2016

Review: ‘The Ring Cycle’: ‘The Rhinegold’ at Washington National Opera

German composer Richard Wagner’s much heralded and talked about (over the past many decades!) Ring Cycle opened at The Kennedy Center Opera House on Saturday evening with the first opera in the cycle,...

Review: ‘A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur’ at South Camden Theatre Company

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is one of Tennessee Williams’ lesser-known plays. First staged in 1978, a few decades after his biggest successes, Creve Coeur has echoes of Williams’ best-known works,...

Review: ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ at American Airlines Theatre in NYC

Eugene O’Neill’s masterwork shows up in London or on Broadway every other season or two, and with good cause. It remains a bravely probing look into a particular family, one which produced an American...

Review: ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ at Curio Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Telling stories is what the Irish are known for, and Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Joshua Browns at Curio Theatre Company, does not disappoint. The rumors are as reliable as...

Meet the Cast of 1st Stage’s ‘Proof’: Part 3: Katrina Clark

In Part Three of a series of interviews with the cast of Proof at 1st Stage, meet Katrina Clark. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform before on our...

Review: ‘Skin Deep’ at the Old Opera House

Skin Deep at the Old Opera House proves love comes in all shapes and sizes and the message is easily displayed with some outstanding performances from the small ensemble cast in this clever romantic...

Meet the Cast of Silhouette Stages’ ‘Next to Normal’: Part 1: Jeremy Goldman

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Silhouette Stages Next to Normal, meet Jeremy Goldman. Joel: Please introduce yourself to our readers. Jeremy: I live in Howard County, MD with my...

Review: ‘Tender Tears and Love and Life: Songs by Anton Rubinstein, Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov, and Mark Minkov’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

In a concert that rang the rafters and tugged at the heartstrings, the Russian Chamber Art Society bade a thrilling farewell to its longtime home at the Austrian embassy, which, after hosting more...

Review: ‘‘I Will Not Go Gently’ at 1812 Productions in Philadelphia

Back in the eighties and nineties, there was no rock star edgier or more electrifying than Sierra Mist. (No, she’s no relation to the soda.) But that was a long time ago. Now it’s 2016, and Sierra is...

Review: ‘Coming Home’ at Port City Playhouse

With Eleanore Tapscott’s gentle, affecting, eloquent direction, the Port City Playhouse production of Athol Fugard’s Coming Home (2009) is an exemplary work about love, loss and resilience. The...

Review: ‘Unnecessary Farce’ at McLean Community Players

Misunderstandings? Check. Discarded clothing and sexual innuendos? Check. A ridiculous number of doorways? Check. An absurd plot that you feel compelled to see through to the end despite the high...

Magic Time! ‘Lord of the Flies’ at Imagination Stage

When Randy Baker told me he had directed a production of Lord of the Flies with a cast of mostly teenage girls, I knew I had to see it. William Golding’s classic about British schoolboys whose...

Review: ‘Assassins’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

Assassins, comes to Laurel Mill Playhouse for a murderously fun evening of theatre. This quirky little musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, is based on an idea...

Review: ‘All Lady Macbeth’ at Theatre Prometheus

The Northwest and Southwest sides of DC are filled with theatre and art. From the Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth to Arena Stage and Studio Theatre, one never needs to look too far to...

Review: ‘Waitress’ at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre in NYC

I’m sorry to have to report that Jessie Mueller, the appealing young lead in last season’s Beautiful, the Carole King Musical, has moved on to the role of Jenna in the musical adaptation of the film...

Review: ‘Fully Committed’ at The Lyceum Theatre in NYC

As I gleefully watched Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s brilliant tour de force performance in this one man telephone marathon called Fully Committed, I pictured him playing so many leading characters from...

Review: ‘American Psycho’ at The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in NYC

From what would seem to be the most unlikely source material, Duncan Sheik and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have fashioned a dazzling and original musical theatre piece. The source is Bret Easton Ellis’...

Review: ‘Disgraced’ at Arena Stage

If you think we are over-saturated with passionate discussions of race, gender, nationality, and religion during this chaotic election year — think again. There is still much to be probed, and...

Meet the Cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s ‘Our Town’: Part 2: Allison Howlett

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s Our Town, meet Allison Howlett. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Meet the Cast of McLean Community Players’ ‘Unnecessary Farce’: Part 2: Bob Sams

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of McLean Community Players’ Unnecessary Farce, meet Bob Sams. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you on...

Meet the Cast of Roseprose Productions’ ‘Voices the play’: Part 2: Meet Stanley Freeman

In part two in a series of interviews with the cast of Voices the play, meet Stanley Freeman. Joel: Tell us about yourself. How long have you been acting in the DC, MD, VA area? What are some of your...

Meet The Cast of Sandy Spring Theatre Group’s ‘The Foreigner’ Part 1: Rob Milanich

In Part One of a series of interviews with the cast of The Foreigner at the Sandy Spring Theatre Group, performing at The Gaithersburg Arts Barn, meet Rob Milanich. Joel: Please introduce yourself and...

Review: ‘Lacey Ward: Girl Detective’ at The Phenomenal Animals in Philadelphia

The first of Robert Cousins’ four-part series on fictional teenage sleuth Lacey Ward makes its Philadelphia debut with the Phenomenal Animals in a short six-performance run. Self-described as a...

In the Moment: PEN/Faulkner’s Tribute to Robert Stone at the Folger Shakespeare Library

He wrote books that fueled many of his generation. He was a literary provocateur with a writing style like few others penning works about the Vietnam War’s aftermath, political intrigue, class and...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at Howard County Community College

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” is among Shakespeare’s most famous lines. When it was penned, the Bard probably did not imagine it delivered by a girl dressed like...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Randy Harrison is raising a bit of hell as the Emcee for Cabaret in midtown Baltimore. I mean, just take a look at that demented, Chucky doll leer. He knows the Devil has his back, and before doing a...

