How do you describe Jenny Jules’ performance as Mama Nadi in Arena Stage’s emotionally powerful production of Lynn Nottage’s Ruined? These words immediately come to mind: fierce, compassionate, defiant, tough-as-nails, and passionate. DC area theatregoers are so fortunate that they have the opportunity to see this London actress in the role of Mama Nadi in […]
Archives for May 2011
Four Women
Described as an original collaborative theatre project inspired by Nina Simone’s classic song “Four Women,” this piece is a composite of monologs, skits, poetry, songs and dances, with video and audio clips added to the mix. The artists of the Saarjie Project, following their own artistic muses, came up with their own interpretations on Aunt […]
Sister Act – the Original London Cast Recording
When the highly entertaining musical comedy Sister Act, which has been a big hit in London, got a Broadway gig at the big (1,761-seat) Broadway Theatre it got a lot more. It got a new director. It got a sprucing up of its script with a host of new jokes. It got a different co-star […]
Sister Act
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the transitional phase that the Broadway musical is currently enjoying, or suffering, depending on your personal viewpoint. It’s not always easy to realize you are in the midst of a turnaround or changeover; often it’s not until years later that you look back and realize, “Oh, I see. […]
Swampoodle resurrects DC historic Irish neighborhood
This month, for one week only, the boundaries of DC theatre will be transformed, thanks to the collaboration between DC’s own contemporary Irish arts organization, Solas Nua and the Ireland-based Performance Corporation. Together, the two companies present Swampoodle, an original performance experience written and developed specifically for the Uline Arena, located in the former Northeast […]
King Lear
The haunting themes of King Lear touch on nature’s cruelty, Fate’s arbitrary hand, and man’s inevitable decline – and their truth strikes everyone differently depending on where one is in life. Somehow, I’ve seen Lears now at every decade change, and each time the play changes for me.
Side by Side by Sondheim
Profits and pleasure. Both words accurately describe the happy circumstances of Signature Theatre’s current revival of Side by Side by Sondheim. Profits aplenty for Signature as a legion of Sondheim fans make the theater’s turnstiles sing. And pleasure is exactly what that audience will get as they enjoy this lively, never-a-dull-moment, first rate production.
This spring’s outstanding NYC musical performances
A look at 7 New York spring musicals, and a Stephen Schwartz opera Before the Tony Awards are upon us, I wanted to talk about some of the musicals I saw in NYC this spring. There was a tsunami of book problems this year with many of the musicals. All you have to do is […]
The Day John Henry Came to School
Even in this age of iPads, mobile apps and handheld computer games, show-and-tell still holds an irresistible allure for grade-schoolers. The Day John Henry Came to School, a world-premiere play by Eric Pfeffinger debuting at Imagination Stage, affirms the triumph of man over machine.
The Green Bird
Fairy tales and philosophy should make for strange bedfellows, and, at least in theory, even stranger bedtime stories. But in Constellation Theatre Company’s wondrous production of the 18th-century Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird, the two cozy up with remarkable affinity. Like all good relationships, they also bring things out in each other that […]
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark and A Minister’s Wife
Lynn Nottage’s Ruined won the Pulitzer Prize and a slew of other honors a couple of seasons ago [and just opened at Arena Stage]. Her Intimate Apparel was also acclaimed in its Roundabout production. But her bio is filled with other awards for other plays. She is prolific, she is gifted, and she seems to […]
Everything Was Possible: The birth of the musical Follies
What a find! There are many books on the development of individual musicals but few, if any, provide half the pleasure of this chronicle of Follies from the preparation for rehearsals through to the opening night party. It was written by a man who, as a youth infatuated with the world of musical comedy, had […]