Reviews

Review: ‘Aphorisms on Gender’ by Alice Stanley Presented by Cohesion Theatre Company in Collaboration with Iron Crow Theatre

Literally, an “aphorism” is a short phrase that expresses a truth or astute observation. In Alice Stanley’s brief, but powerful, meditation on gender, they [1] have structured the piece itself as a...

Review: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ at Silver Spring Stage

William Shakespeare’s great comedy, Much Ado about Nothing, is playing at Silver Spring Stage. The show is directed by Andrew Greenleaf and produced by Greenleaf and Katherine Offutt. One of the...

Review: ‘The Nether’ at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Jennifer Haley’s The Nether is set partly in the near future and partly in the distant past. And in Haley’s riveting but frequently disturbing play, each of these eras can be equally dangerous. The...

Review: ‘A Little Night Music’ at GWU

A Little Night Music might be classified as a gateway drug to Stephen Sondheim. Whether a fan or a skeptic, once you get a whiff of this vigorous (and tuneful!) exposé on humankind’s mating follies,...

Review: An Evening with Art Garfunkel at The Hylton Performing Arts Center

In his 70s, Art Garfunkel still has control of a gorgeous, light counter-tenor, and an ability to tell the story of a song while connecting with his audience. The Hylton Center for the Arts at George...

Review #2: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: ‘Broadway Divas’

Maybe you could not dance all night, but on Thursday, March 31, 2016, when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed Broadway Divas at the Music Center at Strathmore, I could not stop tapping my feet...

Review #1: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: ‘Broadway Divas’

What does one call a group of Broadway divas? After tonight’s performance of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Jack Everly, “Dreamgirls” seems like perhaps the...

Review: ‘Bright Star’ at The Cort Theatre in NYC

If you insist on edge in your musicals, Bright Star is not for you. On the other hand, if you care to spend a couple of hours in the mid 1940s and the early 1920s in rural areas of North Carolina with...

Review: ‘Black Violin’ at The Barns at Wolf Trap

Black Violin performed a genre-shattering fusion of classical and hip hop in an unforgettable concert last night at The Barns at Wolf Trap. Black Violin is composed of Kev Marcus (aka Kevin Sylvester)...

Review: ‘The Illusionists’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has reassurance for anyone out there asking where the magic went. Its “direct from Broadway” engagement of The Illusionists is packed full of caped conjurers,...

Review: The Kennedy Center and Pro Musica Hebraica Present ‘Wandering Stars: Two Centuries of European Jewish Song’

I left The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater last night walking about in that peaceful sort of glow one gets after an experience of great beauty; a kind of encounter that seems to refocus the world in...

Magic Time! ‘After the War’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

“A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house,” said a certain prophet of Nazareth long ago. Subtract the word “prophet,” swap in...

Review: ‘After the War’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

When you decide to be a dissident artist–think Paul Robeson–you’d better be willing to suffer the consequences. When you challenge a nation’s founding mythology, an emotional backlash is guaranteed....

Review: ‘The Secret Garden’ at The Candlelight Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware

If there’s a show that fits the definition of a “cult musical,” it’s probably The Secret Garden. The show was a hit with families on Broadway in the early nineties, winning three Tony Awards and...

Review: ‘My Fair Lady’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents My Fair Lady, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Director Patrick A’Hearn assembles a superb ensemble for this...

Review: ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA

Among the many traditions at Hedgerow Theatre is a fondness for cozy English mysteries, especially Agatha Christie’s. The Mysterious Affair at Styles is their newest production, and it has everything...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at James Hubert Blake High School

James Hubert Blake High School reached new heights with their electrifying production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. From a performing arts high school you would expect no less, but in this engaging...

Review: ‘Dry Bones’ at The Portraits of Faith

Dry Bones is philosophically and emotionally challenging Are there really “no second acts in American lives,” as the great writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote? The stage play Dry Bones tends to...

Review: Aquila Theatre’s ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ at GMU’s Center for the Arts

Audiences can’t get enough of Sherlock Holmes. Television has two productions currently, the movie industry adds another version every year or two, and stage versions abound. I know of 4 versions...

Review: Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Frances Ruffelle at The Kennedy Center

Totally “lopping –the –top” off conventional cabaret concert conventions, Broadway star and musical artist Frances Ruffelle presented a radically deconstructed, immersive and jazz-infused “tone poem”...

‘ShakesBEER: A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Manayunk Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Sir John Falstaff would be proud! Manayunk Theatre Company’s one-night script-in-hand-and-beer-in-the-other-hand staged reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the sixth in its quarterly ShakesBEER...

Review #2: ‘No, No, Nanette’ at American University

A Frothy Revival of No, No, Nanette at American University After a week in which corpses—remembered and actual—have littered just about every stage I’ve visited this week (beginning with Falling Out...

Review: ‘Hamlet’ at The Washington Ballet

Hamlet, a modern, dramatic contemporary ballet based on William Shakespeare’s original, The Tragedie of Hamlet, published in 1603 premieres in The Kennedy Center. An “ongoing dialogue between...

Review: ‘Rumors’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre in Bristol, PA

There’s nothing like a door-slammer farce for pure escapist fun and Bristol Riverside Theatre’s production of Neil Simon’s Rumors provides just that. When the show premiered in 1988, the playwright...

Review: ‘An Evening with Jim Lehrer’ at The Writer’s Center

The Writer’s Center in Bethesda is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, and what better way could there be to mark the occasion than a program with the premier journalist, author, and...

Review #1: ‘No, No, Nanette’ at American University

“I want to be happy / But I won’t be happy / Till I make you happy too.” So sings Uncle Jimmy to the show’s titular character. These are also the last lines, sung by the ensemble, of No, No, Nanette,...

