Some Girl(s)
Here’s how you can tell when your play is working: you’ve got an Amen Corner. On the night I saw No Rules Theatre take its maiden voyage with a fine production of Some Girl(s), the Amen Corner was in full voice, gasping in shock and recognition at the audacity of the dialogue and the plot points. Brothers and sisters, welcome to Church – the Church of Neil LaBute.
Musical Scene Stealers – Winter, 2010
Two young undertakers, two angels and their lover, a colorful instrumentalist and singer, a pie-baking assistant, a quarreling and vocally gifted couple, a distraught girlfriend who’s gone to pot,
Mauritius
Top Pick! -- Bay Theatre’s production of Mauritius is a rocket trip to a world both violent and profoundly cynical, where lives and relationships are held cheaply.
Amazons and Their Men
The Frau reclines into her seat, smoking a fine cigar; she distracts herself with artistic integrity, blissfully ignorant of the stomping boots of war outside her studio. This duly summarizes Jordan Harrison's Amazons and their Men as presented by Forum Theatre.
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
The Stage Guild is back! And in full form as if they never skipped a beat. After a two-year hiatus, the Washington Stage Guild has returned and mounts Lord Arthur Savile's Crime with a fun-filled swagger that would do Oscar Wilde proud.
Memphis, Yank!, and Ages of the Moon
As a charter member of the “It’s too loud!” and the “Where are the melodies?” clubs of musical theatre lovers, I kept delaying my visit to Memphis, thinking it wouldn’t do much for me except perhaps remind me of the Golden Age of good sound and gorgeous tunes, and how much I miss all that.
REVIEWS
Some Girl(s)
Here’s how you can tell when your play is working: you’ve got an Amen Corner. On the night I saw No Rules Theatre take its maiden voyage with a fine production of Some Girl(s), the Amen Corner was in full voice, gasping in shock and recognition at the audacity of the dialogue and the plot points. Brothers and sisters, welcome to Church – the Church of Neil LaBute. Read More →
Mauritius
Top Pick! — Bay Theatre’s production of Mauritius is a rocket trip to a world both violent and profoundly cynical, where lives and relationships are held cheaply. Read More →
Amazons and Their Men
The Frau reclines into her seat, smoking a fine cigar; she distracts herself with artistic integrity, blissfully ignorant of the stomping boots of war outside her studio. This duly summarizes Jordan Harrison’s Amazons and their Men as presented by Forum Theatre. Read More →
Chumbale (Every Love Bird Needs a Nest)
When you consider that Facebook is banned in some communist countries today, Chumbale, an area premiere, is wickedly funny, and extraordinarily brave. Read More →
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
The Stage Guild is back! And in full form as if they never skipped a beat. After a two-year hiatus, the Washington Stage Guild has returned and mounts Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime with a fun-filled swagger that would do Oscar Wilde proud. Read More →
The House of Yes
Looking for a legal acid trip? Come see The House of Yes, blowing through Frederick, MD for one more week. Presented with no intermission, the 90 minute production clipped along with nary a pause, featuring pithy dialogue and a twisted plot. Read More →
Read More Posts From This CategoryNEWS
Shakespeare’s greatest speeches – vote your favorite
Tim stated that the Crispian Day speech in Henry V is, perhaps, the greatest in all of Shakespeare. Is he right? We asked some of the Washington Area’s most fervent, and most expert, Shakespeareans to join Tim in selecting their three favorite speeches in the canon. Read More →
QuestFest’s wordless theater festival returns to DC area
Quest: Arts for Everyone, a Maryland-based organization “committed to using the arts to…enable individuals who have been marginalized to realize their full potential” will collaborate with The Theater Project and Creative Alliance of Baltimore and Washington’s Gallaudet University to stage QuestFest 2010, a two-week festival of primarily non-verbal theater, in the two cities. The festival will run from March 1 until the 14th. Read More →
Arena Stage to return home with a 45-project 60th season
Arena Stage will inaugurate its $125 million renovated facility, The Mead Center for American Theater, with a blizzard of productions in 2010-2011, kicking off its 60th season on Oct 23, 2010 with the first modern American musical, Oklahoma! , Read More →
Read More Posts From This CategoryNY THEATRE BUZZ
Next to Normal, Happy Now?, Present Laughter
In the early spring of 2008 I caught the first New York production of Next to Normal, off Broadway at Second Stage. I reviewed it favorably in this column. Now, eight months into its run in a revised...
Memphis, Yank!, and Ages of the Moon
As a charter member of the “It’s too loud!” and the “Where are the melodies?” clubs of musical theatre lovers, I kept delaying my visit to Memphis, thinking it wouldn’t do much for me except...
A Little Night Music, Fanny, Mr. and Mrs. Fitch
I am refreshed! Dan Moses Schrier and Gareth Owen may not be familiar names to you (they were not to me), but they are my new heroes. For they prove conclusively that musical theatre sound need not be...
Read More Posts From This CategoryTHEATRE SCHMOOZE
Musical Scene Stealers – Winter, 2010
Two young undertakers, two angels and their lover, a colorful instrumentalist and singer, a pie-baking assistant, a quarreling and vocally gifted couple, a distraught girlfriend who’s gone to pot, Read More →
High Fidelity interviews: Andrew Baughman, Stephen Gregory Smith and Julie Herber
How do these guys and gals keep putting on these amazing productions of musicals that just didn’t do too well in NYC, and turn them into winners? I saw High Fidelity on Broadway, and loved the music...
Natalie Toro from the In the Heights tour
Eleven years ago, I was blown away by Natalie Toro’s gorgeous voice in Signature Theatre’s production of The Fix, and last year, I was once again mesmerized by Natalie’s performance in A Tale of...
Read More Posts From This CategoryPODCASTS
NEWSical The Musical’s Michael West
Joel sits down with funnyman Michael West in his dressing room at the 47th Street Theatre. Michael opens his trunk of many voices and out comes Bill Clinton (“a southern Elmer Fudd”), Al Gore (“a gay kindergarten teacher”), Liza Minnelli, Carol Channing, Sammy Davis, Jr., Robert Goulet, and Harvey Fierstein. With special guest: NEWSical director Mark Waldrop. Standard Podcast [32:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (270) Read More →
The Gift of the Magi
The Audible Group, the soundsmiths who bring you the Audience Choice Awards radioplay every year and last December’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, has created another all-star offering in this new audio interpretation of “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry. The Gift of the Magi from The Audible Group [11:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (411) Read More →
Fantasticks’ funny men, Laurence O’Dwyer and Jesse Terril
They don’t sing a single note in Arena Stage’s production of the Jones and Schmidt musical The Fantasticks and they don’t perform any of the eye-popping illusions, Standard Podcast [23:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (410) Read More →
Read More Posts From This CategoryThe Glass Menagerie
Tom Wopat at Strathmore
Some Girls
Mahalia
The Light in the Piazza
Sweeney Todd
Frog and Toad
March Theatre Guide
Troublesome Gap . Episode 2
