It’s a few months after Hurricane Sandy hit New York on October 29, 2012. Staten Island took a beating from the storm and when the lights come up on Sharyn Rothstein’s new play, By the Water, we are there in the aftermath. What looks like it might once have been a house is open to […]
Archives for December 2014
Klingon language creator Marc Okrand plays Scrooge in WSC Avant Bard’s Klingon Christmas Carol
Nothing spreads holiday cheer quite like the unearthly wolf grunts and throaty insistent howls of the Klingon species. In advance of WSC Avant Bard’s one-night-only staged reading of A Klingon Christmas Carol on December 15, DC Theatre Scene spoke with the man who created the Klingon language—who also happens to lead the theatre’s Board, and […]
20 favorite YPT plays performed as Young Playwrights’ Theater turns 20
Within its purple and yellow beanbag-strewn office overlooking Meridian Hill Park, the small but energetic staff of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) has been finalizing plans for its biggest event to date. Said event, known around the office as #20Fest, will be held on Friday, December 12 at Theater J to mark the organization’s 20th anniversary—making […]
Round House Theatre’s charming new musical, The Nutcracker
Christmas isn’t only the season of giving, receiving and familial travel, it’s also the season of theatrical traditions. My family drives a number of hours to watch the complete 3 hour Handel’s Messiah while other families see The Christmas Carol with grandparents, some Nativity play at a church, or many others. For me though, the […]
Peter Pan Live!, did NBC delight the musical’s fans?
When The Sound of Music Live! aired on NBC last year, reactions were, you could say, mixed. And yet, despite the devil’s advocates, the optimists, the doomsdayers and naysayers, one thing was pretty consistently said: “YES. Please try again!” And so we’re back, one year later. This time the musical is Peter Pan, and the […]
Going to 1st Stage in Tysons? Try these dining spots
Tysons is in the process of transforming itself from office park complex to urban center. A decades long renovation scheme plans to recreate the business and shopping hub into a self-contained, mini-metropolis Though the construction of a new city looks easy enough on paper, buildings and restaurants are just that without the color and nuance […]
Theatre critics reveal their holiday best gifts, this year’s DCTS Gift Ideas
DC Theatre Scene’s annual holiday gift guide, the guide with theatre lovers in mind, has just been posted with more than 40 gift ideas. This year, we turned to some of our favorite critics to learn their favorite listens and reads.
Donny and Marie, wowing the crowd with Christmas at the National
How’s this for a headline for Donny and Marie: Christmas at the National? “Singing siblings prove mythical fountain of youth is real?” Sure, that opening might be more at home in a supermarket tabloid, but it’s the truth. Donny and Marie Osmond, the all grown up boy and girl next door performers, have either found […]
Newsies kicks off national tour in Baltimore: review
Kids, gather ‘round the glow of your smartphone screens and listen to a story. Once upon a time, there was a thing called newspapers—thick stacks of paper with words printed on them, words that formed news stories that were reported, well-written and fact-checked. Most of the stories were accompanied by photos—no, not selfies—or illustrations that […]
Peter Pan Live! tonight on NBC – first look at Christopher Walken’s Hook
Last year, beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, NBC’s broadcast of The Sound of Music Live!, starring Carrie Underwood, managed to shatter ratings records and break the Internet in ways Kim Kardashian could only dream. (For my complete thoughts on both the broadcast and the social media firestorm, click here.)
Calarco is cracking an old nut: musical Nutcracker at Round House
When Round House Theatre’s Ryan Rilette approached Joe Calarco about directing The Nutcracker, visions of sugar plum fairies and toys come to life initially gave Joe pause. “I thought it was going to be this sweet, cute holiday play,” says Calarco, “with no center or meat to it. Just a whole lot of fantasy.”
Herding Cats – casting and housing actors for Compass Rose hit musical
For three years, Lucinda Merry-Browne, director of the Compass Rose Theater, has been hoping to stage Cats in the intimate setting that houses the Annapolis, Md.-based stage. She finally procured the rights and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for the theater, as it also had another of T.S. Eliot’s productions on […]