A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel encompassing the lives of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, living in war-torn Kabul and both married to the same man, Rasheed. The play has been living a successful theatrical adaptation in Canada, London, and California. On January 21st, this adaptation by Ursula Rani Sarma will be […]
2020 Visions. Theatre leaders tell us what lies ahead.
We asked area theatre companies to tell us what they were most looking forward to in 2020. Their answers surprised us! Contributors: 4615 Theatre Company . American Ensemble Theater . American Shakespeare Theatre Company . Arena Stage . Avant Bard Theatre . Brave Spirits Theatre . Capital Fringe . CulturalDC . Folger Theatre . Happenstance […]
Our 22 most memorable performances of 2019
One last standing ovation for these performers whose work quite simply blew us away this year. Ian Merill Peakes, Amadeus, Folger Theatre In Amadeus, Ian Merill Peakes brought Peter Shaffer’s Salieri to brilliant, anguished life. He was a childishly sweet-scarfing confidant explaining to future generations the way his young court-rival genius, Mozart, curdled Salieri’s heart and activated […]
Our 20 most memorable shows of 2019
What matters most, when all the theatrical offerings for 2019 have been made, is what lingers in the minds and hearts of the audience. We asked our writers and the Gary Maker Audience Award recipients to think back over the year, and tell us their most unforgettable shows. Here they are in alphabetical order. Ain’t […]
Review: Dear Jack, Dear Louise at Arena Stage
When Army Captain Jack Ludwig (Jake Epstein) first speaks his full name early on in playwright Ken Ludwig’s new dramedy Dear Jack, Dear Louise, audiences probably realize that this World War II romance is going to end with wedding bells. But the play, based on the correspondence of Ludwig’s parents-to-be, crackles with humor and real […]
1984. A “spiritual happening” when Morgan Freeman preached The Gospel at Colonus at Arena Stage
Editor’s note: The mix of cultures has always provided a rich stew for theater, showing us both the universality of human longing and the diverse ways in which it can be expressed. So, for example, the Classical Theatre of Harlem presented King Lear in an African setting with the great André DeShields in the title […]
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 […]
How 1970’s culture clashes played out on two Washington DC stages
By 1970, Washington, DC had long been a major college town; home to tens of thousands of young people who were trying to define their generation in opposition to the dominant values of their parents. Eventually known as “Boomers,” this postwar generation struggled to delimit what it meant to be part of the dominant culture—and […]
“Young people are rising up to shape the world they want to live in.” Joe Montoya, Crutchie in Newsies
Newsies, the movie, established a cult following in 1992, with a pre-Dark Knight Christian Bale playing Jack Kelly, a 17-year-old newspaper hawker in New York City who leads the 1899 newsboys strike, protesting two of the country’s most powerful men, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Theater lovers came to appreciate Disney’s story and music […]
Review: Right to Be Forgotten debuts at Arena Stage
What takes precedent: individual privacy, or public information? Right to Be Forgotten, making its world premiere at Arena Stage, is remarkably nuanced in its exploration of the big debates in Internet privacy law. The titular principle has been adopted in the European Union to allow individuals to petition search engines to de-list links to pages […]
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 […]
After tours and a Tony, Keith Randolph Smith is back in August Wilson’s Jitney. Here’s what he’s learned.
Keith Randolph Smith is a member of the cast of August Wilson’s Jitney, now in rehearsal, and opening this Fall at Arena Stage. He plays Doub, one of the drivers for the eponymous jitney in Wilson’s Pittsburgh, where he and most of the other characters work. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and […]
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