Washington, DC, is one of the few cities in the country where it’s not uncommon for large groups of people to come together to spend two hours deep in conversation about the constitution and its relevance to the modern world on a Friday night. Rarely, however, are these prosaic gatherings of politicos and pundits anywhere […]
Archives for September 2019
“I’m Not Interested in More Allies. I Need Advocates.” A conversation with Michael J. Bobbitt and Raymond O. Caldwell
What is it like for leaders of Color to work in White theatres? This Howlround Theatre Commons interview is between two well-known Washington area leaders: Michael J. Bobbitt, former Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre MTC, now Artistic Director of New Repertory Theatre in Boston, and director Raymond O. Caldwell, Artistic Director of Theater Alliance. ———————- […]
Review: La Vida es Sueño / Life is a Dream at GALA Hispanic Theatre
Never underestimate the power of a classic to communicate across time, cultures, and language in new and urgent messaging. We have Producing Artistic Director Hugo Medrano, the longest serving Artistic Director of a company in Washington’s now crowded field of professional theatres, to thank for bringing us this work from Spain’s Golden Age. He directs […]
Review: Love Sick, Theater J’s seductive musical
In its best moments Love Sick—the opening show of Theater J’s 2019-20 season in its newly renovated space—is a brilliantly woven tapestry of competing forms. The music, written by Ofra Daniel and Lior Ben-Hur, blends mellifluent middle-eastern melodies with the plucky refrains of modern musical comedy. Daniel’s script, adapted from the Hebrew bible’s Song of […]
Review: 1 Henry IV at Folger Theatre. Gero is a marvelous Falstaff, but it’s the King’s play
Henry IV, Part 1 is the best of the Shakespearean histories, because it is a redemption story — not of Prince Hal (Avery Whitted), who rose from his Eastcheap debauchery to become England’s greatest king, but of his father, the feral Henry IV (Peter Crook), who, in learning to forgive his son, saved his own […]
Review: The Smuggler, Solas Nua’s instant hit at Allegory, has sold out. Extend it, please!
It is possible for a good solo show to deliver some of the greatest magic in theater. In Solas Nua’s innovative production of The Smuggler, actor and artistic director Rex Daugherty captivates the audience with 75 minutes of Irish-brogued yarns, clever wordplay, and mixology. It’s a gripping, one-man tragic tale, delivered in a remarkable 9,000 […]
It took Stephawn Stephens more than 15 years to get Jacquelyn Hawkins on stage. Now she’s singing up a storm in A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn
“At Last.” Etta James. If reading those words starts the soulful 1960’s hit playing in your head, then you will understand the supreme confidence director Stephawn P. Stephens had in handing the song to Jacquelyn Hawkins, the one performer, among his seasoned cast, making her stage debut in A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn at […]
Review: Doubt: A Parable. Sarah Marshall leads Studio’s powerful production of Shanley’s heartbreaking play
The titular doubt in John Patrick Shanley’s classic play, now being given a rigorous yet nuanced treatment at Studio Theatre, is not about whether the intense, charismatic Father Brendan Flynn (the intense, charismatic Christian Conn) is guilty of the ghastly crime which Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Sarah Marshall) accuses him of committing. It is not even […]
Review: Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins at Rep Stage
Rep Stage’s gracious production of Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins makes you miss many things. Piano players in restaurants and cocktail lounges. Songs that make you shiver with ache, like “Violets for Your Furs.” Day dresses. Velvet hats and matching gloves. Most of all, kindness. The relationship between […]
D.C.’s newest Artistic Director, Karin Rosnizeck, launches ExPats Theatre with Fringe hit Surfacing
“It’s so good and so timely, I couldn’t let go of it. I knew if I didn’t mount it right after the Fringe experience, the danger of not coming back to it would have been very real. So it was now or never.” That was Karin Rosnizeck, a well known D.C. area actor, talking about […]
Review: Butterfly takes wing. Timothy Nelson has rescued Puccini’s most famous opera
Every age gets to reassess the value of a work of art relative to its present times, and not just aesthetically but politically. Never more so than today. Sometimes in our society’s self-congratulating political correctness this comes on with a vengeance; a work gets excoriated, bashed in, and thrown on the artistic ash heap. But […]
Opening day of The REACH at The Kennedy Center
Under a bright, perfect-weather-for-DC day, crowds, volunteers, donors and celebs gathered to celebrate a new addition to a Washington landmark. The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts’ The REACH opened on September 7th to the public with a 16 day festival that includes music, arts education sessions, dance classes, and the Kennedy Center’s most […]