Making their musical Shine!

Richard Seff, Greg Anthony, Roger Anderson, and Peter Flynn on polishing their musical SHINE! for NYMF

Many of our readers know Richard Seff as the columnist of ‘NY Theatre Buzz’ here on DC Theatre Scene, but what many of you don’t know is that Richard Seff is a playwright, and, in the case of SHINE! The Horatio Alger Musical , a book writer of a musical. [Read more...]

The Great Game: Afghanistan, Part 1

Is there any place in the world as remote to us as Afghanistan? We have been there nine years now, the uneasy guest of an uneasy host, and still we see the nation as through a glass darkly. The characters which we read about in our blogs and newspapers seem like knaves or lunatics, [Read more...]

Fringe shows – not just for summer anymore

Some Capital Fringe shows which found enthusiastic audiences in last summer’s festival are staging brief comebacks this fall.

John Feffer

John Feffer’s solo show Edible Rex, the play in which three very different men answer the question – “How far would you go for the perfect meal?”, opens Friday, Sept 24th for 5 performances at Warehouse Theater. This is the second performance piece from Feffer, a member of a Washington thinktank, usually found writing or speaking about non-food issues involving North Korea. He first surprised us with Krapp’s Last Powerpoint in the 2009 festival.  Can we start a “Bring Back Krapp” campaign?

Special Agent Galactica

Jeffrey Johnson is doing two performances as Special Agent Galactica in his summer Fringe hit Irrelevant Acts of Entertainment. He performs in the new Noi’s Nook on Mon, Sept 27th at 8pm, then plays the Laurie Beechman Theatre in NYC on Thursday, September 30 at 9:30pm.

Finally, Capital Fringe is staging their own Fall Fringe, Nov 4 – 21.  Among the selected shows will be Poet Warriors,  which DCTS columnist Joel Markowitz named his favorite musical of the Fringe. “With an intelligent and beautifully written book, score, and lyrics by George Purefoy Tilson, this show had a wondrous cast of extraordinary singers and actors – Jase Parker, Rachel Brook, Jonathan Henson, Ben Levine, Alan Naylor, and Jamie Ogden whose angelic harmonies and heart-felt performances earned a long standing ovation by the audiences and this writer.  Two hours never moved so quickly and so elegantly.” We understand that there has been some tweaking of the book, and that all but one performer will be returning. Tickets go on sale Oct 5th.

Glimpses of the Moon

Pop, fizz, deliriously good. Mash up the sensibilities of Gatsby and Thoroughly Modern Millie; pour over jazz-kissed show tunes laced with interesting harmonies (John Mercurio); stir in a witty book and lyrics (Tajlei Levis) — especially dazzling when cross-talking lyrics float on the intricate score; and before you can say, “Gilded Age” or “Roaring Twenties,” you have Metro Stage’s ‘ champagne cocktail ‘ season opener, Glimpses of the Moon, a romantic musical comedy based on the Edith Wharton novel. [Read more...]

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Few things are more delectable than watching someone get away with murder. Especially if they do so with enviable panache.

Tom Ripley, the chameleon-like sociopathic hero of Patricia Highsmith’s novels, is one such reprobate you loathe yourself for loving. Scheming, audacious and just plain lucky, Ripley elegantly defies morality and convention. His homicidal hoodwinks were the subject of five novels, a 1999 movie starring Jude Law and Matt Damon, and a 1998 British stage play by Phyllis Nagy. [Read more...]

Circle Mirror Transformation

If you were to see your life played out onstage, would you like what you saw? And if you didn’t, what would you do about it? Studio Theatre’s poignant, arresting production of Circle Mirror Transformation begs this question, among others, as five characters explore the emotional underpinnings of drama, including the concept of acting as a vehicle for self-reflection and personal growth. [Read more...]

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

How do you spell The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee?  H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.  In 2005, Spelling Bee, beat out blockbusters Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza for the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.  And the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in Frederick does this clever book justice in their wonderfully entertaining production. [Read more...]

All’s Well That Ends Well

It’s awfully nice of Shakespeare to let us know how the play ends before we go into the theatre. Still, I might have traded it back for a chance to feel some sense of surprise. When plays have titles that are this ripe with prognosis, it’s awfully tempting to re-title them, so Michael Kahn’s season-opener certainly earns a nickname. It might more accurately be called All’s Okay That Ends Fine, I Guess, partly due to production but also, honestly, because our greatest English playwright wrote a few plays that weren’t so great. [Read more...]

Falsettos

Turning thirteen comes with its share of bad luck. The precocious young Jason (Noah Chiet) sees his upcoming bar mitzvah as an entry into adulthood, but the move from point A to point B can prove to be a rocky one. As director Jeffrey Johnson’s modest, intelligent production gently reminds us, our life paths are marked most memorably by the unexpected twists and turns. If you’re good — or maybe just lucky — you can fake it ’til you make it. [Read more...]

Take us out to the opera

You’d really like to go to the opera, but you’ve always thought it was too expensive, right? Well, here’s your big chance to try out this wonderful, over-the-top art form for free. The Washington National Opera (WNO) is holding its third annual “Opera in the Outfield” production Sunday, September 19, at 2 p.m. in—where else—Washington Nationals Park via simulcast. On tap: WNO’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball). [Read more...]