2017

Review: ‘Los Otros’ Review #1 at Everyman Theatre

Los Otros, now on stage at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore is a musical in transition. The version audiences in Baltimore are seeing now is different from what audiences in Los Angeles viewed at the...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at The Heritage Players

Steel Magnolias by the Heritage Players opened Friday, March 24, 2017, at the Thomas-Rice Auditorium written by Robert Harling and directed by Kevin James Logan and Katie Sheldon. This production...

Review: “Jesus Christ Superstar” at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Scheduled to coincide on the calendar with the days historically associated with the last week in the life of Christ, Bristol Riverside Theatre’s spring production of the groundbreaking 1971 rock...

Review: ‘Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali?’ in Collaboration with Sundance Institute Theatre Program at The Kennedy Center

Sometimes a story is so unique it needs no explanation. Sometimes a story dares you to disbelieve. Sometimes a story… Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali? is such a story. And as written and...

Review: ‘My Son the Waiter, A Jewish Tragedy’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Nearly everyone in the arts has taken another job such as waiter, receptionist, or office temp just to pay the rent. Brad Zimmerman has an unfortunately typical problem: He’s Jewish and his parents...

Interview: A Q & A with Arts Collective@HCC’s ‘IMPROVAGANZA’ Participants: Part One

Howard Community College’s Arts Collective’s What Improv Group?! is presenting Improvaganza, HCC’s (and Howard County’s, too) FIRST Improv Festival with Master Classes, on March 30, 31 and April 1,...

IMPROVAGANZA: Improv Festival and Improv Master Classes at Arts Collective @HCC

Howard Community College’s Arts Collective’s What Improv Group?! presents… IMPROVAGANZA! A Three-Night Improv Festival Mar 30, 31 & Apr 1, 2017, at 8pm in HCC’s Studio Theatre at the Horowitz Center....

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Opens Tonight: ‘Inside The Numbers’: Part Two

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Covers All the Bases, by Christina Ling “Let’s not talk about love,” Cole Porter once implored, and who would disagree with the...

Meet the Cast of Providence Players’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Part 2: Mihara India, playing Calpurnia – by Julie Janson

The Providence Players of Fairfax will soon premiere the third production of its 19th season, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Christopher Sergel, directed by Beth Gilles-Whitehead. Tickets for this...

Meet the Cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’: Part Four: Christa Kronser, and Joey Rolandelli

In Part Four of a series of interviews with the cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, meet Christa Kronser (playing Olive Ostrovsky), and Joey Rolandelli (playing...

Review: ‘Madama Butterfly’ at Annapolis Opera

Annapolis Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts is a beautiful marriage of music and singing. Directed by Braxton Peters, with music conducted by Ronald J....

Review: ‘Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo’ at The Kennedy Center

Men in tights and pointe shoes ballet super seriously and have fun doing it. The all-male comic ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returned to the Kennedy Center March 21 with a...

In The Moment: ‘The Sound is the Kicker’ in Scena’s ‘The Night Alive’

Another superior night with Irish playwright Conor McPherson, this time at Scena Theatre under Robert McNamara’s illuminating, layered direction of McPherson’s earthy, sideward glance at damaged...

Review: ‘Antigonón, un contingente épico’ at The Kennedy Center

As the audience gathers in the Eisenhower, antique footage rolls on the screen: people gathering, moving, marching. José Martí, Cuban national hero, poet, and revolutionary flashes on the screen. The...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Prince William Little Theatre by Tamela J. Ritter

It’s probably helpful to be well versed in Chekhov and Greek tragedies to understand many of the in-jokes and allusions in Christopher Durang’s 2012 Tony Award-winning play Vanya and Sonia and Masha...

Review: ‘The Night Alive’ at Scena Theatre

Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s The Night Alive is a story of lost souls seeking redemption, of searching for a light in the darkness. Presented by Scena Theatre, the characters’ cheeky banter...

Review: ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ at Quintessence Theatre Group

Quintessence Theatre Group brings William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, as directed by Alexander Burns, vibrantly to life with spectacular staging, scintillating costumes and a sparkling cast....

