2019

News: ‘The Woman in Black’ by Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Lansburgh Theatre

Shakespeare Theatre Company announced this week that one of London’s most popular and long-running plays will join a season of classical theatre as a special presentation: The Woman in Black at the...

Review: ‘Diagnosed’ at Theater Alliance

I know what it feels like to not want to take a shower for three days. I know how the aches and pains of depression make you crawl into the fetal position and want to close out the world. I am...

Lighting Designer John H. Purnell Discusses ‘Mamma Mia’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

John H. Purnell is the Lighting Designer for Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s sold-out production of Mamma Mia! He has done the lighting design for many shows in the Annapolis area, including a A New...

Review: ‘Michael Feinstein: I Happen To Like New York’ at Feinstein’s/54 Below

For his annual summer engagement at Feinstein’s/54 Below, the eponymous multi-platinum Grammy-nominated artist celebrates the songs, entertainers, and musical history of our city in Michael Feinstein:...

Review: ‘Bat Out of Hell’ at New York City Center

Loud, flashy, dissipated, and crass – Bat Out of Hell is everything you’d expect in a rock-n-roll jukebox musical based on the 1970s mega-hits of Meat Loaf, who served as associate producer, and Jim...

Touring Companies of ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Team Up for DC Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Fundraiser

The touring companies of Disney’s Aladdin and Dear Evan Hansen invite guests to The Cast Party: A Fundraising Event on Monday, August 26, 2019, from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm at Mr. Smith’s of Georgetown...

Review: ‘Sea Wall/A Life’ at the Hudson Theatre

Following its sold-out Off-Broadway run at The Public Theater this past winter, Sea Wall/A Life has made its transfer to Broadway for a limited engagement at the Hudson Theatre. Comprised of two...

Review: ‘Enron’ at 4615 Theatre Company Is an Excellent Investment

Back in 1998, the official Enron vision and values statement had a line in it that said: “Ruthlessness, callousness, and arrogance don’t belong here.” Two years later, as the company’s stock...

Review: ‘Crusade’ by Rapid Lemon Productions

In today’s excessively divisionary, violent, corrupt political environment, perhaps seeing a weapons-filled show set during an internal war wouldn’t be your immediate go-to of choice. Rapid Lemon...

Review: ‘The War Boys’ at Ally Theatre Company is raw and riveting

The animus being whipped up against “invaders” at our southern border lends Naomi Wallace’s 1993 The War Boys an unsettling resonance. Written when she was but 26, the play is about three men in their...

Review: ‘The Country Wife’ at The Rude Mechanicals

In 1675 William Wycherley wrote The Country Wife, a bawdy comedy of manners that pushed back against an 18-year stage ban instituted by a Puritan government. With the Restoration of the English...

Review: ‘Amélie’ at 2nd Star Productions

Amélie is a whimsy of a musical with a big cast of characters and an equally big heart. An ensemble-driven rom-com that transports you into a world of imagination and prankish intrigue, Amélie paints...

Review: An Emotionally Gripping ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at the Kennedy Center

Some musicals are all about the entertainment. You expect to see some awesome dancing, amazing singing, and leave the theater smiling (see my review of Disney’s Aladdin, also currently playing at the...

Review: ‘Treasure Island’ at Synetic Theater

If you’re a fan of swashbuckling pirate tales, you’ll love Synetic Theater’s charming and atmospheric spin on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island. Directed by Tori Toletino and adapted by...

Review: ‘Mary Poppins’ by Glyndon Area Players

“Anything can happen if you let it” isn’t just the watchcry of the rosy cheeked heroine of Mary Poppins, currently dazzling audiences at Sacred Heart’s Glyndon Area Players. It would also seem to be...

‘In Your Shoes’: A Theatrical Experiment in Fostering a Democratic Ethos at Georgetown University

In the Devine black box theater at Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, nine casually dressed undergraduate students, seated in chairs or on the floor take turns telling the story of...

