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Jayne Blanchard has been a critic covering DC theater for the past 10 years, most recently for the Washington Times. Prior to that, she was a theater critic in the Twin Cities and a movie reviewer in the Washington area. She is a proud resident of Baltimore.

The Gallerist

January 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

“When Jane Goodall Goes Bad!” could be the banner headline for The Gallerist, a delectably lurid tale about demonic possession and soul survival by playwright Fengar Gael that is staged with purplish passion by Rorschach Theater.  [Read more...]

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Fifty Words

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A night off. No kids, no responsibilities. Just a husband and wife, Chinese takeout, and a bottle of wine.

This rare “just the two of us” evening proves to be a dark night of the soul in Michael Weller’s taut Fifty Words, a piercing examination of how in the hell any relationship survives, much less endures. Director Donald Hicken brings out both the vitriol and vulnerability of Jan and Adam, played with bristling force by Megan Anderson and Clinton Brandhagen. [Read more...]

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Patrick Andrews peeling back the layers of Red

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Apollonian and the Dionysian co-exist more or less peaceably in the body of 26-year-old Chicago actor Patrick Andrews, who plays the pliant assistant Ken to Washington favorite Ed Gero as the bellicose and brilliant modern artist Mark Rothko in a much-anticipated run of Red. The co-production between Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Washington’s Arena Stage has Robert Falls directing John Logan’s poetic play in both cities.

[Read more...]

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La Cage aux Folles

January 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

– This is an encore of the review, originally posted Nov 3, 2011,  of the touring production’s stop at the Hippodrome in Baltimore –

You’d kill for those shoes. And those legs. [Read more...]

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Playwright Renee Calarco on The Religion Thing

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you think sex conversations in relationships are cringeworthy, try throwing religion into the mix. Talk about awkward. [Read more...]

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A John Waters Christmas

December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Who better than the Prince of Puke to put you in the Christmas spirit? Forget that weenie Michael Buble or heartwarming holiday pageants. The true spirit of the season is embodied by filmmaker and author John Waters, clad in a poinsettia-red velvet Issey Miyake suit, his trademark licorice-whip moustache firmly in place, putting the filth in “Feliz Navidad” during his one-man show at the Lyric Performing Arts Center in Baltimore. [Read more...]

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Hairspray

December 14, 2011 By 5 Comments

It takes a tough man to be a tender drag queen. And local television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis does Edna Turnblad’s cha-cha heels and bazooka-sized bra proud in Signature Theatre’s radiant, ecstatic production of Hairspray, the 2006 musical about Baltimore in the segregated early 1960s that mixes racial integration with teen dance party syncopation. [Read more...]
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Much Ado about Floyd King and Ted van Griethuysen

December 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

Floyd and Ted’s Excellent Adventure with the Bard

Actors Floyd King and Ted van Griethuysen are mad about the Bard.  They have nothing but good things to say about Shakespeare and not just because they are long-time members of the Shakespeare Theatre Company and teach at its Academy for Classical Acting.

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Pride and Prejudice

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Colin Firth is—and will always be—Mr. Darcy. But one does have to move beyond the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, albeit reluctantly.  [Read more...]

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At 62, Robert Aubry Davis makes his debut at Signature in cha-cha heels

November 22, 2011 By 2 Comments

“Here. Feel these. I don’t know how women do it,” says Robert Aubry Davis, offering me a squeeze of his size 54 EEE breasts—each one roughly the pendulous shape and heft of a Hubbard squash, but actually fashioned from bags of millet. [Read more...]

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