2016

In the Moment: Synetic Theater’s ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’

Synetic Theater’s The Man in the Iron Mask is a good yarn, well told. With the production Synetic continues to expand beyond its original Shakespeare roots and singular “silent” physical theater...

Review: ‘The Plough and the Stars’ at The Irish Heritage Theatre and Plays and Players in Philadelphia

Exactly 100 years ago, a group of Irish poets, musicians, writers and dreamers seized the Dublin Post Office, (yes, that’s right, the Post Office) in an ill conceived attempt to surprise the occupying...

Review: Bach’s ‘Mass in B Minor’ with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Here’s an idea: Let’s change the name of Bach’s Mass in B Minor to the Mass in D Major. Just because convention calls for a piece to be named after its beginning key doesn’t mean that the ending key...

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...

Review: ‘The Secret Garden’ at The Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia

The Secret Garden by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon at the Arden Theatre Company closes out the company’s 2015-2016 season. The Secret Garden is based on the beloved novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Walnut Street Theatre

Even if you haven’t seen the musical version of Sister Act, you might think you know what it’s going to be like. After all, it’s a musical based on a familiar hit movie. It’s about a bunch of funny...

Review: ‘Cagney’ at The Westside Theatre in NYC

Renowned as one of the greatest actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood, James Cagney (1899-1986) was a proverbial triple threat who could do it all. And so can Robert Creighton, the star and force...

Review: Paul Taylor Dance Company at The Kennedy Center

The last living – and working – link to the founding generation of modern dance choreographers, Paul Taylor remains true to his values as a consummate dancemaker imbuing his works with impeccable...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘riverrun’ at The Kennedy Center

DC audiences last saw Olwen Fouéré in Yaël Farber’s Salomé at the Shakespeare Theatre Company playing the narrator character Nameless Woman. With her striking long white hair, deep vocal register, and...

Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Roman Holiday: The Taming of the Shrew at Shakespeare Theatre Company According to scholar Jonathan Bate, “‘Shakespeare’ may be thought of as a vast collection of games…[some] games are resolved by...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘Tiny Plays for Ireland and America’ by Fishamble: The New Play Company

Fishamble: The New Play Company opened its “Tiny Plays for Ireland and America” last night as part of Ireland 100. Act I consisted of 20 short, Irish plays in 90 minutes, and each play shed some light...

Review: ‘When January Feels Like Summer’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

The weather, like the five characters in Cori Thomas’ tender romantic comedy When January Feels Like Summer, is in crisis. Attribute the unpredictable climate to global warming, but it’s nothing a...

Review: ‘Garbage Kids’ at Venus Theatre Company

The new play Garbage Kids by Baltimore-based playwright Jayme Kilburn, now receiving its world premiere at Venus Theatre Company, is a cleverly plotted emotional booby trap. The first act is a series...

Review: ‘Blackberry Winter’ at Forum Theatre

Does a play about an incurable progressive disease not sound like something you’d care to see? Does a character’s long, lone monologue about her mother’s memory loss to Alzheimer’s not seem appealing?...

Here Are The 2016 Helen Hayes Award Recipients

Here are the 2016 Helen Hayes Award Recipients. We are updating the list of winners as they are being announced, starting tonight at 7:30 PM. The Winners Are In RED. ____ Outstanding Supporting...

Review: ‘The Merry Death of Robin Hood’ at LiveArtDC

The Merry Death of Robin Hood, written by Paul Resiman, (based on the stories by Howard Pyle), is my first experience of LiveArtDC and it was choice. I hadn’t thought of Robin Hood since the mid-70s...

Review: ‘Gutenberg! The Musical!’ at Epic Productions, Inc.

David Jennings and his talented actress wife Jamie are the co-founders of Epic Productions, Inc. and their first production in their new home at St. Mark’s on the Hill Church in Pikesville is the...