Magic Time!: ‘Blank’ at Theater Alliance

“There are holes in the script!” would be the deathblow for any more conventional work of theater, but in Nassim Soleimanpour’s Blank, the gaps are where the action’s at. As with Soleimanpour’s hugely...

Vocalists Add a Narrative Twist to Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Volta’

Cirque du Soleil’s Volta is a rush of energy and hand-over-mouth gulps of emotions. Currently decamped in Fairfax County, a quick saunter from the raised Metro Silver Line station at Tysons II, Volta...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde’ at the Keegan Theatre

In this summer of our discontent – what with unchecked climate change, racist politics, and mass murders – a bit of cheer in the form of a frothy tale of a privileged white girl who, through dint of...

Holy Ground that’s Marvtastic: Black Theatre Is for Everybody at the National Black Theatre Festival

The National Black Theatre Festival was over-the-top for the 65,000 ticketholders who descended upon Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the City of the Arts and Innovation, July 29 through August 3rd....

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Olivier Award Winner Lesli Margherita

Just back from her native California after a run in the Broadway At Music Circus production of Guys and Dolls in Sacramento, Broadway veteran and Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita (Matilda; Dames...

Theater Alliance Announces Third Annual ‘Word Becomes Action Festival’

The third annual Word Becomes Action Festival launches Theater Alliance’s 2019-2020 season with six new works that ask us to confront the revolutions and moments of resilience within our daily lives....

Review: ‘The Gazillion Bubble Show’ at New World Stages

Tiny bubbles, huge bubbles, round bubbles, square bubbles, long bubbles, clear bubbles, white bubbles, floating bubbles, bouncing bubbles, stacked bubbles, bubbles within bubbles, rainbow-colored...

Review: ‘Or,’ by Theatre Prometheus at Capital Hill Arts Workshop

Liz Duffy Adams’s play Or,—which premiered in 2009 at the Women’s Project in New York—is a deliciously literate feminist farce. A radical mashup of dichotomies (among them straight and gay, male and...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Mamma Mia! is a colorful, fun-filled spectacle. With Music and Lyrics by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Book by Catherine Johnson, the musical,...

Review: ‘Young Frankenstein’ by Other Voices Theatre

IT ALIVE! Other Voices Theatre brings not only a monster, but also a fantastic evening of laughter, to life with their production of Mel Brooks’ musical Young Frankenstein. If you love Mel Brooks’...

Review: ‘Generations: A Series of One Acts’ at The Colonial Players of Annapolis

Generations: A Series of One Acts, at Colonial Players, is a touching, thoughtful evening of three brand-new one-act plays, each about 30 minutes long, by three playwrights well-known in the Annapolis...

Magic Time!: A Love Letter to ‘Dear Evan Hansen’

When Dear Evan Hansen debuted at Arena Stage four years ago, I was so moved by the show I wrote it a love letter, republished below. Now a Broadway hit, it returns to DC for a run at Kennedy Center...

Remembering Harold Prince

On Wednesday, July 31, Broadway lost a legend, when producer/director/writer Harold Prince died at the age of 91, in Reykjavik, Iceland, following a brief illness. To commemorate his life and work,...

In The Moment: Kimberly Gilbert Is King In ‘Bootleg Shakespeare, Richard III’

Once again, Taffety Punk Theatre Company has succeeded at challenging the theatrical status quo. This time, it was with a mesmerizing Bootleg Shakespeare Richard III. Under the open-eyed, “the...

National Players To Offer Low or No Cost Shows at Olney Theatre Center

National Players, America’s longest-running touring company and the hallmark outreach program of the Olney Theatre Center, presents its three-play repertory with a series of pay-what-you can previews...

Dark Horse Theatre Company Brings Daring Production of ‘No Exit’ to Two Northern Virginia Venues

Adding to professional theater options for audiences in Northern Virginia, Dark Horse Theatre Company will be mounting its next production at ArtSpace Herndon, as well as in its regular home base...

Review: ‘South Pacific’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. The winner of multiple Tony awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, South Pacific continues to charm...

