In 2004, Green Day was an amiable, if declining, punk rock band who’s most recent hit had been a sentimental ballad called “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. Their breakthrough album was already a decade old, and they had been touring second-fiddle to Blink 182 (I know because I saw that tour. It’s where drummer […]
Archives for March 2016
Tinseltown: A Hollywood Cabaret from Congressional Chorus (review)
A slew of clichés are at my fingertips, wanting desperately to open this review. “The silver screen comes alive on stage!” “Hollywood meets Broadway at the Atlas thanks to the Congressional Chorus!” “Let’s go to the movies with the Congressional Chorus – that’s entertainment!”
Critic lands role in Diary of Anne Frank, now at Compass Rose
There’s a saying: All roads eventually lead home. Though as Moses found out, that journey can sometimes take a few decades longer than expected. It all started innocently enough.
Round House and Olney Theatres to co-produce Kushner masterwork; Round House season announced
Round House Theatre will co-produce both parts of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America with Olney Theatre this fall, Round House announced yesterday. The joint production will kick off a two-year collaboration between Olney and the Bethesda-based Round House Theatre.
What’s so funny about the 2016 race for the White House?
While, for many of us this election cycle is fraught with drama, there are clutches of writers around the country cheering every twist, failure and faux pas. Yes, it is playing into the hands of America’s comedy writers. And to take their measure, we contacted DC’s own year-round political comedy revue troupe, the Capitol Steps […]
Unexpected Stage announces its 2016 shows
Unexpected Stage Company, operating out of the Randolph Road Theatre in Wheaton, MD, will offer a two-production slate for 2016 which will literally encompass life and death.
Ironbound Review: An Immigrant’s Search for Love and Money
Darja, the central character in Ironbound, never leaves a barren bus stop on an ugly stretch of post-industrial New Jersey, but Martyna Majok’s rich play about a poor immigrant feels always on the move, determined to take us on a sad and funny adventure that shifts back and forth over 22 years.
Annie, a big hit on its brief stop at The National Theatre (review)
The last time I saw a full production of Annie on stage, I was only 8 and Andrea McArdle was playing the titular redhead on the Great White Way. And it was my first-ever Broadway show and the musical that made me fall in love with theater to begin with.
Metro trains aren’t running today, but the shows go on.
Metro is closed today, but, according to our survey, all shows in the Washington DC area are going on as scheduled. Forum Theatre, which is presenting The Pillowman, is offering a 50% discount for Wednesday’s night’s show (to purchase, click here and use promo code ‘metro’). Forum also reminds us that the buses are running and that […]
1984, presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company (review)
1984, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s newest visiting international production, combines cutting-edge technology with a very old technique for making political plays for this new adaptation of a classic novel simultaneously politically vacuous and literally physically painful to watch.
The Pillowman at Forum Theatre (review)
Two detainees, two cops, two (or is it three?) gruesome child-murders — that’s the triad of pitch-dark dualities that underpin The Pillowman, a Grimm-ly funny brothers-in-extremis fable that earned a best-play Tony nomination a decade or so ago for black-hearted Irish dramatist Martin McDonagh.
Marjorie Prime at Olney Theatre Center (review)
You can’t trust anything these days, especially memories. Being human, we treat them like modeling clay—stretching, reshaping, pounding and molding our memories until they are the lumpen leftovers of our personal folklore.