Signature Theatre is known for reviving and revamping long forgotten musicals – and they don’t shy away from a challenge. Grand Hotel tells the story of a handful of strangers, drawn together as guests of the titular hotel at the center of Berlin during the city’s “Golden Era” of the mid- to late- 1920’s. During […]
Archives for April 2019
Review: Beckett Trio, Part 2 from Scena Theatre
“Stay,” the dying beloved tells her lover, “where we were so long alone together. My shade will comfort you.” But of course he does not, and instead moves to a single room in a place where two rivers join to form a third. And from there he walks to the banks of the river and […]
Review: Ayad Akhtar’s Junk at Arena Stage
In Shakespeare’s time, Christians were forbidden to lend money at interest (see Merchant of Venice) and so the Western world, intellectually vibrant though it was, was mostly economically stagnant. Only the wealthiest could finance their own enterprises, which they did at great risk. People lived with their parents well into adulthood, and thereafter constructed their […]
Capital Fringe Producers’ page
This form is only for the use of producers of the upcoming 2020 Capital Fringe Festival this summer. To receive advertising rates for non-Fringe shows throughout the year, email [email protected]. Hi, there 2020 CAPITAL FRINGE PRODUCERS We’re ready to promote your show Simply help us get to know what you’ll need and we’ll be in […]
As You Like It review. To Brave Spirits’ show, we say “We do”
I am pleased to report a rising company of young-ish actors doing first-rate work: a conceptually cohesive, intimate, spunky, charming staging of a pastoral Shakespeare comedy all too easy to screw up (I vividly recall a painful mess a dozen years ago by an area troupe with at least 50x their budget and TV stars […]
Review: Pinter’s Rep, superb performances of four Harold Pinter shorts
You might call Scena director Robert McNamara’s Pinter Rep an arranged marriage of sorts – four short plays by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, the British playwright of such full length plays as Betrayal and The Birthday Party. Known for his staccato dialogue and ambiguous plotlines, these four works, One for the Road, Mountain Language, […]
Review: P.Y.G. or the Misedumacation of Dorian Belle, a brilliantly funny satire on race relations
P.Y.G. or the Misedumacation of Dorian Belle follows Blacky Blackerson, a.k.a. Black, (Seth Hill) and Alexand Da Great (Gary L. Perkins III) who are the Petty Young Goons (P.Y.G.), a Black rap duo straight from Chicago. They agree to take part in a reality show to help Dorian Belle (Simon Kiser), a White Canadian pop […]
Review: Ghost-Writer at Quotidian Theatre
I admit, Michael Hollinger’s tight, 90-minute Ghost-Writer, now being presented by Quotidian Theatre Company, snuck up on me. It may seem to tip its hat pretty early, as titles go, but you’ll find there is more to this witty and surprising three-character play than its title reveals. What you should know going in is this: […]
Roz White on Black Pearl Sings! and the songs of the Gullah people
When she was a little girl, up until about the time she was 10 years old, Roz White visited her great grandmother in South Carolina every summer and saw first-hand the craftsmanship of the Gullah people and the beauty of the land. Those memories are one of the first things that attracted her to Frank […]
Mosaic Theater announces the eight plays for season five, 2019/2020
Mosaic Theater will dedicate its fifth season to the stories of men and women who come to political awareness, and the consequences of that awareness. The company’s eight-production 2019-2020 season begins with Lynn Nottage’s scabrous tragi-comedy Fabulation and culminates with a three-part world premiere about the murder of Black teenager Emmet Till. (The productions) “hurtle […]
Review: Mariinsky Ballet’s Le Corsaire, a high-flying springtime treat
Out of all the ballets in the classical cannon, Le Corsaire possesses one of the thinnest and most nonsensical plot lines around, but who cares. Lovers of classical dance have been flocking to this ballet for more than 150 years for the high-flying choreography and the Mariinsky Ballet’s production, at the Kennedy Center through Sunday, […]
Review: Play Date from Best Medicine Rep
We hear the sound of children in the front room through baby monitors, while we watch their parents carry on with all kinds of shenanigans in John Morogiello’s comedy Play Date. Kira Burri and Evan Crump play the hosting couple who have everything going for them – at least on the surface. He’s a successful […]