2017

Review: ‘The Light Princess’ at Arden Theatre Company

A world-premiere musical adaptation of George MacDonald’s 19th-century Scottish fairytale The Light Princess, with book and lyrics by Tony Lawton and music by Alex Bechtel, is the latest offering from...

Review: ‘Equus’ at The Forge Theatre

Theatergoers of the 1970s will remember Peter Shaffer’s Equus as the ultimate phantasmagorical theater ride. The revolving stage, the omnipresent stage smoke, the blasting music, and the...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Publisher and Editor Joel Markowitz To Receive The Gary Maker Award From DCTheatreScene At A Benefit Cabaret at MetroStage TONIGHT Monday, May 1st at 7 PM

DCMetroTheatreArts’ Pubisher and Editor Joel Markowitz has received the Gary Maker Award from DCTheatreScene. In her announcement Publisher and Editor of DCTheatreScene Lorraine Treanor wrote: Joel...

Magic Time!: ‘Off the Leash: A Journey Into Reality One Black Life at a Time’ at Woolly Mammoth Rehearsal Hall

After I watched eleven B.F.A. candidates in Howard University’s Class of 2017 perform a program of self-scripted audition pieces—character-rich monodramas, actually—I had one overwhelming urge: I...

Review: ‘Bradley’s Bucks’ at Franky Bradley’s

Acrobatic, athletic, comic, and erotic, Bradley’s Bucks have it all and delivered it all upstairs at Franky Bradley’s in their latest high-energy offering. Founded, led, and directed by Teddy Fatscher...

Review: ‘A Conversation with Alec Baldwin’ at Smithsonian Associates

A sold out crowd Wednesday night enthusiastically enjoyed the Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actor, writer, producer, comedian, and political activist Alec Baldwin’s...

Review: ‘Daniel’s Husband’ at The Cherry Lane Theatre

Family plays have changed so in the past few decades. They once concerned themselves with sibling rivalry for power and control (The Little Foxes), long held lies that are finally unearthed (All My...

Review: ‘.d0t:: a RotoPlastic Ballet’ at Pointless Theatre Company

When you hear the phrase “futuristic dystopia where the human race has almost died out, leaving a single human and a civilization of robots,” you probably don’t think “puppets.” But Pointless Theatre...

Magic Time!: Homoeroticism and the Mother in ‘Blood Knot’: A Q&A with Director Joy Zinoman

Until I saw Blood Knot at Mosaic Theater Company, I knew the work of Director Joy Zinoman only by reputation. I had come to her legend late. And the production blew me away. Set in apartheid South...

Review: Smithsonian Associates in Collaboration with the Creativity Foundation presents the 15th Annual Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate Prize to Tim Robbins

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this event, but it was unlike any Smithsonian Associates’ event I’ve ever attended. It involved a laugh exercise, talks about prison reform through art, and how art...

Review: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

Brave Spirits Theatre (BST) has recently opened two productions, performing in tandem, to present what they refer to in their press release as “Theatre for the Game of Thrones fan.” Calling this combo...

Review: ‘The Wiz’ at Spotlighters Theatre by Sherri Chandler

Originally opening in October 1974 at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, MD, The Wiz, with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, is a reimaging of Frank L. Baum’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard...

News Release: DCMetroTheaterArts Is Here to Stay!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DCMetroTheaterArts Squelches Rumors of Closing, Announces Plan for Future Leadership and Growth Staff Rallies in Response to Founding Editor’s Diagnosis, Thanks Local Theater...

Review: The Rainbow Theatre Project Presents ‘Historias’

The Rainbow Theatre Project premiered a new work, Historias, on Monday night, a show crafted from the experiences of its remarkably talented cast members. Director Tony Koehler led his actors – Skye...

Review: ‘I and You’ at People’s Light

For a personal two-hander about a gravely ill teenager’s transcendental reflection on life and death through the lens of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, you need to have empathetic actors who make you...

Review: ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ at Theater J

Though it was well-established since the 1950s that Neil Simon was a master humorist and gifted comic writer, it wasn’t quite revealed until 1983 when Brighton Beach Memoirs premiered on Broadway that...

Review: Howard University’s Spring Dance Concert: ‘Unjust’

Every time I send a reviewer to Howard University to review a show they always have this reaction: “Oh My God!!” And there were many divine moments when I saw the final perfomance of Howard...

A Conversation with Colleen Corcoran on Her Role in Devising and Performing EgoPo’s ‘Anna’

Currently performing the titular role in EgoPo Classic Theater’s Anna – an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Russian epic Anna Karenina, written and directed by Brenna Geffers – Colleen Corcoran has become...

Spine: ‘A Human Being Died That Night’ at Mosaic Theater Company

About midway through Mosaic Theater’s A Human Being Died That Night, Eugene de Kock, serving two life sentences for murder and assassination, turns to his interviewer, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, and...

Review: ‘The Odd Couple’ at Vagabond Players

Awakening spring with rollicking laughter, the Vagabond Players revive Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning, classic comedic The Odd Couple, recreating the brilliant magic and pandemonium of the beloved...

Interview: Steve Underwood, Director of ‘Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure’ at Beacon Theatre Productions

Steve Underwood earned his M.A. in Theatre at Villanova University, and holds B.A. in English from Temple University. As an active writer and actor, he completed his oral thesis at Villanova in...

Review: ‘A Human Being Died That Night’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

There are moments in this gripping, challenging, and deeply thought-provoking drama when the smallest of gestures by the two actors say what the play is about more than words can. A Human Being Died...

Review: ‘Boeing Boeing’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Oh, what fine comic talent and an attuned director can do to bring pleasure. Under the sure hands of NextStop’s Evan Hoffmann and a talented six-member ensemble, there is enjoyable life to an old...

