The Quotidian Theatre Company’s new production of James Joyce’s The Dead, which opened this past weekend, could be the best holiday theater surprise of the season. Quotidian’s production of this 1999 Broadway “play with music” is a welcome change of pace from the usual—and admittedly enjoyable—annual holiday entertainment clichés that flutter into our lives like […]
Archives for November 2012
GALA Hispanic Theatre’s youth program honored by First Lady Michelle Obama
Rosalind Lacy was invited to the White House to report on this event of great significance to Washington area theatres and youth programs. On Monday, November 19, 2012, Paso Nuevo, GALA Hispanic Theatre’s free, after-school youth program was one of 12 to receive the 2012 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest arts […]
Calvin Berger – Original Cast Recording
This unexpectedly delightful gem sat untouched on my desk for far too long, but now that I’ve gotten to know it, I want to share the word: There’s a lot to like in Ghostlight Records’ cast recording of something called “Calvin Berger” with book, lyrics and music by Barry Wyner.
Cinderella
(This article was amended on November 24, 2012 from its original version.) ‘Tis the season when many daddies and mommies want to spoil their little girls, by taking them to that special performance, filling their eyes and ears with enough magical sparkle to feed memories for years to come. Olney Theatre Center has brought back […]
Remember ‘Saving Aimee’? It’s Scandalous on Broadway
Kathie Lee Gifford as book writer, lyricist and part time composer, has spent twelve years creating material, polishing it, pruning it, having a look at it in two regional productions, [Signature Theatre produced it as Saving Aimee] and finally living her dream, for it did indeed open on Broadway in a full scale production, complete […]
Joe Brack’s living the dream – two shows open this holiday season
It’s not unusual to find an actor in our area performing in a show and rehearsing another. But, with two shows running at the same time, Joe Brack will be zipping from one side of town to the other to be in The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg at the Kennedy Center and […]
Six Characters in Search of an Author
The playwright looks down at the half-completed page in his battered Smith-Corona, tears it out, starts again. A man (Brian Hemmingsen), urbane and slightly gross, marries a woman (Nanna Ingvarsson). They have a son (Joshua Dick). In the fullness of time, he sends the woman away. He also sends the son away, to the country, […]
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Add Rodman Philbrick’s Homer P. Figg to the list of literature’s charming boyish rogues like Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He’s a clever lad who is not above stretching the truth when he believes that the situation warrants it. The Civil War era presents a variety of challenging circumstances that are played out […]
Atheist’s Paradise
Atheist’s Paradise is, at bottom, an extended memorial service for Henry Daniel “Doc” Johnson, philosopher, pilot and football coach for Midvale United Methodist University. Regrettably, this earnest, inert drama, like its protagonist, requires the services of a pathologist. Stand back; I will open.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
You don’t have to be a Chekhovophile to enjoy Christopher Durang’s riff on everything Anton Chekhov ever wrote, but it helps. This master parodist and satirist has been away from the stage for a couple of seasons, but he’s back with a bang with this right on original work with roots in The Cherry Orchard, […]
First Time Mother (Madre Primeriza)
As we are ushered into the black box theatre, we hear the gurgling sounds of a baby and a mother cooing. We catch snatches of a playful, original music composition by Juan Vaccaneo. We are about to celebrate a time of great exhilaration and joy.
My Fair Lady
I have fallen in love all over again with My Fair Lady. I cannot speak for the rest of the capacity crowd sitting in the Fichlander at Arena Stage the other night, but I was bewitched by the artistry and finesse of this production. How do I love Molly Smith’s production of My Fair Lady? […]