We can never seem to outrun our fate, but the exercise does us good. The quest of Oedipus is a futile one — to steer clear of the prophecy decreeing he will one day kill his father and sleep with his mother — but that doesn’t stamp out the satisfaction we get from watching him […]
Archives for February 2011
An interview with Director Mary Zimmerman
Director Mary Zimmerman on The Arabian Nights and Candide DC audiences were given two holiday gifts from Director Mary Zimmerman: her lavish and eye-popping productions of Candide for The Shakespeare Theatre Company and The Arabian Nights for Arena Stage. I became a fan of Mary’s after seeing her Tony Award-winning production of Metamorphoses at Circle […]
Broadway – The American Musical (Book & DVDs)
There are many ways to approach the topic of musical theatre. There’s the scholarly approach of books that survey the topic as a whole. There’s the research approach that digs into one slice of the topic at great length. There’s the biographical approach looking at the life of one contributor or team at a time. […]
Beyond Therapy
Bruce (Graham Pilato) meets Prudence (Mundy Spears) at a restaurant. It is their first date, and they are both nervous. They shake hands. Bruce gestures her to her seat, and sits down across from her. He looks into her eyes. They share a moment. “You have beautiful breasts,” he says, and the worst date in […]
Rob McClure on playing Mozart in Amadeus
Rob McClure is a performer who can do it all. He’s a puppeteer – spending many years pulling the strings in Avenue Q. He’s a hysterical physical comedian, leaping around while playing the flaming Carmen Ghia in The Producers and Charlie Chaplin in a new musical. Through March 6th, Rob is playing the manic genius – Wolfgang […]
La Candida Erendira
The Innocent Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother (La Cándida Eréndira) Abandon all moral judgment and logic to enjoy this erotic fairy tale. A grandmother sells her young granddaughter for rape and sex trafficking. Welcome to the grotesque and mysterious world of Gabriel Garcia Marquez where evil becomes palatable through magical realism.
The Year of Magical Thinking
Writer Joan Didion insists on having the last word. This insistence comes back to haunt her after she has one of those years—you know, the kind where catastrophes become the warp and woof of everyday life and the only thing you can do is hang onto routine until it almost takes on a mystical dimension.
Next season, STC includes controversial O’Neill play
SHAKESPEARE THEATRE’S 2011-2012 SEASON TO FEATURE CONTROVERSIAL O’NEILL PLAY; TWO VERSIONS OF TWO GENTLEMEN Shakespeare Theatre Company today announced that it will be performing Eugene O’Neill’s controversial Strange Interlude and an adaptation by David Ives as well as four plays from the Bard during its 2011-2012 25th anniversary season.
The Whipping Man
Not a very appetizing title, this. Matthew Lopez, the playwright, was unknown to me. “Men of a Certain Age” is the TNT hit TV series in which André Braugher co-stars, yet I didn’t know his work. The remainder of the cast, André Holland and Jay Wilkison, were new to me too.
Fuddy Meers
Life is already chaotic and amusing enough when your life is somewhat normal. Add in a peculiar twist and your day can really take a left turn into the Twilight Zone. “Good morning. How are you? How would you like to get dressed. You really like this dress. Would you like to have some breakfast?” […]
Touch
Nothing’s cozy like the cosmos. One would think that such a never-ending freezing expanse would snuff out the flames of life, but more often than not it brings us closer together, huddled in our smallness. Surrounded by light-years of darkness and ice, we rely on the inches between us that touch.
The Cripple of Inishmaan
Morning, noon, and night, gigantic waves from the windswept Atlantic crash against the craggy cliffs of three forlorn rocky outcrops at the mouth of Galway Bay. These are Ireland’s legendary Aran Islands, the setting for Martin McDonagh’s Cripple of Inishmaan, now playing at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. A co-production of Galway’s renowned theater, Druid, […]