2020

J’Nai Bridges’ debut in ‘Samson and Delilah’ is a dream come true

When J’Nai Bridges made her triumphant debut in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah Sunday night, it was the fulfillment of a dream. The young mezzo-soprano’s star has been rapidly rising — this...

Broadway phenom Norm Lewis delivers at the Kennedy Center

Norm Lewis is an icon. This is an indisputable fact. There are few others who have made such an impact on the way we view certain roles. His impressive bio includes such credits as the first African...

Washington National Opera stages a vocally stirring, visually arresting ‘Samson and Delilah’ at The Kennedy Center

Tales of wars, slaughters, betrayals, competing tribes and religions, and a few dominant women make the Book of Judges one of the more colorful segments of the Hebrew Bible. Camille Saint-Saëns and...

Washington Performing Arts and Alfred Street Baptist Church present reverent evening of musical performance with ‘I Am a Man’ at The Kennedy Center

A reverently curated evening by the Artistic Director of Washington Performing Arts’ Men and Women of the Gospel Choir, Theodore Thorpe III, I am a Man: Reclaiming Brilliance in the Midst of...

‘Boys Don’t Cry’ at Dance Place rejoices in macho detox

Boys Don’t Cry made this boy cry. It happened near the end. I had been watching a performance by the French dance company Cie Hervé KOUBI. Seven shirtless male dancers, all from different countries,...

Historical drama and physical comedy combine in an enjoyable ‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

It’s 1939 and film studio chief David O. Selznick has staked his career on adapting Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel Gone with the Wind for the screen. Still, Selznick shuts down production after...

Reston Community Players delivers a powerful ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’

There are some pieces of theater that elicit such raw emotion that describing the experience properly is next to impossible. Reston Community Players’ production of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly...

‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria blends comic antics and human drama

Hollywood, 1939. The production of Gone with the Wind — arguably the most eagerly anticipated movie of the decade — is in chaos. Producer David O. Selznick (Griffin Voltmann) has just fired the...

Theater Alliance’s heartrending ‘This Bitter Earth’ portrays two gay men in loving color

A poetic and politically charged same-gender-loving love story, This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers—now playing in a powerfully moving production at Theater Alliance—strips bare the hearts,...

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra explores connections between past and present

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s continuing Masterworks Series, as part of this season’s celebration of Beethoven’s two hundred fiftieth birthday, takes the theme, “Beethoven Discovers America,” in...

Observing depression across three generations of women in ‘Anatomy of a Suicide’ at the Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company’s American premiere of Anatomy of a Suicide by Alice Birch paints a painful and disturbing portrait of life-threatening depression across three generations of women in a...

A charming trip down the rabbit hole in Chalice Theatre’s ‘Alix in Wonderland’

In 1865, Lewis Carroll created the classic children’s tale, Alice in Wonderland, a journey into a fantasy world of kooky creatures that exhibit traits of both good and bad in their examples of human...

All under one roof in Signature Theatre’s ‘Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes’

Marian’s cheery Florida home – an over-decorated retirement nest she shares with second hubby Richard – has become a tropical haven for two adolescents in crisis. Richard’s pregnant niece Kitty, whose...

Opera Lafayette debuts sophisticated recreation of Beethoven’s ‘Leonore (1805)’

Thanks in part to the bold addition of a missing tenor aria, Opera Lafayette’s elegant production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore (1805), last night at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater,...

Taffety Punk’s ‘suicide.chat.room’: A unique, haunting, and compelling dance play

Highly recommended. An unsettling dance play. The phrase “sorry you’re here” takes on new meaning. It is not typical for me to write “highly recommended” at the top of an article. However, Taffety...

Beyond the script: fine-tuning farce in ‘The 39 Steps’ at Constellation

“I’ve never laughed so hard in rehearsal,” said Nick Olcott, describing some of the antics performed by a tiny but talented cast — four actors in 48 roles — in the wickedly funny send-up of Alfred...

‘Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth’ returns to Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage brings back its Helen Hayes nominated show, Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth, written by Psalmayene 24. With the title character, Zomo, inspired by a Nigerian folktale, the...

