2017

Review: ‘Men on Boats’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

MANifest Destiny, or Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls Cohesion Theatre Company (Cohesion) is closing its third season with playwright Jaclyn Backhaus’s historical adventure-with-a-twist, Men on Boats. It’s...

Report #1: ‘Callado Conmigo’ (‘Silenced Within Me’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The idea of using theater to educate people is not new. The Greeks were doing it way back when, using the great amphitheater at Epidaurus to teach the populace that murder and mayhem would not be...

Magic Time!: “Never Fear Your Own Radical Ideas”: A Q&A with Malic White, Who Plays Max in ‘Hir’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The young performer, playwright, and self-described gender warrior Malic White is in town from Chicago making a singularly significant debut on a DC stage playing Max, a whip-smart radical queer...

From ‘Class Clown’ to Master of Clowning and Circus Arts: An Interview with Terry Brennan on Tribe of Fools’ ‘School Play’

Founder and Artistic Director of Tribe of Fools, Terry Brennan is back on stage this month in the Philadelphia SoLow Fest, with his company’s latest offering School Play. The original one-man show,...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Providence Players of Fairfax

The open living room has a well-lived in look: easy chairs, love seat, kitchen nook off to the side, and plenty of collected knick-knacks. It’s a cozy setting for an adolescent argument, except the...

Review: ‘Doubt: A Parable’ at SeeNoSun OnStage

We live in a world where self-righteous anger is the new god. It’s getting to the point where we can barely shift our torches and pitchforks aside long enough to tweet or post on Facebook. We hate so...

Review: ‘Independence Eve’ at UrbanArias

The two men stand at opposite ends of an urban park, on a day that is a mere heartbeat away from the landmark midpoint in the calendar year. Summer and it is an evening to capture the heat that won’t...

Review: ‘Red, White, and Tuna’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The title alone is fair warning. Red, White, and Tuna is irreverently reverse-patriotic. Let’s break it down: red state (Texas), mixed with a dash of white supremacy and a tangy, Southern flavor that...

‘Doubt: A Parable’ has Press Night Tonight at SeeNoSun OnStage at the Anacostia Arts Center

SeeNoSun OnStage will open a four-week run of Doubt: A Parable, John Patrick Shanley’s controversial Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama. The play examines the Catholic Church abuse scandal...

Review: ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ at 1st Stage

The late self-taught playwright and poet August Wilson’s ten-play Century Cycle has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, with movie star Denzel Washington committing to bringing that cycle to the...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Elizabeth Zharoff + Xavier Foley at World Cafe Live

LiveConnections Presents ended its sixth season with soprano Elizabeth Zharoff and double bassist Xavier Foley. This season was devoted to pairing musicians in order to stretch musical boundaries, and...

Review: ‘Bernadette Peters’ at Wolf Trap

There’s something special about outdoor summer concerts: the light breeze, the chirping crickets, the enjoyment of good music in summer. But when you have all that and the performer is Broadway legend...

Review: ‘The Jungle Book’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

Man’s desire to know the ways of the jungle and its creatures has been captured in Encore Stage & Studio’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The story of Mowgli’s (Ryely Rogers)...

Dangereuse: An Interview with Dorea Schmidt, Eliante in ‘The School for Lies’ at the Shakespeare Theatre Company

David Ives’s The School for Lies (adapted from Le Misanthrope by Molière and directed by Michael Kahn) has arrived at the Shakespeare Theatre! This charming comedy is at the Lansburgh Theatre now...

Review: ‘Crazy Mary Lincoln’ at Pallas Theatre Collective

Crazy Mary Lincoln, has received an appealing, open-hearted, ardent regional premiere production from Pallas Theatre Collective. The musical focuses new light on the long, woe-filled life of Mary Todd...

Review: ‘Mary Poppins’ at 2nd Star Productions

A show that’s “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” on every level. There has never been a nanny quite so magical – or musical – as Mary Poppins, a character created by author P.L. Travers in eight...