Magic Time! ‘When January Feels Like Summer’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Mosaic Theater Company of DC tops off its prodigious first season with an improbably romantic comedy by Liberian-American playwright Cori Thomas. It’s about people from different cultures who you...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly’ at The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center is currently presenting IRELAND 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts & Culture, through June 5, 2016. The festival includes a wide range of events focused on Irish Culture, as a...

Review: ‘Oleanna’ at Persiphere Theater

David Mamet’s Oleanna is a play that has split many people over the years. What is it about exactly? Is it about power balance or sexual assault? Who is the villain? The sexist, pedantic teacher or...

Review: ‘Fully Committed’ at Theatre Horizon in Norristown, PA

Fully Committed, Becky Mode’s frenetic 1999 comedy that spoofs the unpleasant underbelly of the restaurant business, is being given a highly enjoyable production at Theatre Horizon in Norristown. It’s...

Review: ‘Sultans of String’ at AMP at Strathmore

The Sultans of String delight and excite. This is World Music as you’ve never heard it before. The music is, quite simply, a soul satisfying mash-up of European gypsy, classical, punjabi, jazz, and...

Review: ‘kinK’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

‘kinK’ explores murder, revenge and justice Director\Writer William Dean Leary produces unsettling, lapel-grabbing work that addresses topical issues. In his previously written and directed, Forsaken...

Film Review: ‘Love & Friendship’

Love & Friendship opens with a sigh of regret from an unknown and unnamed narrator as one Lady Susan Vernon takes her leave of the Manwarings (pronounced as if that “w” was a boorish dinner guest one...

Review: ‘The Invisible Hand’ at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia

When we meet Nick Bright, his life has never looked bleaker. A midlevel Citibank employee, he’s been kidnapped in Pakistan by a group of Islamic militants, the followers of a local Imam. Handcuffed...

Review: ‘Boyz II Men’ at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra

Motown Philly came to DC full-blast as the best-selling R&B group of all time, Boyz II Men graced the Concert Hall stage of The Kennedy Center on Friday, May 20, 2016, accompanied by the dynamic...

Review: ‘Our Town’ at Eagle Theatre in Hammonton, NJ

In the 1930s, when Thornton Wilder was unhappy with the state of contemporary theater and felt that something had gone wrong, he created a metatheatrical work that would become an American classic....

Review: ‘Kiss Me Kate’ at Act II Playhouse in Ambler, PA

The Broadway Musical flowered in the years following World War II. Many of the musicals produced during this “golden age” remain treasures of our lyric theater. One of the best will always be Cole...

Talking With 16 Year-Old Amir Randall on Playing Trayvon Martin in ‘The Ballad of Trayvon Martin’ at New Freedom Theatre

“Without these people, I would just be another black boy passing on the street” “The Ballad of Trayvon Martin by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj and Thomas J. Soto is a poetic docudrama inspired by the death...

Review: ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company has done an excellent job with their production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield. Directed...

Review: ‘Tuck Everlasting’ at The Broadhurst Theatre in NYC

This pretty-as-a picture new musical is by newcomers to the musical theatre, book writers Claudia Shear and Tim Federle, Composer Chris Miller, and lyricist Nathan Tysen. The story, based on a novel...

The 2016 Helen Hayes Awards To Be Awarded Tonight

The 2016 Helen Hayes Award recipients will be announced TONIGHT at The Lincoln Theatre beginning at 7:30 PM. There are nominations in 47 categories for Excellence in Theatre, and there will also be...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Arts Collective @ HCC

HCC Arts Collective’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is hilariously F-U-N-N-Y (enjoyment, amusement or lighthearted pleasure) and delightfully Q-U-I-R-K-Y (characterized by...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘All That Fall’ by Pan Pan Theatre

All That Fall is quite the most quite unique, powerful, and delightful experiences I’ve had at the theatre. Director Gavin Quinn, the Co-Artistic Director of Pan Pan Theatre, brings this radio play by...