Review: Cher at The Theater at MGM National Harbor

Accompanied by a phalanx of golden shield-carrying gladiators, The Goddess of Pop strode onstage last night in a massive afro and shimmering turquoise and silver ensemble that exposed one singular,...

Review: ‘Donizetti’s Don Pasquale’ at The In Series: Opera & More

Happiness is a theatrical adaptation that successfully reinvents the original. The In Series’ production of Gabriel Donizetti’s 1843 comic opera Don Pasquale, now playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre (for...

Review: ‘Jekyll & Hyde the Musical’ at the John W. Engeman Theater

The John W. Engeman Theater at Northport’s current production of Jekyll & Hyde the Musical is a nostalgic nod to its first season. Based on the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, with book and...

Review: ‘Three Sisters’ at The Studio Theatre

As improbable as it may sound, the plays of Anton Chekhov are vivid proof that there is such a thing as joyful melancholy. You can commune with his characters’ misfortunes and acknowledge the...

Review: ‘Mnemonic’ at Theater Alliance

Just now when the world is wracked with wave upon wave of ethnic animus—just now when our country has succumbed to xenophobia not seen on these shores for decades—there comes a work of theatrical art...

Review: ‘Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express’ at McCarter Theatre Center

One afternoon in 1979 or 1980, I saw Orson Welles on The Merv Griffin Show discussing his love of mystery stories. One of his favorites, he said, was Murder on the Orient Express. I was young, and I...

Review: ‘Home/Sick’ at The Assembly

The original cast and design team of 2011 return for The Assembly’s powerhouse revival of its critically-acclaimed hit Home/Sick. Presented at Brooklyn’s JACK, and directed by Jess Chayes (recipient...

Review: ‘No Sisters’ at The Studio Theatre

A shout-out to Studio Theatre co-founder Russell Metheny, who designed the complex on 14th Street, for installing a backstage stairway connecting the dressing rooms of the second-floor Milton and the...

Review: ‘What Every Girl Should Know’ and ‘Dry Land’ in Rep at Forum Theatre

One hundred years separate the young women in What Every Girl Should Know and Dry Land, now playing in rep at Forum Theatre. In Monica Byrne’s What Every Girl Should Know, the four teenage girls are...

An Interview with Anna Szapiro and Johnny Smith: Making the Move from Philadelphia to New York

Following a year of critical acclaim in Philadelphia, which culminated in nominations for both for the Barrymore Award for Best Ensemble, the talented young couple Anna Zaida Szapiro (nominated for A...

Riverside Center For The Performing Arts’ ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Plays Through May 7th

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia is excited to present the disco musical, Saturday Night Fever starring Michael Notardonato as Tony Manero. Located at 95...

Review: ‘Ben Dibble: Are We There Yet? Just a Little Father(hood Cabaret)’ at the Arden Cabaret Series

Ben Dibble might be as fine a cabaret performer as anyone in that field. He demonstrated that with the presentation of Are We There Yet? Just a Little Father(hood Cabaret), produced by the Arden...

Review: ‘Coriolanus’ at Lantern Theater Company

Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare’s least-performed plays – probably because it doesn’t fit easily into any of the standard Shakespearean categories. It’s a tragedy, but one without the epic sweep of...

Review: ‘Deconstruction’ at The Storm Theatre Company

“Who are you?” That is the philosophical question and moral issue raised in playwright Jonathan Leaf’s Deconstruction, a world-premiere three-hander (presented in conjunction with Christopher Ekstrom...

Review: Jay Leno at The Kennedy Center

Iconic television host, celebrated comedian and 2014 Mark Twain recipient Jay Leno returned to the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall Friday night amped to get the trifecta of St. Patrick’s Day, March...

Review: ‘A Night with Jackie Moms Mabley’ at Germano’s Piattini

Legendary entertainer Loretta Mary Aiken, aka Jackie “Moms” Mabley saw and endured a lot in her 81 years. Born in 1894 in Brevard, North Carolina, Aiken saw racial, sexual and political oppression...

Review: ‘Ironbound’ at Simpatico Theatre

Her face is banged up and she lights a small votive candle before saying a prayer. Although it is freezing, she has created a makeshift bed outside using her white parka as a mattress and an old spare...

