Most of us get our fill of chestnuts in December, but save a little room — if you’re feeling sentimental — for the one served up by The American Century Theater this month.
Archives for January 2013
Early Television Musical “Spectaculars”
The good people at VAI – Video Artists International – continue mining the gold of old kinescopes of early television shows much to the delight of musical theater lovers. Four new discs featuring performances by the likes of Alfred Drake, Celeste Holm, Barbara Cook, and Jo Sullivan document the genre of the “Spectaculars” that presented […]
Arena Stage’s Molly Smith organizes Washington March for Gun Control
Yesterday marked the one month anniversary of the massacre of 6 teachers and 20 school children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Last night, on The Rachel Maddow Show, parents of 6 year old Ben Wheeler talked with Ms. Maddow about how they, and all the parents of the Sandy Hook victims, want the country to […]
Picnic
William Inge is one of those mid-20th century American playwrights who started late (he was 30 when his first play, Come Back, Little Sheba arrived on Broadway). It was a success, and ultimately was turned into a movie starring the same Shirley Booth who, after twenty years as a supporting player, became a genuine star […]
Keegan Theatre will have the next new theatre in DC
After watching a performance of American Buffalo in Chicago about 8 years ago, as we exited into the lobby, we saw a series of overhanging tickets suggesting ways we, the audience, could contribute to the company. Those tickets read, as I remember, “$15 – a case of toilet paper; $40 – copier paper for a month; […]
Tonight’s theatreWashington sing-a-long is at Signature Theatre
This month, theatreWashington’s Show Tunes & Cocktails moves to Signature. Their invite: “We’re free of political sing to the rafters and kick off 2013 with a Show Tunes bang while sipping delicious Cocktails and clinking glasses with friends at Washington’s favorite monthly sing-a-long. Featuring pianist extraordinaire Glenn Pearson with special guest Maria Rizzo from Keegan […]
The Birthday Party
“Don’t let them tell you what to do!” cries Petey, famously, as his houseguest Stanley is muscled away in the grip of two mysterious strangers. The plea echoes through the spooky final minutes of The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter’s fascinating 1958 tale of suspense. But it also sounds a lot like a working manifesto for […]
Finding BOGED: your guide to Theater J at the Davis Arts Center
Theater J’s first play of the new year will be performed away from company’s venue on 16th Street. Boged (Traitor): An Enemy of the People, produced in conjunction with Georgetown University, opens tomorrow night, Saturday, February 12th at the Davis Arts Center on the Georgetown campus.
Fresh work from young DC playwrights – now available in YPT paperback
In The Wonka Wonka Cool Girls Club, playwright Cecilia Jenkins’ debut work, Anne Marie – the Mother Superior of Mean Girls in the seventh grade – has formed “the coolest club in school.”
Contractions
In this difficult economy, how far would you go to keep your job? Studio Theatre plumbs the comedy and horror of corporate overreach, ubiquitous surveillance, and the limits of human tolerance in Contractions, a nerve-jangling 60 minute standoff marked by jet black humor and twisted office politics.
Performance of the Century: 100 Years of Actors’ Equity Association and the Rise of Professional American Theater
Let’s start the year off with a book you probably didn’t know you needed. It is one of those books that jump off the shelf at you when you see it, but only if you read the sub-title.
McAllister and company unlock the mystery of Delilah in debut musical’s concert
Who was this woman who haunted Sampson through Judges 13-16, teasing and seducing him until he gave up the secret of his strength? Was she merely a mercenary of love? (“[W]e will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver,” to find out Sampson’s weakness, her Philistine employer promised.) Or did she […]