An easy rapport with the audience, gentle-ribbing included, and feats of mentalism that would surprise even the biggest skeptic – these are just a few of my take-aways from Brian Curry’s entertaining and wholly engaging show, The Good Liar. Great for a date night or even a family outing, The Good Liar pulls back the […]
Archives for December 2019
Review of the live streamed SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!
Over the course of its 20-year run, Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants has been blamed for everything from causing ADD to promoting violence. Despite these criticisms, the show has survived to earn over $13 billion dollars across its many iterations of books, movies, video games, and even roller coasters. Given the franchise’s reach, a Broadway musical […]
Review: Lauren Gunderson’s Peter Pan and Wendy, a sensational reimagining for a new generation
In truth, I never before thought of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan as a particularly masculine, or anti-feminist, story. Most of us have warm recollections of the far-off Neverland, reached only by fairy dust-fueled-flight and teeming with pirates, fairies, mermaids and princesses. Yet, as with many childhood memories revisited in adulthood, the classic tale isn’t as […]
Review: Fiddler on the Roof National Tour
In the 1980s, my parents fled the Soviet Union to begin new lives in the United States. Though they spent years learning English and acclimating to American culture, their identities remained steeped in their Jewish-Soviet traditions. To this day, my mother always wears a scarlet string to ward off the evil eye, and my father […]
Complete Guide to Holiday shows on and off Broadway
This holiday season in New York means at least ten Christmas Carols, including one this year on Broadway, and 15 Nutcracker Suites. Holiday shows in the city range from family fare to offbeat satires and even off-color burlesque, many of which return year after year. But any guide must begin with the two oldest and […]
Review: Squeakers & Mr. Gumdrop, a delightful Shark-approved holiday romp for toddlers
It was a type of morning that many parents of small children are familiar with: a morning full of questions. The Shark (my ever-moving, ever-hunting, and ever-curious almost-3 year old) was delivering lots of “What is that person doing?” and, of course, many versions of “Why?” but the most pressing questions last Saturday morning were […]
DCTS holiday giveaway: two Goldstar $50 gift certificates. Closes Dec 20
Update: Our winners have been chosen. This giveaway is closed. In the spirit of our end of year fundraising, Goldstar has donated two $50 Goldstar gift certificates for readers of DC Theatre Scene. These are good for any already discounted tickets listed on Goldstar and can be redeemed at any time. Two lucky winners will […]
Review: Dear Jack, Dear Louise at Arena Stage
When Army Captain Jack Ludwig (Jake Epstein) first speaks his full name early on in playwright Ken Ludwig’s new dramedy Dear Jack, Dear Louise, audiences probably realize that this World War II romance is going to end with wedding bells. But the play, based on the correspondence of Ludwig’s parents-to-be, crackles with humor and real […]
Review: The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers
We few; we happy few. Six performances times sixteen seats comes to fewer than 100 people who will see The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers, which is a very early one-act by Tennessee Williams that, until recently, had never been produced. Spooky Action Theater is mounting the show away from their usual space […]
Review: Murder on the Orient Express at Everyman Theatre
Nix the candy canes, the carols, and the seasonal folderol. This year, get into the holiday spirit with a juicy murder. We need a little Christie, right this very minute. Everyman Theatre fulfills these sinister holiday wishes with a bang-up, très chic production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Washington favorite […]
Review: Paul Morella in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas
Gifted actor and storyteller Paul Morella has once again donned the coattails and top hat of Charles Dickens to usher us into the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at Olney Theatre Center. The lobby is decorated to the hilt with holiday lights, trestles of garland winding along banisters and colorful displays of holiday cheer. Morella is right […]
Review: Men on Boats at Baltimore Center Stage
No men. No boats. No man-splaining. That’s part of the concept of the high-energy and low testosterone of Jaclyn Backhaus’ adventure saga, Men on Boats. All the roles in John Wesley Powell’s expedition through the Grand Canyon by way of the Colorado River (celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2019) are played by women and non-binary […]