Irish author James Joyce unfairly gets a bad rap for being “too difficult” to read. His first draft of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was rejected with a note from the editor saying “I can’t print what I can’t understand.” Joyce’s last and most ambitious work, Finnegans Wake, is often said […]
Archives for December 2019
Review of Cats movie. When it comes to magic, starry cast can’t compete with ballerina Francesca Hayward
A brilliant musical can only be cheapened by a surfeit of screen effects and novelty casting. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is a mediocre musical, brilliantly packaged, and it benefits nicely from those cinematic bonuses. A diverting if bizarre family entertainment, it should have a respectable Christmas opening with a, um, long tail. Early trailers […]
Review: Black Nativity at Anacostia Playhouse
The message of the production of Black Nativity that is currently playing at Anacostia Playhouse is clearly stated in the words of the gospel composition by Edwin Hawkins: “Jesus Christ Is the Way.” During the second act (or more aptly, the testimony service portion) of this production one fervent celebrant testified: “Talking about religion will […]
Review: An Irish Carol at Keegan Theatre
No holiday season would be complete without a viewing of Charles Dickens’ 176-year-old classic, A Christmas Carol. And while my heart will forever hold true to the George C. Scott movie-version of my youth, audiences around the world will suffer no shortage of options: from Scrooge McDuck, to Bill Murray, to a mostly-Muppet cast, there […]
Review: The Magical Piñata
The Magical Piñata at Keegan Theatre is a fun-filled romp that fits the holiday season with lessons for all to treasure and enjoy. Karen Zacarías presents an incredibly rich story with text and lyrics set to playful music by Deborah Wicks LaPuma. When Danie Rodgriguez as a kid in the opening sequence complains about not […]
DC area theatre in 2019. Fun trivia we bet you don’t already know.
The Washington, DC area is one of the major theatre hubs in America. How did we do this year? As we have done for the past three years, we dove into our records for 2019 to see how robust our scene has been.
Review: The Magical Musical Holiday Step Show from Step Afrika! summons pure joy
“This is how I approach Blackness: It’s celebratory…It’s something that I don’t want to move away from, I want to move closer to.” E. Ethelbert Miller, Washington, DC-based poet activist The internationally renowned and celebrated Step Afrika!, specializes in stepping: “a percussive, highly-energetic art form..[in which] the body becomes an instrument, using footsteps, claps and […]
Off-Broadway Review: Steven Adly Guirgis’ Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
Wanda Wheels bristles when Mateo calls her “kind” in this sprawling, funny, foul-mouthed, messy, moving ensemble piece, Stephen Adly Guirgis’s first new play in New York since his Pulitzer Prize winning Between Riverside and Crazy five years ago. “Don’t pin a ‘kindness’ target on me,” Wanda says. “There’s a place for kindness. It’s not here.” […]
Review: Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce. Did you miss it? How sad for you.
Like it or not, the New Year is rapidly approaching, which means our minds will shortly be turning toward making resolutions and setting intentions for the decade to come. After seeing Taylor Mac’s irreverent seasonal spectacular, Holiday Sauce, I have a new motto—live in such a way that after you’re gone, your friends will create […]
Off-Broadway review: Samuel D. Hunter’s Greater Clements mines rich veins of deep sorrow
There’s a joke Maggie and her son Joe like to tell on their tours of the local mine in Samuel D. Hunter’s latest play: “Guy falls down into the mine. His boss yells at him, ‘did you break anything?’ Guy shouts back, “only rocks down here, sir, not much to break.” But as Greater Clements […]
Review: Come From Away at the Kennedy Center. Much needed catharsis
The husband and wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s sole theater credit a decade ago was a Toronto Fringe Festival breakout called My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Before that, they lived in New York, where Sankoff took acting classes and performed and Hein worked in a recording studio. Reading their resumes then, one […]
Review: Eureka Day, vaccinations’ controversy in Jonathan Spector’s whip smart, insightful comedy from Mosaic Theater
Is it possible for everyone to be right at the same time? How do we hold society together when people can’t agree on basic facts? Mosaic Theater Company’s whip-smart Eureka Day takes a darkly comic journey through present day disputes around vaccination, social justice, and internet disinformation. This painfully timely comedy/drama from playwright Jonathan Spector […]