All stories by Jill Kyle-Keith on BroadwayStars

Monday, December 28, 2020

Reflections of a critic on the closing days of DC Theatre Scene by Jill Kyle-Keith

Theater is at its best when it teaches us something. When it makes us think, and reconsider our stance on an issue, or when it carries us away into another land and time, where characters, f…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:24PM
Friday, December 18, 2020

Review: A Very Pointless Digital Holiday Spectacular, just right for 2020 sendoff by Jill Kyle-Keith

You’ve got to hand it to Pointless Theatre- the above title alone is just about perfect for 2020, even if it started out as a simple twist on the company’s clever name. As we are all in …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:48PM
Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Review: Vato Tsikurishvili’s mysterious Joy! at Synetic by Jill Kyle-Keith

One would think that a show about joy would have little to do with theater- or much else, for that matter- these days. Yet Synetic Theater, that chameleon of invention, brings us little glim…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:18AM
Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Review: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a fun riff at Chesapeake Shakespeare by Jill Kyle-Keith

The hefty tome of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, a nondescript table, two chairs and a turquoise feather boa is apparently all one needs to stage all of the Bard’s output: if you skip …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:24AM
Thursday, February 27, 2020

Review: Anna Ziegler’s The Wanderers, a perfect marriage of script and production by Jill Kyle-Keith

There’s a saying among actors: “There’s no such thing as a perfect show.” Anyone lucky enough to see Theater J’s production of The Wanderers will have to politely disagree: top to …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:32AM
Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Review: Thumbelina at Imagination Stage. Puppetry and design bring the tiny story to life by Jill Kyle-Keith

To children, the world is often a large and overbearing place. Think of how difficult it would be if each chair you sat in was three feet tall, the table even higher, and the doorknob imposs…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:12AM
Monday, February 10, 2020

Review: Rocky Horror Show, Iron Crow’s annual raunchy, ridiculous treat by Jill Kyle-Keith

For those of you who have been living under a rock or putting up moose jerky with the Doomsday Preppers these last few years, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is that ages-old, ever-young cult …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:32PM
Friday, January 24, 2020

Review: Kinky Boots kicks up its 6″ heels at Toby’s by Jill Kyle-Keith

What do you do when nobody’s buying what you’re selling? Change what you’re selling. The long-running Broadway production of Kinky Boots closed last spring, but Toby’s brings back th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:06PM
Monday, December 23, 2019

Review: Jersey Boys tour adds a holiday gift to their show at The National by Jill Kyle-Keith

Some music gets inside your head and stays there. Think “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “My Eyes Adored You”. It’s pretty much a guarantee you can at least hum at least one …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:12AM
Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Review: The Jungle Book, a new musical written for Creative Cauldron’s young cast by Jill Kyle-Keith

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling is the quintessential coming-of-age story: Mowgli, abandoned as an infant in the jungles of India, is raised by a pack of wolves and other creatures, who t…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:18PM
Thursday, October 17, 2019

Review: Dracula at Chesapeake Shakespeare by Jill Kyle-Keith

Chesapeake Shakespeare’s production of Dracula is just what’s needed for this season of dying leaves and chills down the spine. Playwright Steven Dietz has taken the original Bram Stoker…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:06PM
Monday, September 16, 2019

Review: Helen on Wheels. Comedy is hard. by Jill Kyle-Keith

Best Medicine Rep stands out among our newer small theatre companies for location (a store space on the upper level of Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg) and for mission: they will only presen…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:18PM
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Review: the nonstop Beehive, The 60’s Musical at NextStop by Jill Kyle-Keith

The decade known as The Sixties contained so may different mini-eras it’s a wonder that those of us who lived through it didn’t all become split personalities. At times näive, hedonisti…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:12PM
Thursday, July 11, 2019

Capital Fringe review: Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens by Jill Kyle-Keith

Plastic, leather, and love all reign supreme with Up In Your Face’s production of Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens. Not familiar with the show? In 1995, this wildly campy space musical/murd…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:24AM
Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Fringe review: Hatpin Panic by Jill Kyle-Keith

With its clever script by playwright Iris Dauteman, Hatpin Panic weaves a terrific Mobius strip of a largely unknown scrap of history from America’s turn of the century women’s suffrage …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:24AM
Thursday, July 4, 2019

Review: The Fantasticks gets some new tech, but it’s still the music that you’ll remember by Jill Kyle-Keith

