Oh, Dad. Oh, brother! A comic bird, heavy on the dark meat, Oh, Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad gives us a little family that makes the Addams brood look like the Waltons. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste, Oh, Dad is an exotic meal, but certainly one […]
Archives for March 2014
Matthew Gardiner on directing Tender Napalm and Threepenny Opera
“Eric tends to be attracted to dark, poetic worlds.” Matthew Gardiner is directing Tender Napalm at Signature Theatre, where he is the Associate Artistic Director. I began our conversation about the play, which previews this week, by asking Gardiner how it had come to his attention. “Eric found it,” he replied, referring to Signature’s founding […]
Potomac Theatre Company ends its 25 year run with Annie
“We decided to go out with a bang.” Nan Muntzing explained Annie was always on Potomac Theatre Company’s wish list of musicals it wanted to produce. The family appeal and the celebrated score were just two selling points of the popular retelling of Little Orphan Annie’s quest for a family.
Penny Plain at World Stages
The world is dying of a horrible virus, and nature is taking back what’s rightfully hers. There’s no food, no running water and communication with the outside world has been cut off. There are even reports that people are turning to cannibalism to stay alive. So…what’s the plan?
Hair
Flower power is in full bloom at the Keegan Theatre and it’s pretty damn groovy. Keegan Theatre on Church Street NW has been transformed into a hippie’s paradise, like a found loft in the East Village, appointed with mismatched furniture, rope swings, and cozy grottos where love is love and love-making is always a possibility.
Savannah Bay at World Stages
Nothing quite prepares you for a Marguerite Duras play, so rarely is she done on this side of the Atlantic. As delicate as lace, as ephemeral as the foam on the waves that provide the aural landscape of Savannah Bay, as multi-layered as a Viennese torte and as playfully sweet as such a confection, and […]
Ari Roth on The Admission at Theater J – even in good wars, bad things happen
Although controversy has swirled around the upcoming workshop presentation of The Admission at Theater J, artistic director Ari Roth is is looking beyond it. “The play’s the thing,” says Roth, speaking in his office at the DC JCC. “We’re all about the play leading the way. The controversy is not the thing, the workshop drama […]
Broadway composer Mitch Leigh: An Appreciation
Monday morning I awoke to a two-sentence radio news item that said Broadway composer Mitch Leigh had died at the age of 86, and that he had written the music for Man of La Mancha and the “But nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee” jingle. Mr. Leigh deserves a broader appreciation for his storybook American life.
Signature’s 25th season features three world premiere musicals
In January, 2007, I was among other members of the press in hard hats, touring the new Signature Theatre. When we got to the MAX, Eric Schaeffer predicted that the new state of the art facility, already a far cry from the ‘garage’ space they had just left, would become a space where new musicals […]
Twelfth Night at Center Stage
Director Gavin Witt’s version of Twelfth Night, now at Center Stage, begins in the lobby, where clips from atmospheric movies like Casablanca, Sullivan’s Travels, and Quai des Brumes play on a big screen. Everybody stops to watch. A banner explains that, “This theatrical jaunt (Twelfth Night) pays homage to Hollywood’s Golden Years and the artistic […]
Chimes at Midnight with Stacy Keach, Week 2
Welcome back to the latest installment of Stacy Keach’s blog, as he reports from the rehearsal room of HENRY IV, PARTS 1 and 2 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. In this installment, Stacy begins to delve into the role of the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff. It’s a role which, as you’ll see, brings up […]
Fresh interpretation of Caryl Churchill by the young women of Lumina Studio
With a pair of plays by Caryl Churchill, Lumina Studio Theatre looks to tap into the spirit of our times. “Top Girls… is sort of women on top, and Fen is sort of women on the bottom,” says David Minton, the company’s artistic director, who is also directing this show. “Fen is really about… wage […]