A Walk in the Woods seen with those who may have walked in the woods

There is a brilliant bit of dialogue in Lee Blessing’s arms-control drama A Walk in the Woods which encapsulates the heartbreak at the core of the play. Now that the American Ensemble Theater’s production has come to an end I can tell it to you. [Read more...]

Widespread voting irregularities cause DCTS to rescind 2010 Fringe awards

DC Theatre Scene announced this morning that it was rescinding its 2010 Fringe Awards after a canvas of the votes revealed widespread voting irregularities. DCTS will be giving no Fringe Awards in 2010. [Read more...]

Twelfth Night is Shakespeare Theatre’s Free for All

It will be Christmas in August and September as the Shakespeare Theatre Company offers a reprise of its 2008 hit Twelfth  Night – so named because it is set on the twelfth night after Christmas – for free at Sidney Harman Hall  in the company’s annual Free For All production. [Read more...]

Promises, Promises – CD

One of the chipper-est and most enjoyable revival recordings of recent days makes you happy just listening to its up-tempo, uniquely pop sound. No Broadway musical ever sounded like this before Burt Bacharach and his song writing partner Hal David took a crack at musical comedy. Too bad they didn’t keep at it! It would be great to be able to revive more Bacharach shows (other than revues using his pop songs). [Read more...]

Serenading Louie

Two attractive couples, conversation, alcohol, deep-seated unhappiness and betrayal abounding … nope, it isn’t Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? It’s Serenading Louie, being presented with quiet style at The American Century Theater.  The sniping here is less vicious, the tension thick without the muffle…but there’s still a lot of Albee seen in playwright Lanford Wilson’s work. [Read more...]

Noises Off

Robin Housemonger, Britain’s old warhouse of a playwright, has reached the absolute nadir of his miserable oeuvre with Nothing On, which is apparently a farce about fish. Otstar Productions inflicts it on us for three acts, utilizing a cast which is either drunk or insane, or, in the case of Mrs. Clackett (Dotty Otley), both…. [Read more...]

DCTS announces Fringe poll winners

Congratulations to those Capital Fringe productions which received a rating of 4 or 5 from our reviewers. They became the nominees for the DCTS Best of Fringe awards and, on Sunday, July 25 we opened the polls so that our readers could select the final winners.

We deeply regret that voting irregularities seriously impacted the outcome, making it necessary for us to rescind the awards and remove the announcement which originally appeared here. [Read more...]

Personal reflections on this year’s Fringe musicals

It wasn’t hard to select my favorite musicals of this year’s Capital Fringe Festival ( I’ll get to them in just a minute) because so many of this year’s so-called musicals sucked. The majority of them had poorly written scores, books, and lyrics, and casts that couldn’t sing in key if their lives depended on it. [Read more...]

Avenue Q

They’re back and furrier than ever. If anyone still wonders how and why these puppets could have beaten the popular musical Wicked for Best Musical at the Tony Awards in 2004, then run to the Landsburgh Theatre and see for yourself. You’ll have so much fun that you’ll forget all about witches and broomsticks and wizards, and you’ll laugh yourself silly. [Read more...]

Some personal reflections on the Fringe

While there are numerous awards for Fringe productions, I would like to honor some individual and group performances that made the 2010 Capital Fringe Festival a memorable experience for me.  However, I only saw 27 productions (i.e., only 20% of the 132 total) so please chip in with your own comments on who should receive these awards or, better yet, create some award categories yourself and name the deserving recipients. [Read more...]