Any creative way that local companies find to bring us original theater feels like a lifeline these days, and We Happy Few’s genteel caper, Loveday Brooke in ‘The Mystery of the Drawn Daggers’, is no exception. Performed in the style of an old-fashioned radio play, the 45-minute mystery puts us in the hands of Loveday […]
About Missy Frederick
Review: Monumental’s Head Over Heels. Fresh and fun.
A 16th century queer romance that’s a jukebox musical set to the hits of The Go-Gos? It’s hard not to think “train wreck potential” when you hear the synopsis of Head Over Heels, the musical Monumental Theatre Company is tackling right now. It’s a pleasure to learn that Head Over Heels is actually pretty delightful. […]
Review: The 39 Steps from Constellation Theatre
As Constellation Theatre Company wraps up its performance of The 39 Steps each night, one thing’s for certain: the lighting designer deserves his own curtain call. Managing Director A.J. Guban handled the scenic and lighting design for Constellation’s latest romp, a parody homage to Alfred Hitchcock, and finds countless ways to add to the production’s […]
Review: Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop at NextStop Theatre
When a play about Martin Luther King, Jr. is set at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on the evening of April 3, 1968, it’s easy to assume that you know where the play is going. But The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall and being staged by NextStop Theatre Company, still has a few tricks up its sleeve. […]
Review: The Snow Queen from Synetic Theater. Move over Frozen!
It’s a savvy move on the part of Synetic Theater to stage a production of The Snow Queen right as children and tweens everywhere are besotted with the prospect of “Frozen 2” opening in theaters. No doubt parents may actually be able to get their children to the theater with the tantalizing prospect of seeing […]
Review: White Pearl, a blistering satire on racism in the skin care industry
In White Pearl, playwright Anchuli Felicia King quickly throws the audience into a keenly contemporary conflict: a viral social media PR crisis, with a company accused of racism. [adsanity_rotating align=”aligncenter” time=”10″ group_id=”1455″ /] Inspired by an actual 2016 controversy that played out in Thailand, the blistering satire White Pearl (making its U.S. premiere at Studio Theatre) […]
Review: Sea from Scena Theatre
Jon Fosse’s Sea is a tricky play to connect with. Its inhabitants seem at times to be on a boat (“I am the Shipmaster!” one insists, over and over), but it’s clear early on that the setting’s a bit more existential than that. The play’s notes describe the journey as a “modern-day Hades” but purgatory […]
Review: Footloose and fun at The Kennedy Center
High school musicals are hot right now, with Broadway hosting everything from the biting Mean Girls to the heart-warming The Prom to the phenomenon Dear Evan Hansen to the zany Be More Chill in the past few months alone. So it’s not exactly surprising that someone thought it was time to bring back Footloose, the […]
Review: A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn’s singers raise the roof in this tribute revue
Yvette Spears is one of those performers who sings with her whole body and soul. Medleys start deep in her throat and nearly consume her as she belts out the blues, whether she’s scolding her way through “That Ain’t Right” or tackling Dinah Washington’s desperately plaintive “This Bitter Earth.” The blues take center stage during […]
Review: Be More Chill from Monumental Theatre Company
Broadway musicals’ 11 o’clock numbers are often defiant, triumphant character studies or orchestra-swelling realizations of love — think “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy or “She Used to Be Mine” from Waitress. Meanwhile, the one in Be More Chill happens…when a lonely high school stoner is desperately hiding in the bathroom at a house party. And let’s […]
Capital Fringe review: 33 1/3 Chorus Girls
In 33 1/3 Chorus Girls, seven comedic sketches are linked by the loose thread of “show business.” A klutzy stand-up comedienne tells academic jokes about Harry Potter, surrounded by hecklers. Juliet tries to rewrite her own story in “Romeo and Juliet.” The list continues. 33 1/3 Chorus Girls leans meta at times, breaking the fourth […]
Fringe review: We’re All Going to Fucking Die!
It’s probably safe to say that We’re All Going to Fucking Die! is the only Fringe show where you stand a chance at taking home a prostate massager. Despite the cheekily morbid title, this brainchild of Twanna A. Hines, a sexual and reproductive health educator, is mostly about embracing pleasure while we’re actually here on […]
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