Review: ‘Alive!’ in the New York Musical Festival

Presented at the Pershing Square Signature Center as a one-night-only featured concert in this year’s New York Musical Festival (NYMF), Alive!, with book, music, and lyrics by Josh Canfield, sings a...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ by Wildwood Summer Theater

How do you spell “talented”? This summer it’s spelled W-I-L-D-W-O-O-D. Wildwood Summer Theater is the DC area’s only all-youth musical theater company. Everyone associated with the group, from the...

Review: ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ by Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s (BSF) production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Tom Delise, delivers the “merry” promised in the title. The wives – Alice Ford (Emily Classen) and Margaret...

Review: ‘Bootleg Shakespeare: Richard III’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company at the Folger Theatre

Taffety Punk’s Bootleg Shakespeare, a beloved DC tradition, is like attending a party with dozens of friends you never knew you had. The lines are long. The audience is enthusiastic. And the acting is...

Review: ‘The Producers’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Funny Boy, a musical version of Hamlet, A Breaking Wind, She Schtups to Conquer–could anyone predict how much those fictional plays would wow audiences? The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s The...

Review: ‘Volta’ by Cirque du Soleil

It always sparks joy when Cirque du Soleil comes to town, and its latest Big Top production, Volta, is a crazy-wondrous delight. The show is inspired by amateur street sports, and its theme is the...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Starcrossed’

Starcrossed is a re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet with a new pair of starcrossed lovers: Mercutio and Tybalt. Worked seamlessly within the dialogue and story of the original work, these...

In ‘Aladdin,’ Iago Is The Perfect Sidekick: And No, He’s Not a Parrot Anymore

LA-based character actor Reggie De Leon brings comedic flair to the beloved Disney character Iago. ‘Aladdin’ is playing at the Kennedy Center through September 7th.

Ari Afsar Pays Homage to America’s First Congresswoman in ‘Jeannette’

Ari Afsar is a singer/songwriter, stage and screen actress, and an advocate and activist for a variety of socio-political causes, including The Women’s March and The United States of Women. One of her...

Review: ‘Disney’s Newsies’ by Encore Stage & Studio at Kenmore Middle School Theatre

Encore Stage & Studio’s “Theatre by Kids, for Kids!” is currently showing the Disney musical, Newsies. Based on the 1992 movie, and inspired by the real-life newsboy strike in 1899, the story takes...

Feature: Directing ‘Ann’ at Arena Stage

Ann Richards, the late governor of Texas, and the first woman in that state to be elected in her own right, would be howling with glee if she could see the pandemonium unleashed in government today....

Review: ‘Broadway Bounty Hunter’ at Greenwich House Theater

It comes as no surprise that the sensational Joe Iconis and Family have done it again, following the phenomenal digital-age journey of one of my (and millions of fans’) all-time favorites, Be More...

Review: ‘Aladdin’ at The Kennedy Center

Ever since The Lion King took the Broadway world by storm back in 1997, Disney has been recreating its beloved animated films for the stage, with successful runs by The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the...

Dispatches from Mike Daisey’s ‘A People’s History,’ Chapters 1 to 18

Over 16 days in Washington, DC, in July 2019, Mike Daisey gave 18 different performances, each about an hour and 45 minutes long, of his epic look at America’s past, present, and future. He drew from...

Interview: Pawel Walczewski Flies into Tysons with Cirque du Soleil ‘Volta’

Cirque du Soleil’s Volta features an inspirational message about loving the weirdo within. Volta centers around the character Waz who has allowed the dust of inertia and conformity to gather on him...

Review: ‘The Mousetrap’ by Thunderous Productions

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is a serious whodunit in which strangers are thrown together at a remote place and cut off from the outside world, with a police inspector unlocking a murder mystery in...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Inferno the Musical’

“Heaven is so boring.” That’s the complaint of a modern-day version of Dante Alighieri in Inferno the Musical, a look at the vagaries of life and love and the inevitability of fate. Written and...