative...

Magic Time! ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Theater J

What is it that’s so tried and true about plays about siblings? Must be something universal, because there are so gosh darn many of them. Structurally they obviously make for auspicious cast lists,...

Post-Play Palaver: John Stoltenberg and Michael Poandl on ‘Angels in America: Millenium Approaches’ at Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their exchange in...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Surface Tension’ at Tangle Movement Arts

In Surface Tension, the Philadelphia-based circus arts company Tangle Movement Arts spotlights the skills of six female performers. They use ropes, swings, bungee cords, and aerial silks in a...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Nip’ at Tattoo Mom

“Who’s really sucking on who?” That’s the tagline to Nip, one of the most daring and shocking shows in this year’s Fringe Festival. Nip, written by Noemi Charlotte Thieves and directed by Amanda...

Review: ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ at Lantern Theater Company

A wordy drama from the 19th century about capitalism, duplicity, and women’s role in English society. Sounds like it might be rather tough to get through, doesn’t it? Well, don’t be fooled. George...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘A Runaway, a Soldier and a Snowball Fight’ at Iron Age Theatre

In her world-premiere historical fiction A Runaway, a Soldier and a Snowball Fight, presented at Fergie’s Pub by Iron Age Theatre, playwright-in-residence Leah Lawler re-envisions the momentous events...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Gilbert and Sullivan’s Switched! Or The Insider and the Outsider’ at Tavern Productions and PAFA Performs

Conceived by emerging playwright Kevin Stackhouse as “a parody mock opera,” Gilbert and Sullivan’s Switched! Or The Insider and the Outsider, presented by Tavern Productions and PAFA Presents, is a...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Interview: Amanda Holston, Director of ‘Nip’

Amanda Holston is a Temple grad based in Philadelphia. She is a multi-faceted director, actor, and producer. She is directing the brand new piece, written by her partner, Noemi Charlotte Thieves,...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Silken Veils’

“When the rose is gone and the garden faded you will no longer hear the nightingale’s song. The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil… “ (Rumi, Teachings of Rumi) These lines and many others by the...

Review: ‘South Pacific’ at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA

The hunger for optimism is never in short supply these days. Walnut Street Theatre brings life to an American classic in their current production of South Pacific under the direction of Charles...

Review: ‘Who’s the Boss’ at The In Series

The In Series’ production of Who’s the Boss? is a fusion of two comic operettas, Giovanni Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury, re-imagined as companion pieces though...

Manifesting Premieres Works by Mauceri, Graf, and Reid at NextNOW Festival at The Clarice

On Saturday, September 9, 2016, at the University of Maryland’s NextNow Festival, three playwrights premiered first drafts of new commissioned works. The plays were commissioned by the University of...

Review: ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Theater J

There have been so many plays about dysfunctional families—think about August: Osage County, for example, or The Sisters Rosensweig—that it’s hard to believe that anyone would try to produce another...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Interview: ‘Revisiting Current Remounts of Past Hits with Terry Brennan, Tina Brock, and Greg Kennedy’

Three annual Fringe favorites have chosen to remount a past hit for this year’s festival, giving audiences a chance to see the acclaimed works they missed, or to revisit the shows they loved. I had...

Review: Amos Lee with Lauren Talese at The Kennedy Center

American music at its best is alive and well as showcased by last night’s Amos Lee concert at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. The evening was off to a good start with an opening performance by...

Spine: Anguish, Angels, and the Reagan Revolution: ‘Angels in America’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center have teamed up for a truly remarkable Washington event: Parts 1 & 2 of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Angels in America. On Monday, September 12th,...

Magic Time! ‘Cloud Nine’ at The Studio Theatre

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine, which premiered in London in 1979, is rightly considered a landmark play. It is pivotal for me personally as well, ever since I saw the legendary Tommy Tune production...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Crave’ at Svaha Theatre

Performing Sarah Kane is a tall order for any theater company, and Svaha Theatre’s production of Crave (directed by Elise D’Avella) at The Iron Factory handles the task with aplomb. One of Kane’s...

Review: ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’ at Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center

Social, political, and historical forces collide and converge to mirror the conflicted inner worlds of the fascinating characters in Playwright Tony Kushner’s audacious, insightfully subversive, and...

Magic Time! ‘Come From Away’ at Ford’s Theatre: ‘A show on its way to Broadway that’s so moving and inspiring I would see it again in a heartbeat’

When I saw this new musical on the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, there were no more than ten minutes during it when my eyes were dry. They welled up from the first scene. Sure, I know I tear up...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Shadow House’ at Philadelphia Opera Collective and PhilaLandmarks

“Are you in here?” “Is there anyone here?” “Who are you?” Where are you?” “You’re not supposed to be here.” Spirits of the people who inhabited the Powel House at different periods in its 250-year...

Review: ‘A Bid to Save the World’ at Rorschach Theatre

Imagine a world in which death no longer exists. Rorschach Theatre’s current production of A Bid to Save the World – a new play by California based playwright Erin Bregman – asks audiences to do just...

Review: ‘Cervantes:The Last Quixote’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve probably never heard of Cervantes. Or you know him only as the creator of Don Quixote, a book you last picked up in high school. But don’t let that deter you from...