2016

Review: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at Washington National Opera

“Perdono no merita chi agli altri non da.” So say the words carved into the wall above the stage in the Washington National Opera’s stunning production of The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze de Figaro)...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at Westchester Broadway Theatre

Saturday Night Fever: The Musical, directed by Richard Stafford, is currently playing at Westchester Broadway Theatre. The musical is based on the well-known 1977 Paramount/RSO film starring John...

Meet the Cast and Director of Providence Players’ ‘Amadeus’ Part 3: Julia Buhagiar as Constanze by Chip Gertzog

Amadeus, the late Peter Shaffer’s Tony and Academy award winning masterpiece opens next week, September 30, 2016, at the James Lee Community Center Theater and kicks off the Providence Players...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘One Way Red’

Mars is an atypyical subject for a piece of theatre, but with entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and the Mars One project setting their sights on the planet, Medium Theatre Companies’ One Way Red is more...

Review: ‘Stupid Fucking Bird’ at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia

It was just two and a half years ago that the Arden Theatre presented a version of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters that used a fresh, slangy translation. It took a musty classic and made it feel up to...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Julius Caesar, Spared Parts’

A playwright friend recently recalled something the Russian director Dimitry Krymov said: “I want to be interested beyond my understanding. My understanding can catch up later…. The best compliment...

Review: ‘Electra’ at Villanova University, in Villanova, PA

The mists of ancient history paint the birth of theater as religious ritual that gradually transmuted into drama.The Ancient Greeks always considered attending a play festival as a religious act and...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘The VS. Series’

Zany, gut-wrenching and stimulating, Bryant Edwards’ The VS. Series features five vignettes, each helmed by different writers and directors. In order, these matches are Miley vs. Mozart, Rat vs....

Come to KAT’s ‘Cabaret’: Part 2: Meet Chuck Dluhy

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Kensington Arts Theatre’s (KAT) Cabaret, meet Chuck Dluhy. Joel: Where have local theatergoers seen you perform before on our local stages? What...

Dangereuse: ‘The Lovers with a Thousand Faces’: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre is a revelatory theatre experience. Director Alan Paul’s version of Romeo and Juliet has a complexity and richness that reaches deep into the meaning of the...

Who’s in Town?: An Interview With Anaïs Mitchell, Appearing with John Gallagher, Jr. Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

Anaïs Mitchell is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been called the queen of modern folk music. Her 2010 album Hadestown, a folk-opera based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and set in the...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Jungle’ at Bradley’s Bucks

Man and beast struggle and evolve in the post-apocalyptic world of Jungle, the latest work and first Fringe offering of the all-male dance troupe Bradley’s Bucks. Created and directed by dancers Teddy...

Who’s in Town?: John Gallagher, Jr. on Appearing with Anaïs Mitchell Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

John Gallagher, Jr. is a Tony-Award winning actor and musician. He won a Tony-Award in 2007 for his portrayal of Mortiz Stiefel in the rock musical Spring Awakening and was recently back on Broadway...

An Interview with Frankie Sin and Donny Vomit on ‘Shocked and Amazed: Strange for Hire’ at AMP This Saturday, 9/24

One of the things I love most about the burlesque and sideshow community is the sheer love for the craft and joy of performing that shines through when performers talk about their chosen artform. And...

In the Moment: ‘The 100th Meridian Project’ at George Mason University

Climate change is a sharp pointed object in the current 2016 political season. The language strewn about is often hot and more often than not, ad hominem to say the least But climatic issues are not...

In the Moment: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Folger Theatre’s take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is just gonna charm you with its ingenious high-velocity agility, while depicting the tastefully hide-bound, tart world of gossip and...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene… For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. A man, walking onstage with a vacuum, recites the...

Review: Kathleen Madigan: The Mermaid Lady Tour at the Lyric Opera House

Prolific comedian and TV personality Kathleen Madigan brought her new The Mermaid Lady standup tour to Baltimore Saturday night at the Lyric Opera House, featuring a fresh medley of her favorite...

Magic Time! ‘How To… Sex Education’ at Rabble Crew Productions

Rabble Crew Productions has a proclivity for mounting edgy, sex-themed theater in fringey places around town. Last December they did Madeline Farrington’s Glory Us at The Fridge in Eastern Market, set...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘The Elementary Spacetime Show’

The Elementary Spacetime Show is an unusual musical about a subject you don’t often see onstage: teenage suicide. With music, book and lyrics by César Alvarez, the show treads the line between...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival: ‘PANGAEA’: Interviews with the Cast and Director

PANGAEA, connecting people, life, and historical times through a post-apocalyptic folk opera: An interview with the musicians-actors and the director PANGAEA: “About 300 million years ago, Earth...

An Interview with FringeArts President and Producing Director Nick Stuccio

Henrik: What inspired you to create FringeArts, Philadelphia’s annual theater arts festival—“a city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance”? Nick: We went to the...

Review: ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ at Olney Theatre Center

Olney Theatre Center is on a roll this autumn. Their production of The Diary of Anne Frank, opening on the heels of their recent success with Angels in America (in a joint production with Round House...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Tales of the Grotesque and Mysterious: The Works of Edgar Allan Poe’ at The Phenomenal Animals

In several dimly lighted rooms within the walls of the brick tower atop the Shiloh Baptist Church, Edgar Allan Poe’s tales, adapted by Robert Cousins, are being reborn, as eerie as nevermore,...

