Confession time: When I fell in love with theatre, I really fell for Cyrano, Roxanne, Christian and their heady love triangle. And the swashbuckling. And the language. Edmond Rostand’s heroic and poetic swordsman with the prominent nose practically leapt off the page for me and my imagination as a high school student. My heart skipped […]
Review: Huckleberry Finn’s Big River at Adventure Theatre MTC
Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo Park has put runaways Huck and Jim back on a raft down the mighty Missisippi in a revamped version of the musical Big River, itself based on Mark Twain’s tale. This time, Huckleberry Finn’s Big River is for today’s young audiences. Huckleberry Finn is one of the most challenged […]
Gulf View Drive review at Washington Stage Guild. Masterful.
For Washington Stage Guild patrons, the downtown theatre company’s current production offers a bit of closure. After introducing DC audiences to a complicated young couple in Last Train to Nibroc in 2017, the Guild presented the follow up play See Rock City last year. Now May and Raleigh return for the Nibroc Trilogy’s final chapter, […]
Review: Little Shop of Horrors. Megan Hilty and cast give smashing performances
I’ll bet my mutant Venus fly trap you know this show. Little Shop of Horrors took off-Broadway by storm in the 1980s, the talented team of book writer and lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken took a “Z” grade Roger Corman science fiction film and transformed it into one of the most successful little musicals […]
Review: Poe musical Nevermore, chamber sized, is still evocative
How fitting that Creative Cauldron has chosen to revive an early success that fits perfectly with the darker aspects of the Halloween season. That brooding poet and spinner of fantastic tales Edgar Allan Poe is back, taking center stage in the chamber musical Nevermore.
Review: Labour of Love, a witty British brew of politics and romance
A comedy that mingles romance with politics and it’s not about porn stars and reality show moguls? Please let it be a breath of fresh air, I plea to the theatre gods, as I take my seat for Labour of Love at Olney Theatre Center.
Review: Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Toby’s Dinner Theatre is THE place and its joint is jumping thanks to the infectious melodies of the late, great Mr. Thomas Waller, a.k.a Fats Waller. The show is Ain’t Misbehavin’, one of the most successful musical revues of the last century, and Fats would surely tip his derby to the performers now wailing and […]
Review: Sweeney Todd at Rep Stage
The lean, black box staging of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Joseph W. Ritsch packs a more muted wallop than other versions I have seen but is highlighted by a cast of eight gifted singing actors.
Review: The Color Purple’s ‘Push da Button’ a showstopper at The Kennedy Center
Trimmed up and in glorious voice on all accounts, the national tour of The Color Purple has moved into the Eisenhower Theatre at the Kennedy Center. And Hamilton, packing them in next door in the Opera House, had better be warned. The Color Purple might blow the roof off of the place.
Review: Legrand musical Amour
Perhaps you have never heard of Amour, the musical with a score by the prolific French composer Michel Legrand. Perhaps it was champagne when the masses wanted beer back in 2002 when it opened on Broadway – or the lure of The Producers and Thoroughly Modern Millie (which won the Tony for Best Musical that year.) Where […]
Review: BLOWIN’ OFF STEAM at Capital Fringe
Are steam rooms still a ‘thing?’ I ask because I have only encountered them in movies, television shows, and a very interesting production of Verdi’s Rigoletto many years ago. As anyone who has met me can tell by my physique, I also do not frequent urban health clubs or fancy gyms, which is where one […]
Review: Hawaii Nei at Capital Fringe
Under the title Hawaii Nei, author Paul Handy has crafted two plays, both set in the picturesque Pacific islands of Hawaii. One is a revival of sorts; the other is a new companion piece. The new play which opens the dual bill offers a romantic and compelling glimpse at an unusual meeting which grows into […]