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By: Debbie Minter Jackson 

Charlie Victor Romeo - Studio Theatre

This most unusual, unsettling piece, Charlie Victor Romeo depicts the final moments heard on the CVR: Cockpit Voice Recorders known as the “black box” from airplane wreckage. Described as terrifying, riveting, spell-binding, mundane and boring as hell- Charlie Victor Romeo is all of the above and more. For me, it was actually good theater-admittedly, it pushes beyond the usual depictions of theater, but theater nonetheless. All six vignettes or “incidents” occur in a cockpit set up on stage, the cast members portray the crew and voices of air traffic controllers, and the stories that emerge come directly from the actual words on transcripts-including the “ums” and misspeaks. How does it work? Why is it so mesmerizing?

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By: Ronnie Ruff  

The Childrens Hour at WSC 

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman starts on a slow path to it’s conclusion but as the plot thickens this melodrama of blackmail and lies in a 1930s girls school comes to life with a riveting but predictable ending. WSC’s H Lee Gable directs and casts Christopher Henley and Jay Hardee in traditional female roles that are open to experimentation. In today’s world of politicized gender issues Gable very successfully twists screws that at first seem frozen but as the play progresses they eventually loosen, freeing  Henley to give us a performance of steady, but frail brilliance. Hardy succeeds wonderfully as well in a performance that he nails. The show touches on sensitive topics with thoughtful consideration, keeping us involved in the characters to the very end. One can argue the merits of cross gender casting but in the end it has little to do with the performance’s success, instead the show stands on its performances and a strong script that is extremely engaging.

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Theatrical bargain hunter Karen Shod will be on the lookout for DCTR readers with flash updates on the hottest ticket bargains in town right here on DC Theatre Reviews.  Check the site often for these breaking editions of Karen’s FYI: Hot Tips ‘n’ Tix.!   

Hi everyone, Ronnie here, just wanted to thank everyone for all the support that has been given over the last 11 months that it has taken to get to the 100 Review mark.  It is important for me to point out that the most important things to DC Theatre Reviews are our readers and the talented theatre companies. Long ago I worked for a super boss, his name was Erol Onaran. Erol had a saying, My customers come first, my employees second, my suppliers 3rd, then me. At DCTR our readers come first, DC area theatres come second, then us. It will always be that way because that is where our priorities are. We know that without readers and the wonderful artists there would be no DC Theatre Reviews. Our single goal is to promote live theatre in Washington, DC and provide a place theatre fans can come to read about shows and discuss them.

There are a few people I would personally like to thank that have supported us in the beginning when we were just some guy with a blog.

My Friend and a woman with incredible love for theatre Lorraine Treanor, all of the wonderful folks that have read our site from the beginning (you know who you are), Tim, Debbie, Fiona, Juliette, Valeria, Delinda and Joel (The Theatre Posse),  Christopher Henley and Jay Hardee at WSC, Carolyn Griffin at MetroStage, Dan Brick and Linda Murray at Solas Nua, Deborah Kirby at Journeymen Theatre, Alex Zavistovich, Brian and Paula Alprin at Natural Theatricals, David Siegel at American Century Theater and all the other wonderful and talented theatre professionals in DC who work each day to promote theatre here in the nation’s capital. 

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Interviews with Aaron Posner and  SHERRI EDELEN

Review By: Ronnie Ruff - Interview By: Joel Markowitz

Our 100th Posted Review!

A Murder, A Mystery And A Marriage A Mark Twain Musical Melodrama  –  Round House Theatre  Bethesda

Check out Joel’s great interview with Director Aaron Posner above!

As I write this review I am a very happy reviewer for two reasons!  The first one is this is the 100th review to be posted on DC Theatre Reviews!  More about that later, the business at hand is a wonderful musical at Round House Bethesda based on a short story written quite a few years ago by a fellow you may have heard of. The author of that short story is Mark Twain and the musical is A Murder, A Mystery And A Marriage.  Now to be honest you should call the box office right now and order tickets to this show before you even finish my review, it will be that hot I assure you. So see you in a few minutes ……..

………………..Welcome back (and to all of you risk takers who never left, you may be sorry), let’s talk about this great show! This show has it all! First off, right out of the blocks it is funny as hell - the show starts off with a humorous musical ditty on turning off your cell and not rattling candy wrappers. From that point on you will be snagged with all the right hooks! Great hum along songs (composed by James Sugg) , a fantastic book and lyrics by by Aaron Posner that is laugh out loud funny, a rustic well designed set by Tony Cisek with lighting effects by James Leitner that suck you in to “Deer Lick, Missouri” like it was your home away from home. The fabulous costumes by Kate Turner-Walker are down home country from hats to boots. The excellent band of down home pickers heats up the place thanks to the fine musical direction by Jay Ansnill and sound design by Matthew M Nielson. This is just fine work all around.

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 Aaron Posner [8:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (418)

 

 Sheri Edelelen : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (300)

Interviewer: Lorraine Treanor

Editors Note: This is Lorraine’s first Interview and the first interview with our Blue Snow Ball Mics, Expect very cool things from our new equipment.

This interview is very good! I think the love of theatre comes through in the words and music of this great company, A must listen!            

Synetic Theatre’s powerful production of Faust has successfully transferred from the Rosslyn Spectrum where it opened in April to the Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center where it plays for three weeks only, closing Sunday, June 18th. We talked backstage with director Paata Tsikurishvili , and performers Irina Tsikurishvili, ( Gretchen, and also the company’s Helen Hayes award winning choreographer), Greg Marzullo (Faust), Dan Istrate (Mephiso) and ensemble member Meghan Grady. The discussion begins with a description of the set, the story of Faust as told by Goethe and of the actual Faust who practiced alchemy, Greg and Dan treat us to a brief scene between Faust and Mephisto, followed by a lively description of the role of art, beauty and nudity in theatre.

 

 Faust Interview [20:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (326)

By: Ronnie Ruff

Assassins at Signature Theatre

There is so much to like about a new Signature show even one they have done before, so when one goes bad there is a mourning period. I saw the show last night, had a late dinner, a good night sleep and I am ready to move on. Well, not yet…. Let’s talk about this.

Assassins is a great show, it is funny, has great songs, and even has a message.. So what went wrong? Let’s face it, Signature has done this show before! Well, the show has problems in the staging. Why are these assassins chasing each other around? I like the idea of we, the audience facing ourselves and asking, “could it have been me?” but why all the movement out into the audience and even worse, many times the action is moved behind some of the audience. Imaginative staging is something that we love to see but there are times when the staging just gets in the way of the show as it does here.

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Call Me Mister !

This is an interview done by our Joel Markowitz with Jack Marshall Artistic Director of American Century Theatre along with Tom Fuller (Musical Director) and Joanne Schmoll (Actress) about their staged reading of Call Me Mister the next installment in their Rescue Series.  The story of how this production came about and the Staged Reading process is the first installment in our Learning Series of podcasts. Future installments will consist of podcasts with known theatre personalities on ranging topics from Musicals to Shakespeare — Directing to Acting.

The next offering in the American Century Theater’s “Rescues” series is Call Me Mister (1946), an exuberant musical revue by Harold Rome (Fanny, Pins and Needles) with book by Arnold Auerbach. The show ran for 734 performances on Broadway. The title, Call Me Mister, comes from what WW II servicemen said when they took off their uniforms for good and re-entered civilian life.

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 Call Me Mister - Learning Series [16:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (306)