Reviews

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rain Follows the Plow’

Bluegrass, country and folk music made a triumphant showing last night in Stephen R. Coffee’s “Rain Follows the Plow.” Coffee’s show, labeled a dust opera, concerns the Dust Bowl of the Thirties and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Good Death’

The Good Death explores the tension between a brother and sister who must come to grips with their past and make hard decisions about their future. The play takes place entirely on the stoop of a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Breakup Is Swift’

In the thick air crevassing within the Martin Luther King Jr. Library basement, there’s some heated tension, worthy of addressing. Cameron (Nick Duckworth), and Dale (Ben Kleymeyer) are in the middle...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Brownie and Lolli Go to Hollywood’

In theory, this looked and sounded great. Brownie and Lolli Go to Hollywood is a screwball comic cabaret riff on all sorts of current issues: drug use, abortion, eating disorders, the rising costs of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Secret Honor’

Anyone Can Be President: Secret Honor at the Fringe “Scathing” “lacerating” and “brilliant” were three of the words the late Roger Ebert applied to the 1984 Robert Altman movie of Secret Honor, with...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘It Will All Make Sense in the Morning’

“I took your dreams and I put them in a jar and I buried them under a tree. How did I do that?” It Will All Make Sense in the Morning, by Erica Smith, luckily does mostly make sense on the night you...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Macbeth in the Basement’

William Shakespeare serves as playwright Annie Bryan’s inspiration for Dodgeball Theatre’s Macbeth in the Basement, directed by Talley Murphy. The show features only five actors and a limited set, and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘BRYCE: Hydrogen Blonde’

Bryce walks onstage wearing a sequined jacket and spandex jumpsuit. He’s backed by two phenomenal dancers, Nia Calloway and Zhane’ Davis Smith. His first original pop song, Best Diq blasts through the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’12 Steps’

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Richard Sautter feels fine – well, fine enough to express his internal afflictions with addiction on a miniscule stage. At the Argonaut Tavern, bar...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Lil’ Women: a rap musical’

Are you searching for a 19th century story set to 21st century hip-hop, but not willing to cough up thousands of dollars for Hamilton tickets? Lil’ Women: a rap musical may be exactly what you’re...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘One Man Romeo’

The young actor and rapper Darius McCall fell so much in love with the role of Romeo that he longed to bring the character to life, by himself, alone on stage with but Shakespeare’s words and his own...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rapists and Drug Dealers’

This surreal drama, by Tim Chamberlain, is a combination of modern dance and theater. The play opens with the attempted murder of WOMAN by MAN. She is able to thwart his attempt with the help of two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Play Cupid’

New Game Theatre has created a show to satisfy the matchmaking itch in even your most meddling friend. In Play Cupid the actors relinquish their power and the audience takes control. There was a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Wash Over You’

Get ready for a distinctly American piece of multi-media artistry told in choreography, text and video projections by Artistic Director Jane Franklin of Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington, Va. With...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Death Be Not Loud!’

Susan Jackson’s new play, Death Be Not Loud—produced by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company and billed as “a contemporary Southern comedy”—is a sweet reflection on love and loss, featuring two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hello|Brother’

Edgy, experimental, and often uncomfortable, Annexus Theatre’s production of Hello|Brother is the quintessential Fringe experience. Written and directed by Solomon HaileSelassie, the companion plays...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Color Theory’

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game representing epic battles between wizards, has an estimated 20 million active players worldwide. Judging from the enthusiastic reaction of the audience at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘PowerPlays’

This clever play is composed of five vignettes with a talented cast and minimalist stage, written by ‘The Gang of Five’: Marilyn Bennett, J T Caruso, Dimitri Neos, Michelle Rago, and Sarah Dimont...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ain’t That Rich’

In Ain’t that Rich, California-based writer and comedian Kate Robards delivers a dazzling solo performance, one as mesmerizing and powerful as it is funny. The show is now making its debut at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hunt’

Jean P. Bordewich’s political drama Hunt turns back the clock to a divisive time in American politics – the early 1950s of Joseph McCarthy – but the characters and issues resonate in today’s political...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Connectivity/Complexity’

Errant Movement took to the stage of Gallaudet University’s Elstad Auditorium on ‘opening night’ of the Capital Fringe 2016 festival, with sole responsibility handed to the talented workings of seven...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘SuperNOVA’

SuperNOVA, a political satire fit for the ridiculous times we find ourselves in, combines music and millennial wit to great effect as it depicts a new secessionist frenzy gripping northern Virginia...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘JUICED’

JUICED, directed by and staring the three members of Tia Nina (Leah Curran Moon, Ilana Silverstein, and Lisi Stoessel) is weird. It is ridiculous. It ignores all theatrical and performative...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Kick Before You Drown’

A solid show with impressive acrobatics, Kick Before You Drown presents Cirque which will easily please fans of the genre. It is important to note that Kick Before You Drown is as different from a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Glacier: a climate change ballet’

Midway through Glacier: a climate change ballet, a lone dancer, Therese Gahl, glided onto the stage. Costumed in a vibrant blue tutu, her long legs and arms and their deep earth tones, she captured...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Immaculate Big Bang’

No cosmic question is too challenging to escape the laser wit of Bill Santiago. In The Immaculate Big Bang, which he wrote and performs, Santiago ruminates across a philosophical spectrum ranging from...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Different, Damaged, Damned’

