Jitney

Produced by the African Continuum Theatre in association with Ford’s Theatre
Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

 Frederick Strother as Becker (Photo: T. Charles Erickson)

Jennifer L. Nelson, who is stepping aside as artistic director of the African Continuum Theatre Company to dedicate herself to directing, elicits spell-binding performances for this double first: Jitney was the first of August Wilson’s ten-play cycle [...]

Into the Woods

 
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim    Book by James Lapine
Reviewed by Gary McMillan

      Cast of Into the Woods with [front] Donna Migliaccio as Jack’s Mom (Photo: Carol Pratt)

 

Welcome to the same old, brand new Signature. With the same old commitment to quality, Signature co-founder and impresario Eric Schaeffer, well, Poppa’s Got A Brand New Box [...]

Bricktop

By Calvin A. Ramsey and Thomas W. Jone II
Produced by MetroStage                                                   
Reviewed by Debbie M. Jackson

 
Bricktop at MetroStage stomps and sizzles across the stage like there’s no tomorrow. Co-written by Baltimore playwright Calvin A. Ramsey and MetroStage favorite, Thomas W. Jones II, who also directs, Bricktop is a high energy, roller coaster ride through nearly four [...]

January Pleasures

Carol, Bricktop, Stephen, Act Two and The Boar
 
Here’s why they call me the Wandering Jew.
 
This month alone I attended two National Symphony concerts, two Kirov Opera performances, press openings of a Neil Labute play and a Jewish memoir turned into a play, took a tour of the new spacious high tech theatre that graces [...]

The Tempest

  

Robert Leembruggan and Ally Raber (Photo: Ray Gniewek)

By William Shakespeare
Produced by Keegan Theatre
Reviewed by Gary McMillan

 
What suits the Nation’s Capital better than a comedy of political treachery?  The Keegan Theatre’s The Tempest, a solid – if uneven - entry in the Shakespeare In Washington Festival, nicely melds the drama and comedy of the play, [...]

Sleeping Arrangements

by: Laura Shaine Cunningham
Produced by: TheatreJ
Reviewed by: Debbie Minter Jackson
“It is safe to dream again,” says young Lily, while looking at the stars in the final line from Sleeping Arrangements, a world premiere playing at Theater J. This mild and quirky drama by Laura Shaine Cunningham is based on her memoir set in the 1950’s [...]

King Lear

King Lear by William Shakespeare
Co-Produced by the Folger Theatre and the Classical Theatre of Harlem
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn has called Shakespeare "a playwright for our town" and in no play is it more evident than in King Lear.  In Lear, power is acquired through lies and flattery, maintained through blood [...]

What’s Done in the Dark

Written and produced by Tyler Perry                                       
by Debbie Minter Jackson

                      Mr. Brown & Cora  (David Mann & Tamela Mann)
The Tyler Perry Experience                  
Tyler Perry.  The name alone can pack a playhouse with patrons shelling out $50 a pop for a ticket without a word of print advertising or even a notice in the mainstream media.  Before his [...]

Opening Doors to a New Era at Signature

Hope & Joy in Shirlington

By Joel Markowitz YOU’RE GONNA LOVE TOMORROW!!      It’s Thursday, January 4th. Only nine days to go before hundreds of enthusiastic theatregoers, subscribers and Shirlington neighbors come to see what all the fuss is about. Will they be ready?      Wearing hard hats with the word “SIGNATURE” on it,  and [...]

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare  Adapted by Paata Tsikurishvili and Nathan Weinberger  Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili
Produced by Synetic Theater
Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

 (l to r) Armand Sindoni, Mike Way, Niki Jacobsen and Courtney Pauroso as Ensemble and Irina Tsikurishvili as Lady Macbeth. (Photo: Raymond Gniewek)
                Get the next generation hooked on the ecstasy of live performance. Take [...]

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