Review: The Peking Acrobats 30th Anniversary National Tour at Strathmore

Cirque du Soleil meets the East is an apt description of the The Peking Acrobats, which even features a clown/comedian like Cirque du Soleil’s shows. The Peking Acrobats pushed the human capacity...

Review: ‘An Octoroon’ at Wilma Theater in Philadelphia

Great plays ask great questions. Sometimes, if we are lucky enough, a production finds the inherent questions in a play and interrogates them in ways only theatre can. The Wilma Theater’s production...

Review: ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia

Packed with unforgettable music and a flashy presentation, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, now playing at the Academy of Music presented by Kimmel Center’s Broadway Philadelphia, crafts the...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ At Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

Walnut Street Theatre rocked with laughter tonight. The Pirate King, Black Stache, was arguing with his mate, Smee, concerning a severed. . .oh well you have to see it. It was like old time vaudeville...

Review: ‘She Loves Me’ at Studio 54 in NYC

I once heard the late director Moss Hart say that when a show is a great hit, there were omens that predicted its future. “For example,” he said, “when we were fine tuning My Fair Lady in Philadelphia...

Review: Teen Angel Project’s ‘CenterStage: Come Fly With Me’

Last weekend, hundreds of residents of the DMV were taken on a joyful journey with the student performers of Teen Angel Project (TAP). CenterStage: Come Fly With Me delighted an audience of all ages...

Review: ‘Falling Out of Time’ at Theater J

When I attended the reading of Falling Out of Time at the Page-to-Stage Festival last fall, I wondered how on earth this poetic drama—half fairy tale, half allegory–could ever be mounted on a stage....

Review: ‘Becoming Sugar Plum’ at Metropolitan Ballet Theatre & Academy

What a wonderful way to spend an early Sunday afternoon with Dancing Meringues, Petit Fours, Gumdrops and some bot-so-nice goblins, twirling fairies, a prince, a Fairy Queen, poison Thistle Berry...

Review: ‘Fur’ at Venus Theatre Company

Venus Theatre’s new tour de force production of Migdalia Cruz’s Fur opens with a characteristically jarring scene: Michael, a white-suited animal lover, wheels a giant industrial strength hand cart...

Magic Time! ‘Falling Out of Time’ at Theater J in Verse

There is so much sorrow in this show Nine fine actors playing nine parents All mourning dead children Searching to see them again Seeking to be with them one more time Speaking words of unspeakable...

Review: ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by Steve Tobin, is a powerful piece of theater, recounting one of the saddest stories of World War II. Strong acting and...

Review: ‘Moment’ at The Studio Theatre

Family dramas are not rare; in fact, they are abundant; in fact, they dominate the theatrical landscape. Quality family dramas are rare, however: those that resound beyond their domesticity to signify...

Review: ‘Noises Off!’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre & Children’s Theatre

The ferociously funny play Noises Off!, written by Michael Frayn, is being performed at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre in Frederick, MD. The show premiered at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1982, and...

Eddie’s Travel Picks: Mother’s North Grille and Sushi YA

MOTHER’S NORTH GRILLE Sometimes it seems if a restaurant owner has one or two successful locations the temptation is great for opening a third. Sometimes that’s a good idea, Sometimes not. After...

Magic Time! “Moment’ at The Studio Theatre

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” as Leo Tolstoy famously said. Had Tolstoy seen Studio Theatre’s penetrating production of Deirdre Kinahan’s lacerating...

Review #2: ‘Boots, Class & Sass’ at Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

Having reviewed the outstanding Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) many times in the past, it was a delightful diversion to review an evening of country music escapism entitled Boots, Class &...

Review: The Oak Ridge Boys at The Barns at Wolf Trap

The The Oak Ridge Boys along with their Mighty Oaks Band performed a dazzling mix of Country and Gospel tunes before a highly appreciative audience on March 20, 2016, Palm Sunday, at The Barns at Wolf...

Review: ‘Heathers: The Musical’ at The Eagle Theatre in Hammonton, NJ

How much will you identify with Heathers: The Musical? Well, that may depend on whether you recognize the type of high school students you meet in the opening number. They’re the kind of kids who, on...

Review: ‘Angels in America’ Part One: ‘Millennium Approaches’ at The Players Club of Swarthmore in Swarthmore, PA

Tony Kushner’s Angels in America is one of the most important American plays of recent decades. It’s also one of the most difficult to get right. Consisting of two three-hour parts, it’s a feat of...

Review: ‘Saint Joan’ at Quintessence Theatre Group in Philadelphia

Repertory Theatre has all but vanished in this country today. Fortunately, one can still travel to cities like DC and Philadelphia to see a company of actors enact a group of classic works, with a...

Review: ‘Twenty Years with Love’ at Bowen McCauley Dance

Lucy Bowen McCauley celebrates 20 years as a choreographer and artistic director of her own company, with Twenty Years with Love, Bowen McCauley Dance, an evening of three pieces including one world...

Review: ‘Richard III’ at People’s Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, PA

Shakespeare’s bloody history of Richard III, presented in a stunning production at People’s Light and Theatre Company, is filled with blind ambition, violent power struggles, and remorseless killings,...

Review: ‘La Serva Padrona’ and ‘Gianni Schicchi’ at Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

The Catholic University of America presents an operatic double bill La Serva Padrona and Gianni Schicchi for their Spring 2016 production. La Serva Padrona composed by Giovanni Pergolesi was...

Magic Time! ‘1984’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company has missed no opportunity to issue advisories to audiences about to attend the spectacularly intense Headlong production of George Orwell’s 1984, now on stage at the...