2017

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at Ovations Theatre

Ovations Theatre has enchanted its way into the hearts of its audiences once again with a children’s production of Beauty and the Beast. This young and energetic cast, directed by Darnell Morris,...

Review: ‘Bells Are Ringing’ at The Fredericktowne Players

The Fredericktowne Players have just opened their revival of the classic musical Bells Are Ringing. This is an infrequently performed work from the 1950s, that has many charms. Musical theatre...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Nicholas Photinos + Florent Ghys at World Cafe Live

Nicholas Photinos’ and Florent Ghys’ evening of “string innovations” was another successful pairing for LiveConnections Presents’ ambitious curator Mary Wheelock Javian. Her 2016-17 season “is focused...

Review: ‘Hello! Sadness!’ at FringeArts

Mary Tuomanen’s fiercely political solo performance Hello! Sadness! dreamily jolts through time and space. It blends together disparate historic figures and fictional characters, from Joan of Arc and...

Review.’Driving Miss Daisy’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Atlanta 1948: “Negro Policemen to Patrol City Streets—They are ordered not to arrest white people” This is an actual headline featured in the multimedia of Bristol Riverside’s Driving Miss Daisy. It...

Review: ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’ at Walnut Street Theatre

A special recipe for a belly full of laughter awaits at the Walnut Street Theatre. Take a bunch of madcap comedy show writers, mix with mayhem and a kooky secretary, add a tinge of McCarthyism, shake...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 9: Juliet Beach

In part nine of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours at Laurel Mill Playhouse, meet Juliet Beach. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Magic Time! ‘Silent Sky’ at Silver Spring Stage

Lately the news has been resignifying theater more than usual. To resignify is not a commonly used verb but it’s a commonly understood thing. It means “to give new signification to,” to alter what...

Review: ‘Spring Awakening’ at Zemfira Stage

By Leonard Hughes The plucky Falls Church-based Zemfira Stage has taken on the Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening, a far cry from the company’s joyous summer performance of The Wizard of Oz....

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 8: Penni Barnett

In part eight of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours at Laurel Mill Playhouse, meet Penni Barnett. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Review: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ at Ford’s Theatre

A sampling of the audio from the packed house should serve as ample description for Ford’s Theatre’s stunning new production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: raucous laughter, groans...

Review: Bedlam: ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Saint Joan’ at McCarter Theatre Center

There’s nothing extravagant about the two shows playing at the McCarter Theatre. Both are presented on a stage stripped to its bare essentials: we can see all the way back to the building’s rear wall....

Review: ‘The Great Society’ at Asolo Rep Theatre

All The Way by Robert Schenkkan dealt with Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to influence the 88th U.S. congress to vote in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It first appeared in 2012 at the Oregon Shakespeare...

Spine: ‘Mack, Beth’ a ‘Macbeth’ for the Cyber Age at Keegan Theatre

Mack, Beth by Chris Stezin, now playing at The Keegan Theatre, is a Macbeth for the Cyber Age. Set in a world where death by dagger is replaced by death by fake news, Mack, Beth makes a person’s brand...

Arts Collective @HCC Presents ‘A 2-Show Valentine Affair’ February 10 & 11, 2017

Directed by: S.G. Kramer and Daniel Johnston Creative Writing Coordination by: Tara Hart Music Performed by: Chris Sisson, Steven Caballero Stage Management by: Linwood Milan Production Assistance by:...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 7: Gage Warren

In part seven of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours at Laurel Mill Playhouse, meet Gage Warren. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 6: Jen Sizer

In part six of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours at Laurel Mill Playhouse, meet Jen Sizer. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on...

In the Moment: A Chat With Ethan Van Slyke on His Career and Understudying For ‘Watch On the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

A joy for a theater writer is to bring notice to young up-and-coming actors. In the past year I have the good fortune to see Ethan van Slyke perform with several professional theater companies in the...

Review: American Ballet Theatre’s ‘Swan Lake’ at The Kennedy Center

American Ballet Theatre Offers Magical Moments of Escapism The grey cloud of uncertainty that hovers over all, especially dance, lifted last evening at The Kennedy Center Opera House, if only for a...

Review: ‘Mack, Beth’ at The Keegan Theatre

Chris Stezin’s adaptation of Macbeth, presented by Director Matt Ripa at The Keegan Theatre, is a daring attempt to bring one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies into the modern day. In this...

Review: ‘Surviving Twin’ at People’s Light

Well-known to audiences for his offbeat 1972 novelty song “Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road)” and his appearances as the singing guitar-playing Captain Calvin Spalding on the popular TV series...

Review: ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

Little Carol Klein of Brooklyn, New York, did herself proud when she blossomed into songwriter Carole King. In 2013 her hit-parade of a life came to Broadway as Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. A...

Review: Carla Cooke at the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club

There was a fabulous, swinging party on this past Sunday night and it all happened at the wonderful Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club as the dynamic and talented singer Carla Cooke paid tribute to her...

Review: Washington Performing Arts Presents The Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor

It is easy to understand why The Philadelphia Orchestra has tapped Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be their music director and conductor of such a prestigious institution. Yannick exudes charisma and delivers...

Review: ‘Yours Unfaithfully’ at the Mint Theater Company

I regret to say that until I saw Mint Theater Company’s production of Miles Malleson’s comedy Yours Unfaithfully, I wasn’t aware of the author, hadn’t heard of him. A great lack on my part, because as...

