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Seven who stole the show this Fall

By Joel Markowitz

It’s highway robbery when all of a sudden in the middle of a play or musical, a performer comes on the stage and grabs the show away from the leads. You say, “Wow! Who was that person?” So, here are seven scene stealers from shows I saw this Fall. (more…)

Nov 29 — The Local One stagehand’s strike, begun the morning of November 10^th, ended last night with a tentative agreement that could have some shows opening as early as today.  The strike shuttered 27 of Broadway’s biggest shows, costing heartache to tourists and performers and lost revenues to the tune of $2 million per day for New York.  Only ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical’, with its limited run, was able to charm the unions and the courts into an opening last week.  Read the NY Times coverage here. (more…)

Ed’s note: Will Synetic’s Christmas Carol thrill children and adults? DCTS reviewer Gary McMillan speaks for the adults, (See Take 2) and our young reviewer gives his perspective here.

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• A Christmas Carol
• By Charles Dickens
• Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili and Dan Istrate
• Produced by Synetic Theater at Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre
• Reviewed by Hunter Kieserman

I was not prepared for the visual excitement of Synetic Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol. I have seen many film and stage versions, so I was very excited to see the Synetic Theatre production because it was Synetic Theatre’s first family show, it was my first review for DC Theatre Scene and my Dad was joining me.

Like most kids, I was familiar with the plot of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic tale of grumpy old Ebenezer Scrooge who is selfish and does not fully understand the meaning of Christmas until visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. They open his eyes to the true meaning of Christmas and fill him with Christmas spirit. What I saw at Synetic Theater was absolutely phenomenal! It was a visual treat! (more…)

• A Christmas Carol
• By Charles Dickens, adapted by Nathan Weinberger
• Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili and Dan Istrate
• Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili
• Produced by Synetic Theater
• Reviewed by Gary McMillan

Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh with the hounds of hell nipping at your heels. Synetic Theater has taken on the Dicken’s holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, and put its distinctive, ethereal stamp on the tale of the haunting and redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge. With its four ghostly visitations on Christmas Eve, the play is a natural for Synetic’s blend of minimalist dialog and visually stunning, creative illusion. It also marks Synetic’s venture into more family-friendly fright, with a smattering of lighthearted humor here and there. (more…)

• Christmas Carol 1941
• By James Magruder
• Directed by Molly Smith
• Produced by Arena Stage                                                                  
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Who knew that the age-old Christmas Carol story could be adapted to wartime Washington, D.C and filled with such local and national history?  Talented playwright James Magruder has internalized the familiar messages of memory, retribution, and second chances, and offers a whole new twist to the familiar tale, highlighting Washington’s history, war-time struggles, and the ever present cranking levers of the federal machinery that define this fascinating place.  (more…)

• Happy Days
• by Samuel Beckett
• Directed by Deborah Warner
• Produced by The National Theatre of Great Britain
• Presented at the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

When Samuel Beckett’s wife asked him to write a cheerful play, he wrote Happy Days in which a mid-life woman is buried in an earth mound up to her waist in the first act and up to her neck in the second.    For Beckett’s most cheerful exploration of despair now on the Terrace Theater stage, an earthquake of ruptured building materials, cement, rocks and glistening sand fill the stage apron. Relentless white light beats down. Ominous dissonance, a sound track of un-tuned stringed instruments and muffled horns, rattles and percussive ticking come from all directions to usher us in. (more…)

• Shining City
• by Conor McPherson
• Directed by Joy Zinoman
• Produced by Studio Theatre
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy
• That there’s an element of mythical unworldliness in Conor McPherson’s mesmerizing play Shining City is implied in the title, that echoes scripture, “A city on a hill cannot be hid.” Or “Let your light shine before men.” The image was borrowed from the Sermon on the Mount by St. Augustine in City of God  and made contemporary in Ronald Reagan’s speeches about America as the “shining city on a hill,” especially in his farewell.
• The Irish love to have the last word, especially when it comes to an allegorical journey called life. And McPherson, the playwright is no exception.

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• Alone It Stands
• By John Breen
• Directed by Eric Lucas and Kerry Waters Lucas
• Produced by Keegan Theatre’s New Island Project
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

To understand the impact of Munster’s 1978 triumph over the New Zealand All Black team, you must imagine that the New England Patriots, fresh from its 63-0 triumph in the 2008 Super Bowl, is performing a barnstorming tour and is tripped up by the Montgomery County All-Stars - a mix of industrial-league players and the best of Montgomery College’s intramural teams. (more…)

• The Secret Garden
• Based upon the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Directed by Michael J. Bobbit
• Produced by Adventure Theatre
• Reviewed by Jonny Perl

Like a ballet that tells a story, The Secret Garden opens with a series of magnificent tale-telling dances. A snake in India is cleverly charmed. Mary’s parents suffer a horrid death from cholera and Mary is shipped off on a long journey to the estate of her guardian, Uncle Craven across the ocean. This is just one of the many poetic dances choreographed by the talented Dana Tai Soon Burgess in The Secret Garden. (more…)

A Return Visit with Broadway Pundit Richard Seff

By Joel Markowitz

(more…)

 

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