The name Donny Hathaway probably doesn’t ring too many bells these days—certainly not as many as Stevie Wonder or Roberta Flack, his contemporaries—but you likely sing him every Christmas (“This Christmas”) and hear his influence in pop hits performed by Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse, who both cite him as an inspiration. Not only did Hathaway […]
Archives for March 2017
Doubt, then and now: John Patrick Shanley in an exclusive interview with Quotidian Theatre
On March 9, 2017, John Patrick Shanley, the author of Doubt: A Parable, granted an exclusive interview to the Quotidian Theatre Company (QTC), where Doubt will be performed from April 7 – May 7. The interview was conducted by QTC board member/actor David Dubov, who was most recently seen as “Doc” in QTC’s The Night Alive.
Theater J’s next season takes a deep look at love in the time of hate
Against a backdrop of rising tribalism in the Western World, Theater J has selected a 2017-2018 season which explores the consequences of ascendant hate, particularly during the period of its greatest triumph in Nazi Germany.
Human actors get trapped in the Disney techno-spell cast over Beauty and the Beast (review)
The idea seemed promising: take a classic, well-loved, mega-popular animated Disney film and remake it as a live-action movie; hire an accomplished, imaginative director; cast it with good actors. You would be guaranteed to end up with something different, fresher, more illuminating than the existing cartoon version, something potentially more powerful. One might even hope […]
Miss Saigon Review: back on Broadway, with helicopter
The first Broadway revival of Miss Saigon is being marketed as the return of a classic. But, if the show has become an undeniable fan favorite, the production’s impressive visual spectacle, lively staging and crowd-pleasing vocal calisthenics cannot completely mask a script that leans heavily on emotional manipulation and one-dimensional storytelling.
Time to respond to Trump’s threatened cuts for the arts
Abolish all government funding for the arts and humanities? Eliminate the NEA? Seems inconceivable, yet that is what President Trump proposed in his budget sent to Congress. Hopefully it won’t happen. Hopefully Congress will not accept this proposal and will at least maintain the minimal funding now in effect (spending on National Endowment of the Arts, […]
NEA shutdown? We learned its impact on theatre in the DC area
The imminent shutdown of the National Endowment for the Arts, promised in President Trump’s 2017-2018 budget, will result in fewer and smaller new plays, bring an end to cultural exchanges with theaters in other countries, sharply curtail a program to bring theater to rural America, and increase competition for the private donations that smaller theaters […]
Don Giovanni gets a youthful outing at Washington National Opera
Mozart would have been grinning at this youthful production of his tried-and-true opera that reached out to a new younger and diverse audience Friday night, March 17th. Washington National Opera’s Don Giovanni was Mozart as he wanted to be known: someone who delivered stories-in-song with popular appeal.
Uncovering Ann Kron. Director and actor discuss Well at 1st Stage
When Audrey Bertaux takes the stage as Lisa Kron at the beginning of Well, being staged at 1st Stage, her character will explain to the audience that the play is not “about my mother and me” despite the fact that the play very much does explore the relationship between the playwright and her force-of-nature mother Ann.
In Series stages an inspired update of Don Pasquale (review)
Gaetano Donizetti miraculously wrote seventy-five operas during his brief lifetime. But what makes Don Pasquale stand out as one of the funniest comic operas (opera buffa) ever written is that it is filled with exquisitely beautiful bel canto arias, patter songs, and melodramatic humor. Its unforgettable characters are a mix of good and evil. Yet, […]
Chekhov like you’ve never seen – Three Sisters at Studio Theatre (review)
The women chant their lines over one another above a rising swirl of offstage clamor that reaches a crescendo pitch. Masha (Caroline Hewitt),—the most troubled of the three Prozorov sisters—begins to scramble up a tree like a cat as the scene goes dark.
No Sisters, Posner’s real-time riff on Chekhov’s Three Sisters at Studio Theatre (review)
Hey theater geeks, you’ll want to pay attention to this one! Did you ever think it’d be cool to sit back with the characters you had just seen on stage and just shoot the shit for a while, gain some refreshing insights about the play they inhabit and get their perspectives on all manner of […]