Reviews

Review: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at People’s Light in Malvern, PA

Taking a step back into the world of Jane Austen always promises a rainbow of young ladies in high-waisted dresses, men laced up in crisp white ties, and a cornucopia of ponderings on love, money, and...

Review: ‘Br’er Cotton’ at The Catholic University’s Department of Drama

It is exciting when new works of theater appear by young and promising playwrights. Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, whose Br’er Cotton premiered last night at The Catholic University of America’s Hartke...

Review: ‘A Grand Night for Singing’ at Montgomery Playhouse and Arts on the Green

Question: Where can you hear more than 30 wonderful songs from the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein performed by talented local artists? Answer: The current production of A Grand Night for...

Review: Joshua Bell Plays Tchaikovsky at The BSO at Strathmore

Having the privilege to witness Joshua Bell play is an honor, but to see him play in celebration of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO’s) centennial is a once in a lifetime experience. Growing up...

Review: ‘Death of a Salesman’ at Curio Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Death of a Salesman, is being given a powerful production at the Curio Theatre Company. In an intimate setting, the themes of the American Dream, and...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Virginia Opera

Few stories have been as revised, re-told and reconstructed as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But a rendition that is not as performed as it should be is the 19th century opera by French Romantic...

Review: ‘Lost in the Stars’ at Washington National Opera

In the scorching, emotional and honest opera of man in search of redemption, the opera–Lost in the Stars, now playing as part of the Washington National Opera series at the Kennedy Center —is a...

A Report on A New Works Reading of ‘Another Country’ by Maryland Opera Studio

The annual Maryland Opera Studio New Works Reading has a twofold mission – to give young artists the opportunity to collaborate with living composers and to give the composers an opportunity to have...

Review: ‘Stupid F**king Bird’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Written by Aaron Posner and “sort of adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull,” Stupid F**king Bird is a highly imaginative and humorous depiction of the love triangles and life lessons between...

Review: ‘Southern Baptist Sissies’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Audrey Herman’s Spotlighter’s Theatre has once again proved why they are one of the most valued members of the Baltimore theatre scene with their production of Southern Baptist Sissies. Del Shore’s...

Review: ‘Legacy Street’ at The Catholic University’s Department of Drama

Legacy Street, a new play by Lauren Jane Redmond, an MFA Playwriting candidate at The Catholic University of America, premiered last night at the Callan Theatre. A gritty look at violence in the...

Review: ‘I Love You Because’ at The Players Club of Swarthmore in Swartmore, PA

New York may have millions of people, but it can be a lonely place if you are searching for love and coming off a failed relationship. I Love You Because features 4 young people navigating these...

Review: ‘The Vagina Monologues’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laughs and tears, cheers and sizzlers or Learning to love the “C” word Vagina. Vagina. Vagina. Cunt. Pussy. Twat. Snatch. There. I said it. The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play about vaginas....

Review: Joilet Harris: ‘From Me to You With Love’ at The Arden Cabaret Series in Philadelphia

“A chance at an intimate, up close and personal conversation.” That is how Matthew Decker, Arden Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Cabaret Series Director, described the goal of The Arden...

Review: ‘Big Love’ at American University

The cast of American University’s Big Love, written by Charles L. Mee and directed by Isaiah M. Wooden, was masterful in communicating the big and complex issues raised in the play. Without harangues...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at StillPointe Theatre Initiative

Over the past several years, StillPointe Theatre Initiative has emerged as “the little theater company that could.” They have become known for two things: staging ambitious works with very limited...

Review: ‘Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles’ at The Merriam Theater in Philadelphia

From the British Invasion to the Psychedelic Sixties, the Fab Four from Liverpool defined the music and lifestyle of the watershed decade of our post-modern era. Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles...

Review: ‘Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet’ at Howard University

Last night I had the great satisfaction of watching Howard University students take on the challenge of a certifiably risk-taking play—Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet—and with...

Review: ‘Senorita y Madame’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The rivalry between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden—two women who actually invented the cosmetics industry—is largely forgotten today. Yet the story of these feminist icons, who at one time...

Review: ‘OLIVÉRio: A Brazilian Twist’ at The Kennedy Center’s Theater for Young Audiences

The Kennedy Center has produced yet another world premiere production for this season’s Theater for Young Audiences. This time, they have taken Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and brought the story to...

Review: ‘Pirates of Penzance’ at H-B Woodlawn by Jessica Cruz

After its debut in 1879, The Pirates of Penzance has been produced and performed many times and was even made into a movie in 1983. A combination of W.S. Gilbert’s libretto and Arthur Sullivan’s music...

Review: ‘JACK and Phil, Slayers of Giants, INC’ at Imagination Stage

There’s no doubt that you have heard the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, but have you ever heard of JACK and Phil, Slayers of Giants, INC? Imagination Stage has produced Playwright Charles Way’s take...

Review: ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf’ at Creative and Performing Arts Center

Ntozake Shange’s music-drama, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf [“for colored girls”] (1976), comprises a seminal work of poetry, music, and improvisational dance....

Review: ‘Monsters of the Villa Diodati’ at Creative Cauldron

In the second installment of Creative Cauldron’s initiative, “Bold New Works for Intimate Stages”, the ingenious duo of Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith has turned out a mesmerizing new musical,...

Review: ‘Talley’s Folly’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Talley’s Folly is a beautifully written two-person play by Lanford Wilson, reinventing the timeless love story of a couple who, despite their many differences are trying to find a way to make their...

