The decade known as The Sixties contained so may different mini-eras it’s a wonder that those of us who lived through it didn’t all become split personalities. At times näive, hedonistic and fiercely political yet ignorant of events beyond the soda fountain, it’s the time in America when even the teenagers grew up. Beehive suggests the […]
Capital Fringe review: Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens
Plastic, leather, and love all reign supreme with Up In Your Face’s production of Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens. Not familiar with the show? In 1995, this wildly campy space musical/murder mystery/rock opera was the blitzkrieg hit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Lucky me, I saw it in Scotland that year, the first week […]
Capital Fringe review: Hatpin Panic
With its clever script by playwright Iris Dauteman, Hatpin Panic weaves a terrific Mobius strip of a largely unknown scrap of history from America’s turn of the century women’s suffrage movement, and joins it with history still in the making. It’s superb, due not only to the script, but to the fine direction by Jenny […]
Review: The Fantasticks gets some new tech, but it’s still the music you’ll remember
To celebrate their 10th year anniversary in Annapolis, MD, Infinity Theatre Company, has restaged their first show and created a new take on The Fantasticks for 21st century audiences. While inventive, the reason to see this 1960’s Jones & Schmidt musical now is the same reason that four decades of audiences flocked to the Sullivan […]
Review: The Ballad of Mu Lan at Imagination Stage
Imagination Stage tells the tale of China’s legendary warrior, Mu Lan, (Hua Mulan,) with humor and energy and introduces audiences to a delightful version of the performance style known as Peking opera. Touring productions of the China National Peking Opera Company have introduced the world to Peking opera’s beautiful music, glorious costumes and a formal, […]
Review: Pantheon from Happenstance Theater
Are you aware that most of the Greek and Roman gods can be found working in Brooklyn? It’s not much of a stretch: whether driving the Chariot of the Sun, ferrying the dead, or guarding the entrance to Hades, the gods have jobs, just like us. With Pantheon, Happenstance Theater takes this unlikely conceit and […]
Review: The Tarot Reading V, an easy prediction
It’s rare that, after finishing a review, I’m ready to see the show again. But then, The Tarot Reading changes with every performance, so it will never be the same. Two years ago, my first introduction to The Tarot Reading was one of surprise: thinking it would be a light comic evening of faux fortune […]
Review: A Comedy of Tenors, a grand slam-bang farce with a little Traviata on the side
A farce, a farce! My kingdom for a farce! Fortunately, you won’t have to pay such a high price for this one- though, it’s worth it. Ken Ludwig, acclaimed author of Lend Me A Tenor, revisits the over-the-top world of opera and artists in this splendid A Comedy of Tenors, which features some of the […]
Review: Pinter’s Rep, superb performances of four Harold Pinter shorts
You might call Scena director Robert McNamara’s Pinter Rep an arranged marriage of sorts – four short plays by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, the British playwright of such full length plays as Betrayal and The Birthday Party. Known for his staccato dialogue and ambiguous plotlines, these four works, One for the Road, Mountain Language, […]
Review: The Jewish Queen Lear, world premiere of Yiddish theatre classic
Yiddish theatre in New York around the turn of the century was vibrant: in the small Bowery theaters, Jews of all nationalities and branches of Judaism came to watch shows full of emotion and sorrow, joy and exuberance, all in the tongue common to European Jews: Yiddish. Theater J, with the first full production of […]
Review: Fun Home, well worth the trip to Baltimore Center Stage
A nonlinear remembrance of family and self, Fun Home was lauded as a groundbreaking piece when it opened on Broadway in 2015, winning the Tony for Best Musical that year. Based on Alison Bechdel’s extraordinary graphic novel of the same name, this autobiographical musical follows Bechdel in triplicate through the years: her ten year old self, […]
From U Street to the Cotton Club review. In Street jives and jams at Source
There’s one spot in DC where the glories of U Street’s “Black Broadway” are alive and well as The In Series performs From U Street to the Cotton Club at Source Theatre. Set in the attic of a fictional club singer named Grandma “Sassy” Lena, the evening is a tour (though by no means a straightforward history) […]
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