Once has been more than once a phenomenon, first as a runaway independent film then as an unlikely Broadway hit winning eight of eleven nominated Tony Awards, including Best Musical. I’ll say it’s a show worth seeing more than once, and I, for one, am going back for more!
Archives for July 13, 2015
Tammy Faye’s Final Audition at Capital Fringe
You only have one more chance to experience one of the best things you will see this year at Fringe: Tammy Faye’s Final Audition. It’s difficult for me to imagine that you could see a more spectacular performance than Shelley Delaney’s as the somewhat notorious, much-beloved, often ridiculed, and supremely unfortunate Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. […]
Hello Girls: Unknown Heroines of WWI at Capital Fringe
Watching storyteller Ellouise Schoettler’s Hello Girls: Unknown Heroines of WWI is an edifying experience. In her one-woman show, Schoettler sheds light on the little-known history of the “Hello Girls”, American women sent to France during World War I to operate telephone switchboards as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. If this sounds like a […]
At Your Service, Mr. President! at Capital Fringe
It’s easy to grow jaded about the magic of Washington after a few years on a lease. Over time, lofty ideals and Sorkin-esque monologues have a way of being superseded by rent worries and Metro frustration. Landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and the Supreme Court fade as inspirations and become places where visiting relatives drag […]
Cold as Death at Capital Fringe
About three-quarters of the way through this play, I realized that I was watching the theatrical equivalent of the 1930s horror movies I used to watch at 2 AM in the rec room when my parents were asleep. A despicable villain (here played by Nello DeBlasio) is about to do a fabulously offensive thing (in […]
Trueheart: Live
Trueheart: Live is a comedic look into the life of Tim Trueheart (real name; he couldn’t make that up), as he bears all in a personal hour of comedy. His jokes are irreverent, sometimes more than warrants charm, but when he is at his best, Trueheart’s immaturity hides hidden depth that speaks to what it […]
Out of Sync at Capital Fringe
Out of Sync is a show that wears its heart on its sleeve. It is a personal tale of a budding relationship held down by the tragedy of long lost love. The play jumps between past and present as we see the charmingly awkward Nathan start to fall in love with a peppy young professional […]
El Sueño or The Delightful Nightmares of the Ladies
Let me make a confession up front: this play is not my cup of tea. Inspired by passages from various Tennessee Williams plays, it seems to me to be alternatively over-dramatic and murky. I would not voluntarily see it again.
From Seven Layers to a Bikini Top in Less than Five Hours
A Teutonic instructor (Andrea Schell) stares at her class, then barks out her instructions. You are not fat, she says. You are human beings. If you were fat you could not have picked up the pen to fill out the application to come here. She is a drill sergeant, but a drill sergeant for compassion […]
Dust to Dust at Capital Fringe
Dust to Dust, presented by the Class Act Players, follows mid-western farmer’s son Toby (Preston Kemp) on his journey from his Depression-ravaged family farm to New York City, where he hopes to collect a long-outstanding financial debt that an upper class socialite, Gabriel Rosen (Sarah Marksteiner), owes his blind father (Alex Bulova.) He is helped […]
mostly the VOICE: a black lesbian journey at Capital Fringe
Have you ever wished a version of “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret,” existed with a black and lesbian narrative and more erotica? J. Scales might have just what you’re looking for.
Good Egg Fables at Capital Fringe
If you’ve ever strolled down the children’s literature section at the bookstore, picked up a title that’s only ten or twenty pages long and thought “this doesn’t look so hard… I could write one of these,” I dare you to try.