Review: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Hey Girl, I Hear You Read Jane Austen; Sense and Sensibility at the Folger Theatre The appeal of Jane Austen’s heroines lies in their lovability. In Sense and Sensibility, the two sisters, Elinor and...

Review: ‘Rock the Line’ at Venus Theatre Company

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, “Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar.” As it turns out, this...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) launches into its new season with fabulous flare, opening with lauded young playwright Joshua Harmon’s critically-acclaimed, off-Broadway drama/comedy hit Bad Jews....

Review: ‘brownsville song (b-side for tray)’ at Theater Alliance

Yesterday at The Anacostia Playhouse, the real world and the world onstage converged. It was like a communal emotion-meld through theater, the human heartbreak untold in too many headlines become the...

Review: ‘Balloonacy’ at NextStopTheatre Company

NextStop Theatre Company has been producing theatre for young audiences for almost 30 years. Their most recent show is a sweet and enjoyable story called Balloonacy from Playwright Barry Kornhauser....

Review: ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’ at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, NY

Legally Blonde: The Musical opened Saturday night, September 17, 2016, at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson. Based on the book written by Amanda Brown, and also the popular 2001 movie, Legally Blonde:...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Before I Die’ at Tongue & Groove

“Before I die I want to _________?” A serious question that I had to answer at Tongue & Groove’s Fringe show. Before I Die is an interactive show that asks audience members what they want to do before...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Bodas de Sangre’/’I Only Came to Use the Phone’: ‘The Duende Cycle’ at Asian Arts Initiative

The Duende Cycle, two plays performed in repertory created by Eliana Fabiyi and Tanaquil Márquez, is nothing if not exceptionally ambitious. Comprised of a bilingual adaptation of Federico García...

An Interview with Beth Hylton, Director of ‘Our New Girl’ Staged Reading TONIGHT at Everyman Theatre

Everyman Theatre is launching its 2016/2017 Salon Series of staged readings TONIGHT on Monday, September 19, 2016 at 7 PM. The Salon Series’ theme is Women’s Voices; all six plays selected for the...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Happy Yummy Chicken’ at Love Drunk Life

A self-referencing mockumentary on the process of putting together a show, Happy Yummy Chicken is the first full-length film by Love Drunk Life–a New Jersey-based multi-genre company that presented a...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Billosophy: Life, Circus, Death’

Bill Forchion is an accomplished circus performer, a veteran of Cirque du Soleil, and Ringling Brothers. He’s also a real charmer, with a smile the size of a big top and the stage persona of an...

Review: ‘The War of the Roses’ at Delaware Theatre Company

Based on the iconic novel-turned-film of the same title, The War of the Roses follows the legendary Jonathan and Barbara Rose as their seemingly perfect marriage devolves into a deadly search and...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Speculum Diaries’

In the opening moments of Speculum Diaries, Irina Varina’s self-portrait-in-motion now playing at 1fiftyOne gallery, she bashfully confesses, “This is the story of a happy girl.” She adds, however,...

Review: ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

Love is a battlefield in the vivid, high heat of Brave Spirits Theatre’s striking, fencing-match take on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Once again Brave Spirits (BST) is true to its mission;...

Review #2: ‘Collective Rage’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

“Can feminism be funny?” inquiring minds at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company want to know. For that is the conundrum that connects Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad, Woolly’s cheeky hit...

Review #1: ‘Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Let’s just get this out of the way. Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops (its full title is Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops; In Essence a Queer and Occasionally Hazardous...

Review: National Philharmonic: Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 7’ with Brian Ganz at The Music Center at Strathmore

The National Philharmonic kicked off its 2016-2017 Fall/Winter season with three of Beethoven’s most celebrated works, featuring a special appearance by pianist Brian Ganz performing Piano Concerto...

Review: ‘Othello’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company opened its 15th Season on Friday with one of the most tragic of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Othello. It was the first time in the history of the company that they have...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Media Theatre

While there seems to be a never-ending stream of books or movies remade into musicals, few compare to 2014 Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County. The book by Pulitzer Prize winning Marsha...

Review: ‘Bathing in Moonlight’ at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ

Bathing in Moonlight opens subtly with the hum of gentle organ music, a stained glass window looming high above, and Father Monroe (Raúl Méndez) warmly greeting his congregation as he takes center...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Pandæmonium’ at Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Early Morning Opera

A featured work in this year’s Curated Fringe, Pandæmonium, by Nichole Canuso Dance Company and Early Morning Opera, is a conceptual reflection on relationships, separation, isolation, and emptiness,...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Nuns are more fun in the round. That’s a catechism we learned at Toby’s Dinner Theatre via Nunsense and other shows so many times it became an article of faith. Now Toby’s is up to its wimples in old...

Review: NSO Pops: The Second City Guide to the Symphony Starring Colin Mochrie

What happens when you put together famous improv comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedy troupe The Second City, and the National Symphony Orchestra? A night of music and sketch comedy at the John F....

Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ at the Old Opera House Theatre Company

If you have to take a gamble with your theatrical options this weekend, this reviewer bets you will thoroughly enjoy the classic musical comedy Guys and Dolls at the Old Opera House Theatre Company!...

Review: ‘The Emperor of North America’ at Silver Spring Stage

Friday night was a very special night at Silver Spring Stage as they opened their 49th Season with Thomas Hischak’s play, The Emperor of North America. This production was presented as part of the...

Review: ‘Angel Street’ at the Stagecrafters Theater in Philadelphia.

“Gaslighting” is actually a word. My dictionary describes the verb as “a form of psychological abuse in which false information is provided to the victim with the purpose of making her doubt her own...