Michael Hollinger, who is enjoying a well-deserved revival here (he co-adapted Folger’s Cyrano with Aaron Posner, and his Red Herring had a recent run at Washington Stage Guild), was a violinist before he was a playwright. He thus brings insight and assured realism to Opus, a story about the lives of classical musicians who are, at bottom, ordinary people at play with the gods. [Read more...]

- just-released “Ides of March” reviewed here -

Beau Willimon’s Farragut North is the kind of “built in Washington” drama that DC theater aficionados clearly will enjoy. In addition, for die-hard political junkies, Farragut North, crisply directed by Clay Hopper for Olney Theatre Center, offers a preview of coming attractions in 2012. That’s due in large part to its hyper-focus on of the kind of political ground game that’s already underway in the hinterlands of far-flung Iowa, a state whose overly-hyped, overly-covered early caucuses can often make or break a front-runner’s status in either party. [Read more...]

I first saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1973 in London before it moved to the west end. It still had some of the enthusiasm and roughness of a school production, which indeed was the source of its first commission of a 19-year old Andrew Lloyd Webber. In some ways, there is a charm in this pickpocket-a-tune, patched piece that some of the glitzier Webber-Rice packages don’t have for me. [Read more...]

Paul Morella brings A Christmas Carol up front and personal in an inspired, deeply-felt, moving one-man marathon monologue. On opening night, this consummate actor brought a full-house audience to a standing ovation. That’s impressive. [Read more...]

Leapin’ lizards! Annie’s back in town!  Charles Strouse’s and Martin Charnin’s Tony Award-winning 1977 hit Broadway musical, currently playing at the Olney Theatre Center in suburban Maryland, is a hands-down holiday treat for the entire family. [Read more...]

The Olney Theatre Center opened its colorful new production of George Bernard Shaw’s rollicking screwball comedy Misalliance this past weekend. We found Saturday evening’s performance visually striking and earnestly performed. But alas, it’s lacking, thus far at least, in the kind of acting necessary to bring this sparkling, argumentative classic fully to life. [Read more...]

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...]

Some of that old-time religion is dished out in a comedy that is as light and delectable as the banana pudding served by one of the gracious Southern matrons in the second half of Evan Smith’s The Savannah Disputation, an area premiere at Olney Theatre Center directed by John Going. [Read more...]