It wasn’t Alice or the White Rabbit or The Mad Hatter that made everyone go ‘gaga’ the night I saw the new musical Wonderland on Broadway- it was a tail-swinging, tail-playing Jose Llana wearing a ‘purrfectly’ outrageous kitty outfit – that drew the loudest laughter and applause from the appreciative audience.
Joel hits the Helen Hayes Awards’ Red Carpet
April 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
Welcome to the Red Carpet at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards ceremony. Here’s what happened on Monday, April 25, 2011 from 6:15-7:45 PM outside of the Warner Theatre! [Read more...]
Sam Ludwig, Florrie Bagel and Parker Drown in Speech & Debate
April 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
I hear that Florrie Bagel, Parker Drown and Sam Ludwig are wowing audiences and critics with their powerful performances in Speech & Debate at Rep Stage. This is a change of pace for these three sensational singers, giving them a unique opportunity to display their excellent acting skills in leading roles. Here they talk about the powerful play now at Rep Stage. [Read more...]
The Real Inspector Hound
April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Ever had the hankering to stop being a seat warmer and jump up onstage to join the action? Careening out of your comfort zone and inadvertently breaking the fourth wall are two of the themes in Tom Stoppard’s affable send-up of pat murder mysteries and theater critic pretensions, The Real Inspector Hound. [Read more...]
Jahi Kearse, from MetroStage to Broadway debut in Baby It’s You!
April 26, 2011 By 2 Comments
Jahi Kearse is a hoofer, a singer, a musician, a powerful actor, and a songwriter who critics and DC area theatregoers have enthusiastically embraced his performances in MetroStage’s Cool Papa’s Party, Round House Theatre’s Pippin, and The Studio Theatre’s Slam!, Top Dog/Underdog, Passing Strange, and Slam! [Read more...]
At the Helen Hayes Awards, a night of ties
April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Four companies share top production awards: Candide and Oklahoma! take top Musical Awards; Clybourne Park and Hamlet tie for Drama
Candide, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s first venture into musical theater (co-produced with the Goodman Theatre), and Oklahoma!, the first play to be staged at Arena’s new Mead Center for the Performing Arts, shared top honors as the area’s outstanding musicals. [Read more...]
At This Theatre
April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Theatre lovers who are lucky enough to get to the Broadway theatre district in New York, either while in town on a trip or simply by hopping on a subway from home, know that one thing you usually check in the Playbill when you take your seat is the feature “At This Theatre.” There you can enjoy a walk down memory lane either contemplating shows you saw in the space you now occupy or fantasizing about what it would have been like to sit in your seat when famous shows of the past were playing. [Read more...]
Contemporary American Theater Festival to Feature Plays by Mamet, Shepard
April 25, 2011 By 1 Comment
This coming July, the five-play Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in bucolic Shepherdstown, West Virginia will feature plays from two of America’s most well-known playwrights as well as two world premieres and a play by a newly-minted performer-turned-playwright. The festival will run from July 8 to July 31st. [Read more...]
Being the audience – life experienced all together
April 22, 2011 By 2 Comments
A meditation on what it means to be an audience member
A while back, at the opening of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Arena Stage, there was a reference, by George, Martha’s history professor husband, to something going back to the Punic Wars.
It was a caustic, satiric, reference, as I remember, and I laughed. So did a lot of other people in the audience. It made me feel good that so many people got the joke, knew what the Punic Wars might have been besides very old. On the other hand, I felt less smug about knowing it. [Read more...]
Shiffman ends stage career to become a theatrical agent
April 22, 2011 By 5 Comments
J. Fred Shiffman, whose droll theatrical wit informed a fantastically versatile talent for over three decades, will end his storied stage career and become a full-time agent for Capital Talent Agency on May 5, the agency has announced. [Read more...]
