2016

Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ With the National Symphony Orchestra with Pianist Yuja Wang, Conducted by Lionel Bringuier at Wolf Trap

It was a stifling hot, totally sticky humid July evening in the DC area. Cooling breezes under the glowing wooden open structure that is Wolf Trap’s Filene Center at first were few and far between...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Computer That Loved’

In his enigmatic but slight one-man show, entitled The Computer That Loved, written and performed by Erik Mueller (as part of the exciting Fringe Festival) a real-life story is presented in a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Perception’

Helen Keller’s story has fascinated and inspired for years. People are intrigued by the woman that overcame her loss of the two most prominent human senses. In Perception, presented by MoCo Dance...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Barry Beaver’s Adventures in Happy Valley’

Sometimes, what you think you don’t want, is exactly what you need. And sometimes, comfort and joy are found in the unlikeliest of places. After a week which sent shockwaves through the country and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Am I There Yet?’

Glade Dance Collective presented a beautiful and moving production, Am There I Yet?, at the Elstad Auditorium at Gallaudet University. The piece is described as “an exploration of #adulting in the...

Review: ‘Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story’ at Arena Stage

Family can be boon or bane for most of us. BeBe Winans’ bio musical, Born for This, raises common themes about family to extraordinary heights as it joyfully praises the power of kinship and the...

‘2016 Summer One-Act Bonanza’ at Old Academy Players in Philadelphia

If there’s one thing the Old Academy Players are known for, it’s traditions. The venerable troupe was founded in 1923, and has been performing for most of its existence in a building completed in...

Review: ‘Rent’ at Rockville Musical Theatre

Jonathan Larson’s sudden death the night before Rent’s off-Broadway premiere is one of theater’s most heart-breaking events. Larson never got to see his only show move to Broadway, win the 1996 Tony...

Review: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Charlotte’s Web spins a charming tale at Laurel Mill Playhouse. This wonderful piece of Children’s Theatre was adapted by Joseph Robinette from E. B. White’s delightful children’s book and is directed...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dark Times at Grimesville High’

Sex, drugs, and… rap! Prepare to sulk in a heavy dose of it at all at Gallaudet U’s Elstad Auditorium. Written by Conor Kyle, Dark Times at Grimesville High is an attempt to flush out the truthful...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Cake!’

Cake! Directed by Corin Andrade and created by burlesque impresario Ché Monique asks a profound, yet comical question: What happens when a 300 pound woman jumps out of an eight-foot birthday cake...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’75 Lezbos, 2 Trannies, 1 Pannie, Me & Me Too!’

“The existential loss of adult everything.” A succinct, comprehensive phrase that encapsulates the purpose, prose, and poetics of “75 Lezbos, 2 Trannies, 1 Pannie, Me & Me Too!”, a one-woman monologue...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘As It Were and/or What(ever) Doesn’t Matter’

I went on a strange journey in the upstairs theater of the Logan Fringe Arts Space, where As It Were and/or What(ever) Doesn’t Matter, written and directed by Stephen Notes, was being presented. As I...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Crazy in America’

Ron Litman, accompanied by Tom Pile, has become renowned for his raving style of comedy at the Fringe with shows such as his 2014 hit Waiting for Armageddon. His current show, Crazy in America,...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rain Follows the Plow’

Bluegrass, country and folk music made a triumphant showing last night in Stephen R. Coffee’s “Rain Follows the Plow.” Coffee’s show, labeled a dust opera, concerns the Dust Bowl of the Thirties and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Good Death’

The Good Death explores the tension between a brother and sister who must come to grips with their past and make hard decisions about their future. The play takes place entirely on the stoop of a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Breakup Is Swift’

In the thick air crevassing within the Martin Luther King Jr. Library basement, there’s some heated tension, worthy of addressing. Cameron (Nick Duckworth), and Dale (Ben Kleymeyer) are in the middle...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Free Range’

Parenting seems to be a competitive sport these days. With everyone from well-meaning neighbors to the national media chiming in on what parents are doing wrong and how they are going to ruin their...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Brownie and Lolli Go to Hollywood’

In theory, this looked and sounded great. Brownie and Lolli Go to Hollywood is a screwball comic cabaret riff on all sorts of current issues: drug use, abortion, eating disorders, the rising costs of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Secret Honor’

Anyone Can Be President: Secret Honor at the Fringe “Scathing” “lacerating” and “brilliant” were three of the words the late Roger Ebert applied to the 1984 Robert Altman movie of Secret Honor, with...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘It Will All Make Sense in the Morning’

“I took your dreams and I put them in a jar and I buried them under a tree. How did I do that?” It Will All Make Sense in the Morning, by Erica Smith, luckily does mostly make sense on the night you...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Macbeth in the Basement’

William Shakespeare serves as playwright Annie Bryan’s inspiration for Dodgeball Theatre’s Macbeth in the Basement, directed by Talley Murphy. The show features only five actors and a limited set, and...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘BRYCE: Hydrogen Blonde’

Bryce walks onstage wearing a sequined jacket and spandex jumpsuit. He’s backed by two phenomenal dancers, Nia Calloway and Zhane’ Davis Smith. His first original pop song, Best Diq blasts through the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’12 Steps’

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Richard Sautter feels fine – well, fine enough to express his internal afflictions with addiction on a miniscule stage. At the Argonaut Tavern, bar...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Lil’ Women: a rap musical’

