One thing I’ve always wondered about Shakespeare’s Henry plays is why do Hal and Falstaff like each other so much? I understand that Falstaff sees a younger version of himself in Hal, with better chances, and that maybe Hal sees Falstaff as a different kind of king, the ruler of indecent people. But their bond […]
Archives for April 2014
Moss Hart tribute, Act One
Moss Hart’s autobiographical “Act One” was an instant best seller when it was published by Random House in 1959, and it has remained in print ever since. The book was critically acclaimed and remained on the N.Y.Times best-seller list for forty one weeks, which was remarkable, particularly for a theatrical memoir.
Tom Story and cast give Studio’s Moth their best shot
There is a good story within Moth’s eighty minutes, and director Tom Story and his two-actor cast tell it in bold, powerful strokes. It is a story of compassion, bullying, and betrayal, and the moment of truth hits with the impact of a Manny Pacquiao body punch.
Once on This Island
Once on this Island, the diverting Caribbean-themed musical running at Olney Theatre Center through May 4, is more than just a pastel-colored stroll through island culture to a calypso beat. Of Calypso there is plenty, and the strong cast delivers the musical’s 19 numbers, ranging from upbeat, Broadway-style ensemble pieces to solo ballads, with soul […]
Chimes at Midnight with Stacy Keach, Week 6
Stacy catches us up on the show’s progress, as he prepares for opening nights on Tuesday, April 15 and Friday, April 18. He also opens up about secrets of the actor’s trade, and some of his superstitions. You might be shocked. – DL
Scene stealers galore in Shrek the Musical
There’s a moment in Shrek the Musical when the featured green ogre tells his faithful sidekick Donkey that ogres, like onions, have many layers. That’s also true of Toby’s Dinner Theatre’s staging of the musical itself, which delivers plenty of comedy, heart…and farts? Yes, the story is not afraid to get a little juvenile in […]
MET’s Lieutenant of Inishmore is brutal beauty
Irish theatre and Irish music sometimes make me wonder if the Irish people have taken liberty with the English language in requital of the liberty that the English people took from them. What better way to give the finger to the country that took away your country’s freedom — and its language — than to […]
The family known as the award winning Pointless Theatre Company
“Shamelessly co-dependent is what we like to say.” So Patti Kalil, co-artistic director, describes Pointless Theatre. She is sitting beside a brightly painted backdrop before rehearsal for the company’s next show, Sleeping Beauty: A Puppet Ballet – which has since opened and runs until May 3rd at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. She is […]
Kathie Lee Gifford joins the cast of NextStop’s Into the Woods
TODAY show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford will be the voice of the Giant’s Wife in NextStop Theatre’s upcoming production of Into the Woods, the company announced today. In so doing, she joins Dame Judi Dench, Glenn Close, and Angela Lansbury who have lent their performances to the Act 2 agony of the Giant’s widow.
Feldshuh is brilliant in Golda’s Balcony
For the next couple of weeks, we in DC have the chance to experience something special: Tovah Feldshuh’s truly remarkable performance as Golda Meir in Golda’s Balcony, William Gibson’s solo play about the woman who led Israel through a tumultuous period in its history.
Sleeping Beauty: A Puppet Ballet
The words “puppet show” and “groundbreaking” don’t often share the same sentence, but DC’s Pointless Theatre Group is out to change that, one performance at a time. Pointless is building upon its outside-the-box legacy with the fantastical Sleeping Beauty: A Puppet Ballet, which stretches the confines of the intimate Mead Theatre Lab with dazzling artistry […]
Les Miserables, re-invented, returns to Broadway
It is so extraordinary to see the name of one man above the title of a show, listed as Producer. Unless that man is Cameron Mackintosh, the Florenz Ziegfeld, Harold Prince, David Merrick of his generation – a man of taste, intelligence, passion, combined with courage, business acumen and an instinct for what the public […]