Review: Brian Regan at The Warner Theatre

With the nonstop laughter tonight coming from the Warner Theatre in DC, it was easy to tell that Brian Regan had brought his comedy tour to town! Playing through Saturday, May 21, 2016, Brian Regan’s...

Review: ‘The Object Lesson’ at The Studio Theatre

The Object Lesson—a highly acclaimed one-man performance piece, set in a warehouse of the mind that is stacked with memories and the objects that evoke them—has finally arrived in DC, where it is...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Plough and the Stars’ at The Kennedy Center

Make no mistake about it. World War I kicked the crap out of patriotic idealism. Just ask Wilfred Owen. His “Dulce et Decorum et” is one of the most powerful denunciations of the concept of “the...

Lizzi Albert and Sue Struve on Appearing in ‘Collected Stories’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Lizzi Albert and Sue Struve takes us on their journey of preparing for their roles and appearing in Collected Stories at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions. Joel: Please introduce yourselves and tell...

Review: ‘Spring Trio’ at The Greenspring Players

One Act plays comprise a three-course menu of The Greenspring Players for their 2016 Spring Trio. It’s another home run for these theatrical mavens. When I pondered a connecting theme for the evening,...

An Interview with Pianist Simone Dinnerstein on Performing at Washington Performing Arts at Strathmore on May 22nd

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein (pronounced See-MOHN-uh DIN-ner-steen), based in New York, gained an international following the remarkable success of her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations,...

An Interview with Eric Lynum of The Dolly Rockers

The Dolly Rockers are based in the Washington, DC area. Band members are Eric Lynum (vocalist, guitar), Larry D. (guitarist), Megan Strings (violin), Mike Trippi (bass), Derrick Decker (drums), and...

A Report on ‘Life: A Comic Opera in Three Short Acts’ at Monumental Theatre Company

Monumental Theatre Company presented an abridged reading of a brand new musical on Sunday, May 15th at Catholic University in Washington, DC. Life: A Comic Opera in Three Short Acts, is an original...

Review: ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Children’s Theatre of Annapolis

This musical production of Sleeping Beauty by the Children’s Theatre of Annapolis shows just how many talented young people are in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. With music and lyrics by David...

Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at Candlelight Theatre in Wilmington, DE

Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Tom Teti at the Candlelight Theatre, is a classic case of old-fashioned fun. This farcical dark comedy provides plenty of laughs for audiences of all ages. The...

Review: ‘Do I Hear a Waltz?’ at Encores! at City Center in NYC

This vintage musical, now over 50 years old, was written by a team of masters of musical theatre. It is the perfect piece with which the Encores! series continues to fulfill its mandate, which is to...

Magic Time! ‘Hedda Gabler’ at Studio Theatre

Watching Julia Coffey’s feline and feral performance in the title role of Studio Theatre’s sleek and stark staging of Hedda Gabler is to witness the trainwreck that is Ibsen’s enigmatic character in a...

Review: ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic is one of the very few theatre companies that pull off “cinematic” well. Without sacrificing the intimacies and excitement of live theatre you often feel like you’re watching an epic movie at...

Review: ‘The Pelican’ at Arcturus Theater Company

Rare Production of Strindberg’s Pelican at Arcturus The Pelican—a Victorian melodrama long abandoned by modern producers —has happily returned to the DC stage in a brilliantly staged one-act play....

Review: ‘The Foreigner’ at Sandy Spring Theatre Group and Arts on the Green

‘The Foreigner’ Lampoons British\Southern Culture Clash Thank God for actors. They make us feel emotions, make us think, make us identify with their characters, and make us laugh. There was plenty of...

Review: ‘Hedda Gabler’ at Studio Theatre

Hedda Tesman, aka., Hedda Gabler, has it all: beauty, grace, status, ambition, wit, and feminine mystique. And, per usual, it’s the mystique that does her in. Studio Theatre’s Hedda Gabler, in a new...