Shakespeare Theatre stages a stunning ‘Timon of Athens’ for modern audiences

Among Shakespeare’s plays are a special few whose relevance waxes and wanes with the times. They disappear from the stage for years, only to re-emerge when they are ready to speak to our issues, our...

A formidable production of ‘The Wanderers’ at Theater J

“Isn’t it OK to sometimes be selfish?” asks a character in Anna Ziegler’s cunningly devised The Wanderers. With Amber McGinnis’ discerning, sympathetic direction, Theater J’s production provides...

A harrowing story of the abduction and abuse of ‘Dana H.’ as recounted in her own voice at Vineyard Theatre

Award-winning playwright Lucas Hnath takes a provocative and personal approach to an acutely disturbing crime story and its aftermath in his latest work Dana H., making its New York debut at Vineyard...

A wild lampoon of the Wild West in Clubbed Thumb’s ‘Tumacho’ at the Connelly Theatre

Following its premiere run of Ethan Lipton’s Tumacho in 2016, Clubbed Thumb (a resident company of Playwrights Horizons) is back with the Obie Award-winning writer’s commissioned Wild West parody for...

Pianist Aaron Diehl cross-cuts jazz styles with a dive into their baroque and classical roots

The easiest thing for many highly qualified, especially classically trained, musicians to try to do is to cross genres in an effort to be relevant to the cultural world of 2020. Demonstrably harder to...

Actress Tai Alexander and director Angelisa Gillyard provide insight into reprise performance of ‘Welcome to Sis’s’ by Ally Theatre Company

In an effort to illuminate the historic and ongoing impacts of racial discrimination in land and property use laws in Hyattsville, MD, Mapping Racism Project, an initiative led by the Hyattsville...

A sexless sex comedy in ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott’s farce No Sex Please, We’re British premiered in London’s West End in 1971. It was unanimously panned by critics, although it played to full houses until 1987 at...

‘Ordinary Days’ at NextStop Theatre: Ah, to be young and tuneful in New York City

Adam Gwon’s 2009 show Ordinary Days could serve as the prototypical Off-Broadway chamber musical: four young characters navigate the Big City in search of their lives, in 19 songs over 80 minutes. The...

Caught between worlds in ‘Kill Move Paradise’

Don’t let those off-putting promos for Kill Move Paradise at Rep Stage stop you from turning out for its solid regional premiere at Howard Community College. This 2016 piece of theater is less a...

Nu Sass’s world premiere of ‘Weep’ is an arresting, unflinching peek into complicated lives

Trigger warning. Nu Sass’s world premiere of Weep is an arresting, unflinching peek into complicated lives with emotionally charged scenes and character collisions. It is a slowly building...

Walt Whitman’s vivid accounts of the Civil War come to life in ‘Leaves of America’

Chris Dwyer uses Walt Whitman’s poetry and his many hospital visits to bring vivid accounts of the Civil War to life in Leaves of America: Walt Whitman’s Stories of the Civil War. Whitman fans be...

Colonial Players of Annapolis stages a powerfully ambitious ‘Book of Days’

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Book of Days is powerfully ambitious. Lanford Wilson’s 2000 play follows the lives of several residents of the small town of Dublin, Missouri, over a...

Actor Mikéah Jennings unpacks his powerful performance in ‘Shipwreck’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 is an epic, scorching, and surreal satire of white liberalism in the era of Trump. It takes place at that ominous juncture in recent American...

Theatre@CBT’s Peter Pan: something to crow about

Filled to bursting with Warrior Girls, Lost Boys, dastardly Pirates from tiny to extra-large, and flying children, Theatre@CBT’s Peter Pan is a treat from start to finish. Director Kevin Sockwell,...

‘Perfect Arrangement’: Silver Spring Stage explores perfect present, future dreams

Recipe for a Perfect Evening: Take heaping cups of American mid-century corn (straight from the pages of Good Housekeeping), place it in a beautifully crafted Dutch Oven (from the pages of the...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Broadway’s Mauricio Martinez

A native of Monterrey, Mexico, and resident of New York City, Mauricio Martinez’s ongoing “fifteen minutes of fame” have spread like wildfire throughout his native country and the US with his...

