2016

Review: ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Like most people my age, before I prepared for this review, I knew that Buddy Holly was a famous singer from the 50’s who died young in a tragic plane crash, and that Weezer, a popular band with my...

Review: ‘Cold Mountain’ at The Academy of Music in Philadelphia

Charles Frazier’s 1997 award-winning best-selling debut novel, adapted into an Oscar-winning feature film starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger in 2003, is now a new American opera....

Review: ‘Len Piper’s Pinocchio’ at The Puppet Company

The Puppet Co. presents Len Piper’s Pinocchio, an adaptation of the classic story of a wooden puppet’s adventurous quest to become a real, live boy! Inspired by the book of Carlo Collodi,...

Review: ‘One Slight Hitch’ at the Old Opera House

One Slight Hitch at The Old Opera House, directed by Glenn Frail, is a wonderfully romantic comedy. In this delightfully sharp farce by Lewis Black, it’s 1981 and Courtney’s wedding day in a perfect...

Review: ‘The 33rd Annual Choreographers’ Showcase’ at The Clarice

The 33rd Annual Choreographers’ Showcase presented by The Clarice and The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) and adjudicated by notable choreographers and teachers Zvi...

Review: ‘When the Rain Stops Falling’ at 1st Stage

This play by Andrew Bovell in this 1st Stage production burned so many astounding images onto my brain—and sent into my ears so many searing exchanges—that my head is still spinning. For instance...

Jarrod Bennett on The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘The Way We Were’ at Atlas on 2/12 & 13

Jarrod Bennett tells us about the upcoming performances of The Way We Were at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC at Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Lang Theatre on February 12th at 8 PM and on...

Review: ‘Guards at the Taj’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Although it is never seen, not even a glimpse of one of its four minarets or gleaming domes, the Taj Mahal looms large as a monument of beauty and death as it haunts Rajiv Joseph’s poetic morality...

Review: ‘Barenaked Comedy’ at Bier Baron

In the Venn Diagram of your brain on burlesque and your brain on standup, Barenaked Comedy is the intersection. It made for an interesting energy flow at BNC’s first show in their new home, the Bier...

Spine: ‘Guards at the Taj’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj, now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, provokes its audience with grand flamingo visions, with horrific buckets of blood, with aesthetic debate on the role of...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde, Jr.’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

The performance of the student version of Legally Blonde Jr.at Adventure Theatre MTC was a rollicking ride through the highlights of the extended version. The story is one of female empowerment; a...

Review: ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ at Other Voices Theatre

In time for Valentine’s Day, Other Voices Theatre presents a hysterical look at modern relationships, set to some catchy songs, in a series of vignettes forming the musical I Love You, You’re Perfect,...

Review: ‘1776’ at McLean Community Players

Who would have thought you could make a musical about something as serious as starting a revolution? Well, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone, the 1969 Tony Award-winning...

Review: ‘The Philadelphia Story’ at 2nd Star Productions

It’s always fun to peer into the lives of the rich and famous. As a native Philadelphian, I found Christopher Overly’s revival of Phillip Barry’s 1939 Broadway hit a delightful throwback set amidst my...

Review: ‘The Laramie Project’ at the Kensington Arts Theatre

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theater Project, and produced by Craig Pettinati and directed by John Nunemaker, opened at the Kensington Arts Theatre on Friday,...

Review: ‘Bizet’s Carmen in Havana’ at The In Series

The In Series wows again with one of their trademark reimaginings: Carmen in Havana, which takes the essential scenes from Bizet’s classic and adds the Latin rhythms of the Caribbean with iconic Cuban...

A Valentine’s Day Treat: ‘Lovers and Lotharios’ at the Cultural Arts Center of Montgomery College

If you’re looking for a romantic date this Valentine’s Day, then check out the ‘Symphony of the Potomac’—Washington’s own community-based orchestra—which will be celebrating the art of love with a...

