Cherry Smoke
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When I say that the chameleon Tim Getman has revealed yet another unexpected side of himself, I’m not just referring to the drastic change in hairstyle. For Cherry Smoke, he’s sporting a head buzzed to the scalp – a look that goes well with the lock-jawed sneer on his face through much of this moody and fitfully affecting tragic drama by James McManus. [Read more...]
Dinner with Friends
September 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Playwright Donald Margulies has a way of building emotionally charged moments that begin benignly, even innocently, and then before you know it—bam, right in the kisser. His Dinner with Friends playing at the Olney Theatre Center does just that, [Read more...]
Chess
September 1, 2010 By 3 Comments
Chess is Cold War meets hot rock. It’s a tour de force of intelligence, emotional intensity and intrigue (political and personal), sporting a jaw-dropping score with music by ABBA’s Benny & Bjorn (Mama Mia!) and lyrics by Tim Rice (Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar among his impressive catalog of hits). [Read more...]
In the Next Room or the vibrator play
August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Too bad you can’t smoke in theaters anymore. After a few hours witnessing the climactic goings-on in Woolly Mammoth’s superb production of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or the vibrator play, a post-coital cigarette is definitely in order. [Read more...]
Sink the Belgrano!
August 31, 2010 By 2 Comments
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A leader in need of a political win authorizes a massive military campaign, dreamt up by scheming advisors, in a far flung territory under the pretense of national defense. SCENA Theatre’s production of Sink the Belgrano! stakes its claim to this fertile theatrical landscape with biting satire and a slew of excellent performances, [Read more...]
Travels with My Aunt
August 30, 2010 By 2 Comments
Rep Stage’s Travels with My Aunt, adapted from the Graham Greene novel by Giles Havergal, is a shaggy-dog story with dozens of shaggy dogs, all of them played by Michael Russotto, Nigel Reed, Lawrence Redmond, or Bill Largess, who also plays a real dog (more on that later). [Read more...]
Twelfth Night
August 22, 2010 By 4 Comments
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Free-For-All Twelfth Night is Shakespeare as seen through rose-petal colored glasses, as evanescent as a summer evening, goofy, cartoonish, foolish and sweet – in short, a comedy, designed to make us giggle and snort, and thereafter go home larkishly happy. It works, too. [Read more...]
Separated at Birth
August 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
When the lights come up and the bodies start to crowd, do you come off as a scowler or a smiler? The rush hour platform’s peppered with both populations. On the one hand: Metro commuters who want nothing more than uninterrupted solitude on their ride from point A to point B. On the other hand: [Read more...]
Cat’s Cradle
August 13, 2010 By 2 Comments
For two decades during the twentieth century, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. wrote some of the most important fiction coming out of America. The six novels which comprise his earliest and best work – Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat’s Cradle, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, and Slaughterhouse-5 – were a riot of strange concepts and provocative ideas, [Read more...]
Nunsense
August 12, 2010 By 1 Comment
The nuns from The Order of the Little Sisters of Scaggsville who we meet in Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s production of Nunsense are anything but the stern, strict, knuckle-rapping, humorless disciplinarians you may have heard about. [Read more...]
