All stories by Jessica Goldstein on BroadwayStars

Monday, December 3, 2018

Kennedy Center Honors Pay Tribute to Hamilton and Musical Legends by Jessica Goldstein

Here comes the president! No, not that one.Chris Jackson — who played George Washington in the original cast of Hamilton — is striding down the Kennedy Center Honors red carpet on Sunday…

SOURCE: Vulture at 10:42AM
Thursday, November 12, 2015

Javier Muñoz on What It’s Like to Play Alexander Hamilton When Lin-Manuel Miranda Isn’t by Jessica Goldstein

What is it like to be Alexander Hamilton? Three guys know. There’s the real Hamilton ( … you can’t ask him). There’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, the literal genius behind the musical you pro…

SOURCE: Vulture at 10:57PM
Friday, October 2, 2015

How Gina Rodriguez sees herself by Jessica Goldstein

When actress Gina Rodriguez was a kid growing up in Chicago, she would turn on the TV and wonder: “Why does no one look like me?” The youngest of three daughters of Puerto Rican parents,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:58AM
Friday, September 4, 2015

‘You’re the Worst’ mines comedy from an unlikely source — PTSD by Jessica Goldstein

Can PTSD ever be funny?Maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe only a monster would say “yes.”And yet on “You’re the Worst,” FX’s stellar sitcom about two undateable people who …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:04AM
Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Celebrate and/or mourn the end of your favorite TV show with ‘Mad Men’ bingo by Jessica Goldstein

“Mad Men” is ending. “How can this be?” you might be wondering. Didn’t “Mad Men” end, like, three times already? You would be forgiven for making this mistake. After a storied …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:43AM
Tuesday, January 13, 2015

‘Parks and Recreation’ has boosted cast’s careers by Jessica Goldstein

“Parks and Recreation” premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009. Can you remember this distant past? It was a time before emoji and Instagram, a time before Blue Ivy and the McConaissance. Tayl…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:58PM
Thursday, January 8, 2015

From Amy Poehler to Retta to Chris Pratt: ‘Parks and Recreation’ has boosted cast’s careers by Jessica Goldstein

“Parks and Recreation” premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009. Can you remember this distant past? It was a time before emoji and Instagram, a time before Blue Ivy and the McConaissance. Tayl…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:53PM
Friday, July 11, 2014

‘The Lion King,’ views from inside the touring production at the Kennedy Center by Jessica Goldstein

“The Lion King” is a feat of someone’s extraordinary imagination: yours. You can’t just sit there in the theater and expect “The Lion King” to happen. Not even after all these…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:58PM
Friday, April 25, 2014

Why does — and will — ‘Mean Girls’ continue to endure online? by Jessica Goldstein

What is it about “Mean Girls” that makes it the most quotable, gif-able, and mash-up-able movie for the Internet age? We called up David Hayes, Tumblr’s Head of Canvas and Entertainmen…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:45PM
Friday, April 18, 2014

Costume design: It’s in the details by Jessica Goldstein

Someday, maybe, costume design will be easy. All theaters will have some variation on Cher Horowitz’s closet from “Clueless,” and with a few swipes right and left they’ll have arrive…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:05PM
Wednesday, April 9, 2014

How MTV’s ’16 and Pregnant’ led to declining teen birth rates by Jessica Goldstein

Since they premiered, MTV reality shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” have raised whoa-so-many eyebrows. A very vocal contingent of dismayed adults feared the shows glamorized tee…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:22PM
Friday, March 14, 2014

Rating the on-screen POTUSes: Who’s got that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. cred? by Jessica Goldstein

Actor Richard Thomas is having a very Washington moment. You can see him on TV in FX’s excellent, espionage-filled wigfest “The Americans” and, over at Arena Stage, playing Jimmy Carte…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:15PM
Thursday, March 13, 2014

An army of bedbugs was partying in her mattress. What else could go wrong? by Jessica Goldstein

This all started with tiny spots of blood. I had no idea where they came from. They were in a splatter pattern. Dots of rust-colored stains on my soft, yellow bedsheets. Very Jackson Pollock…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:41PM
Friday, February 21, 2014

The real stars of ‘The Americans’? The wigs. by Jessica Goldstein

Meet the real stars of “The Americans”: the disguises. The wigs of “The Americans” have developed a following unto themselves, in part because they are so integral to the plot, in pa…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:31PM

‘Spies in our own lives’: FX’s Cold War thriller ‘The Americans’ enters second season by Jessica Goldstein

Nothing about “The Americans” is as it should be. Philip and Elizabeth Jennings live in a peaceful neighborhood in suburban Virginia, and they’re at war with the FBI agent across the …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:25PM
Friday, February 7, 2014

