If Silent Sky is an example of what has led Lauren Gunderson to be (as the program for the production states) the “most produced living playwright in America,” it is easy to understand why she would be such. Human beings are hard-wired to consume sweet things. And Silent Sky is a masterwork of a confection. […]
Archives for January 2020
Review: From World Stages, Grey Rock. Against all odds, a Palestinian builds a rocket to the moon
America “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth,” said John Kennedy, in whose building this astonishing play is briefly being produced. “This is a new Ocean, and I believe the United States must sail upon it.” […]
Dance Review: National Ballet of Canada’s opulent production of The Sleeping Beauty blends extravagant visuals with subtle artistry
Washington balletgoers rarely get to see the National Ballet of Canada so it is a special treat when this extraordinary company performs at the Kennedy Center, as it is now through Sunday, February 2. Following a mixed repertoire earlier this week, the troupe kicked off the first of five performances of its opulent Sleeping Beauty […]
Dance review: The National Ballet of Canada Offers a Contemporary Choreographic Bouquet
The National Ballet of Canada presented an exotic bouquet of contemporary choreography Tuesday by William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, and Alexei Ratmansky. The works, all but one performed to music from a live orchestra conducted by music director David Briskin, displayed a superbly prepared company brimming with energy and artistic ambition. The opener, Forsythe’s “The Vertiginous […]
Review: Spring Awakening at Round House Theatre, sex, rock and musical
Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical Spring Awakening, which opened on Broadway in 2006, was a real-life Cinderella story for its creators and young cast. Despite unconventional origins—a storyline based on an oft-banned 1891 German play about sexually repressed teenagers, combined with an eclectic folk-rock score—the sleeper hit went on to win 8 Tony Awards […]
Rep Stage becomes the first company to announce its 2020-2021 season
Love and death, murder and ghosts will raise their occasionally ugly but dramatically satisfying heads in Rep Stage’s 2020-2021 four-play season, the company announced Friday. The Rep Stage season kicks off with Falsettos, the William Finn-James Lapine collaboration which focuses on a family reformed as the father confronts his true sexual orientation in the age […]
Review: Bloomsday at Washington Stage Guild
Are there any two more painful and provocative words in the English language than “what if”? Steven Dietz’s Bloomsday is a sensitive time-bending romance looking at one consequential day when a 20-year-old American tourist meets an Irish lass in Dublin in this Washington Stage Guild area premiere Both are haunted over the next 35 years […]
Review: Be Here Now at Everyman Theatre. Seizures, sanity and the smell of spring
What if happiness was not only a choice, but a side effect? That’s the intriguing premise of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s play Be Here Now, which she also directs with depth and quirky humor at Everyman Theatre in a production that brightens the gloom and gray of midwinter with a joyful reminder to live in the […]
The Simon & Garfunkel Story. Fitting for our times, ‘The Sound of Silence’ and other S&G hits coming soon to DC.
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel met in elementary school back in the ’50s, and had their first taste of musical success as teens, performing as the duo, Tom & Jerry. They were signed to their first recording contact in 1963, singing folk and utilizing their real names—Simon & Garfunkel. Both have said they never imagined […]
Review: RS/24 at Anacostia Playhouse, a slow groove
RS24 feels as though it takes place in Washington, DC in an era when the city was still known as Chocolate City and Egyptian Musk incense wafted through every record store and head shop in the city. The main character has a reverence for “vintage” music – think Donny Hathaway, Earth, Wind and Fire, Phyllis […]
Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns at Arena Stage, a harrowing Afghan drama
Carey Perloff’s opening scene of the staged adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s shattering novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, moves with breathtaking beauty. Two women in one direction and a man in another pull two rug runners slowly passing across the stage in opposite directions; on these rugs are placed their few chief belongings, cultural artifacts recognizably […]
Review: Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World from Mosaic Theater, a delightful romcom
Beneath differing customs and languages, are people basically the same? Playwright Yussef El Guindi makes a strong case with his unique and endearing romantic comedy Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World. After a chance meeting, a free spirited American waitress and an Egyptian immigrant cab driver forge their own path together, while navigating […]
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