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Cool Papa’s Party

February 11, 2009 By 5 Comments

coolpapareviewCool Papa’s Party
Written and Directed by Tom W. Jones II
Produced by MetroStage
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Cool Papa’s Party is a frantic smattering of music, dance, with bits of dramatic elements tossed on an overlay of historical chronology, coarsely swirling together as a wild-eyed homage to the life spirit of Sammy Davis, Jr., the ultimate hipster, swing Daddy Cool.  Sammy.  He was a force of nature – complex, conflicted, controversial, self-destructive, who barreled through his life story as the ultimate song and dance man, [Read more...]

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Tin Pan Alley, Dante, Tommy Tune and Broadway Today

February 10, 2009 By 2 Comments

tinpanHere’s To The Ladies! The Women of  Tin Pan Alley, A Dante Rehearsal, Tommy Tune: Steps in Time and Broadway Today.

No winter blues here!  As the snowflakes fell and the freezing temperatures made us shiver, there was a buffet of song and dance appetizers on our local stages. Here are four shows and special performances that made this musical theatre lover stand up and cheer!

Giving The Ladies Their Due – Finally!

Theater Alliances Here’s to the Ladies! The Women of Tin Pan Alley, now playing at H Street Playhouse, and lovingly directed by Jessica Burgess,  is a walk down memory lane – an homage to many of our country’s gifted songwriters, whose contributions to our Great American Songbook have been ignored for too long. [Read more...]

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The Inspector General

February 10, 2009 By 1 Comment

inspectorgenThe Inspector General
By Nikolai Gógol
Directed by Kathleen Akerley
Produced by Journeymen Theater Ensemble
Reviewed by Steven McKnight

Gógol’s The Inspector General is both a great classic work of 19th century Russian drama and an odd duck.  It can be described as anything from a prose comedy to a dramatic satire.  In the hands of Journeymen Theater Ensemble, The Inspector General is a comedy of frequently inspired silliness.  [Read more...]

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Helen Hayes Nominations Announced

February 10, 2009 By 78 Comments

hha2009bobbitt

It was a big night for big theaters at the 2009 Helen Hayes nominations last night. Helen Hayes President and CEO Linda Levy Grossman announced that Arlington’s Signature Theatre racked up over a quarter of the organization’s 150 nominations, which celebrate the 2008 theater year. [Read more...]

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A Lie of the Mind

February 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

lieoftheA Lie of the Mind
By Sam Shepard
Directed by Xerxes Mehta
Produced by Rep Stage
Reviewed by Steven McKnight

A Lie of the Mind is considered among the  important works by Sam Shepard, one of the most distinctive and acclaimed modern American playwrights.  At the same time, it is rarely produced for reasons made clear by this new staging at Rep Stage.  While the play receives a skillful production with a talented cast, the result is a work that is  powerful yet ultimately frustrating. [Read more...]

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Holes

February 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

holesHoles
by Louis Sachar, adapted for the stage from his novel of the same name
Directed by Rachel Grossman
Produced by Adventure Theatre
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

The novel Holes is designed to make older children excited about reading. Adventure Theatre’s fine, faithful production of the Louis Sachar novel will make them excited about theater. If that’s your objective, this is the right place.

Holes first introduced itself to me when we were hosting a young friend of ours from Chicago for the summer. Alex was doing an internship with his Congressman, and he was full of ambition. [Read more...]

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Dante

February 7, 2009 By 4 Comments

dante1Dante
Based on “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri
Adapted by Ben Cunis, Nathan Weinberger and Paata Tsikurishvili
Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili
Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili
Produced by Synetic Theater
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Forget their multiple Helen Hayes Awards; cast aside all their revolutionary wordless interpretations of Shakespeare; dismiss all their productions which have hitherto stunned audiences and reduced critics to babbling. Take it from me, sports fans; this is the best Synetic ever. [Read more...]

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Hell Meets Henry Half Way

February 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

hellmeetshenryHell Meets Henry Halfway
From Possessed, by Witold Gombrowicz
Adapted by Adriano Shaplin in collaboration with Pig Iron Theatre Company
Directed by Dan Rothenberg
Produced by Pig Iron Theatre Company at Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Don’t listen to the hype! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! This is no academic exercise, no somber meditation on the Art of the Clown. It’s spooky, shocking, and damn funny! It’s like Jean-Paul Sartre retold by Mel Brooks, and then performed by the Marx Brothers. It is a tragedy blown up a hundred times into a melodrama, and then blown up a thousand more times into a farce. [Read more...]

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Exclusive interview with Edward Albee

February 5, 2009 By 1 Comment

albeesmallConsidered by many to be the greatest living playwright, in his conversation with Tim Treanor, Edward Albee gave us a look into his creatuve process,answers questions about A Delicate Balance, and places responsibility for what gets produced in the hands of the audiences themselves.

Funny, thought provoking and insightful  Click here.

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Billy Elliot, August: Osage County, The Third Story

February 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

billyelltiotusBilly Elliot, August: Osage County and The Third Story
by Richard Seff

Here we are into February and I’m just catching up on two of last year’s big winners. I’d seen Billy Elliot in London last April, but saved the New York production until it properly settled in for its long run on Broadway. I caught up with it at the Actors’ Fund Benefit on January 25th .  It  turned out to be a night and a half for the audience at these benefits (which is played for free by all the Broadway casts that run long enough) because each is always alive and ready to enjoy itself. As a result, my night at the Imperial Theatre had 6 show-stopping moments in it, all deserved, and it was wildly exciting to experience. [Read more...]

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