2017

Review: ‘Doug Varone and Dancers’ at the Prince Theater

Congratulations are in order! Doug Varone and Dancers (a contemporary/modern dance company) is celebrating its 30th anniversary! Doug Varone’s creativity has stood the test of time. In top form, Doug...

Review: ‘Roe’ at Arena Stage

The title of Lisa Loomer’s riveting play Roe refers to both the pivotal Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade and the person known as Jane Roe who was the plaintiff in it. Loomer dramatizes both stories—why...

Review and Article: The Dover Quartet at the Kennedy Center Family Theater

Lord knows there are a lot of young string quartets out there trying to make an impact on both classical music and the cultural scene generally. They even have their own competitions to try to sort...

Review: ‘John’ at Arden Theatre Company

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker is unsurpassed in her modern-day observations on the human condition and how we respond to it: the afflictions that impact us; the troubled relationships...

TODAY – Spotlighters Theatre Taking Part in the National Ghostlight Project

TODAY at 5:30 p.m. in each time zone across the country, members of the theater community – from Broadway to regional theaters to high schools and colleges and community theaters – will come together...

Review: ‘The Three Penny Opera’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Ever-willing to mount bold musicals with large casts you’d never expect to see in such an intimate, cozy space (remember last year’s gorgeous Evita?), Fuzz Roark at Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre...

Review: ‘The City of Conversation’ at The Colonial Players of Annapolis

The Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of The City of Conversation is a powerful, timely play. Written by Anthony Giardina and directed by Ruben Vellekoop, it is about families and politics,...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 3: John Dignam

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Loves and Hours, meet John Dignam. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the stage before....

Magic Time! ‘The Hard Problem’ at The Studio Theatre

I love when a play starts out as a fascinating head trip—a smart, high-concept exhilaration of ideas—then propels me headlong into an overwhelming flood of emotion. It’s like being transported along a...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 2: Terri Laurino

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

Review: ‘The Call of the Wild’ Starring Charlie Bethel at Baltimore Theatre Project

A man with a club is a lawmaker. Charlie Bethel walks casually onto the stage, a metal coffee cup in hand, and gazes into the distance. He strolls past the shiny dog food bowl at center stage to a...

Review: ‘Lizzie’ at 11th Hour Theatre Company

Whacked-out psycho-killer or falsely-accused innocent? We’ll never know the truth about Lizzie Borden, but 11th Hour Theatre Company’s production of the rock musical Lizzie, by Steven Cheslik-Demeyer...

Review: Pianist Lise de la Salle at the Phillips Collection

Picking through bombastic music to extract the musical message and leave a lingering impression of something other than bombast is a skill to be cherished among pianists on the international stage....

Meet the Three Young Actors in ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage: #3 Lucy Breedlove

Lucy Breedlove makes her professional debut playing the middle of three siblings in Lillian Hellman’s 1941 play Watch on the Rhine. In the childhood they are having, the bogeyman is all too real. Set...

Review: ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Part 2’ at Hedgerow Theatre

By combining Isaac Asimov-style science fiction with Monty Python-style silliness, Douglas Adams created a whole new genre. It paid off very handsomely for Adams: His most famous work, The...

Review: ‘Anything Goes’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Cole Porter’s Anything Goes is a show that is equal parts silliness, slapstick, and shenanigans. The Little Theatre of Alexandria opened the old classic this past weekend to a sold-out house. With...

In the Moment: The Studio Theatre’s ‘The Hard Problem’

Studio Theatre’s production of The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard charmed me with its intellectual and ideological turmoil fueled by verbal fierceness. With a shiny, contemporary veneer and Stoppard’s...

A Chat with Singer Carla Cooke: Performing a Tribute to her Father Sam Cooke at Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club This Sunday, January 22nd @7:30pm

I recently had the great privilege to have an engaging interview with the dynamic artist Carla Cooke, a wondrous singer in her own right and daughter of the singing legend Sam Cooke. Ms. Cooke will...

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse. Part 1: Alan Barnett

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

Review: ‘Elf The Musical JR.’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater

We all know a person (or two, or twelve) who still have their Christmas lights up as we head into February. If you’re not quite ready to let go of the Christmas glow, then Aldersgate Church Community...

Review: ‘Exit Pluto’ at Strand Theater Company

Continuing “The 100 Percent Season” – an entire season consisting exclusively of works written by women – Strand Theater Company (“the Strand”) presented the World Premiere of Amy Bernstein’s Exit...

Review: ‘The Tin Woman’ at Prince George’s Little Theatre

The Tin Woman, written by Sean Grennan, is based on a true story, and is Prince George’s Little Theatre’s winter production. The show is directed by Estelle Miller, who also designed the set, and is...

Review: ‘The Hard Problem’ at The Studio Theatre

No shrinking violet when it comes to exploring humanity’s most complex questions, playwright Tom Stoppard takes a deep dive into the frontiers of neuroscience, human nature, and the existence of God...

Review #2: The American Pops Orchestra Presents ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade: 75 Years Of Streisand’ at Lisner Auditorium

8-track tape: It’s the only medium of Barbra Streisand recordings that I do not own. LP, cassette, VHS, CD, DVD, mp3, mp4 … I have purchased some of Streisand’s work in two or three (for some movie...

Spine: ‘Silent Sky’ at Silver Spring Stage

On occasion, a play comes along with a bit of history, a bit of uncovered history, and that history changes the nature of the universe. Silent Sky is that sort of play. Lauren Gunderson’s biography...

Review: ‘Hands on Hard Body’ at Drama Learning Center

Hands on Hard Body opened on January 13th at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia, MD presented by the TYA Professional Training Program. The book was written by Tony and Pulitzer winner Doug Wright...

