Necessary Sacrifices
February 3, 2012 By 1 Comment
Nothing truly prepares one for the remarkable resemblance of the actors David Selby and Craig Wallace to the characters they portray, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass in the world premiere Necessary Sacrifices just opened at Ford’s Theatre. [Read more...]
A Skull in Connemara
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Though Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara, is set in Leenane, Ireland, it’s hard not to think of a front yard in Hampden during Halloween. In Todd Rosenthal’s set for CenterStage, the grey (plastic) headstones stick up at awkward angles, creating a cheap Hollywood gothic. Then the lights go down, and as they do, the gravestones start to look real, and the shadows add a weird dimension: a drab palette of exhaustion. [Read more...]
Wishful Drinking
February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“I consumed massive amounts of opiates religiously.” “Having waited my entire life to get an award for something … anything … I now get awards all the time for being mentally ill.” “There’s no underwear in space.” Any of these zingers from Carrie Fisher’s winning one woman show Wishful Drinking could serve as wholly appropriate tag lines for her zany account of her struggles with fame, tempestuous family life, and the twin beasts of addiction and mental illness. [Read more...]
The Gaming Table
February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In a new prologue written by David Grimm for Susanna Centlivre’s The Gaming Table, Tonya Beckman Ross promises verbal virtuosity and laughs. It is a promise that is kept in spades by Folger Theatre’s sparkling and witty production of this Restoration era comedy. [Read more...]
A most original Tom Jones from Lumina Studio
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There are companies which do epics, and then there is Lumina Studio. Having put together a sixty-character amalgamation of Henry VI Part 1, 2 and 3, in which no actor was above the age of 19, Lumina now tops itself by producing a seventy-character musical version of Tom Jones, with songs imported from John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.
Showoffs! [Read more...]
Love Letters
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“Because paper has more patience than people.”
So wrote Anne Frank, and so declares Love Letters, the half-a-century-spanning story of two people falling in and out of love though paper, pen, and the twists and turns that make our lives worth writing down. [Read more...]
Elephant Room
January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments
Think back to that oddball uncle who always showed up at your birthday party with a trick up his sleeve. You remember him. Loud blazer, toothy grin, something not quite right about his hair. But he could pull coins from your ear, guess the card in your hand, and make a dollar bill whole again. Whatever happened to that guy? [Read more...]
Two Gentlemen of Verona (a rock opera)
January 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How do you solve a problem like The Two Gentlemen of Verona? This comedy, often speculated by scholars to be the first of Shakespeare’s plays, is one of his least-beloved (and least performed) works – and not without reason. The language, by Shakespearean standards, is weak. The meandering story offers numerous plot points and themes that Shakespeare would address more skillfully in later, better plays. And The Two Gentlemen of Verona’s notoriously dicey fifth act – which features, most infamously, a scene in which protagonist Valentine offers his beloved to a friend who has just attempted to rape her – is all but unworkable on both storytelling and moral grounds. [Read more...]
Red
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There is nothing more thrilling than watching paint dry in Red, the riveting bio-drama by John Logan about the cerebral abstract expressionist Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and his determined young assistant. The Tony Award-winning play arrives in Washington in a sublimely detailed and acted production directed by the Goodman Theatre’s Robert Falls. [Read more...]
The King and I
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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...]
