When a door slams in Round House Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, the slam carries. Noises linger with an eerie resonance giving the impression that the entire play takes place underwater. In fact, with the play’s action confined to a motel room, the characters may as well be locked in an airtight […]
Archives for September 2014
Kafka’s bug gets music-theatre treatment in Metamorphosis
Nearly every generation and geographical region interprets the plight of the outsider in its own way. The end result is a literary canon of outliers and misfits, counting in their ranks Holden Caulfield, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Ralph Ellison’s unnamed narrator, and–perhaps most notably–Gregor Samsa, the traveling salesman who woke one morning in his family home […]
Theater Alliance’s Spark Ignites the Stage
The theatre knows its wars. From King Lear to Black Watch, the tradition of soldier on a stage has a long, rich, and male-dominated history. Less often told—or staged—are the tales of women at war. And Theater Alliance’s world premiere production of Spark, directed by Colin Hovde, ignites a bold, new, and crucial facet of […]
The Cole Porter Project from In Series
What does one expect when attending an event called The Cole Porter Project? Given the composer-fronted name and the producing company (the In Series, primarily known for their accessible opera work), I imagined a fairly simple review of some of Porter’s classic tunes, plus a few of the lesser-known gems. A handful of great performers […]
King Lear, the Globe at Folger Theatre
The Globe Theatre, launching its tour of America with a stint at the Folger, has created a King Lear for our times. I have seen noble Lears, pathological Lears, fragile Lears, arrogant Lears, and Lears who have combined all of these characteristics in one. But the Lear which Joseph Marcell and director Bill Buckhurst give […]
Belleville at Studio Theatre
In her acclaimed plays 4000 Miles and After the Revolution Amy Herzog’s characters face moral dilemmas, particularly concerning the conflict between loyalty to the state and loyalty to family. In Belleville, Herzog’s characters face moron dilemmas, as in how to survive in the face of idiotic decisions. It is done with the same attention to […]
The Understudy at Everyman Theatre
Metamorphosis meets The Actor’s Nightmare in Theresa Rebeck’s boisterous and mind-bending comedy The Understudy, a satisfying season-opener at Everyman Theatre directed with absurdist elation by Joseph W. Ritsch.
Colossal at Olney Theatre Center
During the football drama Colossal the central character recalls the sensation after being hit for the first time. “I’m alive. You cannot hurt me.” The irony of that feeling of youthful invincibility is that he later winds up paralyzed from a football injury. How he deals with that injury and flashbacks to the events leading […]
Marcus Kyd, chasing the Devil for Taffety Punk’s revival
Despite growing up in what he called a “big time catholic family,” Marcus Kyd had lots of questions about what was being taught to him, especially about the Devil. “The Devil was always confusing to me. My big question was, ‘Why would a creature like this exist?’ It’s scary when you are a kid,” he […]
Yentl at Theater J
Theater J’s Yentl has quite a bit to compare to, given the expectations set by the immensely popular movie starring (and written and directed and produced by) Barbra Streisand and the long-running Broadway play by Leah Napolin based on the Isaac Bashevis Singer short story. This Yentl has elements of both of these originals, taking […]
Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage
At a key moment in the Dirty Dancing musical, currently kicking off its national tour at the, er, National, Samuel Pergande’s Johnny struts through the audience, mounts the stage, walks confidently up to a table and delivers the line the audience has been waiting for since they entered the theater. Hell, since they bought their […]
UpClose: Jayne Houdyshell and Delaney Williams from The Shoplifters
Last week, in the Molly Smith Library, a high-ceilinged first-floor room at Arena Stage looking out onto Maine Avenue, Jayne Houdyshell and Delaney Williams spent their lunch break talking to me during a day of rehearsal for the world premiere of The Shoplifters. Williams is familiar to DC audiences, having performed at nearly every major […]