Playing like variations on the theme of the ancient Greek play The Trojan Woman, Brave Spirits’ The Trojan Women Project faces head-on a number of issues ripped from the headlines and lifelines of today. Instead of the aftermath from the ancient war over Troy, the new battle in question is identified as the War on Women […]
Tina Fey’s Mean Girls world premiere (review)
Welcome to the jungle! No not the Serengeti plains where both wildebeest and ostrich have reason to fear the predatory lion. This is Chicago’s fictional North Shore High School where the creatures quaking in fear are students and the beast they fear is the lioness Regina George.
In the Heights at Olney Theatre Center (review)
In the Heights, now packing them in at Olney Theatre Center, has a visceral and emotional score coupled with a story of finding your home and your heart closer than expected. Behold the power of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s freshman effort – being followed next year by his Hamilton at the Kennedy Center. In the Heights is brought […]
Signature’s A Little Night Music – sophisticated, stylish and sexy (review)
Signature Theatre’s stunning production of this Sondheim gem is nothing short of a masterpiece. A Little Night Music is one of my personal favorites from the Stephen Sondheim canon. Set in Sweden, circa 1900, it examines the intertwining lives of several couples who explore their romantic plights. Sondheim’s score, it is no secret, was composed […]
The Originalist returns to Arena Stage (review)
All rise! Not so much for an associate Supreme Court Justice, but for Edward Gero, the man currently embodying the late Antonin Scalia in the remounted and revised production of The Originalist at Arena Stage.
Pursuing happiness in The Happiest Place on Earth, review
Ah, the land of dreams, whimsy, and mouse ears! Main Street, USA, the Matterhorn ride, and Tom Sawyer’s Island. All these are part of a mecca for family entertainment nestled in sunny Anaheim, California. I could only be talking about Disneyland, the original imagineered theme park where children can eat breakfast with Cinderella, and grown-ups […]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Toby’s (review)
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast may claim to be the “tale as old as time” but it has nothing on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. As Tim Rice’s accessible lyrics state, this through-sung musical takes place “way, way back many centuries ago, not long after the Bible began,” and comes from us from the […]
An SNL-style Godspell from Infinity Theatre (review)
It is incredible that no one’s thought of pairing Godspell with the structure of “Saturday Night Live” before. I am sure I have just turned off a purist or two who might think such a combination is either blasphemous or just too darned wacky. But stay tuned, and I will tell you why it’s not.
Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure (review)
Eclectic and electric, Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure is a wild and wondrous ride through Lewis Carroll’s world of imagination but this time with a heavy beat, some killer rock guitars and enough imagination to spare some for Willy Wonka.
Urinetown The Musical at NextStop Theatre Company (review)
Putting together a satirical musical with nods at classic musicals (Annie, Les Miserables), the works of Brecht and Weill (The Threepenny Opera), and even Fringe theatre and launching it in NYC could be considered risky at best. Such a show might not appeal to the general public, and in terms of New York’s Broadway theatre, […]
New musical Kaleidoscope gets stunning debut with Florence Lacey in the lead (review)
I wept during the musical Kaleidoscope. Quietly, but involuntarily, tears welled up and just started flowing. What a time not to have a tissue or handkerchief handy. I cried for people I have lost, my mother in particular, but others, too. For family and friends I saw decline due to their health.
Peter and the Starcatcher well worth catching at MET (review)
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, den mothers, scoutmasters, youth leaders – okay, anyone who oversees children, please follow directions: Go to the website Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) and order tickets for all the children in your life so they can catch the magical and imaginative Peter and the Starcatcher. But better be quick. The show closes May […]