2015

Meet the Cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘Sweeney Todd’: Part 6: Lauren Lowell

In Part 6 of a series of interviews with the director and cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s Sweeney Todd meet Lauren Lowell. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen...

Meet the Cast of ‘Painting Churches’ at Montgomery Playhouse: Part 1: David Jones

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Montgomery Playhouse’s Painting Churches, meet David Jones. Joel: Where have local audiences seen you perform recently on the stage? David: I was...

‘Unexplored Interior (This Is Rwanda: The Beginning and End of the Earth)’ at Mosaic Theater of DC

There comes a moment early in Act One when Raymond, a young man who left his family in Rwanda to learn film making at NYU, returns to his homeland, which has become a devastation. The 100-day Hutu...

Montgomery Playhouse and The City of Gaithersburg Presents ‘Painting Churches’ 11/6-22nd at The Arts Barn

Montgomery Playhouse in partnership with the City of Gaithersburg Presents PAINTING CHURCHES by Tina Howe Directed by Mary Beth Levrio With: Jane Bruns, David Jones, Shanna Ridenour November 6 – 22,...

Oh What a Night at The 2015 Barrymores!

“It’s been a big year for me.” That was quite an understatement coming from Scott Greer. The veteran Philadelphia actor had just won his fifth Barrymore Award, named Outstanding Leading Actor in a...

Quinn Lemley on ‘Burlesque to Broadway’ at The Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick This Friday @8 PM

Quinn Lemley is bringing her show Burlesque to Broadway this Friday night, November 6, 2015, at 8 PM to the Weinberg Center for the Arts, in Frederick, MD. I asked her to tell us about what audiences...

The Women’s Voices Theatre Festival: ‘Duir-wyyd: The Dreamer’s Doorway’ at Spooky Action Theater

It is intriguing to see a work in progress that has real merit. Sandra Kamman’s Duir-wyyd: The Dreamer’s Doorway, a play with music, straddles time and space to metaphysically interconnect the stories...

‘In the Moment’: ‘Unexplored Interior (This is Rwanda: The Beginning and End of the Earth)’

Unexplored Interior (This is Rwanda: The Beginning and End of the Earth), the production launching the inaugural season of Mosaic Theater Company of DC, met Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth’s...

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

What’s the buzz you ask? Well Jesus Christ Superstar now playing at the Kensington Arts Theatre of course! Arising out of the tumultuous 1960’s the era of the Rock Opera gave to way for artists...

Philadelphia’s 2015 Barrymore Awards Recipents Announced

Here are the 2015 Barrymore Awards Recipients, announced last night at The Merriam Theatre: Award Recipients are IN RED Outstanding Overall Production of a Play Caught (InterAct Theatre Company) The...

Violinist Ji Young Lim at the Phillips Collection

Somebody must have rung a bell and instructed judges at all international music competitions to start awarding prizes to young classical musicians who already demonstrate daring and panache, even at...

‘Pinocchio’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theater Workshop is an excellent program for children interested in exploring the art of live theater. The program is recommended for kids, third grade through high...

‘Betrayal’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

In a season devoted to shows that play with fire, Fells Point Corner Theatre’s second production, Betrayal by Harold Pinter, keeps the flames alive. Directed by Andrew J. Porter, Betrayal examines the...

‘World Builders’ by Forum Theatre at Woolly Mammoth

I first saw Johnna Adams’s World Builders this summer, when it premiered at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. I was immediately struck by the ingenuity of its...

‘Deathtrap’ At NextStop Theatre Company

NextStop Theatre Company’s current production of Deathtrap does an incredible job of honoring the play’s highly successful history. Deathtrap was nominated for a Tony in 1978 for Best Play and holds...

Magic Time! ‘Winners and Losers’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

I left Winners and Losers thinking, Wow, there’s more here than meets the eye. Or, as one of the performers said in an interview, “The show really bangs around in your head….” On the face of it,...

Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘For the Love of Oscar, A Dramedy’ at The New Milennium Howard Players

The New Millennium Howard Players‘ mission is to present “Compelling, cathartic theater from the African American cultural perspective that will touch spirits, challenge thought, move, inspire, evoke...

