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New musical Kaleidoscope gets stunning debut with Florence Lacey in the lead...
I wept during the musical Kaleidoscope. Quietly, but involuntarily, tears welled up and just started flowing. What a time not to have a tissue or handkerchief handy. I cried for people I have lost, my...
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Rick Foucheux is retiring. Here’s why he’s making his exit as King Lear at...
Behold the King. He is standing in front of a boiling, roiling thunderstorm (“Blow, wind! And crack your cheeks!”), beard laced with iron, wild hair crowned with an even wilder laurel (or perhaps it is...
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Views of the Helen Hayes Awards from Laura Giannarelli, who’s attended all 33.
Laura Giannarelli has been to each Helen Hayes Awards ceremony since the inception of the awards. As this is the 33rd annual, she’s heard “and the award goes to” many, many times. As it was very clear...
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Chris Henley’s night out at the Helen Hayes Awards
Awards shows are their own animal. Each iteration has its distinctive aspects, but, no matter how much they try to fight the basic formula, it’s hard to avoid similarities: acceptance speeches that can...
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Fassbinder’s Fear Eats the Soul gets US stage debut at Scena (review)
There are thirty-five characters in Scena Theatre’s production of Fear Eats the Soul, and thirteen actors to play them, but as it is a love story it is really only about two people. One of them is Ali...
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Capital Fringe Festival is online now
Capital Fringe Festival has posted its schedule a few weeks early to give Fringe fans the chance to make plans and take advantage of money saving offers. This year, Capital Fringe runs from July 6 –...
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Venus Review: Suzan-Lori Parks Revival about African Woman as Freak Show Wonder
Zainab Jah, who made an impressive Broadway debut as a sex slave turned soldier in Eclipsed, is back on a New York stage with another vivid portrayal of an exploited but strong African woman in Venus....
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Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature Theatre (review)
Christ’s last mortal days are a “strange thing, mystifying” in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar. But as conceived by director Joe Calarco in Signature Theatre’s new...
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Mercy Killers shows the human toll of a broken healthcare system (review)
“If you want to change something by Tuesday, theater is no good. Journalism is what does that,” playwright Tom Stoppard once said. “But, if you want to just alter the chemistry of the moral matrix,...
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Side Effects, a doctor struggles to survive in an unforgiving heath care...
Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s new rep of healthcare plays—Mercy Killers and Side Effects, both written and performed by Michael Milligan – tackle the broken nature of America’s healthcare...
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Polarbear performs Mouth Open, Story Jump Out (review)
How do you know the difference between a story and a lie? According to British spoken word artist Polarbear (aka Steven Camden), a lie is selfish, but a story is a gift. If that is the case,...
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$900 Ticket Giveaway to see Broadway’s Florence Lacey in Kaleidoscope this...
UPDATE: All tickets are gone. The giveaway is closed. Thanks to the generosity of Creative Cauldron, we can award 15 pairs of tickets to the closing weekend of the new musical Kaleidoscope. From Matt...
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Noises Off at Everyman, “… delirious depiction of backstage dramatics” (review)
An enterprising Everyman Theatre board member calculated there are 152 laughs in Noises Off. Surely, he jests. There is easily three times that number in Everyman’s gonzo production under the...
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Ulysses on Bottles from Mosaic Theater Company (review)
You might be tempted to dismiss Ulysses on Bottles as a niche-appeal “issue play,” but this first opening for Mosaic Theater since receiving the Outstanding Emerging Theater Company Award at last...
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Fine cast equals 5 star Proof at Olney Theatre (review)
Nevertheless, she persisted. Persisted, pushed back depression and doubt and the burden of care to accept her legacy of genius. The “she” in this case is not Senator Elizabeth Warren but Catherine...
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Taylor Mac’s HIR, unsettling and unforgettable (review)
One barometer by which you can gauge the impact of a play is by whether it can be interpreted in wildly different ways by different audience members. Woolly Mammoth’s production of Taylor Mac’s darkly...
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Avant Bard’s King Lear is revelatory, thanks to Rick Foucheux and director...
Is it possible to learn something new from a 400-year-old play? Yes, if the play is rich in insight and wisdom; if the production is attentive to detail and willing to take risks; and if there is a...
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Toni Morrison’s Jazz at Baltimore Center Stage (review)
The big question in Jazz is—where’s the music? This world premiere adaptation by Nambi E. Kelley of Toni Morrison’s 1992 book isn’t meant to be a song-and-dance show, but still it lacks the musicality...
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Urinetown The Musical at NextStop Theatre Company (review)
Putting together a satirical musical with nods at classic musicals (Annie, Les Miserables), the works of Brecht and Weill (The Threepenny Opera), and even Fringe theatre and launching it in NYC could...
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New musical Crazy Mary Lincoln from Pallas Theatre Collective (review)
A gunshot. Chaos. Followed by shock. And a nation, almost on cue and in sync, lets out a collective wail of grief. But the cries of a lone, new widow displease the gentry surrounding her in the...
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