Interview: Playwright Chris Stezin on ‘Mack, Beth,’ Playing Now at The Keegan Theatre

Chris Stezin is a playwright, actor, and director whose work—on and off the stage—has brightened the marquees of DC theatres for more than two decades. The author of roughly 25 plays in as many years,...

Review: ‘Broadway Up Close: Vanessa Williams’ at the Kimmel Center

Continuing the exciting season of Broadway Up Close concerts on Saturday at the Kimmel Center, Seth Rudetsky hosted Broadway and recording star Vanessa Williams for an evening of her career highlights...

Review: ‘Samsara’ at Single Carrot Theatre

Samsara isn’t a person’s name (despite seeming like a blend of “Sam” and “Sara.”) It is defined as either the process of coming into existence as a differentiated, mortal creature (Buddhism) or the...

Review: Soprano Ailyn Pérez at The Barns at Wolf Trap

There’s no business like show business, but does that include opera? If in a few years people finally agree that opera is genuinely another form of musical theater, it may be because of the current...

Review: ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

On December 4, 1956, four young performers found themselves participating in an impromptu jam session in the recording studio of Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Enjoying the early stages of their...

Review: ‘The Producers’ at the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children’s Theater

Excellently directed by Laura J. Martin with crisp musical direction from Mat Levine, Mel Brooks’ The Producers at the Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater is an exceptional evening of musical...

Review: ‘Jitney’ at Manhattan Theatre Club at The Samuel J Friedman Theatre

A remarkable new production of August Wilson’s play Jitney is now available to us all, thanks to the Manhattan Theatre Club, which has staged it on Broadway as the last of the Wilson 10 play cycle to...

Review: ‘Memphis’ at Ritz Theatre Company

“How could people be so bad that make me feel so good?” That is the rhetorical question posed by white DJ Huey Calhoun, a 9th-grade dropout with an eccentric style, a profound passion for black R&B...

Review: ‘The Full Monty’ at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport

The John W. Engeman Theater at Northport rarely disappoints, and true to form their newest production, The Full Monty, is remarkably well done. This ten-time Tony nominee has a book written by...

Review: ‘LEAR’ at Lumina Studio Theatre

On the night of the J20 Art Strike, a protest movement asking that “business . . . not proceed as usual in any realm” of the creative arts on Inauguration Day, I felt a little guilty attending a play....

Review: ‘Constellations’ at The Wilma Theater

In Constellations, what happens is just as important as what might have happened. Nick Payne’s play concerns two young people who meet, fall in love, quarrel, break up, reunite, get engaged, and deal...

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Zestful. Savvy. Crafty. Satisfying Director Abigail Isaac Fine’s feisty NextStop production of Shakespeare’s battle-of-wits, romantic-comedy Much Ado About Nothing is a stimulating, adult-depth...

Review: Aaron Tveit at The Barns at Wolf Trap

Aaron Tveit returns to his Broadway roots on Saturday evening during his debut at the Wolf Trap. Tveit (Next to Normal, Grease Live!) has not performed on a Broadway stage since his 2011 starring role...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 5: Heather Warren

In part five of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours, meet Heather Warren. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the stage before....

Review: ‘Rock of Ages’ at Eagle Theatre

It’s back to the ‘80s at Hammonton’s Eagle Theatre, for an absolutely hilarious revisiting of the decade of big hair, tacky fashions, and bad-ass music–or just bad, if you’re not of that...

Review: ‘Show Boat’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Can’t help lovin’ that Show Boat at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Modern audiences are still likely to find the miscegenation drama that sets the story in motion more dramatically engaging than much of what...

Spine: Consciousness, Conscience, and ‘The Hard Problem’ at The Studio Theatre

Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem isn’t so much about consciousness and the existence of subjectivity, “the hard problem” elucidated by contemporary Australian philosopher David Chalmers, as it is about...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Reston Community Players

The names might seem familiar, and as you watch the show, some of the references sound like something you may have heard of before. In Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the Tony Award-winning Best...

Review: ‘An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt’ at Strathmore

There are very few things that could get me to uproot and move to Texas. Actually, there is just one thing, and his name is Lyle Lovett. Luckily, this long tall Texan graced the stage of Maryland’s...

Review: ‘Informed Consent’ at Lantern Theater Company

Jillian, the main character of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s play Informed Consent, is a genetic anthropologist – a scientist who has studied DNA for years and is still amazed at what she learns from it. She...

Review: ‘A Visit From Scarface’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

e’ve all been between the proverbial “rock and a hard place.” That’s exactly where fictional famous Hollywood writer Ben Hecht found himself in, in the comedy A Visit from Scarface, now playing at...

Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre and Children’s Theatre

“It is a glorious thing, to be a Pirate King” …but it is a far more glorious thing to spend a night at the Way off Broadway Dinner Theatre in Frederick, Maryland, seeing the first show of their 2017...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 4: Taylor Duvall

In part four of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours, meet Taylor Duvall. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the stage before....

Review: ‘Bo Dacious and Liz Russo’ at AMP Powered by Strathmore

There’s this hot little night club right across from some swanky automobile dealerships in a neighborhood calling itself Pike & Rose. The venue hosts a wide variety of arts and entertainment and makes...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #16: Best Direction, Musical Direction, and Design in Musicals and Plays in Philadelphia, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey

The DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s Best of 2016 Direction in Productions in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and DE are: BEST DIRECTION Carl Andress for Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister at Bucks County...