‘Sylvia’ at The Cort Theatre in New York City

AR Gurney is the rolling stone playwright that is certainly gathering no moss. As recently as August of this year I reviewed a new Gurney offering, Love and Money which deftly dealt with a matriarch’s...

‘Equivocation’ at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia

Equivocation, Bill Cain’s alternative history about William Shakespeare getting caught up in deadly royal court intrigue, is exceedingly clever and almost dizzyingly erudite. And it has some quite...

‘The Metal Children’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage does it again. With Adam Rapp’s The Metal Children, now playing at the Stage through November 21, they once again venture outside DC’s theatrical “safe space” and offer Washington...

‘Polter-heist’ at Murder at the Mansion Dessert Theatre

In their inaugural production, Murder at the Mansion Dessert Theatre has brought murder, mystery, and petit-fours to Kentlands Mansion in the form of Polter-heist. Polter-heist, written by Tony...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Randy Graff at The Kennedy Center

Tony Award-winning (City of Angels) Broadway, concert, and cabaret artist Randy Graff dazzled the crowd Friday night at the Kennedy Center’s intimate Terrace Theater. Graff is utterly unique and...

In the Moment: Stephen Lang on Performing in ‘Beyond Glory’ on 11/10@8pm at Reston Community Center

There are many ways to commemorate Veteran’s Day and the over 21 million veterans of military service. Attending a live theater performance about Medal of Honor recipients is certainly one way to...

‘Henri IV Part I’: The Re-Gendered Henry IV Repertory at Brave Spirits Theatre

With the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in DC still going strong, Brave Spirits Theatre asks its audiences to consider the role women have in theatre beyond the reach of the festival. With the first...

‘Ruthless! The Musical’ at Dundalk Community Theatre

They say that some people are born with talent. When we look at the family trees of the Fondas, the Brolins, and the Barrymores, we are not surprised to see the acting talent run through their veins....

‘Fox on the Fairway’ at Act II Playhouse in Amber, PA

If The Fox on the Fairway shows how the other half lives, well, I don’t know if I want to be a part of that other half. But I certainly do want to watch those country club hijinks from afar. Ken...

Magic Time! The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: Darius & Twig’ at The Kennedy Center

I cannot help but think that if W.E.B. DuBois were alive, he would absolutely love Darius & Twig, the passionately purposeful play by Caleen Sinnette Jennings adapted from Walter Dean Myers’s popular...

‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ at Scena Theatre

Scena Theatre’s comedy through the lens of small-town folk in a small Aran Islands community named Inishmaan, off the coast of Ireland. The year is 1934, and we catch a glimpse of all the archetypal...

‘Footloose’ at Rockville Musical Theatre

Let’s hear it for the Rockville Musical Theatre’s production of Footloose! This bold and bodacious, high-kicking, foot-stomping extravaganza features a dedicated cast of volunteer performers who...

‘Winners and Losers’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

According to their mission statement, part of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s objective is to “ignite an explosive engagement between threatre artists and the community by developing new plays that...

‘Cabaret Noir’ at Happenstance Theater at Baltimore Theatre Project

Femme fatales and fedoras, trench coats and torch songs, intrigue and suspense… such is the tagline for Happenstance Theater’s Cabaret Noir, and it offers a tantalizing glimpse of what lies in store...

Meet the Cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘Sweeney Todd’: Part 5: Garrett Matthews

In Part 5 of a series of interviews with the director and cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s Sweeney Todd meet Garrett Matthew. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have...

Meet the Cast of ‘Songs for a New World’: Part 2: Madyson Hanton (Woman #2‏)

Joel: Introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you before on local stages. Hi! My name is Madyson Hanton and I am currently a senior at Robinson Secondary School. I recently...

Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Darius & Twig’ at The Kennedy Center

Darius & Twig, now playing at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater, tackles issues confronted by inner city kids throughout the country. And it does so with a mixture of hope and hard truth that is as...