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s gorgeous ‘Swan Lake’ pays tribute to artistic directors

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of Swan Lake is a gorgeous combination of dancing, costumes, and lighting. With choreography by Artistic Director Dianna Cuatto, it is a wonderful staging of...

Victorian Lyric Opera’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ elicits laughter, delight

There’s no doubt that The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most beloved of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works. Like most Gilbert and Sullivan tales, it takes clever jabs at the politics of its time while...

NSO: Noseda’s homecoming mints the ‘NSO sound’ in spectacular Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

Even though being a classical music reviewer often feels like a gig too good to be true, I don’t recall ever forgetting my purpose for attending a performance. There’s a first for everything, however,...

Creative Cauldron successfully “finishes the hat” in ‘Crowns’

“Hats reveal and they conceal,” Crowns playwright Regina Taylor states in an interview. Crowns is derived from a book of photographs and stories of African American women, compiled by journalist Craig...

Better Said Than Done’s Women’s Storytelling Festival: giving voice to women storytellers for all to hear

Who Tells Our Story is the theme of Better Said Than Done’s upcoming, first-of-its-kind, two-day Women’s Storytelling Festival. Audiences can expect stories that have been crafted for a solo spoken...

James Baldwin’s ‘Amen Corner’ bears witness to the Beloved Community

Corners can be safe spaces for hiding. There’s comfort in corners because they’re out of sight and out of danger. In The Amen Corner, James Baldwin’s dilemma is whether to embrace the inner life of...

Keen Company revisits 1930 Harlem in its stellar New York debut of ‘Blues for an Alabama Sky’ at Theatre Row

Although it’s been twenty-five years since playwright Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky made its debut in Atlanta, the Keen Company’s current revival at Theatre Row marks the New York premiere...

The room where it happens: ‘Henry IV, Part 2’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

The HBO hit Succession centers around a wealthy media family reportedly based on the Rupert Murdoch dynasty. Its central dilemma: who will succeed the ruthless Logan Roy as the head of his...

West-Eastern Divan Ensemble’s first American tour features Kennedy Center performance

The world is so full of intractable political and cultural issues, with deep chasms making understanding, let alone peace, seem so far away. But the venerable Washington Performing Arts (WPA)...

Arena Stage announces 2020-21 season

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie have announced the theater’s ten-show 2020/21 Season. This season, more than half of the playwrights and directors are...

Despite killer performances, ‘Shipwreck’s’ political message falters

Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017, the new play by Anne Washburn in its US premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, summons the dread and dysphoria of primarily white liberals following the 2016...

Natsu Onoda Power’s adaptation of ‘Thumbelina’ captivates audiences of all ages at Imagination Stage

By Kelly Hanson Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, a beloved fairy tale about a tiny girl searching for a place to belong, has been captivating children for hundreds of years. Though this story has...

‘The 39 Steps’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company is a delightful evening of laughter

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of The 39 Steps is a hilarious send-up of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Adapted by Patrick Barlow in 2005 and based on John Buchan’s 1915 adventure novel and...

‘Cinderella’ (La Cenerentola): Well-sung Rossini at Virginia Opera

Spoiler alert: Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after. Of course, since Virginia Opera, like all opera companies of any size, prints a detailed synopsis in the program each patron receives,...

In ‘Boy’ at Keegan Theatre, the anguish of a gender experiment gone wrong

“Oh, god. Maybe it didn’t work,” the mother exclaims in alarm. It’s the moment in this hold-your-breath drama when she realizes the gender experiment done on her child, one of two identical twins born...

‘Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally’ reveals the quotidian miseries of family at Baltimore’s Center Stage

Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally, playing at Baltimore’s Center Stage through March 1, feels oddly familiar in several ways, and in others, 100 percent fresh. Playwright Noah Diaz delicately dances on...

Megan Hilty and Cheyenne Jackson in NSO Pops: Broadway and Beyond at the Kennedy Center

If your ideal Valentine’s date is cheerful, charming, and looks fantastic in formal wear, then get thee to the Kennedy Center to spend an evening with Megan Hilty and Cheyenne Jackson. The Broadway,...