Review: ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Like most people my age, before I prepared for this review, I knew that Buddy Holly was a famous singer from the 50’s who died young in a tragic plane crash, and that Weezer, a popular band with my...

Review: ‘Cold Mountain’ at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia

Charles Frazier’s 1997 award-winning best-selling debut novel, adapted into an Oscar-winning feature film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger in 2003, is now a new American opera....

Review: ‘One Slight Hitch’ at the Old Opera House

One Slight Hitch at The Old Opera House, directed by Glenn Frail, is a wonderfully romantic comedy. In this delightfully sharp farce by Lewis Black, it’s 1981 and Courtney’s wedding day in a perfect...

Review: ‘The 33rd Annual Choreographers’ Showcase’ at The Clarice

The 33rd Annual Choreographers’ Showcase presented by The Clarice and The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) and adjudicated by notable choreographers and teachers Zvi...

Review: ‘Guards at the Taj’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Although it is never seen, not even a glimpse of one of its four minarets or gleaming domes, the Taj Mahal looms large as a monument of beauty and death as it haunts Rajiv Joseph’s poetic morality...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde, Jr.’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

The performance of the student version of Legally Blonde Jr.at Adventure Theatre MTC was a rollicking ride through the highlights of the extended version. The story is one of female empowerment; a...

Review: ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ at Other Voices Theatre

In time for Valentine’s Day, Other Voices Theatre presents a hysterical look at modern relationships, set to some catchy songs, in a series of vignettes forming the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect,...

Review: ‘1776’ at McLean Community Players

Who would have thought you could make a musical about something as serious as starting a revolution? Well, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone, the 1969 Tony Award-winning...

Review: ‘The Philadelphia Story’ at 2nd Star Productions

It’s always fun to peer into the lives of the rich and famous. As a native Philadelphian, I found Christopher Overly’s revival of Phillip Barry’s 1939 Broadway hit a delightful throwback set amidst my...

Review: ‘The Laramie Project’ at the Kensington Arts Theatre

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theater Project, and produced by Craig Pettinati and directed by John Nunemaker, opened at the Kensington Arts Theatre on Friday,...

Review: ‘Bizet’s Carmen in Havana’ at The In Series

The In Series wows again with one of their trademark reimaginings: Carmen in Havana, which takes the essential scenes from Bizet’s classic and adds the Latin rhythms of the Caribbean with iconic Cuban...

Review: ‘The Government Inspector’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in Philadelphia

First performed in 1836, The Government Inspector–playwright Nikolai Gogol’s unrelenting farce on socio-political corruption in Imperial Russia–has long been considered an important precursor to...

Review: ‘A Taste of Things to Come’ at Bucks County Playhouse

It’s not every day you see a musical with an all-female cast and a female-led creative team, but Bucks County Playhouse has given us one with their latest offering. A Taste of Things to Come depicts...

Review: ‘The City of Conversation’ at Arena Stage

In the daring new play about Washington politics and the halcyon days of genteel social hostesses, The City of Conversation, (now playing at Arena Stage) the word “conversation “ is most decidedly a...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at The Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts’ Academies of Musical Theatre and Dance

The Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts’ Academies of Musical Theatre and Dance made one of history’s darkest and most beloved musicals a vehicle to showcase the talents of their student...

Review: ‘Exit Strategy’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA

Hope and destruction come to a crossroads in Exit Strategy, an East coast premiere in association with Primary Stages now playing at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Although the setting of Ike Holter’s...

Review: ‘Dogfall’ at Iron Age Theatre in Philadelphia

Dismal, drab, and grimy, the site-specific setting of Iron Age Theatre’s Philadelphia premiere of Dogfall in the subterranean space of The Power Plant, sparsely furnished with two metal cots, piles of...

Review: ‘Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Concert with Arlo Guthrie’ at Strathmore

Fifty years later, audiences can still get anything they want – but Alice is still not part of the package. Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Concert with Arlo Guthrie played to a packed house...

Review: ‘Une Education Manquée’ at Opera Lafayette

Opera Lafayette’s second offering of the season, Emmanuel Chabrier’s Une Education Manquée, is a far cry from the massive spectacle many people assume is synonymous with opera. This little known...

Review: ‘Father Comes Home from the War (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre has crafted a formidable artistic statement for Suzan-Lori Parks’ inventive, no make that commanding, Father Comes Home from the War (Parts 1, 2 & 3). It is a quietly scorching...

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

Only Worldviews coexisted within the remembrance of spirit, while timeless historical context filled the John F. Kennedy Center Opera House on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016. The Alvin Ailey American...

Review: ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater delivers an intense rendition of Tennessee Williams’ classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a southern drama set in the 1950s. Williams offers up a scandalous subject matter of its...

Review: ‘The It Girl’ at Simpatico Theatre Project in Philadelphia

Clara Bow was nobody’s fool. In 1962, three decades after her reign as the biggest female star in movies, Bow wrote in a letter about the recent death of one of her successors, Marilyn Monroe. “I...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at Centerstage

Embarking on a $32 million, year-long renovation project that features major renovations to Centerstage’s two-stage complex while adding a new 99-seat theater, the last two shows of its season are...

Review: ‘Agents of Azeroth’ at The Washington Rogues at Flashpoint

Now, in DC theatre, video games are hot. From Rorschach’s She Kills Monsters to Flying V’s The Oregon Trail and Molotov’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, audiences (and Artistic Directors) can’t...