Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin’s choice of directorial debut wasn’t a stretch. Godwin’s newly minted tenure at STC begins with a vivid and zesty restaging of his recently produced Timon of Athens, a cluttered morality play in original form which he’s cleverly smoothed over and corseted up into a fetchingly absurdist cri de […]
About Roy Maurer
Review: Next to Normal, a triumphant performance and all-out production can’t mask a generic score
On the positive side, there’s nothing “scaled down” about the Kennedy Center’s latest Broadway Center Stage series presentation of Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s 2008 steamrolling tearjerker Next to Normal. If you were thinking that the productions in the series, billed as semi-staged concert readings, were skimpy in any way, you’d be wrong. The original […]
Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Round House Theatre
The big takeaway from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the glimpsed exposure to what goes through the mind of a special person—in this case someone with an autism spectrum condition like Asperger’s. Round House Theatre’s production of the Tony Award-winning adaptation of Mark Haddon’s cherished novel is borne on the shoulders […]
Review: Conor McPherson’s confessional Port Authority from Quotidian Theatre
A doleful ballad fittingly eases you into Quotidian Theatre Company’s (QTC’s) lovingly rendered production of Conor McPherson’s Port Authority. Three generations of Irishmen then introduce themselves in turn, each starting into an accounting which define them as men. It’s not evident why these three avatars, unaware of one another and from an unknown place are […]
Review: Fences at Ford’s Theatre
The staging of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences at Ford’s Theatre seemed made-to-order for a grand slam home run. The memorable backyard drama of father and son and husband and wife is probably the most accessible and popular of Wilson’s magnificent Century Cycle. And the casting of local big-leaguer Craig Wallace in […]
Review: Jitney at Arena Stage
Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s restaging of his 2017 Broadway production of Jitney at Arena Stage—bringing to town much of the design team and several of the actors—is a terrific kickoff to a season-long festival celebrating the monumental playwright August Wilson. The bustling story, set within an unlicensed cab station in Pittsburgh’s predominantly black Hill District, is […]
Review: Sondheim’s Assassins at Signature Theatre. Something just broke.
There are so many weirdly gleeful moments stuffed in Assassins, composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer John Weidman’s darkly comic and brilliant musical vaudeville exposing the ailing heart of American political culture. One of the most gripping is when John Wilkes Booth (Vincent Kempski) passionately borrows from the example of Willy Loman’s ignominious end in […]
Review: The Mollusc from Quotidian Theatre
Over 100 and some years ago, The Mollusc was the best-known work of an Englishman considered to be in affinity with the likes of Oscar Wilde. About 10 years ago, my colleague at DC Theatre Scene had a seemingly delightful experience viewing its last previous area revival. But sadly, this droll anachronism’s latest reappearance on […]
Review: Falsettos, the Lincoln Center tour at The Kennedy Center
I guess I just don’t get Falsettos. The Tony Award® winning musical may have been fresh at its 1992 Broadway debut—it’s mainstream depiction of gay couples was certainly trailblazing—but it now feels vexingly thin, dated and dull. The intimate, conversational operetta by William Finn and James Lapine, directed here by James Lapine, captured a period […]
Review: The Children at Studio Theatre
Admittedly, the synopsis for the dystopian kitchen-sink drama The Children at Studio Theatre didn’t tremendously excite me initially, notwithstanding the interest in acclaimed British playwright Lucy Kirkwood. But Studio has earned the benefit of my doubt and I thought there must be something to it—it’s probably going to shine or sizzle in the writing and […]
Review: Into the Woods. Enchantment and enlightenment await at Ford’s Theatre
Enchantment awaits those who enter Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim’s wildly inventive, darkly comic thicket of life lessons sprung from children’s fairy tales in a new revival at Ford’s Theatre. Sondheim and book writer James Lapine have packed the show to the gills with ideas about wish fulfillment and its consequences, the relationship between parents […]
Review: Richard the Third, David Muse’s grisly version at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Director David Muse’s Richard the Third is clearly rendered, scored to propulsive industrial rock and sets itself apart from previous productions by a series of grisly execution scenes, but, for all of that, I was left curiously unmoved. Shakespeare’s tragic version of Richard, the Duke of Gloucester (1452-1485), his mad, ruthless rise to power atop the […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.