Spine: Becoming Leila Buck’s ‘Hkeelee’ at Mosaic Theater Company

In The Protean Self, Robert Jay Lifton explores the wonders of human resilience in times of profound disturbance and change. In Hkeelee (Talk to Me), a theatrical memoir of sorts, writer and performer...

Meet the Cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s ‘Our Town’: Part 1: Zoe Bulitt

In Part One of a series of interviews with the cast of Rockville Little Theatre’s Our Town, meet Zoe Bulitt. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform...

Meet the Cast of Roseprose Productions’ ‘Voices the play’: Part 1: Meet Eli El

In part one in a series of interviews with the cast of Voices the play, meet Eli El. Joel: Tell us about yourself. How long have you been acting in the DC, MD, VA area? What are some of your more...

Meet the Cast of McLean Community Players’ ‘Unnecessary Farce’: Part 1: Marilyn Pifer

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of McLean Community Players’ Unnecessary Farce, meet Marilyn Pifer. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Arts Collective @HCC Presents ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ May 19 – June 5, 2016

HCC’s Arts Collective presents the Tony Award-Winning Musical: THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE May 19 – June 5, 2016 Howard Community College’s Arts Collective proudly wraps up its 21st...

Santino Fontana Discusses ‘The 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Festival’ at the Bucks County Playhouse

The 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Festival, being held this weekend at the Bucks County Playhouse, brings together a wide array of musical theatre artists, scholars, and enthusiasts to explore the importance...

Review: ‘Journey to the West’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Mary Zimmerman has mastered the stage adaptation, particularly of the classic tale, freely blending cultural forms and styles with hypnotic brilliance. Her Metamorphoses and Arabian Nights are shining...

Review: ‘The Naked Magic Show’ at Lincoln Theatre

Admittedly, I haven’t been to that many bachelorette parties, and with good reason – Ms. Blozia drinks a little – but the atmosphere at The Naked Magic Show at the Lincoln Theatre on Sunday night felt...

Review: ‘The Emperor’s Nightingale’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Adventure Theatre MTC’s latest project is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, The Emperor’s Nightingale. Playwright Damon Chua has created a new adaptation, set in China in the eighteenth...

Review: ‘The Electric Baby’ at Rorschach Theatre

At the center of this beautifully ambiguous and hauntingly honest play is a sick infant. The baby is peculiar, perhaps mythically so, in that it glows like the moon. As we enter the theater, the...

Review: ‘In the Secret Sea’ at The Beckett Theatre in NYC

A company called Wellington Road, LLC has produced this 80-minute play by Cate Ryan at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row on 42nd Street, with a company of five featured players, under the direction...

In the Moment: ‘William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)’ at Folger Theatre

The boys from the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) have been a mainstay in the DC area for decades. They never wear out their welcome whether performing at the Folger, The Kennedy Center or Reston’s...

Review: ‘Cosi Fan Tutte Goes Hollywood’ at The In Series

The confusion all begins with the title. Cosi Fan Tutte — It is of course the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comic opera, or “opera buff,” that is today considered part of the gold standard of the opera...

Review: Kristine Fraelich at the Arden Cabaret Series at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia

“It is terrifying.” More often than not, the actor’s relationship to their audience involves three parties; the audience, the actor, and their character. Guarded by learned lines and blocking, an...

Review: ‘Nothing to See Here’ at Found Theater Company in Philadelphia

Well, actually, there’s a lot to see in Found Theater Company’s latest ensemble-devised work Nothing to See Here, and there’s even more to hear, to think about, and to feel. But above all else, the...

Movie Review: ‘Elvis & Nixon’

It’s not every day that the world’s greatest entertainer asks the President to become an undercover narcotics agent (and the badge that goes with it, of course). Up until Elvis did it, it wasn’t any...

Review: ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at The Puppet Co.

The fairytale of Sleeping Beauty is a beloved classic, and what better way to tell the ancient story then through the timeless art of puppetry? The Puppet Co. Playhouse in Glen Echo Park is well-known...

Review: ‘Black Pearl Sings!’ at MetroStage

Review: ‘Black Pearl Sings’ explores the political and the personal Politics, whether personal or political often divides us. These differences come to light when two women with out-sized...

Review: ‘Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? at Pointless Theatre Company

The whooshing, passionate ride that is Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? – an original piece by DC’s perennial enfant terrible, Pointless Theatre Company – masquerades as a simple biography...

Review #2: ‘I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk’ at Strathmore

Composer Andrew Lippa’s pulsating music shoots like a jolt of adrenaline throughout the super-charged heightened music of the World Premiere Concept Opera I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk....

Review: ‘Force Continuum’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

Force Continuum opened at Cohesion Theatre Company on Friday – three days after the first anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimorian who died from injuries sustained while in...

Review: ‘William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)’ at Folger Theatre

Whatever you’re doing, stop now. Run – do not walk; run – to Folger Theatre for the glorious ray of sunshine that is William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged). Created by the Reduced...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at Popes Head Players

Godspell is the inaugural productiom for Popes Head Players in Fairfax, VA. Conceived from a love for performing arts and outreach, Sovereign Grace Church’s high school drama troupe started almost a...

Review: ‘I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk’ at Strathmore

From Handel’s Giulio Cesare to Donizetti’s Anna Bolena to Adams’ Nixon in China, real-life historic figures have often been the subjects of operas. The multi-talented actor, singer, composer, and...