The short but powerful Different, Damaged, Damned explores the relationship and resentments between a father Ralph (Jeremy Keith Hunter) and his high-school age son Chamuel (Austin Farrow). Written by...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The DOMA Diaries’

Thrilling progressive history and the trajectory of societal forces colliding with basic human rights is delineated through the prism of three couples who are fighting for their dignity as LGBTQ...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen)’

The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen) delivers a riotous parody of classic science fiction and pop culture. Hilarious, and a must-see for anyone who considers themselves fans of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Perfect Liars Club’

If you’ve never been to a storytelling show before, hold on to your hats. Perfect Liars Club—directed loosely and hilariously by Cara Foran & Pierce McManus for the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival—is the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘I Found That The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow’

Anna Snapp gives a robust, witty, and protean performance in this genuinely candid and insightful solo theater piece. Self-authored, and based on her own life, I Found That the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘In a Day of Dreary’

In a Day of Dreary, written and directed by Henry Ragan, explores one day in the life of a charming and perpetually frustrated girl named, yes, Dreary. Ragan, who also plays Dreary’s boyfriend in the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Tragedy of Mario and Juliet’

The Tragedy of Mario and Juliet, presented by Dead Cat Productions/Wayne Nicolosi (as well as written and directed by Nicolosi), reinvents well-known Shakespearean characters and plots to explore some...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Petunia and Chicken’

I have never started a Fringe with such joy. The cause of that joy is kids’-show-in-disguise Petunia and Chicken, the brainchild of Animal Engine (husband and wife team Carrie Brown and Karim...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Golden Smile’

It is probably not a good idea, near the end of a maniacally inscrutable and incessantly unfunny musical, to have one character sing, apropos the show, “It’s over! It’s done!” and then have another...

Review: Bob Dylan at Wolf Trap With Mavis Staples

Bob Dylan and the balmy air of the Mid-Atlantic summer: the folksy voice of an era and the backwoods feel of Wolf Trap seem like they were meant to go together. However, for those fans hoping for a...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #44: ‘Romanov’ by Danny Baird

They may be dead, but the Romanov sisters aren’t letting that slow them down! They’re back and taking the world by storm with a electro-pop concert that sets the record straight on their little part...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre

In an interestingly unusual choice for the typical light-hearted summer stock musicals at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, Sweeney Todd is an exceptional production with strong performances and crisp,...

Review: ‘The Summer Club’ at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Until now, The Summer Club has been a swinging, snappy treat enjoyed almost exclusively by Cape May and other Jersey Shore towns. After two summers of hot nights on the beach, The Summer Club and it’s...

Review: Patti LaBelle at The Music Center at Strathmore

After more than 50 years in the music business, Patti LaBelle can still pack a house. The fans came out full force to enjoy an evening of old R&B favorites sung by a funky diva who sings from the...

Review: ‘Hairspray’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Turning up the summer sizzle with a whirlwind of big hair, bright colors and dance-fueling music, Baltimore’s iconic, Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray returns to Toby’s Dinner Theatre with renewed...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: Dreamworks Animation in Concert at Wolf Trap

After reviewing productions for a number of years, a “critic” like myself can usually come to rely on certain venues for consistent, professional entertainment. Wolf Trap is a spectacular venue and I...

Review: ‘God of Carnage’ at Princeton Summer Theater in Princeton, New Jersey

As Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage opens, two couples meet for a civilized discussion. Their sons have just had a violent playground encounter that cost one of the boys a couple teeth, and the two sets...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at The Kennedy Center

The Bridges of Madison County is a romantic, sexy, and unapologetically sentimental musical. Most likely you know The Bridges of Madison County from either Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel and/or the...

Magic Time! Left-Handed Complement: Liam Forde on Acting With a Puppet in ‘Hand to God’ at Studio Theatre

Studio Theatre’s fourth floor has been turned into an amazing facsimile of a Lutheran church basement, complete with inspirational posters on the walls and seating at folding tables as if for a...

Review: ‘Shining City’ at The Irish Rep Theatre in NYC

It’s been only 10 years since Conor McPherson’s word fest of a play ran at the Biltmore Theatre for 101 performance including 21 previews. It was well received not only for the eloquence of the...

Magic Time! ‘Another Way Home’ at Theater J

You know you’ve just seen a play that hits a nerve about the distress of parents who have a troublesome, troubled son (whom they love but don’t know how to cope with) when you’re reading the paper the...

Review: ‘Another Way Home’ at Theater J

Is it a coincidence that Another Way Home—which opened at Theater J on Monday night—just happens to coincide with the start of sleepaway camp for kids in the DC area? Not at all. That’s because this...

Review: ‘The Jaws Project’ at Plays and Players Theatre in Philadelphia

A droll and inventive take on moviemaking, The Jaws Project mixes fact, fantasy and some show biz speculation to make a highly enjoyable comedy. Today, most people remember Jaws as one of the biggest...

Capital Fringe Preview #26: ‘BECOMING’ at fusiondance by Candra Preshong

Why BECOMING will challenge everything you think you know about dance Becoming….’to begin to be’….you may be asking yourself, what does that even mean? I wasn’t sure either, I just knew I needed to...