To celebrate their 10th year anniversary in Annapolis, MD, Infinity Theatre Company, has restaged their first show and created a new take on The Fantasticks for 21st century audiences. While…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:03PM
Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Review: The Ballad of Mu Lan at Imagination Stage by Jill Kyle-Keith

Imagination Stage tells the tale of China’s legendary warrior, Mu Lan, (Hua Mulan,) with humor and energy and introduces audiences to a delightful version of the performance style known as…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:48PM
Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Review: Pantheon from Happenstance Theater by Jill Kyle-Keith

Are you aware that most of the Greek and Roman gods can be found working in Brooklyn? It’s not much of a stretch: whether driving the Chariot of the Sun, ferrying the dead, or guarding the…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:48PM
Sunday, May 12, 2019

Review: The Tarot Reading V, an easy prediction by Jill Kyle-Keith

It’s rare that, after finishing a review, I’m ready to see the show again. But then, The Tarot Reading changes with every performance, so it will never be the same. Two years ago, my fir…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:03PM
Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Review: A Comedy of Tenors, a grand slam-bang farce with a little Traviata on the side by Jill Kyle-Keith

A farce, a farce! My kingdom for a farce! Fortunately, you won’t have to pay such a high price for this one- though, it’s worth it. Ken Ludwig, acclaimed author of Lend Me A Tenor, revis…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:36PM
Thursday, April 11, 2019

Review: Pinter’s Rep, superb performances of four Harold Pinter shorts by Jill Kyle-Keith

You might call Scena’s Pinter Rep director Robert McNamara’s arranged marriage of sorts – four short plays by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, the British playwright of such full leng…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:14PM
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Review: The Jewish Queen Lear, world premiere of Yiddish theatre classic by Jill Kyle-Keith

Yiddish theatre in New York around the turn of the century was vibrant: in the small Bowery theaters, Jews of all nationalities and branches of Judaism came to watch shows full of emotion an…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:47AM
Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Review: Fun Home, well worth the trip to Baltimore Center Stage by Jill Kyle-Keith

A nonlinear remembrance of family and self, Fun Home was lauded as a groundbreaking piece when it opened on Broadway in 2015, winning the Tony for Best Musical that year. Based on Alison Bec…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:54AM
Tuesday, January 8, 2019

From U Street to the Cotton Club review. In Street jives and jams at Source by Jill Kyle-Keith

There’s one spot in DC where the glories of U Street’s “Black Broadway” are alive and well as The In Series performs From U Street to the Cotton Club at Source Thea…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:04PM
Friday, December 14, 2018

Review: Talley’s Folly from Theater J by Jill Kyle-Keith

Since its inception in 1917, 99 plays have received the penultimate Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The category includes musicals and only a few comedies. But the judges were taken with Lanford W…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Monday, December 3, 2018

Review: Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the holiday show at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by Jill Kyle-Keith

This holiday season, leave snowy Dickensian London behind and, instead, swim in the warm, musical waters at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. You’ll still get in a holiday mood, particular…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:12PM
Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Review: Cirque Dreams, short and sweet at Gaylord National Harbor by Jill Kyle-Keith

The National Harbor is quickly becoming the holiday’s destination of choice for families these days. For several years now, their Ice! extravaganza, with ice carvings done by talented …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:54AM
Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Review: Cinderella, fresh and funny at Imagination Stage by Jill Kyle-Keith

Cinderella swordfighting! What a wonderful expression of empowerment for little girls (and little boys). In this updated and very funny version of Cinderella, Imagination Stage takes us to a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:18AM
Monday, October 22, 2018

Review: Frankenstein, part of We Happy Few’s Horror Rep by Jill Kyle-Keith

We Happy Few specializes in bringing classical plays to life- and what better classic to choose this Halloween season than Mary Shelley’s Gothic horror story, Frankenstein? WHF’s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12PM
Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Review: Venus in Fur from Compass Rose by Jill Kyle-Keith

Venus in Fur is a complex play within an even more complex play. The story begins simply: director Thomas Novachek (Joe Mucciolo) has adapted nineteenth century writer Leopold von Sacher-Mas…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:42PM
Friday, July 20, 2018

Review: Chlamydia dell’Arte: MORE Sex-Ed Burlesque at Capital Fringe by Jill Kyle-Keith

Two unconventional beauties take us on a wild ride through sex, politics, and the politics of sex. As the title implies, Chlamydia dell’Arte is a sort-of burlesque, with a sort-of ske…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12PM

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