2018

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ’52:15′

The melody may be unfamiliar, but the music that opens The 100th Monkey Theatre Ensemble’s 52:15 is immediately recognizable as a television news show open. A reporter, speaking to the news anchor...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Perfecting the Kiss’

This comedy about bad theater and inappropriate backstage behavior is just gobsmacking good. Laugh-a-minute is an underestimation. Don’t miss it. Perfecting the Kiss, a production from New York...

Holly Bass Celebrates Black Sisterhood in ‘The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company’

District-based solo performer Holly Bass creates in so many media and art forms I can’t keep up with her—and I’ve been covering her for nearly a decade. Her latest devised work, a dance-theater piece,...

Review: ‘This Ain’t No Disco’ at Atlantic Theater Company

With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask (internationally acclaimed for the electrifying and poignant score he created for Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 1998) and Peter Yanowitz (who played Schlatko the...

In The Moment: Building New Homes for the Arts in Fairfax County

Throughout my years covering the arts in the DC area, I have often heard that Fairfax County is a wasteland, a desert, no place for the creative theater artist. A locale with few outlets for...

Review: ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean’ at Cockpit in Court

By Bill Kamberger On September 30, 1975, twenty years to the day after the car crash that took the life of movie legend James Dean, six of his female fans gather at a convenience store in a...

Review: ‘Be a Good Little Widow’ at Unexpected Stage

It’s anybody’s guess what goes through a person’s mind in their final moments. Most of us are very familiar with what goes through the mind of a person who has lost someone. This grief, in all of its...

Review: ‘The Theory of Theories’ at District of Columbia Arts Center

An unnamed academic (Cristen Stephansky), in town for a conference, lounges on a sofa taking notes for her presentation. Her host, (Karoline Troger) a similarly unnamed Austrian scholar now teaching...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ghosts’

A promising but flawed dive into the way we deal with death, Ghosts creates an interesting premise and delivers touching moments of emotion. Written by Elford Alley and directed by Kathleen Barth,...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Burn Out Blessings’

Imagine a classroom decorated for a birthday party. On the table is a cake, party hats, paper napkins, and plates; a banner is tacked on the wall. Ambling back and forth in this classroom is Al Baker,...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Chlamydia dell’Arte: MORE Sex-Ed Burlesque’

by Jill Kyle-Keith Two unconventional beauties take us on a wild ride through sex, politics, and the politics of sex. As the title implies, Chlamydia dell’Arte is a sort-of burlesque, with a sort-of...

2018 Capital Fringe Festival: ‘Show Business 201’

The XY Players have a delightful option at this year’s Capital Fringe: a farce on show business titled Show Business 201. It’s essentially a romp through the training, rehearsal, and performance work...

Magic Time!: Mike Daisey Takes Aim at ‘The Story of the Gun’ in America

Masterful monologuist Mike Daisey returns to DC to skewer with humor another burning issue of the day. This time it’s America’s thing about guns. What’s that all about, anyway? How did guns get to be...

Review: ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic Theater’s admirable, family-friendly production of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) is the premiere mainstage production of Synetic’s New Voice Series. For those familiar with...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Two Woman Hamlet’

English majors, linguists, and Shakespeare lovers (and fearers) rejoice: the creative team behind Fringe’s A Two Woman Hamlet have broken one of theatre’s great masterpieces down to a comfortable...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Mesa, Arizona or Something Like It’

By Becca Kurtz Raina Greifer’s new play, Mesa, Arizona, or Something Like It, produced by Purple Crayon Productions, is a tale of abandonment, friendship, and the teenage mind. It’s fitting for an...

Review: ‘No Time’ by Timeless Entertainment at Bowie Center for the Performing Arts

It’s been said that family is a foundation—the one area in which failure can cause permanent heartache. Director and writer Gill Nelson’s amazing stage play No Time, the tagline of which is “When...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Flight of the Xenophobe’

Iamaman Productions, a start-up company focused on telling stories pertinent to African Americans, has chosen to present as its inaugural production, a tale of the recently-paroled 578 returning to...

Review: ‘Footloose’ at City of Fairfax Theatre Company

Footloose – the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon about a disaffected teen who moves to a small town where dancing is outlawed and aims to change the law – occupies a curious place in the American...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Riot Brrrain’

By Hannah Sternberg Riot Brrrain is a punk-fueled, nonlinear tour through the life of Teddy as they revisit their past relationships after being diagnosed with neurosyphilis. Teddy is bisexual and...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hold The Tomato’

By Shawn Reilly Simmons Hold The Tomato is a comedy variety show featuring sketches, songs, and improv, written by Nancy Safavi and David Stauffer, and composed by Wesley Fox. We’re introduced to the...

Review: ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ at Stage 42

Wow, what a night! Non-stop energy, a feel-good mood, powerhouse vocals, and a kick-ass band make for one must-see Off-Broadway revival of Smokey Joe’s Cafe at Stage 42. The sung-through jukebox...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Unscripted’

By Shawn Reilly Simmons “I don’t want to sit in front. I don’t want to get picked on,” a woman said to me nervously as we chose our seats, about to experience Unscripted, a two-man improvisational...

Review: ‘RIOT!: A Celebration of Women in Comedy’ at the Kennedy Center District of Comedy Festival

Riot!: A Celebration of Women in Comedy was part of the District of Comedy Festival at the Kennedy Center, featuring a weekend of comedy including stand-up, improv, sketch, variety, podcasts, and even...