Review: ‘Blackbird’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

When Una, the 27 year-old British woman at the center of David Harrower’s startling and complex play Blackbird, tells a man named Ray, 15 years her senior, that he made her into a ghost, there is no...

Review: ‘LIZZIE: The Musical’ at Pinky Swear Productions

Fresh off their Capital Fringe Best Overall Show and Best Musical Theatre or Opera wins for 2016’s Over Her Dead Body, Pinky Swear Productions (PSP) rips onto the stage of Anacostia Playhouse with...

Review: ‘I Will Not Go Gently’ at Act II Playhouse

An aging rock star struggles to stay relevant, or perhaps struggles whether or not to care at all whether she is still relevant, in the Act II Playhouse remounting of 1812 Productions’ one-woman...

Review: ‘And Then There Were None’ at Allens Lane Theater

For Allens Lane Theater’s production of And Then There Were None, director Josh Hitchens not only presents the mystery, but also heightens the mood and highlights the message inherent in Agatha...

Here Are This Year’s WATCH AWARD Nominations

Announcement of Nominations 16th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors THE WATCH AWARDS Nominations Announced January 15, 2017 – 7:30 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Award Ceremony...

Review: ‘Grey Gardens’ at StillPointe Theatre

Grey Gardens is the latest show in StillPointe Theatre’s 2016 – 2017 season. This musical is based on the eponymous 1975 documentary about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and her...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ and Ravel’s ‘Left Hand’ Concerto

With a program packed with masterpieces from Russian and French composers, Sir Mark Elder conducted the National Symphony Orchestra. Sir Mark Elder opened the night sharing some words on the program...

Review: ‘Pippin’ at Act Two at Levine performing at Arena Stage

I have often heard Pippin described as a frivolous musical with silly little songs and a thin plot, but to me, Pippin has always told a remarkable and universal story: the story of the hero’s journey....

Best of 2016 #15: Best Performances in Plays in Community Theatres in DC/MD/VA

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #15: Best Performances in Plays and Ensembles in Community Theaters in DC/MD/VA Area Area Mark T. Allen as John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet at Laurel Mill Playhouse....

Review: ‘[gay] Cymbeline’ at Theatre Prometheus

Queering Shakespeare may be gilding the lily. And if so DC these days has seen quite a few such embellished flowers. Like, golden nosegays for days. One of the best and freshest in the bunch is...

Review: ‘Loves and Hours’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laurel Mill Playhouse offers up an ideal evening of theatre in Loves and Hours by Stephen Metcalfe and directed by Daniel Douek. This intriguing play looks at love and aging through the perspective of...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde The Musical JR’ at Bravo Productions

Legally Blonde The Musical JR, based on the 2001 hit film starring Reese Witherspoon about a sorority girl who goes to Harvard Law in order to get her boyfriend back, and the 2007 Broadway production...

Review #1: ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade: 75 Years of Streisand’ at The American Pops

Streisand came to DC for a quick pre-inauguration visit. Well almost, but not quite. Well, maybe my first sentence is a little bit of a “fake news” headline. I am writing about a blissful, musically...

Review: ‘Recent Tragic Events’ at St. Mark’s Players

The American theater has generated some great plays prompted by the tragic events of 9/11. I remember vividly Neil LaBute’s powerful 2002 drama The Mercy Seat, in a production LaBute directed...

Review: ‘The Dictator’s Wife’ at Washington National Opera

A one-hour World Premiere opera is reason enough for the imagination to run rampant with artistic anticipation. So what a veritable array of riches it was to indulge the senses and challenge the mind...

Review: ‘Silent Sky’ at Silver Spring Stage

Friday marked the opening at Silver Spring Stage of a very timely drama, Silent Sky, by Laura Gunderson. Produced by Seth Ghitelman and directed by Bill Hurlbut, Silent Sky is the fascinating story of...

Review: ‘Saloon’ at the Merriam Theater

Montreal’s Cirque Éloize explodes on stage at the Merriam Theater with a two-day run of its touring production of Saloon, presented collaboratively by the Kimmel Center and the Shubert Organization...

Review: ‘Image China: Confucius’ at The Kennedy Center

It seemed fitting somehow during a full moon, on Friday the thirteenth, to be attending Confucius on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Kong Dexin, a 77th-generation direct descendent of Confucius...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Hippodrome Theatre

Countering the brisk winter temperatures outside, Tony-nominated Broadway jukebox musical sensation Mamma Mia! unleashed flash bolts of pulsating heat with bold bright lights, zesty dance numbers and...

Review: ‘Bud, Not Buddy’ at The Kennedy Center

Last night, The Kennedy Center presented an inspiring world premiere commission of Bud, Not Buddy. Kirsten Greenidge created the fast-paced and touchingly funny script, based on the book from...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #14: Best Design in Professional and Community Theaters in DC/VA/MD

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2016 #14: Best Design in Professional and Community Theaters in DC/VA/MD Are: John Alexander for his lighting for Blackberry Winter at Forum Theatre. John Alexander for his...

Magic Time! ‘Someone Is Going to Come’ at Scena Theatre

Someone Is Going to Come is a comedy of menace with a roiling undercurrent of sexual tension. It evokes ominous noirish goings-on in a scary remote locale told in stark idiosyncratic dialogue. And...

Review: ‘Last of the Red Hot Lovers’ at Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio on 3

There is one man and three different women. He’s in the midst of a midlife crisis, trying to connect with somebody not his wife, and find something “beautiful” in an affair. But it’s not that easy....

Meet the Three Young Actors in ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage: #2 Tyler Bowman

Tyler Bowman makes his Arena Stage debut playing the youngest of three siblings in Lillian Hellman’s 1941 play Watch on the Rhine. The children have traveled with their mother and father to Georgetown...