Back in 2007, theatre folks had a good chuckle over this satirical headline in The Onion: Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended The joke, of course, is on us. Washington theatres offer only rare exception to the trend that presumes to require, with each new production, the re-potting of Shakespeare’s text […]
Archives for March 2013
Jason Invisible deals with familial mental illness
When you are fourteen, choosing which clothes to wear and lunch table politics should top the list of big events of your school day. Jason Papadopoulos wishes those were his biggest problems. He lives with a family secret that he protects at all costs. That secret and how Jason manages adult-sized challenges is the impetus […]
Sondheim, Baryshnikov to come to the Shakespeare
The Shakespeare Theatre Company will fill out its mainstage 2013-2014 season with a production of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and will add two new plays at its Lansburgh location later this year, the Company announced yesterday.
Neil Berg’s 101 Years of Broadway
What do we think of when we think of the greatest Broadway musicals of the last hundred years? The answer to this question, of course, is quite subjective. If we go by composer/lyricist/producer Neil Berg – who continues his worldwide tour of Neil Berg’s 101 Years of Broadway that played the Music Center at Strathmore for […]
CATF-debuted play among six Steinberg finalists; Torso wins Osborne
Gidion’s Knot, Johanna Adams’ stunning confrontation between an elementary school teacher and the mother of a boy who had committed suicide, is one of six finalists for the $25,000 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2012.
Word Becomes Flesh
Word Becomes Flesh offers a gripping journey through the trying conditions affecting black father-son relations. The production, here for 3 performances only (it closes today) at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, is a dynamite blend of spoken word, dancing, singing, and DJ skills.
Landless returns for a third chance for awesome
If your taste in musical theatre tends to the grunge, the gory or the absolutely silly, then you must be a longtime fan of Landless Theatre. For nearly 10 years, they’ve built a core audience for shows like Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Gutenberg the Musical, Bat Boy the Musical, Walmartopia, and other musicals more respectable companies […]
From the pit: Capturing a new sound for Hello, Dolly!
The New Signature Theatre/Ford’s Theatre Production features new orchestrations Nearly fifty years ago, to the sound of a pit orchestra of 25, Jerry Herman’s musical Hello, Dolly! opened what turned out to be a record breaking seven year run on Broadway in the St. James Theatre with its more than 1,700 seats.
I, Jack, am the Knave of Hearts
A gray brick wall interrupted by two black velvet curtains, and a bare stage offer the setting for an other-worldly place, between Heaven and Hell, somewhere on Earth. A man bursts through one of the curtains and faces the audience, a confused look on his face. He’s got black pants tucked into large brown boots, […]
Smash 2:7 Musical Chairs
Dear readers, I’m sure many of you have heard the news, but, for those that haven’t, here it is – our beloved Smash is not long for this world.
Keegan’s A Behanding in Spokane, one of the season’s best comedies
A one-handed man on a cross-country odyssey to find his missing hand, waits in a squalid hotel room for two equally squalid visitors. Then, the story turns odd. Not to mention violent, shocking, and most of all, darkly comic in Irish playwright Martin McDonough’s latest work, A Behanding in Spokane, now making its area premiere in an […]
American Century keeps Voodoo Macbeth under wraps. Here’s what we know.
American Century Theater is ready to open its next show, and what audiences will see, beginning tonight, is a closely guarded secret. Jack Marshall is betting it will be as shocking and innovative as its original production staged by Orson Welles in 1936.