Review: ‘The Government Inspector’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in Philadelphia

First performed in 1836, The Government Inspector–playwright Nikolai Gogol’s unrelenting farce on socio-political corruption in Imperial Russia–has long been considered an important precursor to...

Review: ‘A Taste of Things to Come’ at Bucks County Playhouse

It’s not every day you see a musical with an all-female cast and a female-led creative team, but Bucks County Playhouse has given us one with their latest offering. A Taste of Things to Come depicts...

Review: ‘The City of Conversation’ at Arena Stage

In the daring new play about Washington politics and the halcyon days of genteel social hostesses, The City of Conversation, (now playing at Arena Stage) the word “conversation “ is most decidedly a...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at The Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts’ Academies of Musical Theatre and Dance

The Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts’ Academies of Musical Theatre and Dance made one of history’s darkest and most beloved musicals a vehicle to showcase the talents of their student...

Review: ‘Exit Strategy’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA

Hope and destruction come to a crossroads in Exit Strategy, an East coast premiere in association with Primary Stages now playing at Philadelphia Theatre Company. Although the setting of Ike Holter’s...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Reaching the Other Ninety Percent’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: Reaching the Other Ninety Percent. Purchase Peter...

Review: ‘Dogfall’ at Iron Age Theatre in Philadelphia

Dismal, drab, and grimy, the site-specific setting of Iron Age Theatre’s Philadelphia premiere of Dogfall in the subterranean space of The Power Plant, sparsely furnished with two metal cots, piles of...

An Interview With Isabelle Époque and Bella La Blanc on ‘Bowie and Burlesque’

And the stars look very different today. David Bowie left us poor, mere earthlings behind last month but there are two burlesque shows in his honor happening next week! Philanthrotease is presenting...

Review: ‘Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Concert with Arlo Guthrie’ at Strathmore

Fifty years later, audiences can still get anything they want – but Alice is still not part of the package. Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Concert with Arlo Guthrie played to a packed house...

Tonight 2/5@8pm: HCC’s Arts Collective Improv Group (W.I.G.) Presents a One-Night-Only Improv Show ‘A Valentine Fit for Queens’

HCC’s Arts Collective Improv Group (W.I.G.) Presents a One-Night-Only Improv Show “A Valentine Fit for Queens” on Friday, February 5, 2016 Howard Community College’s (HCC) Arts Collective continues...

J. Ernest Green on Musical Directing and Conducting ‘Finian’s Rainbow’ for Live Arts Maryland on 2/12&13

J. Ernest Green is musical directing Finian’s Rainbow at Live Arts Maryland on Friday and Saturday, February 12th and 13th. He talks here about the decision to mount the recent Broadway revival and...

An Interview with Local DC Musician Kate Moran on The Rainbow Rock Band

Alexandria, Virginia native and musician Kate Moran is a renaissance woman! She started the Del Ray Music Festival, has a Ph.D in Special Education, formed the Kate Moran Band in 2006 and then the...

Magic Time! ‘Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’ at Round House Theatre

The production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ acclaimed three-part saga now having its regional premiere at Round House Theatre is some of the most amazing storytelling I’ve seen on stage. Amazing on account of...

Live Arts Maryland’s “Finian’s Rainbow” Performed on Friday, 2/12@7:30 PM & Sat 2/13 @3 and 8 PM

Live Arts Maryland presents Broadway in Annapolis: Finian’s Rainbow, Friday, February 12th at 7:30 PM and Saturday, February 13th at 3 PM and 8 PM at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. With a dream...

Review: ‘Une Education Manquée’ at Opera Lafayette

Opera Lafayette’s second offering of the season, Emmanuel Chabrier’s Une Education Manquée, is a far cry from the massive spectacle many people assume is synonymous with opera. This little known...

Review: ‘Father Comes Home from the War (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre has crafted a formidable artistic statement for Suzan-Lori Parks’ inventive, no make that commanding, Father Comes Home from the War (Parts 1, 2 & 3). It is a quietly scorching...

