All hail Ma Rainey. The real-life Mother of the Blues gets star power treatment of such high wattage it can scarcely be measured. Peerless acting, a tight ensemble, cinematography burnished to a warm, heraldic bronze, class-act direction, music that heals the hunger inside and costumes that fit the characters like kidskin gloves all work together […]
About Jayne Blanchard
Review: What the Constitution Means to Me, streaming on Amazon Prime “exuberant, angry, proud and patriotic”
You know things are dire during Corona Times when you find yourself sobbing over a piece of parchment—aka The Constitution of the United States. What’s next? Rending my garments over the Bill of Rights? That’s the effect Heidi Schreck’s exuberant, angry, proud and patriotic play, What the Constitution Means to Me, has on a person. […]
New Black theatre company, Two Strikes Theatre Collective, opens with Brown Sugar Bake-off play fest
“I’m speaking.”–Kamala Harris to Mike Pence at the Vice Presidential Debate. That simple, emphatic statement could serve as the rallying cry for the new theater company, Two Strikes Theatre Collective, founded in the midst of COVID19 and a summer of racial violence that continues to scorch-earth America’s soul. Two Strikes Theatre Collective is an artistic […]
The Boys in the Band Netflix review: “vivid and scorching”
Mart Crowley’s 1968 Off Broadway play The Boys in the Band was provocative and trailblazing in its knives-out portrayal of a group of gay friends celebrating a birthday in the West Village that is crashed by the straight college roommate of one of the gang. A play about a group of gay men doesn’t seem […]
Review: Telephonic Literary Union’s Human Resources. One help line you’ll be happy you called
Usually, the phone tree process for any corporate call-in help line is either migraine-inducing or so frustrating you find yourself spewing rancid obscenities at the robotic prompts until your throat gets raw. With the Telephonic Literary Union’s Human Resources, getting lost in a phone tree is a new-found pleasure. The first offering of Woolly Mammoth’s […]
Review: The Humans, streamed. Olney cast excels in closeup of Stephen Karam’s American family
Public health officials are recommending Zoom Thanksgiving festivities this year, but you can celebrate early with a boisterous and bittersweet sit-down with the Blake family, the proud and careworn family in Stephen Karam’s play The Humans. The Humans was in rehearsal at Olney Theatre Company when the Coronavirus upended the theater industry, among many others. […]
Raised-consciousness. Theatres are working on it. Audiences can too, Theater J says with its course
Many view the Coronavirus pandemic as The Great Pause, where we hunker down and muddle through, hoping we return to normalcy some time in the near future with at least some of our marbles intact. Theater J, on the other hand, views Corona Time as space; space to think, reflect, challenge ourselves and grow. Rather […]
Hamilton, one of the most dazzling leaps from stage to screen ever
Health experts say to avoid crowds and large gatherings this holiday weekend and during the current COVID-19 surge. As if you needed another reason to stay inside and celebrate the red, white and blue by watching (and re-watching) the filmed version of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blood-drumming, Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 musical about Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), the […]
Artists persist: Playwright Bob Bartlett writes Starbucks romance MIXTAPE for Facebook audiences
I always root for romance, even in plague times. Maybe that’s why I was completely drawn in by THE MIXTAPE, local playwright and Bowie State professor Bob Bartlett’s “connection during coronavirus” play that unfolds entirely through a series of Facebook posts and in his readers’ imaginations. Bartlett, who memorably set his play, The Accident Bear, […]
Jayne Blanchard: Confessions of a theatre critic
Every day, I navigate to DC Theatre Scene’s guide, the New York Times and the Washington Post websites and read up on all the creative and upbeat ways people are feeding their theater jones. I am not one of them. By and large, I am a dismal failure at watching theater on a screen—be it […]
Review: Where We Stand, Baltimore Center Stage’s virtual production
Viewing a live performance of a play on an iPad is a new experience for me in these pandemic times and, unlike working from home, is something I hope I never have to get used to. As a lifelong theatergoer, I miss the assembly, the community, the coming together of live theater. Watching Donnetta Lavinia […]
Review: Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains at Everyman Theatre
Ain’t no mountain high enough to throw shade on Jacqueline “Jackie” Marie Butler (the incandescent, triple threat Felicia Curry), the heroine of Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ world premiere play Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains, the third and final (wah!) installment of Jennings’ coming of age trilogy. The play is the first in Everyman Theatre’s […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.