Theater J

Magic Time!: ‘Roz and Ray’ at Theater J

This is an absolutely absorbing medical drama performed with full-on passion by two of DC’s top-tier actors. Susan Rome plays Roz, a hematologist dedicated to her role as healer, and Tom Story plays...

Review: ‘Roz and Ray’ at Theater J

Fierce. No word short of that can fairly describe the characters’ commitment to their consuming passions, and the actors’ commitment to their roles, in Theater J’s harrowing production of Karen...

Review: ‘Becoming Dr. Ruth’ at Theater J

Helmed by a trio of DC’s creative talent royalty, Theater J’s production of Becoming Dr. Ruth, penned by Mark St. Germain, goes beyond just facts and dates to become an engaging exploration of how Dr....

‘Everything Is (Finally) Illuminated’ – Aaron Posner’s Setting of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Masterpiece Makes Its DC Debut at Theater J

Twelve years after it was first adapted for the stage by British playwright Simon Block, the play Everything Is Illuminated – based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer – has arrived at Theater J,...

Review: ‘Everything Is Illuminated’ at Theater J

A young Jewish American writer named Jonathan arrives by train in the Ukraine on a quest to find a woman named Augustine who helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. He has only a faded...

Magic Time!: ‘The Last Night of Ballyhoo’ at Theater J

The production is lushly beautiful; the pacing, impeccable; the music between scenes, splendid; the acting, a delight in every detail. And the warm, piquant humor in this Jewish family drama has a...

Review: ‘The Last Night of Ballyhoo’ at Theater J

Tinsel and garlands are festooned about a beautiful 10 foot tall Christmas tree. Easy to be captivated with such an exquisite Christmas touch. But, wait, the tree is standing tall on the Edlavitch...

Review: ‘The Love of the Nightingale’ at The Catholic University of America

A play from the 1980s about revenge for a rape, based on an ancient story from Greek mythology, comes alive in a student production as though it was about now. As though everything in it about how...

Magic Time!: ‘Sotto Voce’ at Theater J

Among the revelatory dimensions of this lyrical play is one that caught my attention by surprise. I knew going in that Sotto Voce, by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz, would resonate with...

Review: ‘Sotto Voce’ at Theater J

In Sotto Voce, Theater J’s first production of the 2017-18 season, the characters don’t actually lower their voices. Instead, they speak in whispers, and not always to each other. However, they do...

Review: The Kinsey Sicks in ‘Things You Shouldn’t Say’ at Theater J

There’s virtually nothing a drag queen won’t say, or do, in public or private, say the Kinsey Sicks. The San Francisco-based beauty shop quartet that puts the show into show business, the bawdy into...

Magic Time!: Report on a Staged Reading of ‘Olityelwe (The Forgotten)’ at Theater J

When Jonathan David Martin came from New York to DC to be Theater J’s new associate producer in March of last year, he brought with him a backstory as co-artistic director and producer of the Smoke &...

Magic Time!: ‘Broken Glass’ at Theater J

Arthur Miller’s 1994 Broken Glass does not rise to the stature of his greatest works (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, The Price, and others). But even lesser Miller can be arresting, as the smart...

Review: ‘Broken Glass’ at Theater J

Shards of unseen, but sharply-felt shattered glass, both of a collapsing marriage and the infamous Kristallnacht (Night of Crystal), are fused together in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass, now playing at...

Review: ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ at Theater J

Though it was well-established since the 1950s that Neil Simon was a master humorist and gifted comic writer, it wasn’t quite revealed until 1983 when Brighton Beach Memoirs premiered on Broadway that...

Magic Time!: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The very title poses a puzzle. How what? Why what? Yet the definite articles assert certitude. The what. The how. Turns out in this brainy play about two smart women, perplexity and uncertainty...

Review: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The How and the Why – Sarah Treem’s celebrated play about science, feminism and generational rivalry – has just made its long-awaited DC debut at Theater J. The two-handed play is billed as a “fitting...

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: ‘Copenhagen’ at Theater J

Strange to watch a play unfold and wish that it did not feel so chillingly relevant. Or that the past it depicts never happened. Or that the moral and material uncertainty at its core did not portend...

Review: ‘Oy Vey in a Manger’ at Theater J

Just in time for a soon-to-be new U.S. Presidential administration, and growing political and racial division, the all-male drag queen comedy troupe quartet The Kinsey Sicks returned to Theater J...