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

Only Worldviews coexisted within the remembrance of spirit, while timeless historical context filled the John F. Kennedy Center Opera House on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016. The Alvin Ailey American...

Review: ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater delivers an intense rendition of Tennessee Williams’ classic play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a southern drama set in the 1950s. Williams offers up a scandalous subject matter of its...

Interviews With the Cast and Director of Kensington Arts Theatre’s ‘The Laramie Project’: Part 5: Francisco Borja

In Part 5 of a series of interviews with the Director and cast of Kensington Arts Theatre’s The Laramie Project, meet Francisco Borja. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they...

Review: ‘The It Girl’ at Simpatico Theatre Project in Philadelphia

Clara Bow was nobody’s fool. In 1962, three decades after her reign as the biggest female star in movies, Bow wrote in a letter about the recent death of one of her successors, Marilyn Monroe. “I...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at Centerstage

Embarking on a $32 million, year-long renovation project that features major renovations to Centerstage’s two-stage complex while adding a new 99-seat theater, the last two shows of its season are...

Review: ‘Agents of Azeroth’ at The Washington Rogues at Flashpoint

Now, in DC theatre, video games are hot. From Rorschach’s She Kills Monsters to Flying V’s The Oregon Trail and Molotov’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, audiences (and Artistic Directors) can’t...

Review: ‘Shake Loose’ at MetroStage

Shake Loose: A Musical Night of Blues Moods & Icons Hang on to your seats, guys and gals! Over three dozen songs – twelve never sung before at MetroStage – and a libretto comprise a whirlwind,...

Here Are The 2016 Helen Hayes Award Nominations And A Look Back at The 2015 Nominations & Recipients

______ Outstanding Choreography in a Musical-HAYES Production Parker Esse West Side Story Signature Theatre Michele Lynch Kiss Me, Kate Shakespeare Theatre Company Tommy Rapley Carousel Olney Theatre...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Folger Theatre

What continually impresses me about the Folger Theatre is that it takes on Shakespeare plays and that nothing is off limits from experimentation or adaptation. They are masters at unlocking new levels...

Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at The Media Theatre in Media, PA

For its latest production, the Media Theatre has turned to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic story known by millions of readers. The stage adaptation by Christopher Sergel tells the story...

Review: ‘Assassins’ at The Eagle Theatre in Hammonton, NJ

Is there a more relevant topic in contemporary America, while gun control is being hotly debated by the presidential candidates, Congress, and the voting populace, than a look at gun violence via the...

Review: Dance Place’s 35th Year Reunion

Dance Place Reunion Celebrates 35 Years When Dance Place marks a milestone, invariably by the evening’s end its Founding Artistic Director Carla Perlo has more people on stage than in the audience....

A Report on ‘Sanctuary (An American Psalm)’ at Arena Stage

There is a moment when Director and performer John Moletress and Jocelyn Kuritsky are dancing on stage left. Caridad Svich is singing her original song “Low Valley” on stage right. As the dancers...

HCC’s Arts Collective Improv Group (W.I.G.) Presents a One-Night-Only Improv Show ‘A Valentine Fit for Queens’ on Friday, February 5, 2016

HCC’s Arts Collective Improv Group (W.I.G.) Presents a One-Night-Only Improv Show “A Valentine Fit for Queens” on Friday, February 5, 2016 Howard Community College’s (HCC) Arts Collective continues...

Review: ‘St. Nicholas’ at Washington Stage Guild

Theater critics can sometimes be vicious and bloodthirsty…… and that’s before one of them gets employed by a bloodsucking vampire in the Washington Stage Guild production of St. Nicholas. This...

Review: ‘Three Sisters’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Chekhov is a challenge for even the most experienced and skilled artists of our profession. It is not merely that his characters are the most psychologically dense in drama (which they are), or that...

Review: ‘Leave it to Psmith!’ at Lumina Studio Theatre

Clomping into the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, shivering from Snowzilla’s persistent chill and shaking caked snow and ice from our boots, we are greeted by the pleasant, ear-warming sounds of...