All stories by Kelly McCorkendale on BroadwayStars

Monday, November 16, 2020

Review: A fresh version of From Gumbo to Mumbo playing now by Kelly McCorkendale

The tangy DC streets or a soulful bowl of NOLA. From Gumbo to Mumbo celebrates each from its first notes—for what writers and performers Drew Anderson and Dwayne Lawson-Brown do is somethi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM
Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Review: The illusions we build for ourselves. Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 9, “Refuge” by Kelly McCorkendale

Homebound’s episode nine “Refuge” begins with poetry. And dance—the hazy figure of a woman in her living room moving to the sound of her own voice as the camera cuts to Maboud pullin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:24PM
Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Review: Where are we headed? Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 8, “Community” by Kelly McCorkendale

Craig (Craig Wallace) has found his feet in this week’s episode, “Community,” by Agyeiwaa Asante. He’s been able to run 2.23 miles to honor Ahmaud Arbery, and now he can’t stop run…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:12PM
Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Review: Could this be love? Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 7, “The Date” by Kelly McCorkendale

If any of Homebound’s episodes have been pure joy, it is episode 7, “The Date,” written by Dani Stoller, who finally finds Maboud (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh) a match in the charming pixie-i…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:32AM
Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Review: On Prince, protests and the pandemic: Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 6 “Sometimes It Snows in April”” by Kelly McCorkendale

Sometimes it snows in April Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad Sometimes I wish life was never ending And all good things, they say, never last  Prince wrote that in 1985 on the song “Someti…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:06PM
Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Review: Pandemic life in 10 parts: Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 5 “Double Entendre” by Kelly McCorkendale

Homebound’s episode 5 finds us once again with Craig (Craig Wallace), who has become somewhat of an avuncular safe haven for the various souls of Homebound. It’s easy to understand why:…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:06AM
Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Review: Pandemic life in 10 parts: Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 4 “Together Alone” by Kelly McCorkendale

Homebound’s episode 4 shifts back to Maboud (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh), who’s hanging in his sweat pants, rocking a Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt (long live Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:06PM
Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Review: Pandemic life in 10 parts: Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 3 “We Wear the Mask” by Kelly McCorkendale

Here is the episode that elevates Homebound, taking us out of this moment for 11 minutes virtually to show us how this moment fits into life’s larger narratives. It also takes us beyo…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:36PM
Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Review: Pandemic life in 10 parts: Round House Theatre’s Homebound, Part 2. by Kelly McCorkendale

If Alexandra Petri’s “Connect!” – which opened Round House Theatre’s weekly web series Homebound – was a prologue, then Karen Zacarías’  “Human Resource” offers some risi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:54PM
Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Review: Round House Theatre’s Homebound: Episode One, “Connect!”  by Kelly McCorkendale

The first episode of Round House Theatre’s new weekly webseries Homebound is a quick, slick, fluid slice of life in the pandemic. The opening sequence—a close-up of hand washing as if it…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:12PM
Friday, April 10, 2020

DCTS writer, an admitted introvert, debuts with Story District’s virtual “Acting the Fool” by Kelly McCorkendale

After years of writing reviews for DCTS, I’m writing my first preview! The world is changing, and I’m rolling with the punches. And, it’s not for a musical or play, but for Story Dist…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:32PM
Thursday, March 5, 2020

Adult Fan Fiction World Championships from Flying V. Here’s what you missed. by Kelly McCorkendale

For a brilliantly good time, call Flying V, who notched up the fun last Friday with The Adult Fan Fiction World Championships. So why are you reading about it here? Because this is a theatre…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:32AM
Monday, February 10, 2020

Review: The Toxic Avenger: The Musical, in-toxic-ating fun by Kelly McCorkendale

Save the Earth. Kick a little ass. Ripe out a spleen (or a spine). And do it all with a power-pop ballad in your heart. That is The Toxic Avenger: The Musical, and, in Rorschach’s hands, …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:32PM
Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Review: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at Imagination Stage by Kelly McCorkendale

To leap, bound, and twirl through Narnia is to enjoy the storied fantasy world anew, watching the Pevensie children learn the value of sacrifice, friendship, family, love, and, of course, th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:06PM
Monday, November 11, 2019

Review: Lovers’ Vows. Will they? Won’t they? A delightful farce from We Happy Few by Kelly McCorkendale

