All posts by Terry Ponick:

A former college English professor, technical writer, and policy analyst, Terry Ponick started writing on theater in 1987, first for northern Virginia’s Connection newspapers and currently for the Times Community newspaper chain. Along with his wife Fran, he created a series of Siskel and Ebert-style dueling review columns that won the couple a 1993 Washington Dateline Award for theater criticism. In 1994, he moved to the Washington Times to become that paper’s classical music and culture critic.

It’s A Grand Night for Singing indeed with Washington Savoyard’s production

If you’re among the many, many Washingtonians who love good vocal and choral music, you can’t do better than to head on down to the Atlas Performing Arts Center to catch the Washington Savoyards’ great current offering, A Grand Night for Singing. [Read more...]

Introducing the new Howard Theatre

a photofeature which takes you inside and behind the scenes of the newly restored Howard

It’ll be a hot time in DC’s Shaw neighborhood this week as the venerable, historic Howard Theatre stages its grand re-opening celebration. Once the home to Duke Ellington, Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne and Sammy Davis, Jr, the new Howard is ready to welcome Wanda Sykes, Yasmiin Bey and a new generation of entertainers. [Read more...]

Brother Russia

Sunday evening, Arlington’s Signature Theatre revealed the world premiere of Brother Russia, a new rock musical by the creative team of John Dempsey and Dana Rowe. Chock full of interesting characters and loaded with catchy music, Brother Russia is top-notch musical theater—until its wordy, misconceived final moments bring the show back down to earth with a resounding thud. [Read more...]

Forty years and still singing, Washington Savoyards throws a gala

From time to time, most performing arts organizations schedule a special evening of entertainment geared toward raising audience awareness as well as attracting much needed donations from well-heeled arts patrons. These sparkling “gala” evenings usually highlight an ensembles’ best or most popular performers singing, playing, or dancing to classical, pop, or Broadway hits. Click here for more events happening in this year’s Gala season. [Read more...]

The King and I

Now on stage at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, the company’s production of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s classic 1951 musical The King and I is a remarkably effective revival of this exotic, tune-filled musical. Even in the limited space of a dinner theater, the production’s strong cast, decent choreography, and colorful, surprisingly elaborate costuming combine into a very strong argument indeed for putting this show on your entertainment calendar. [Read more...]

Up close with the magic of Elephant Room

We talk with Louie Magic, Dennis Diamond, and Daryl Hannah, if that be their real names.

The Elephant Room isn’t really a play and it isn’t really a magic show. In fact, it’s a little hard to define. One of the show’s PR blurbs breathlessly promises that if you combine “the glory of a Styx reunion tour, with the transcendental power of a 200-year-old Zuni shaman and add a dash of trailer park ennui, you come close to describing the mystical pull of a trip to the Elephant Room.” [Read more...]

Chris Sieber – he’s played Georges on Broadway and now is Zaza on La Cage tour

The fabulous Zaza, as portrayed by singer/actor Christopher Sieber, is the heart and soul of La Cage aux Folles, the current revival of the smash Broadway musical now playing to packed houses at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Co-starring longtime Hollywood icon George Hamilton, the show charts the adventures and misadventures of a pair of comical, high strung, gay showbiz entrepreneurs who run a popular Parisian drag club. [Read more...]

Director Robert McNamara on SCENA’s Hedda Gabler

SCENA Theatre’s current production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler puts some interesting twists on a classic that’s rarely seen on DC stages these days. SCENA’s veteran Artistic Director Robert McNamara has chosen to remedy this problem at least in part by employing an updated adaptation of the original by popular contemporary Irish playwright Brian Friel. [Read more...]

Little Murders

Arlington’s provocative American Century Theater opened its latest intriguing blast from the American past last weekend at Gunston Theater II. On tap this time: Jules Feiffer’s 1967 bizarrely witty comedy-drama Little Murders. [Read more...]

Ben Cook – talented young DC area performer is outstanding supporting player in Billy Elliot

The Broadway run of Billy Elliot the Musical ended last night. But the national tour is just starting its eight month road trip and has one week to go in its highly successful run at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House and when it does, one young cast member will once again say goodbye to his family and be on the road.   [Read more...]