Who’s in Town?: Jaime Camil from TV’s ‘Jane the Virgin’ to Receive the Inspiration Award at GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Noche de Estrellas on Monday, June 5 at 6:30PM

Ok, I admit it. I’ve become slightly obsessed with the CW show Jane the Virgin this week. The love triangles, the mysteries, the heartwarming family moments, what’s not to love? In preparing to...

Review: ‘Motown The Musical’ at the Academy of Music

Bringing Detroit’s soulful music to the masses was the goal, and Berry Gordy showed he was ready for the challenge by creating the melodies of Motown. Written for the stage by Gordy (adapted from his...

Dangereuse: ‘King Lear’ at WSC Avant Bard

King Lear has sometimes been called the Everest of classical acting. Every great Shakespearean actor must sooner or later face the physically and emotionally exhausting task of playing the part. Some...

Review: ‘How to Use a Knife’ at InterAct Theatre Company

Set in the hectic kitchen of a restaurant in New York’s Financial District, Will Snider’s How to Use a Knife focuses on a friendship that develops between two men – one a chef, the other a dishwasher...

Interviews with Cohesion Playwrights Fellows, Part 1 of 2: Jen Diamond, Playwright of ‘Porn: A Love Story’

After its award-winning Trans* Voices Workshop Series in Season 2, Cohesion Theatre Company (Cohesion) introduced a Playwrights Fellowship for Season 3. Cohesion’s Playwrights Fellowship aims “to...

Report: ‘A Centennial Celebration of John F. Kennedy’ at The Kennedy Center

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (The Kennedy Center) paid elegant tribute to the legacy of its namesake in A JFK Centennial Celebration on May 29, 2017, the 100th birthday of our...

Review: ‘(In)Security: Or, Jack and Nikki Do the Cold War Tango’ at The Kennedy Center

Memorial Day this year coincided to the day with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy. To commemorate the occasion, The Kennedy Center put on a full weekend of events,...

Review: ‘King Lear’ at Avant Bard

The tempest in my mind / Doth from my senses take all feeling else. King Lear, Act 3, scenes 4–5. Avant Bard’s King Lear is a bracing, piercing production of a family and realm in heightening...

Review: ‘She Kills Monsters’ at Spotlighters

“My party is a leather-clad dominatrix and an Elvin supermodel?” Shimmy into your chainmail and grab a broadsword, there’s an awesome campaign starting at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre...

Review: ‘All Shook Up’ at Act Two at Levine

Seeing All Shook Up at Act Two at Levine last weekend was like an adventure in time travel. The show, which played for one weekend only, offered a glimpse of a long-ago world—1955, when Elvis Presley...

Magic Time!: ‘Hir’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The absurdity and grim reality of gender get a scathing going-over in this extraordinary play by Taylor Mac. Inside the hilarity of Hir (pronounced “here”) is a tragedy howling to get out. Taylor Mac,...

Review: ‘Making History’ at The Irish Heritage Theatre

The Confederate statues have been removed from their pedestals. Some people are disappointed. Their rosy vision of the lost genteel South has been taken away. To them, history has been rewritten...

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

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” And in the case of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it hits every bump in the road! One of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, Midsummer follows the...

HCC’s Arts Collective Presents ‘INHERITORS: The Nature of Keys’ June 8 – 18, 2017

HCC’s Arts Collective Presents “INHERITORS: The Nature of Keys” June 8 – 18, 2017, An Original Play Devised by The Company. Howard Community College’s Arts Collective concludes its 22nd season with...

Review: ‘Jazz’ at Baltimore Center Stage

In its latest quest to create and present a diverse array of bold, innovative and thought-provoking contemporary theater, Baltimore Center Stage (BCS) unveiled the world premiere production of...

Review: ‘Disney’s The Little Mermaid’ at Steel River Playhouse

Memorial Day Weekend usually means a trip to the shore, but Steel River Playhouse brought the ocean to Pottstown, with its glorious rendition of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. True, the show takes plays...

Review: ‘Hir’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

I recently came back from London, where I saw the National Theatre’s 25th anniversary production of Tony Kushner’s epic, Angels in America. I thought a lot about that play after seeing Woolly Mammoth...