In Alexandria, Civil War Ball draws a crowd yearning for elegance in a hoop skirt by Jessica Goldstein

No one is required to wear a hoop skirt to the Civil War Ball at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum in Alexandria, but at this year’s gala nearly every woman does. Outside, the wind is so cold that …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:34AM
Friday, January 24, 2014

Race and casting’s recurring role by Jessica Goldstein

Can a white actor play an Asian character? Never. Sometimes. Maybe. It depends. “Yellow Face,” by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, wrestles with this question under the …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:42AM
Friday, December 27, 2013

Dating? There’s an app (or 20) for that, but have you considered a matchmaker? by Jessica Goldstein

If you want to date, you have choices. Oh, the choices. You could meet someone in what we call the real world — at work or at school, lock eyes across that crowded bar, reach for the same …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:52AM
Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Washington theater’s best acts for 2014 by Jessica Goldstein

Merry Christmas, Backstage readers! It’s that end-of-the-year “best of” season, when every gaffe, meme and hook you tried so hard to forget comes back to haunt you in top 10-list form.…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:31PM
Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Arena Stage’s Voices of Now program headed to India to lead theater projects for local youth by Jessica Goldstein

Arena Stage’s Voices of Now program, which organizes ensembles of young people who devise and perform original works of theater, has earned a grant from the State Department to send the ni…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:14PM
Wednesday, December 11, 2013

National Women’s History Museum gains traction; bill would launch exploratory panel by Jessica Goldstein

At a House Administration Committee hearing Wednesday morning, Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) presented their bipartisan bill to launch an exploratory commi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:32PM
Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas Day is opening day for ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Flashdance’ by Jessica Goldstein

“The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” and “Flashdance: The Musical” have something in common. It’s leggings. They both involve a lot of leg warmers. Also off-the-shoulder tops. I jest,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:46PM
Sunday, December 8, 2013

Kennedy Center Honors: Red-carpet stars glimmer on a night when ‘everything’s magic’ by Jessica Goldstein

Wonder Woman is the first red-carpet celebrity to arrive at the Kennedy Center Honors. Lynda Carter is looking regal — perhaps her superpower is imperviousness to weather, which is a miser…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:02PM
Wednesday, December 4, 2013

That press tour escalated quickly. Will Ferrell talks Ron Burgundy, not in character this time by Jessica Goldstein

Will Ferrell does not get embarrassed. He’s not embarrassed when he’s dancing in tight, white pants on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” or when he’s ice skating in a rhinestone-span…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:42PM
Tuesday, December 3, 2013

‘The 12 Dates of Christmas’ at Next Stop Theatre, a jolly chronicle of romantic missteps by Jessica Goldstein

Playwright Ginna Hoben, a longtime fan of David Sedaris’s “The SantaLand Diaries,” knew she had something special to contribute to the holiday show canon. For one thing, anything she w…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:33PM
Tuesday, November 26, 2013

‘Noises Off’ at 1st Stage: ‘Workplace comedy,’ plus a disaster and a little improv by Jessica Goldstein

Doug Wilder, director of “Noises Off” at 1st Stage, breaks down the farce like so: Act One: “It’s this meta idea. You’re watching a rehearsal happen. And these actors are a bit bro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:48PM
Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Judith Ivey talks about Theater J’s ‘Our Suburb,’ Paul Newman and directing by Jessica Goldstein

As with many meet-cutes, actor-director Judith Ivey and Theater J Artistic Director Ari Roth’s stories of how they came to work together do not exactly line up. Ivey, the two-time Tony Awa…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:49PM
Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Backstage: Pinky Swear’s ‘Bondage’; ‘White Rabbit Red Rabbit; a Signature ‘Sunday’ by Jessica Goldstein

Liz Gossens, costume designer for Pinky Swear Productions’ “Bondage,” had a dilemma. She needed to cover the two actors — one male, one female — in head-to-toe bondage gear. “We …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:25PM
Friday, November 8, 2013

Kathleen Chalfant does a reading of Lynn Redgrave’s ‘Shakespeare for my Father’ by Jessica Goldstein

Actress Kathleen Chalfant, 68, didn’t meet Lynn Redgrave, actress, playwright and original performer of the autobiographical work “Shakespeare for my Father,” until they were both adul…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:54PM
Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Two artists wedded to flamenco by Jessica Goldstein

Edwin Aparicio and Aleksey Kulikov had been together for more than a dozen years when in July they finally could be married. Although the two say they’ve stayed together longer than many o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:33PM
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Backstage: In ‘Man of the House,’ Gonzalez deals with absent dad, teen hardships by Jessica Goldstein

David Gonzalez is a divorced child of divorce. His world premiere one-man show “Man of the House (Or: How I Tracked Down My Dad, the Spy)” is his way of wrestling with that, and how he g…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:47PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards