No, this isn’t just A Christmas Carol with an accent; it is a riff on the familiar Dickens structure, transported to the equally familiar stage world of an old Irish bar. The ghosts and visitations are traded for recriminations and memories; the supreme miser Scrooge for the grumpy old owner David; the near-penniless Cratchit for […]
About Brett Abelman
Review: Honey, the shortest show in town
Rare is the show that would be better if it were significantly longer. At a mere thirty-ish minutes, Nameless Theater’s Honey comes out to nearly a dollar a minute for the ticket price. And while those thirty minutes take place in a unique location – the show is performed entirely within one of the rooms […]
Nora Achrati an inspired choice as Narrator in The Pavilion at Hub Theatre (review)
Craig Wright’s The Pavilion is a modern classic because it wades through a starlit sentimentality on its way to a clear-eyed lesson. As a tale about a man trying to reunite with his lost love at a 20-year high school reunion, staged simply with just three actors and a wooden railing, you’ll expect a soppy […]
Review: Brooklyn the Musical from Monumental Theatre
Essentially Rent, but half as long and without everything that makes Rent unlikeable to modern sensibilities. Monumental Theatre Company’s top-notch production of Brooklyn the Musical, which ran for a few months on Broadway a decade ago, offers plenty of pleasures for the eyes and ears despite a lackluster underlying story.
A Burial Place shows The Wheel has a growing presence in DC (review)
I’m going to spoil one of the twists in A Burial Place for you. It comes about 25 minutes into this 100-minute production of A Burial Place, and sadly those first minutes before learning the twist are kind of, well, boring. Whether this is a flaw in Owen Panettieri’s generally keen script, or a lack […]
La Foto (A Selfie Affair) at GALA Hispanic Theatre (review)
The Internet, cell phones, and photoshopping are not only for the young, and the narcissism they engender is not only the provenance of millennials. The most refreshing thing about Gustavo Ott’s La Foto: A Selfie Affair is that the subjects of both the titular snapshot and the social media-age fallout that follows it are grown […]
New comedy theatre debuts with The Consul, The Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart (review)
The debut production of Best Medicine Rep, a new theater company dedicated to comedy, is not really a comedy. The Consul, The Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart, written by artistic director John Morogiello, is more of an historical drama with comedic elements and a light heart about the serious issues it raises. The play supports its […]
Crazy for You review. Gershwin. Tap. Who can ask for anything more?
The sentiment expressed in the jaunty tune “Slap That Bass” tells us why Signature Theatre has chosen to stage Crazy For You: “the world is a mess with politics and taxes and people grinding axes… so slap that bass and let that be your tonic.” This vivacious production is certainly good medicine for a low […]
Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls at Keegan Theatre (review)
A look back at the past that contains a look back at the distant past, Top Girls comes across as almost more of a recently-written period play than the 1982 piece that it is. That is a credit to playwright Caryl Churchill’s balanced eye, which captures the tone of the era in which she wrote […]
A spare yet lyrical Electra from 4615 Theatre Company (review)
“A lot with a little” encapsulates 4615 Theatre Company’s jewel-box production of Sophocles’ Electra. British dynamo Nick Payne’s clean, contemporary translation of the classical revenge-and-reunion drama is a perfect fit for director Stevie Zimmerman’s approach. A few subtle lighting cues, judicious use of a Mediterranean percussion soundtrack, and a small platform with a basin of […]
The Smartest Girl in the World
The best thing about The Smartest Girl in the World is that it is not actually about how smart the titular girl is, but about how much she learns from her brother, and how much her brother learns from her. At its core, Miriam Gonzales’ breezy tale is about siblings who move from a rose-colored […]
Pinter’s The Lover and The Collection review
Spiraling in, and spiraling out: two opposing journeys are on offer in a pair of hour long Pinter plays, directed by Shakespeare Theatre’s Artisic Director, Michael Kahn. The Lover and The Collection may well have been pet projects for the seasoned director, as there is a game spirit evident that enlivens these thorny dramas and makes […]