One hundred and fifteen years ago, the Moscow Art Theatre produced a play by an obscure playwright – really, a physician who wrote plays – which changed the history of theater. The play was called The Seagull, the playwright was Anton Chekhov, and the Constantin Stanislavski-directed production successfully challenged virtually every convention in the contemporary […]
The Guardsman
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 […]
DC playwright Jacqueline Lawton on The Hampton Years, getting its first production at Theater J
Local playwright Jacqueline Lawton has spent over a year and a half researching and writing The Hampton Years — a play now brought to life in her first regional production. This week, in a whirlwind of activity, the show began performances at Theater J as part of the second annual Locally Grown Festival.
5 DCTS writers included in Jacqueline Lawton’s interviews with women theatre critics of DC
Jacqueline E. Lawton, DC based dramaturg, teacher and playwright (her play The Hampton Years officially opens next Monday at Theater J) has made time in her busy schedule to include a feature rich blog on her Web site.
Adventure Theatre MTC brings its reggae musical Three Little Birds to Off-Broadway in 2014
Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, a ‘jammin’’ musical with live accompaniment featuring the timeless music and lyrics of Bob Marley and based on the children’s book by his daughter Cedella, will share the legendary reggae artist’s message of peace and love with a new generation of songbirds in 2014.
Lost Songs of Broadway: 1970s at Signature
Like any musical theatre geek who gets giddy at the mere mention of obscure showtunes, I must say that I look forward to Signature Theatre’s Lost Songs of Broadway cabaret every year. For several years now, Signature has devoted the last cabaret of its season (excluding the summer cabaret series) to showcasing songs cut from […]
Eight productions headed for The National Theatre next season. Subscription series opens today
With eight productions just announced, the National Theatre will have its busiest season in years, thanks to its new booking team, The National Theatre Group. Five musicals will be among the shows keeping those Pennsylvania Avenue marquee lights lit throughout the season.
Clementine in the Lower 9
Dan Dietz’s drama of a family trying to recover and rebuild nine months after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans is proof of the adage that adversity doesn’t build character, but instead reveals it. Forum Theatre’s artistic team gives an absorbing and revealing production to this area premiere.
Blithe Spirit at 1st Stage
Blithe Spirit has been around for ages, and now is as good a time as any to be reminded why. It’s got a fun premise – imagining love’s reach beyond the afterlife – and with the right performers and the right touch, it’s comforting and provokingly tender. Without giving too much away, the two wives […]
The Real Thing
Have you given your life over to artifice, sacrificed authenticity for convention, hidden your real self from the public view? No? Well, you’re wearing pants, aren’t you? So, the question on the table in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing is with how much artifice will we armor ourselves, and for how long; and his answer […]
The journey of comic actress Julie Halston from Vampire Lesbians to The Guardsman
Striding in through the doorway of the Kennedy Center’s African Gallery, Julie Halston enters, greeting her guest like an old friend. “Hello, Jeff Walker.” And hello, to Julie Halston, comedienne, actress, and dynamo.
The new Cinderella on Broadway is wonderful
A phoenix has risen on Broadway. Out of the ashes of a very pleasant TV Special by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, once thought of as enchanting, but now considered something of a relic from the days of black and white TV, has risen a Broadway musical filled with imagination, romance and panache, not […]