Are you searching for a 19th century story set to 21st century hip-hop, but not willing to cough up thousands of dollars for Hamilton tickets? Lil’ Women: a rap musical may be exactly what you’re...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘One Man Romeo’

The young actor and rapper Darius McCall fell so much in love with the role of Romeo that he longed to bring the character to life, by himself, alone on stage with but Shakespeare’s words and his own...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Let Trump Be Trump’

Imagine, if you can, that it is July 2017 and Donald J. Trump has been elected as the 45th President of the United States. While some of you might find that prospect wonderful and others horrifying,...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rapists and Drug Dealers’

This surreal drama, by Tim Chamberlain, is a combination of modern dance and theater. The play opens with the attempted murder of WOMAN by MAN. She is able to thwart his attempt with the help of two...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Play Cupid’

New Game Theatre has created a show to satisfy the matchmaking itch in even your most meddling friend. In Play Cupid the actors relinquish their power and the audience takes control. There was a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Wash Over You’

Get ready for a distinctly American piece of multi-media artistry told in choreography, text and video projections by Artistic Director Jane Franklin of Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington, Va. With...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Death Be Not Loud!’

Susan Jackson’s new play, Death Be Not Loud—produced by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company and billed as “a contemporary Southern comedy”—is a sweet reflection on love and loss, featuring two...

‘Come to Their Cabaret’: Meet the Cast of PWLT’s ‘Cabaret’: Part 2: James Maxted

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Prince William Little Theatre’s production of Cabaret, meet James Maxted. Joel: Who are you, and where might area readers and audience members know...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hello|Brother’

Edgy, experimental, and often uncomfortable, Annexus Theatre’s production of Hello|Brother is the quintessential Fringe experience. Written and directed by Solomon HaileSelassie, the companion plays...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Once Upon a Bedtime’

The Silver Finch Arts Collective is back at the Fringe Festival with their first children’s show: Once Upon a Bedtime. But what a sophisticated children’s show! Five skilled musicians lead a cast of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review ‘…and a Ghost Grrl’

The King’s Players are presenting an exploration of modern love and supernatural forces, by Founding Artistic Director Timothy R. King, at the Trinidad Theatre for the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival....

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Color Theory’

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game representing epic battles between wizards, has an estimated 20 million active players worldwide. Judging from the enthusiastic reaction of the audience at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Before the Lights Go Up’

Bucky Mitchell, Jr. presents an intelligently written and thought-provoking new play at the Upstairs Theatre of the Logan Fringe Arts Space, a comedy reminiscent of the cerebral metatheatrical work of...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘PowerPlays’

This clever play is composed of five vignettes with a talented cast and minimalist stage, written by ‘The Gang of Five’: Marilyn Bennett, J T Caruso, Dimitri Neos, Michelle Rago, and Sarah Dimont...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ain’t That Rich’

In Ain’t that Rich, California-based writer and comedian Kate Robards delivers a dazzling solo performance, one as mesmerizing and powerful as it is funny. The show is now making its debut at the...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hunt’

Jean P. Bordewich’s political drama Hunt turns back the clock to a divisive time in American politics – the early 1950s of Joseph McCarthy – but the characters and issues resonate in today’s political...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Connectivity/Complexity’

Errant Movement took to the stage of Gallaudet University’s Elstad Auditorium on ‘opening night’ of the Capital Fringe 2016 festival, with sole responsibility handed to the talented workings of seven...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘SuperNOVA’

SuperNOVA, a political satire fit for the ridiculous times we find ourselves in, combines music and millennial wit to great effect as it depicts a new secessionist frenzy gripping northern Virginia...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘JUICED’

JUICED, directed by and staring the three members of Tia Nina (Leah Curran Moon, Ilana Silverstein, and Lisi Stoessel) is weird. It is ridiculous. It ignores all theatrical and performative...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Complexity: A One Woman Show’

It’s a typical love story, but with more rejection. In the Whit West Theatre Company’s musical, Complexity: A One Woman Show, directed by Ileana Fortuno and choreographed by Katie Kiessling, Beth...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Kick Before You Drown’

A solid show with impressive acrobatics, Kick Before You Drown presents Cirque which will easily please fans of the genre. It is important to note that Kick Before You Drown is as different from a...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Glacier: a climate change ballet’

Midway through Glacier: a climate change ballet, a lone dancer, Therese Gahl, glided onto the stage. Costumed in a vibrant blue tutu, her long legs and arms and their deep earth tones, she captured...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Immaculate Big Bang’

No cosmic question is too challenging to escape the laser wit of Bill Santiago. In The Immaculate Big Bang, which he wrote and performs, Santiago ruminates across a philosophical spectrum ranging from...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Different, Damaged, Damned’

The short but powerful Different, Damaged, Damned explores the relationship and resentments between a father Ralph (Jeremy Keith Hunter) and his high-school age son Chamuel (Austin Farrow). Written by...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The DOMA Diaries’

Thrilling progressive history and the trajectory of societal forces colliding with basic human rights is delineated through the prism of three couples who are fighting for their dignity as LGBTQ...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen)’

The Greatest Science Fiction Show (No One’s Ever Seen) delivers a riotous parody of classic science fiction and pop culture. Hilarious, and a must-see for anyone who considers themselves fans of...