“We either repeat mistakes or don’t update our own sense on what love is for,” Kathleen Akerley, artistic director at Longacre Lea, said in our recent interview about her upcoming debut play Interstellar Ghost Hour. She has long been interested in the lessons we give children about love and how to love, and specifically what we are […]
Archives for July 2018
Review: An Irish Twist on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Contemporizing Shakespeare’s plays, abridging them, moving them to different locations, or having them center around different cultures: these are all fun ways to mold classical theatre into something new. But An Irish Twist on William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while certainly an original idea that intertwines the famous play with Irish lore and culture, […]
Review: Macbeth. The kids are alright
If I walked into the Highwood to see the fledgling 4615 Theatre’s stab at the Scottish Play with lowered expectations, I hope my readers and colleagues can forgive me. There were numerous red flags: I hadn’t heard much ‘buzz’ about this company (going into its second season), didn’t know the director’s or the actors’ work, […]
Review: Debut musical Dave, a good guy becomes an accidental president
Dave is a musical for our times. A snapshot of our current political climate swathed in red, white and blue, the world premiere musical with music by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), a book by the late great Thomas Meehan (Hairspray, The Producers) and Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) and lyrics by Benjamin is a call […]
Review: The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company
Just when you wondered what else Holly Bass would do with her arsenal of skills in hip-hop, dance, spoken word, poetry and theater, she snaps us into shifting realities. This workshop production of The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company celebrates the strength of black women traveling through time all while embedded in vaudeville silliness.
Compass Rose celebrates new space with 5 play season
Annapolis’ Compass Rose Theatre will grace its new digs at 1623 Forest Drive with a 5-play 2018-2019 season, including three contemporary plays about art and two classic musicals.
Gaithersburg’s comedy theatre, Best Medicine Rep, to feature its funniest playwright: John Morogiello
Best Medicine Rep Company, the Gaithersburg theater helmed by noted comic playwright John Morogiello, will feature three plays written by Morogiello himself in its 4-play 2018-2019 season. Can you imagine George Bernard Shaw in love? I mean with anyone other than himself? Me neither. And yet it happened, when an heiress named Charlotte Payne-Townshend caught […]
MetroStage to produce Fugard’s latest and three reprises
Alexandria’s MetroStage will open with Athol Fugard’s most recent play, and then bring back three of its most acclaimed productions to round out its 2018-2019 season.
Rorschach’s Three-Play Season All World Premieres
Rorschach Theatre, whose recent work has been characterized by world premieres, outlandish concepts, magical realism and suspenseful moments, will offer three world premieres of suspenseful, outlandish plays full of magical realism for its 2018-2019 season.
Review: Sucks To Be a Grownup at Capital Fringe
Sucks To be A Grownup is a one-woman show that feels like a combination of a stand up comedy set and advice from your worldly aunt that you definitely needed after college. CJ, the writer and producer, shares her thoughts on the differences between being an “adult” and a being a “grownup.” CJ talks about […]
Review: Head Over Heels, Elizabethan silliness to 80’s Go Go’s songs
Head Over Heels is a mash-up that sounds weird and unworkable: It’s a jukebox musical using 18 songs by the 1980s all-female L.A. punk band The Go-Go’s. But it’s also a loose adaptation of Arcadia, a 1580’s work of literature by Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare.
Review: The Country Co-Ed at Capital Fringe
The Country Co-Ed is a sex comedy. Everybody likes sex, right? Everybody likes comedy, correct? So how could things go wrong? Well. it’s a little more complicated than that. The Country Co-Ed is based loosely on William Wycherley’s Restoration Comedy, The Country Wife. There are a lot of interesting things to know about the English […]