Trumpery is the story of the origin of the “Origins of the Species,” Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theory of natural selection. The prelude to publication was a time of crisis and adventure for Darwin (Ian LeValley), who struggled with the religious implications of his discovery (“If I finish the book, I’m a killer,” he says. “I […]
Archives for June 2010
Oleanna
The brand new Dark Horse Theatre Company arrived with a splash last week by mounting a new production of Oleanna, David Mamet’s controversial two-person drama about an academic counseling session gone horribly wrong. Oleanna is good, old-fashioned socio-political drama at its best, and it’s a surprisingly polished production for a fledgling company.
Source Festival – Group C
The Source Festival’s third group (Group C) of 10-minute plays features an exciting array of fresh writing styles and acting chops – all seemingly centered around a theme of loss. Whether this was intentional or not, the productions channel this central feeling through both comedy and tragedy. Some work, and some don’t.
Love Never Dies
He’s back! No – not the masked phantom who sought the music of the night, but Andrew Lloyd Webber who provided the music of many nights! In this, his return to the style as well as the topic of his most successful work in a career of successes, he also returns to the level of […]
Jeffrey Coon on playing Georges Seurat
Report from Philadelphia: Jeffrey Coon in the role of Georges Seurat in The Arden’s Sunday in the Park with George. It’s always an honor and pleasure to watch Jeff Coon perform. He can do it all – musicals, plays, and children’s theatre. He has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard on […]
Sold out Thurgood gives free performance
The Kennedy Center’s production of Thurgood is completely sold out. You can’t buy a ticket to see Laurence Fishburne play Thurgood Marshall, but you can get in free when the play is videotaped this Friday, June 18th, starting at 1:30pm.
Courage
Somewhat like the poetry of e.e. cummings—whose lower-case, typographically bizarre verse forms promised to shake up literary convention but actually built upon it—the lower-case “dog & pony dc” ensemble aims to take accepted canonical texts and re-scramble them. Case in point: their current production of Courage: A Political Theatre Revival.
Suburban Motel
“When I think about things I don’t understand, I get depressed,” says dimbulb R.J. (Ryan Tumulty) in Risk Everything, the better of the two George F. Walker one-acts now being produced by 1st Stage. R.J. gets depressed a lot. But for the rest of us, in a context where truth is as elusive as quicksilver, […]
Source Festival – Group A
Ten minute plays can always be relied on to hit their marks, be short and sweet, and if one doesn’t work for you, just a wait a few minutes and something else more satisfying will probably come along. That’s the case with the Group A selections of the Source Festival’s 10-Minute series. Especially if you […]
The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Mr. Albee’s wordplay, in the right hands, can be like Noel Coward with fangs and they (Bruce Nelson and Emily Townley) hurl themselves into the banter with exactness and fury.
The Glass Menagerie
I’m sorry to say I neglected this Roundabout revival of Tennessee Williams’ first success earlier, because it is closing in several days, and you should know about it. It opened in very late April at the off Broadway Laura Pels Theatre and its notices were smashing. Now I add my small voice to those glowing […]
DCTS columnists reveal their Tony favorites
Richard Seff and Joel Markowitz on the NYC Theatre Season and the Tony Awards In what has become an annual tradition on DC Theatre Scene, DCTS columnists Richard Seff and Joel Markowitz met in Richard’s penthouse on the Upper East Side of NYC to share their thoughts with you on the current NYC theatre season.