Wacky ain’t for wimps. Capturing that seltzer fizz, cream pie lightness of classic slapstick is far trickier than it looks. Even the queen of loopy Southern Gothic, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley, slips on the banana peel trying to recreate the side-splitting in Laugh, a world-premiere comedy at Studio Theatre.
Archives for March 2015
Blue, a new treat for the wee ones from Imagination Stage
Outstanding production of ‘Blue,’ the new small stage experience for early childhood audiences from Imagination Stage
Nu Sass’ intimate Bright Room Called Day
A small theater company has set up a living room in a tiny downtown second floor space to tackle the somersaulting polemics of Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day. Filled with passion, creativity, lots of faith, and uncannily deliberate direction by Angela Pirko, the Nu Sass produced piece works on all kinds of levels, […]
HalfMad Theatre takes on The Winter’s Tale
One of the most sensible approaches to Shakespeare’s problem plays is simply to cut out the problematic parts and zero in on the play’s beating heart. With its long one-act presentation of The Winter’s Tale, HalfMad Theatre does just that, drawing the painful tale of redemption and reunion out from some of the woolier parts […]
Helen Mirren reigns supreme over The Audience
It’s always a pleasure to welcome Helen Mirren back to the Broadway stage. Her new vehicle by Peter Morgan, who served her well once before as author of “The Queen,” a film in which by playing Elizabeth II for the first time, she won herself a well deserved Oscar for best performance. Now here she […]
Helen Hayes Awards 3.0, the Awards, the Party, the Plan
Three words — affordability, inclusion, engagement — are the watchwords for this year’s Helen Hayes Awards ceremony. As most readers will know, last year, as it celebrated turning 30, the Helen Hayes Awards (HHA) switched things up. For 29 years, the event consisted of a sit-down awards ceremony held at Warner Theatre, National Theatre, or […]
Fabulas Mayas returns, more fabulous than ever
A large round shadow screen looms upstage, like a rising moon. Eight triangular steps ascend, like a pyramid, in front of it, as if leading to a Mayan temple. The stage floor is lit with a squiggly pattern of light and dark. Sounds of bird calls and crickets put us in a tropical forest.
Puppet gets major role in classic horror Doctor Caligari
What keeps you up at night, little brother? Is it that seemingly random tax audit notice you received in the mail yesterday? Perhaps your spouse has become distant, or else developed a disconcerting interest in someone who is not you. Did your boss forget your name at work yesterday? Or is it that odd-looking fellow […]
Superb cast for Time Stands Still
Photo journalist Sarah Goodwin (Aly B. Ettman) has spent her life in places touched by disaster to document the worst of disease, defeat, and death. This is her existence until she is thrown from a bombed vehicle in Iraq and medevaced to Germany, where she spends six weeks in a coma. James (Aaron Tone), a […]
Eric Owens is magnificent in WNO’s Flying Dutchman
When I think of Wagnerian opera I think big – big sets, big ideas, and big voices – but in the production of The Flying Dutchman that just opened at Washington National Opera, only the voices were suitably Wagnerian big and robust. Everything else seemed intentionally scaled to say something more intimate and human. So […]
“The Mad: A Fracking Fairytale” What the frack is going on here?
Imagine visiting a quirky French cafe you’ve had your eye on for awhile. The tables are nicely set, a woman with a lovely voice is strumming on a guitar in the corner, and next to her a man with smiling eyes is playing merrily on an accordion. Sounds pretty nice, right?
Audience Becomes “Spect-actors” in Tiago Rodrigues’ Mundo Perfeito
A most powerful, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying theatrical work blew into town from Portugal this past weekend in a double-bill by Mundo Perfeito. It was a shame that so few people saw it. The work of Mundo Perfeito under founder, artistic director, writer and actor Tiago Rodrigues is marked by an unusual intellectual heft and […]