Review: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at the Little Theatre of Alexandria

Lightning has struck in the form of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Little Theatre of Alexandria (LTA) this past Saturday night. Taking on the epic, and challenging, rock opera, Director Jim Howard...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Blowin’ Off Steam’

Written and directed by Chuck DeLong, Blowin’ Off Steam takes you bench-side into the steam room of a men’s fitness club in the suburbs of New York City, where seven painfully straight men spend their...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Meet the Glory Wholes’

By Rebecca Kurtz If there is one thing to be said for Meet the Glory Wholes, it’s that the creatively minded Joey Maranto has contagious confidence. Sixty minutes alone onstage is no small feat, and...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Truth*’

An ancient professor (Mikey Hays) ambles into the lecture hall, his collapsed posture and bowlegged, turned-out stance recalling Pantalone of the commedia dell’arte (he even wears the mask). He is a...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Heartbreak Hitman’

Capital Fringe Festival presents Heartbreak Hitman, an original rom-com by Leigh Giangreco. This DC-based piece follows the story of Jon (Walter Riddle), a man who makes a career out of outsourcing...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Cockpit in Court

By Bill Kamberger Ironically enough for a story that is propelled by sibling rivalry and longing for a better life, the stage adaptation of The Little Mermaid has always been a bit of a neglected...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Movie Magic Live!’

You Win! presents Movie Magic Live!, an evening of silly, competitive fun for movie lovers! Hosted by Jason Fraley and Ally Jenkins, this is perhaps the most interactive show at the Fringe this year....

Review: ‘Margherita’ presented by Seventh Street Playhouse at Greenbelt Arts Center

Margherita by Anthony E. Gallo, presented by the Seventh Street Playhouse at the Greenbelt Arts Center under the direction of Beatrix Whitehall, is a drama about the long extramarital relationship...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Almost Full: A Young Woman’s Guide to Growing Up’

On July 6, 2018, six girls ages 13 to 17 came together and began composing poetry and choreography and a little music about their just-starting-out lives. Two weeks later they performed the 29 short...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Draupadi’s Arranged Marriage’

Drawn from an episode in the Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata, Draupadi’s Arranged Marriage imagines the protagonist as a woman of modern feminist views faced with a polyandrous arranged marriage to five...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Beauty and the Beat’

ORT Productions’ Beauty and the Beat begins with a trio of dancers (Kelly Hogan, Carrie Monger, and Amy Scaringe) entering in formation into the graffitied performance space of the Blind Whino,...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘How to Fall in Love on a Warming Planet’

Rivers Wilder Green presents, How to Fall in Love on a Warming Planet for Capital Fringe 2018. Christopher B. Cox performs his original songs for this production, which can be described as a creative...

Review: ‘Harry Shearer: Up To Eleven’ at The Kennedy Center

My father first showed me This Is Spinal Tap when I was about fifteen. It was immediately one of my absolute favorite films. I’ve seen it at least a dozen times since then, tried and failed to learn...

Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ by The Hypocrites at Olney Theatre Center

Once upon a time, Gilbert and Sullivan staging was – there is no other word for it – stodgy. The D’Oyly Carte opera company dominated G&S performance from the late 19th century until its 1982 death...

2018 New York Musical Festival Review: ‘Emojiland’ at The Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row

If you’ve ever wondered about the private lives and inner thoughts of emojis and the impact software updates have on their interpersonal connections and eventual obsolescence, then Emojiland, with...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Coronado’

What’s worse than murder? What would God say? All the characters are “peddled out,” i.e. in dead-end jobs, down-on-their-luck, or near that, drinking Buds and doing shots at the bar, pulling guns at...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Through the Wall’

By Garinè Isassi Through the Wall is a dance story that sprang from an art experiment put together by Source Festival called the Artistic Blind Date Program. Artists from different disciplines were...

Review: ‘Late Night Double Feature Improv Show’ by Fells Point Corner Theatre

By Bill Kamberger Improv is life; after all, we do it every day. And since many would claim that theater is life, performing improv in a theater seems only natural. There’s a reason, though, that even...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: “50 Ways…”

A woman (IO Browne) climbs out of bed, her lover still fast asleep, unmoved. She lays out on the floor, limber and sensual as she dances like a flower budding through a crack in the pavement. Another...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘How’s That Workin’ Out For Ya?’

By Ellie Milewski Four intelligent and gifted female playwrights/directors, three bold female actors and their marvelous male partner in crime, and a wonderful crew, walk into Arena Stage to perform...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: “14”

By Ellie Milewski Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Parkland. These are only a few names from a list of mass shooting in the United States. A list that is painfully and heartbreakingly long. Emma...

DC Playwright Patrick Flynn Finalist in Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival

Editor’s Update, August 26, 2018: At the 43rd Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival this week, Patrick Flynn’s The Ferberizing of Coral was one of six plays chosen for publication by Samuel French. 850...

Review: ‘Where Did We Sit On The Bus?’ at 1st Stage Tysons

Where Did We Sit On The Bus? is a solo performance that examines identity in America through the eyes and observations of a Brown young man named Brian Quijada. With his charismatic smile, playwright...

Musical Theater and Improv Join Forces at Washington Improv Theater

“Quick! We need a word. Any word,” says Travis Charles Ploeger, director and accompanist for iMusical, an improv ensemble out of Washington Improv Theater. He’s standing in a black box theater,...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘PolySHAMory’

PolySHAMory, Capital Fringe veteran Kate Robards’ exploration of love, showcases theater’s ability to give stories meaningful emotion. The show is constructed around Robards’ story of being thrust...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘An Unhealthy Man Lectures You on Medical Issues’

Laughter really is the best medicine. As Vincent Clark assumes his place on stage for his one-person, multi-media comedy An Unhealthy Man Lectures You on Medical Issues, I immediately like this ailing...