The Kennedy Center’s new production of Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár’s vintage 1910 dramedy The Guardsman, starring Finn Wittrock and Sarah Wayne Callies, promises to be a surprise hit once it works out a few kinks evident on opening night. As a comedy, Molnár’s play is a turn-of-the-last-century drawing room amusement that’s deliciously laced with touches […]
About Terry Ponick
The Last Five Years at Signature Theatre
Signature Theatre’s production of Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years starts out almost like a cliché, but then sneaks up on you and gets you deeply involved before you know that it’s happening. The show’s minimal plot focuses on the rise and fall of the relationship between rising novelist Jamie Wellerstein (James Gardiner) […]
Fiddler on the Roof
A sprightly new production of the classic Broadway musical Fiddler On The Roof is now on tap at Toby’s Dinner Theatre of Columbia. While lacking the expanse of a Broadway stage, Toby’s Fiddler makes up for it with a richness in characterization and a tight sense of family that can often get lost in a larger production. […]
An Irish Carol
An Irish Carol , now in its second of hopefully many annual appearances at Keegan Theatre, is not your father’s Christmas Carol. Unless you father is a drunken, aging Irishman hanging about in a near-deserted pub on the eve of Christmas.
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, now at the Kennedy Center Opera House through January 6, is an irresistibly toe-tapping song-and-dance confection which rolls a selection of Irving Berlin hits into a warm, nostalgic, and energetic entertainment package, wrapping it all up with a bright red Christmas bow.
Christmas Cabin of Carnaween
Well on its way now to becoming an annual Falls Church Christmas tradition, the Creative Cauldron’s production of Christmas Cabin of Carnaween opened last weekend at ArtSpace Falls Church where it will be playing through December 23. Based on an Irish folk tale, this short, warm-hearted little production was developed as a play with music […]
James Joyce’s The Dead
The Quotidian Theatre Company’s new production of James Joyce’s The Dead, which opened this past weekend, could be the best holiday theater surprise of the season. Quotidian’s production of this 1999 Broadway “play with music” is a welcome change of pace from the usual—and admittedly enjoyable—annual holiday entertainment clichés that flutter into our lives like […]
Over the Tavern
Tom Dudzick’s Over the Tavern has seen a lot of productions since its first stage outing back in the mid-1990s. Olney Theatre Center’s new production looks good and feels authentic. But unfortunately, that’s as close as Sunday’s formal opening performance was able to get to the play’s dramatic core.
A Couple of Blaguards
The Keegan Theatre’s A Couple of Blaguards is an oasis of madcap, guilt-free fun in the midst of a DC fall season that usually emphasizes high-seriousness or more substantial fare. The Keegan’s revival of this oddball piece, penned by the Irish brothers McCourt as a comic entertainment in the early 1990s, became a hit in […]
J.B.
The American Century Theater’s new production of Archibald MacLeish’s nearly forgotten verse play J.B. is well worth encountering, particularly if you’re looking for an intellectual challenge. ACT’s take on this unusual play re-creates its meticulously crafted, highly emotional yet surprisingly probing look back to a post-war era when Americans had begun to seriously question the […]
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
As area performing arts companies crank into high gear for a frantic September of opening nights, Alexandria’s MetroStage seems to have gotten the jump on nearly everyone. Their fantastic, energetic revival of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is already up and running. And take it from us—it’s the fall season’s […]
The Normal Heart opens here as DC HIV rates skyrocket
Arena Stage’s recently opened production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart is the area’s first production of the controversial play since 1995. It was in that year that Arlington’s Washington Shakespeare Company (now WSC Avant Bard) chose it as a way of opening up its then-new Clark Street Theatre complex with a controversial splash.