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet: ‘Balanchine, Béjart, and the Bard’ at The Kennedy Center

Suzanne Farrell – still fairest of them all From the early 1960s until the late 1980s (except for a five-year escape to Belgium), Suzanne Farrell reigned as George Balanchine’s muse at the New York...

‘Dames at Sea’ at The Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City

Way back in the dark ages (circa early 1930s) when musicals were musical comedies (if you don’t know what I mean, listen to “Musicals,” the showstopper in the light-hearted hit Something Rotten!), the...

‘All in the Timing’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in Philadelphia

The L’Etage Cabaret’s lounge, with its mood lighting and leather seating and tea candles, is the perfect setting for the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium’s treatment of David Ives’s All in the...

‘Top Girls’ at George Washington University

I may have missed it, but to my knowledge no playwright in the current Women’s Voices Theater Festival set out to write a feminist-socialist play and explicitly said so. (Not that there’s anything...

Nu Sass Brings the Second Installment of the Small Batch Audience Series to DC: Sartre’s ‘No Exit’

For those of you who didn’t witness it, something beautiful happened in the tiny gallery at Caos on F Street last spring. Nu Sass Productions (a theatre company founded on the ideals of creating...

Meet the Kids of ‘Shrek The Musical’ at Reston Community Players: Allie Lytle, Ella Schnoor, Erik Peyton, Mhairi Cameron, and Brayden DiBacco

In Part 5 of our series of interviews with the cast of Shrek The Musical at Reston Community Players, we meet the girls of RCP’s Shrek: Allie Lytle, Ella Schnoor, Erik Peyton, Mhairi Cameron, and...

‘Hamilton’ at The Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City

I was away in August when the musical Hamilton opened on Broadway so yesterday I caught up with it as it was about to enter its third month of sellout business at The Richard Rodgers Theatre. It is...

Live Arts Maryland Presents ‘Music for a New World’ on November 7th at Maryland Hall

No one appreciates a great live music experience more than Live Arts Maryland Music Director J. Ernest Green. One of the area’s most visible and enthusiastic cheerleaders for music of all kinds, if he...

Meet the Cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ Part 4: Carolyn Freel

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with the director and cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s Sweeney Todd meet Carolyn Freel. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen...

‘Bullets Over Broadway’ at Broadway Philadelphia

Bullets Over Broadway is one of Woody Allen’s funniest, most accessible movies. But the stage musical adaptation, using a script by Allen himself, is an awkward mishmash of comedy and music that never...

Science Fiction ‘Double D-TURE’: ‘The Rocky Horror T*tty Show’ This Friday at 8 PM at Bier Baron Tavern

Hello my name is Lucrezia and I am a Rocky Horror-aholic. Like I’ve got “Don’t Dream It, Be It” tattooed on my left bicep. Growing up it helped so many of us, who felt outside and unworthy, to feel...

Meet the Cast of ‘Songs for a New World’: Part 1: Jordan Sledd

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Songs for a New World at Metropolitan Youth Theatre (‘MYT’), meet Jordan Sledd. Joel: Introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have...

Tracy Lynn Olivera’s ‘Halloween Spooktacular Cabaret’ at Signature Theatre

As Halloween approaches, ghosts and monsters and witches seem to be everywhere. But by far the most entertaining witch of all was Tracy Lynn Olivera, presenting her Halloween Spooktacular Cabaret at...

Spine: Is ‘Avenue Q’ Just What the Doctor Ordered? Constellation Theatre’s Marvelous Production

Let me be absolutely clear. I loved Constellation Theatre Company’s production of Avenue Q, which opened last night to a packed, laughing audience. Fast paced, precisely choreographed and executed,...

‘The Night Alive’ at Round House Theatre

Last night, Round House Theatre premiered their second play of the season, The Night Alive. As always, I read up on the play before attending, but no amount of research could have prepared me for the...

Magic Time! ‘Avenue Q’ at Constellation Theatre Company

The intriguing tagline for Constellation Theatre Company’s 2015/16 season is “Playtime for Grownups,” which could not have been more appropriate on opening night of its Avenue Q—the wholly humable...