On press night of Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of The Temptations, an impassioned cry pierced a moment between flaming montages of the 1967 Detroit riot and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in 1968. During the song “I’m Losing You,” a woman in the audience spontaneously shouted “Oh, Jesus!” The gesture felt holy, […]
Archives for June 2018
Fringe Peek: Hawaii Nei. How an Hawaiian Queen captured the heart of this writer
I fell in love with Hawaii in 1997 when my first wife and I took a vacation there. You might say my love of Hawaii outlasted my first marriage. But that’s another story.
Remembering Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang, who “made people into artists and artists into people”
The DC theatre community lost one of its most admired, respected, and beloved members on June 9th. Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang was only 53 years old when she succumbed to cancer.
Ghosts’ director on creating a haunting Fringe show.
I first encountered the script for Ghosts by Elford Alley, when I was applying as a director for a Halloween one-act festival, last year at the Little Theatre of Alexandria. While reading all the scripts, to decide which plays I would propose to direct in the festival, Ghosts instantly stood out to me. While perusing […]
Wendi Winters, DC Metro Theatre Arts reviewer among those killed at Capital Gazette
DC Metro Theatre Arts Senior Reviewer Wendi Winters was one of the five people killed by a gunman in the offices of The Capital Gazette yesterday, DC Metro Theatre Arts reported today.
Review: Second City’s Generation Gap, a summer slice of funny
Second City is back at it again with Second City’s Generation Gap…or How Many Millennials Does it Take to Teach a Baby Boomer to Text Generation X?, now invading the Kennedy Center to help DC pass what will likely be another hot-under-the-collar kinda summer with levity and laughter. This time, they’ve got something to say about […]
Ethan McSweeny named new Artistic Director of American Shakespeare Center
The American Shakespeare Center, a Staunton, Va.-based company dedicated to producing Shakespeare in the manner he might have been originally produced, has named longtime DC Shakespearian director Ethan McSweeny as its new Artistic Director.
Carmen Jones review: a sultry, seductive Anika Noni Rose
When Carmen Jones opened on Broadway in 1943, one critic hailed it as “something more than a major theatrical event.” Seventy-five years later, the Classic Stage Company is presenting what it bills as the show’s first major New York revival since its Broadway debut. If it may no longer be “more than” a theatrical event, […]
Review: On the Town at Olney Theatre Center, pure perfection.
Olney Theatre celebrates its 80th season this year with this splendid production of On the Town, the Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden/Adolph Green musical which made its Broadway debut in 1944. Thanks to the canny direction of Jason Loewith and its effervescent cast, dazzling choreography and a creative team on hyper-drive, Olney delivers a show that is […]
Jennifer Mendenhall on her first play, #poolparty
In 2015 the president of Prince George’s Community Pool in Mt. Rainier, Md., discovered copies of decades-old correspondence between pool officials and Raymond Bowlding, a local black man, who worked with the NAACP to file complaints with the Department of Justice to desegregate the private swim club.
Ephraim Sykes is back into R&B with Broadway-bound Temptations musical, Ain’t Too Proud
Ephraim Sykes can’t seem to leave the ’60s. He played Otis Williams in the Broadway show Motown the Musical, was a critical darling as Seaweed in NBC’s Hairspray Live, and now can be seen in the role of Temptations’ member David Ruffin in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre production of Ain’t Too Proud—The Life and Times of […]
Log Cabin Review: Jesse Tyler Ferguson in Play About LGBT Rights and Wrongs
Near the beginning of Log Cabin, four old LGBT friends are so struck by their sudden societal acceptance that one of them jokes “It’s here, the gay takeover we’ve been plotting all this time.” But, as we soon realize in Jordan Harrison’s thought-provoking new play, there are some downsides to their entry into the mainstream. […]