Film Review: ‘A Jew Must Die’ Appearing at the Washington Jewish Film Festival

I have seen many World War II films that focused on either the battles that were fought, or the horrors of the Holocaust. Only a small number of films touch on the level of extremism exhibited during...

Review: ‘Urinetown: The Musical’ at Nextstop Theatre Company

Imagine a musical about a revolution, where a few scrappy rebels fight for the dignity of their fellow man against a tyrannical few. Now add a score that satirizes every musical under the sun, a...

Review: ‘One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue’ at The Latvian Society of Philadelphia

Lynn Nottage wrote One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue a decade ago, yet oddly enough, it has never been produced onstage before. As Nottage’s fame has grown – she just earned a Pulitzer Prize...

Review: ‘See How They Run’ at Vagabond Players

We all need a good laugh these days – not a snicker or a snarky smile. A series of side-splitting belly laughs that leave you exhausted and smiling. See How They Run aptly named for the nursery rhyme...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

What do you remember most about the movie Saturday Night Fever? Is it the dynamic direction, the earthy dialogue, or the gritty story about a working-class Brooklyn kid trying to escape a menial job...

Review: ‘A Chorus Line’ at Tantallon Community Players

Packed with pizazz, energy, and downright sizzle, A Chorus Line, as performed by Tantallon Community Players (TCP) and directed by Christopher Gerken, is the MVP of musicals on DC area stages this...

Review: Audra McDonald at Strathmore

Returning to the DC area, Audra McDonald gave a concert at Strathmore on May 26, 2017, full of her signature charm and joy. Her powerhouse soprano that transitions smoothly and easily between Broadway...

Film Review: ‘The Wedding Plan’

Near the beginning of The Wedding Plan, the latest from Israeli-American filmmaker Rama Burshtein, we find ourselves in an uncomfortable place. Michal, whom we first met at a fortune teller’s talking...

In the Moment: Interviews with Flying V’s Jason Schlafstein and Sydney Moore

With monikers like, Become Awesome and The Theatre for People Who Don’t Think They Like Theatre, Flying V burst onto the DC-metro area theater scene. In 2015, Flying V received the Helen Hayes Award...

Magic Time!: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Signature Theatre

There’s an extraordinarily tender and touching moment in Signature Theatre’s ebullient Jesus Christ Superstar when Mary Magdalene (Natascia Diaz), after singing her gorgeous ballad “I Don’t Know How...

Review: ‘Golden Cockerel’ at New Opera NYC

Golden Cockerel (Coq d’Or) is a musical fantasy that was popular in the first half of the twentieth century but rarely seen since. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed it in 1907 with splashy orchestral...

Film Review: ‘On the Map’ Appearing at the Washington Jewish Film Festival

Everybody loves an underdog story, especially in the world of sports. Some of these stories are well-known likes The Miracle on Ice. But, sometimes, the best stories can be the ones you’ve never heard...

Review: ‘Gypsy’ at Arden Theatre Company

Since its debut in 1959, Gypsy, which closes out Arden Theatre Company’s 2016-17 season, has retained its popularity as one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time, filled with such classic hits...

In The Moment: A Report on ‘ReBirth of a Nation’ at The Kennedy Center

It was an evening like few others in the company of of hundreds at The Kennedy Center on a recent evening. What took place was a performance meant to strike a hot chord for cultural and political...

In The Moment: Interviews With the Creative Cauldron ‘Bold New Works in Intimate Space Artistic Teams: Laura Connors Hull, Matt Conner, and Stephen Gregory Smith

Creative Cauldron continues to dazzle critics and audiences with its “Bold New Works for Intimate Stages” – a series of premier musicals. It is certainly rare when a smaller professional theater...

Review: ‘The King of Howard Street’ at Annex Theater

We are human beings, right? We were at one point in our lives. There was an excited energy in the air on opening night of The King of Howard Street. Not only was it the World Premiere of this powerful...

Review: ‘Can You Forgive Her?’ at Vineyard Theatre

“I’ve made bad choices. And I’ve made them . . . knowingly,” says 27-year-old Tanya – a single mom and bar waitress in a South Jersey beach town – in the opening scene of Gina Gionfriddo’s latest dark...