Update: Funeral Information: Local Theater and Restaurant Reviewer and Cable TV Host and Producer Rich Massabny Has Passed Away

Here is information on Rich Massabny’s funeral: Viewing: Wednesday, 2 to 4 and 6-8 pm Murphy’s Funeral Home -4200 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA Funeral Service: Thursday: 1 PM Murphy’s Funeral Home...

Review: ‘Grug & the Rainbow’ at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater

A colorful story wowed the kids and their parents at today’s 1:30 PM performance of the Windmill Theatre Company of Australia’s Grug & the Rainbow, directed by Sam Haren, which ends its brief visit...

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

I had so much fun last night at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC) The Taming of the Shrew. There’s no telling what you will get when going to a production of Shrew because it’s known to be one of...

Review: ‘Mad Libs Live!’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Mad Libs Live! sounds like a political gathering many would want to avoid. But happily it turns out to be a (Fill-in-the-Blank) musical providing peppy songs, millennial-rich humor, and random...

‘COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY:’ Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff: Part Three: ’70 Girls 70,’ ‘Chicago,’ ‘The Rink,” ‘The World Goes Round,’ ‘The Act,’ ‘Woman of the Year,’ and ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’

ACT TWO. Two years later, in 1970, I once again tried to put together a package of my clients – in the show that became 70 Girls 70 – for I’d enjoyed looking after Chita Rivera, Ron Field, Kander and...

Review: ‘Not My Baby’ at Momentum Collective

What defines parenthood? Are children always a gift? The adoption-themed Hip Hop musical Not My Baby by Alexandria, Virginia-based playwright Jason A. Ellis, explores those questions and more. With...

Interview: Michael Bloom, Director of Lisa Kron’s ‘Well’ at 1st Stage

Amy Kotkin recently had a chance to interview Michael Bloom about his upcoming production of Lisa Kron’s Well at 1st Stage. Amy: What initially attracted you to this play? Have you directed it...

Review: ‘Needles and Opium’ at The Kennedy Center

Sometimes the viewer of a theatrical experience can only sit in wonder at the spectacle, not because elephants dance on soccer balls or trapeze artists spiral on silken threads, but because actors sit...

Magic Time! ‘Needles and Opium’ at The Kennedy Center

When I left the Eisenhower Theater last night after witnessing this mesmerizing multimedia marvel, I had a quibble. I had just one, but it could be the most peculiar cavil I’ve ever had about a show....

A Report on Smithsonian Associates ‘Are the Cards Collapsing?: A ‘House of Cards’ Season 5 Preview’ with Professor Stef Woods

Wednesday night I did something very DC, I attended a talk on politics through the Smithsonian Associates. Not divisive politics, but pop culture politics about the show based on DC/ British politics...

Review: ‘Come From Away’ at The Schoenfeld Theatre

One thing is certain about this new musical, now on Broadway at The Schoenfeld Theatre – it had the youngsters in the audience hooting and hollering and having themselves a fine time from start to...

Review #2: ‘Parade’ at The Keegan Theatre

Arguments have been made that the theater is supposed to be a “safe place” where patrons can go to be entertained, away from the harshness of the world. Yet there is a large(r) number of people who...

Review: ‘Cinderella: A Magical, Musical Tale’ at The American Pops Orchestra

This is what theater is all about and it was my dream when I started DCMetroTheaterArts 5 years ago-to see a venue filled with parents and kids laughing and clapping and having a great time together....

Review: ‘Viva la Zarzuela! The Music of Spain’ at Concert Operetta Theater

Concert Operetta Theater was founded in 2008 to revive and preserve the type of musical theater that’s more lighthearted and accessible than opera, but a bit grander than Broadway. These tuneful...

Review: ‘Ragtime’ at Ford’s Theatre

Glorious! Dazzling! Verve! Bursting at the seams with voices and stories of America’s humanity and originating dreams. These are the words I felt as Ragtime, now at Ford’s Theatre, unfolded before me....

Review: ‘Dad Jokes: A Stand Up Tragedy by Emily Hall’ at Annex Theater

Dad jokes are an odd construct. As likely to make you cringe as to laugh, they are both funny and not funny at the same time. You may laugh at a dad joke, but you almost feel bad that you did. On...