When Bryan Mercado, then 10, was first told he had been signed up for a playwriting workshop after school with Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT), a D.C.-based arts education nonprofit and professional theater, he was less than thrilled. “I just wanted to go outside and play with my friends after school,” he said, bemused at his […]
About Meaghan Hannan Davant
In game show American Dreams, hopeful immigrants vie for one golden ticket to American citizenship
Working Theater’s production of American Dreams, hosted in our area by Round House Theatre, is a zany, interactive “game show” sponsored by a fictitious arm of the American government (combining pharmaceuticals, transportation and immigration), where the grand prize is the ultimate golden ticket – citizenship in the “greatest nation on earth!” That’s right folks, three […]
Joy Zinoman, ever the innovator, takes acting to a higher level via Zoom curriculum
When Studio Theatre’s acting conservatory parted ways with its’ eponymous Studio Theatre more than a year ago, the split was “existential,” according to conservatory Co-Director Joy Zinoman. Zinoman, who founded both the conservatory in the mid-1970’s, and the theatre several years later in 1978, served as the theatre’s Artistic Director for more than 30 years […]
Review: Swing musical Bandstand showcases its young cast at the National this week
Bandstand, the Tony Award-winning swing style musical is making a brief stop at The National Theatre. A story of five World War II veterans trying to rebuild their lives through music, for some in Tuesday night’s opening audience the story of the struggles of homecoming was a familiar one; forty military survivors were there, through […]
Review: Gun & Powder, a groundbreaking new musical debuts at Signature Theatre
If you love groundbreaking musical theater, I suggest you navigate away from this page for just a few seconds to snap up tickets to Signature Theatre’s Gun & Powder while you still can. (But please come back). The world premiere musical, with book and lyrics by Angelica Chéri and music by Ross Baum, is hands-down […]
Review: Spring Awakening at Round House Theatre, sex, rock and musical
Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s musical Spring Awakening, which opened on Broadway in 2006, was a real-life Cinderella story for its creators and young cast. Despite unconventional origins—a storyline based on an oft-banned 1891 German play about sexually repressed teenagers, combined with an eclectic folk-rock score—the sleeper hit went on to win 8 Tony Awards […]
Review: An Irish Carol at Keegan Theatre
No holiday season would be complete without a viewing of Charles Dickens’ 176-year-old classic, A Christmas Carol. And while my heart will forever hold true to the George C. Scott movie-version of my youth, audiences around the world will suffer no shortage of options: from Scrooge McDuck, to Bill Murray, to a mostly-Muppet cast, there […]
Review: Lauren Gunderson’s Peter Pan and Wendy, a sensational reimagining for a new generation
In truth, I never before thought of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan as a particularly masculine, or anti-feminist, story. Most of us have warm recollections of the far-off Neverland, reached only by fairy dust-fueled-flight and teeming with pirates, fairies, mermaids and princesses. Yet, as with many childhood memories revisited in adulthood, the classic tale isn’t as […]
The gloves are off in Second City’s She the People: The Resistance Continues!
For those who were lucky enough to catch Second City’s original sketch comedy She the People when it rolled through town last December, you might be wondering how the all-female cast of comedians could hope to top itself. Fear not: in its return to Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the famed Chicago comedy troupe’s She the People: […]
Review: Disney’s Newsies, the youth-revolt inspired musical
Newsies is a frolicking, joyous musical with a healthy dose of “kid power:” the perfect recipe for families this holiday season. Based on the original Disney film and drawing from the real-life “Newsboy Strike” of 1899 in New York City’s 5 boroughs, the musical follows the fictional ringleader of the newsboy rebellion, Jack Kelly (Daniel […]
Review: Signature’s A Chorus Line, with new choreography, still dazzles
A Chorus Line is known as one of the most pared-down, starkly intimate “song-and-dance shows” in the Broadway canon. On a barren stage—devoid of any scenery or set but for a wall of floor to ceiling mirrors to evoke a dance studio—a nervous gaggle of young dancers lines up, shoulder to shoulder (here, along a […]
Review: Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill jarringly dark, dystopic visions
For those unfamiliar with the work of British playwright Caryl Churchill, Signature Theatre’s production of Escaped Alone (2016) may come as a bit of a shock. Skillfully directed by well-loved local actress Holly Twyford, Escaped Alone opens on a picturesque, yet unfussy, backyard garden. Three gracefully aging English women (Catherine Flye, Helen Hedman and Brigid […]