Magic Time!: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

A debate about the existence of hell is combusting in the nation’s preeminent Jewish theater. And that particular drama in that particular venue could not be more anomalous. There is in Judaism no...

Review: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

Yes, the rumors are true. The Christians—now making its DC debut at Theater J—is amazing. It’s amazing for its sheer audacity—first, in turning the nation’s leading Jewish theater into a...

In the Moment: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

‘Inspired’ is the word that comes to mind for Adam Immerwahr’s selection of The Christians by Lucas Hnath for this, his first full season as Artistic Director for DC’s Theater J. What an exceptional...

“It’s Our Most Jewish Play This Season”: A Q&A With Adam Immerwahr About ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

For the second show in his first season as artistic director of Theater J, the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, Adam Immerwahr picked a play with the counterintuitive title The...

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,...

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 FringeNYC Review: ‘Einstein!’

15,000 documents ÷ 3 years of intensive research + 1 actor x 9 characters = the formula for success with Einstein! Written and performed by Jack Fry, the one-man tour-de-force brings the titular...

Updated July 12, 2016: On Parenting and a Play: Director Shirley Serotsky Talks About ‘Another Way Home’ at Theater J

I have admired Shirley Serotsky’s work as a director on such shows as Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy at Theater J in 2014 and Rapture, Blister, Burn at Round House Theatre in 2015. Shirley also serves as...

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...

On Parenting and a Play: Director Shirley Serotsky Talks About ‘Another Way Home’ at Theater J

I have admired Shirley Serotsky’s work as a director on such shows as Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy at Theater J in 2014 and Rapture, Blister, Burn at Round House Theatre in 2015. Shirley also serves as...

Filichia on Friday: ‘The Answer to May’s Brainteaser’ by Peter Filichia

This is Peter’s final column in ‘Filichia on Friday.’ It’s been a pleasure and an honor to share this column with our DCMTA writers. THIS WEEK: The Answer to May’s Brainteaser Purchase Peter...

Filichia on Friday: ‘The 2016 Broadway University Final Exam Answers’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. Take The 2016 Broadway University Final Exam. And HERE ARE...

Filichia on Friday: ‘The 2016 Broadway University Final Exam’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: The 2016 Broadway University Final Exam. Purchase...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Long Day’s Journey into Questions’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: Long Day’s Journey into Questions. Purchase Peter...

Review: ‘The Body of an American’ at Theater J

A true story that begins with the desecration of a dead body becomes, before our eyes and hearts, a living and breathing buddy story. Dan O’Brien’s The Body of an American is an intimate two-hander...

Meet the Cast of Adventure Theatre MTC’s “The Emperor’s Nightingale’: Part 2: Sue Jin Song

In Part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Adventure Theatre MTC’s The Emperor’s Nightingale meet Su Jin Song. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen...

Filichia on Friday: ‘R&H: Relevant & Human or Run-down and Humdrum?’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: R&H: Relevant & Human or Run-down and Humdrum?...

Filichia on Friday: ‘ Rhymes Have I – Or Have I?’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: A Chat with Choreographer Larry Fuller. Purchase...

Filichia on Friday: ‘A Chat with Choreographer Larry Fuller’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: A Chat with Choreographer Larry Fuller. Purchase...

Theater J Announces its 2016-2017 Season: 1st Chosen by Theater J’s Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr

Theater J, the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, announces its 2016-2017 season, the first season chosen by new Theater J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr. This lineup of seven...

Filichia on Friday: ‘1776: IT’S A MASTERPIECE, I SAY’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: 1776: IT’S A MASTERPIECE, I SAY Purchase Peter...

Filichia on Friday: ‘March’s Leftovers and April’s Brainteaser’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: March’s Leftovers and April’s Brainteaser Purchase...

In the Moment: ‘Falling Out of Time’ at Theatre J

Writing a column about Theater J’s world premiere of Falling Out of Time is difficult. Based upon the book by David Grossman, about a man’s 20 year-old soldier son who was killed during military...

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....

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...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Shaw and Staller-Perfect Together’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: SHAW AND STALLER – PEFECT TOGETHER Purchase Peter...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Growing up Gershwin’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: Growing up Gershwin Purchase Peter Filichia’s New...

Filichia on Friday: ‘We Love You CONRACK’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: We Love You, CONRACK Purchase Peter Filichia’s New...

Filichia on Friday: ‘February’s Leftovers and March’s Brainteaser’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: February’s Leftovers and March’s Brainteaser...