As a film, the tiny indie musical Once (shot over 17 days for a mere $150,000) was such an unlikely hit that it’s easy to be cynical over whether a big-budget Broadway adaptation could capture the same magic. But Olney’s intimate, stirring production of the show that would go on to win eight Tonys and […]
Archives for February 2019
Review: BLKS, poet Aziza Barnes’ breakout play, is cracking them up at Woolly
BLKS at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company starts and ends with a scream, for reasons you cannot guess. Despite unexpected turns in the plot, you can count on BLKS to consistently provide a front-row seat to the physical and emotional feelings of Black women and femmes. In a society that so often censors Black women for […]
Review: John Cameron Mitchell’s Origin of Love Tour
They say you should never meet your heroes, but what about crowd-surfing them? That was what I was thinking the night of February 8, as I helped keep John Cameron Mitchell aloft as he made his way through the orchestra on the hands of adoring Hedwig and the Angry Inch fans. We had gathered to […]
Review: Shame 2.0 with Comments from the Populace. Truth on stage
Billed as a workshop production to which the press was invited, Mosaic Theater Company’s Shame 2.0 with Comments from the Populace opened Thursday night with all hands on deck in solidarity and much marketing trumpeting it as a “DC world premiere” of docu-theater. Around the edges, however, and in the margins of conversations introducing the […]
Review: Nell Gwynn at Folger. A roaring good time on Capitol Hill
If there was ever a time for a bit of cheek, it’s now. We could all use some impudent humor, especially of the female variety. And there’s no better place than the august Folger Theatre, where the bawdy, trailblazing she-ro Nell Gwynn is sassing up the joint with Restoration-era raunch and rollicking good humor in […]
Seema Sueko on directing the “revolutionary thriller of the heart”, The Heiress
On Valentine’s Day this year, Arena Stage will open The Heiress, adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel Washington Square by playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz. While the play may seem at first glance to be your typical romance, director Seema Sueko feels the story is very apropos for the Feast of St. Valentine. “It’s not your […]
No space for their new company? How Prologue Theatre solved it and debuted Grand Concourse
The DC Area’s artistic community has seen the rise and fall of many theatre companies. As the cost of space rentals in DC increase, we see fewer and fewer performing spaces for theatres within the city limits. However, in Northern Virginia, more and more small theatre companies are cropping up. Our community has a lot to […]
Review: Alvin Ailey Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center
A lone figure stood in the spotlight at the start of what I’ve come to think of as Washington’s most sparkling gala event. In the Opera House space which could have easily swallowed her up and with rustling of bejeweled gowns as latecomers hastily made their way to their seats, Nyla Pettis stood tall, looking […]
Next Stop: North Korea. John Feffer’s next solo show brings us in-country insights into that shuttered country
With a second summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, scheduled for the end of this month in Vietnam, the timing for John Feffer’s latest show couldn’t be better. An acknowledged expert on North Korea, Feffer returns to his gifts as solo storyteller to bring us […]
Review: The Master and Margarita, an eccentric production worthy of its origin
Abrupt decapitations. A chatty, fiendish cat. Magical sorcery onstage and off. An epic costumed ball thrown by Satan himself. On its surface, The Master and Margarita doesn’t seem like the easiest great novel to adapt into a play. But Edward Kemp’s gutsy new interpretation feels right at home on The Source Theatre stage, courtesy of […]
Philosophus review. Best Medicine Rep finds a farce to remedy our times
Farce is not as easy to pull off as it looks. Add mounds of glorious text inspired by the freedom spouting French philosopher Francois-Marie Arouet, a.k.a Voltaire, and you’ve got quite a mix on your hands. Specifically, you’ve got Philosophus as presented by Best Medicine Rep. As they’ve demonstrated in previous engagingly worded scripts, Best Medicine […]
When women first took to the English stage: Alison Luff on playing Nell Gwynn at Folger
In 2013, Olivier-winning playwright Jessica Swale wrote a play about the life of actress Nell Gwynn, one of the first women to trod the English stage, and who became a celebrated actress during the 17th century Restoration period. Aptly titled Nell Gwynn, it premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in 2015. Last year, it made its […]