Review: “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp” at Adventure Theatre

Americans don’t know much about the details of the myths and folklore of the Middle and Far East. Many of those stories, which can be found in Sir Richard Burton’s translation of “One Thousand and One...

Review: ‘Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays’ at Venus Theatre Company

This review comes after I saw the final performance of Venus Theatre’s remarkable, inspiring, supremely artistic vision: Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays. But in my view, a...

Review: ‘Doubt: A Parable’ at Quotidian Theatre Company

Voltaire once said, “Doubt is not a comfortable position, but certainty is an absurd one.” Playwright John Patrick Shanley notes that “Certainty is a closed door.” His play Doubt is in one sense about...

Review: ‘Detroit ’67’ at The Stagecrafters Theater

Two young black men stumble upon an expensively dressed but badly beaten young white woman in the ghetto. What do they do? If it’s Detroit in 1967, you certainly can’t involve yourself with the...

Review: Yannick Nézet-Séguin Leads The Philadelphia Orchestra in ‘Energetic’ Music

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s latest program with The Philadelphia Orchestra was an intelligently thought-out adventure. The central work was Alternative Energy by Mason Bates, in its East Coast premiere,...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

The message of Easter came early this year as Encore Stage & Studio’s (Encore) Musical Theatre Intensive presented John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell. Performed in the sparsely set...

Review: ‘Present Laughter’ at the St. James Theatre

It doesn’t take much to create a smash Broadway hit. All you need for starters is a witty script that isn’t in a hurry (not a 90-minute mini-play, but a full-size evening that keeps you interested and...

Review: The American Pops Orchestra Presents ‘You Spin Me ‘Round: An ’80s Dance Party’ at Lisner Auditorium

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with being formulaic when the formula mixes crowd-pleasing song selections, fresh and stylish musical arrangements, and knock-out performances. That pretty much...

Review: ‘A Bright New Boise’ at Silver Spring Stage

A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter lit up the floorboards at Silver Spring Stage on Friday, April 7, 2017. Produced by Andrea Spitz and directed by Matt Ripa, some will find it a comedy with a...

Review: ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ at The Lyceum Theatre

The Lyceum Theatre on Broadway is playing host to a most unusual guest.. It has brought in the Cornley University Drama Society’s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor and because of a number of...

Review: ‘Pygmalion’ at The British Players

I envy the folks lucky enough to have attended the opening night performance of George Bernard Shaw’s brand new play Pygmalion in 1913. They were afforded an unfiltered observation of class war humor...

Review: ‘AMÉLIE’ at The Walter Kerr Theatre

Based on a charming French film, Amélie the musical begins with a narrator letting us know we’re going to be in Paris and its surroundings for the next 90 minutes, and as he and the music box music...

Review: H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: ‘The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Acquisitions From the Perisphere’

In the less than two years since it was founded, Submersive Productions (“Submersive”) has established so positive a reputation that tickets to many performances of its new immersive theater...

Review: ‘Jerry’s Girls’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3

There’s just no tune As exciting As a showtune In two-four… For Jerry Herman, the lyrics of this early composition, “Showtune,” represent a kind of mission statement. In song after song, in Broadway...

Review: ‘Hand to God’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Sometimes it’s easier to let a puppet speak for you, when you know the truth about how you feel will not be well received by your small southern Christian community. That’s exactly what happens in...

Review: ‘In the Next Room or the vibrator play’ at Georgetown University

I lost count of how many orgasms are in this show. They keep, um, coming and coming. And each one is performed stunningly by a student actor with such precisely differentiated paroxysms and vivid...

Review: ‘Back to Methuselah Part 3: As Far as Thought Can Reach’ at Washington Stage Guild

George Bernard Shaw loves words. Even his stage directions are wordy. He also loved ideas, philosophy, aesthetics, politics… In Back to Methuselah Part 3: As Far as Thought Can Reach, Shaw reaches...

Review: ‘Chicago’ at The Kennedy Center

Grammy Award-winning, R & B superstar Brandy Norwood brought her razzle and dazzle to the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, reprising her Broadway debut as “Roxie Hart” in the touring production of...

Review: ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

“I am a giant surrounded by ants!” exclaimed Walter Lee Younger in a scene from A Raisin in the Sun. Walter is the embodiment of how society, family members, and internal struggle can defer dreams....

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Pygmalion’ at The British Players: Part Four: Roger Stone

In a series of interviews with the cast of Pygmalion at The British Players, meet Roger Stone who plays Alfred Doolittle. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

There’s no doubt in my mind that all of the attendees at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts were there because of the 1977 film version of Saturday Night Fever: https://youtu.be/op5FxEs1aR0 and...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Pygmalion’ at The British Players: Part Three: Daniel Owen

In part three of a series of interviews with the cast of Pygmalion at The British Players, meet Daniel Owen who plays Professor Henry Higgins. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at the Academy of Music

Some shows never get old or lose their impact. The national tour of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Tony Award-winning revival of Cabaret, making its Philadelphia premiere for a limited run this week at...

In the Moment: ‘Midwestern Gothic’ at Signature Theatre

The premise seems full of possibilities. With its moody Twin Peaks-like, arched eyebrow attitude, Midwestern Gothic tackles wasted lives, a randy adolescent woman who is questioning the “why” of her...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Pygmalion’ at The British Players: Part Two: John Allnutt

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Pygmalion at The British Players, meet John Allnutt who plays Colonel Pickering. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may...

Review: ‘Blood Knot’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

South African playwright Athol Fugard’s early masterpiece, Blood Knot, has finally returned to DC. And, judging by the roaring ovation on opening night, those who can see this production during its...

Review: ‘Nine’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Nine is a musical extravaganza, with lots of marvelous singing and dancing, as well as beautiful costumes. With a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by...