Abstinence and sex. Sex and abstinence. They’ve long vexed the masses, from noble to peasant as far back as the 1700s, when British writer Elizabeth Inchbald translated a German play rough…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Review: Disenchanted! Suitably madcap, Princess-worthy performances at Creative Cauldron by Kelly McCorkendale

All the charm in Creative Cauldron’s Disenchanted! is homespun, from madcap performances to powerful voices and kitschy props. But the script lobs too much hate at the House of Mouse (wh…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:48AM
Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Review: School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play at Round House by Kelly McCorkendale

“Jubilant!” Strange word to describe a play about skin tones, a mean girl with a foul mouth, and the lasting affects of colonialism. Yet, no other word works when it comes to School Girl…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:42PM
Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Review: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Creative Cauldron by Kelly McCorkendale

Creative Cauldron doesn’t shy away from the big and bold, and producing the Broadway version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast embodies that to the hilt. Amidst its small modest space, th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:24PM
Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Review: Singin’ in the Rain makes a splash at NextStop by Kelly McCorkendale

Singin’ in The Rain seems like the type of beloved movie that shouldn’t be made into a stage version, with its perfect 1952 film, directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and named by th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Review: Escape from Peligro Island, super fun regardless of which adventure you choose by Kelly McCorkendale

Economy or first class? Glasses or inhaler? Go right or go left? Rather, stay or go at all? I say go—go fast to Escape from Peligro Island: YOU Create Your Own Adventure, a delightfully f…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:04AM
Thursday, April 25, 2019

STOMP review: still a glorious, cacophonous slam bang of a show by Kelly McCorkendale

The National’s stage has an air heavy with anticipation. Trash hangs across a large set that is part tin shack, part jungle gym. It’s as if Marie Kondo has Kondo-ed a junkyard. Everythin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:20AM
Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Review: Winnie the Pooh at Adventure Theatre MTC. Fun for the under 8’s by Kelly McCorkendale

Pooh Bear is a fuzzy, golden puff full of positive wonderment whose honey addiction still roils little bellies with laughter at Adventure Theatre MTC’s Winnie the Pooh, a sweet stroll thr…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:29AM
Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Review: columbinus at 1st Stage by Kelly McCorkendale

Twenty years on. And the horror of April 20, 1999 has not only not dissipated, but it also seems to have continually intensified with each mass school shooting. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:16PM
Thursday, February 28, 2019

Finding Neverland review. J.M. Barrie discovers his Peter Pan in this charming musical by Kelly McCorkendale

Seems poetic that The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up is well over 100 now and still as impish as ever in Finding Neverland. Peter Pan, the eternal boy, sprung from the mind of Scottish novelist…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:28AM
Monday, February 4, 2019

Review: Gypsy at Toby’s Dinner Theatre by Kelly McCorkendale

Gypsy is a grand, brilliant affair. Then and now and forever. And Toby’s Dinner Theatre is giving it a first class production. This is the story of Rose (Cathy Mundy). The precursor to th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:48PM
Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Review: The Mystery of Love & Sex at Iron Crow by Kelly McCorkendale

Assuming love and sex are an intertwined riddle to be solved and you want an answer to the mystery —you’re not going to get it here. If you want to walk away deep in thought, contemplati…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:42AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Review: New Guidelines for Peaceful Times at Spooky Action Theatre by Kelly McCorkendale

The title, New Guidelines for Peaceful Times, sounds like a satirical take on a dystopian world. But it’s not. It’s a much more earnest, honest, and delicate look at how war—the inter…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:04AM
Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Review: Sleepy Hollow, Synetic-style. Macabre. Scary. Glorious. by Kelly McCorkendale

Synetic’s Sleepy Hollow takes no cues from Disney’s version or even the 1999 remake by Tim Burton, which saw the tale go darker and deeper. It is far better—a richer, more provoc…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12PM
Monday, October 1, 2018

Review: Born Yesterday, the 1940s comedy at Ford’s Theatre takes serious aim at big money corruption by Kelly McCorkendale

Wow. Just wow. Born Yesterday, a Tony-award winning play written in 1946 by Garson Kanin, feels likes a premonition come to fruition. Shortly after World War II, tycoon Harry Brock (Edward …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Thursday, September 27, 2018

Review: Lincolnesque at Keegan Theatre by Kelly McCorkendale

We often imagine Lincoln to have been an amiable, principled man, worn down by war and illness. Perhaps his own and, certainly, that of his sons and wife. Which is why Brandon McCoy’s Fran…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:32PM
Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Review: The Ice Child, a modern once upon a time fairy tale by Kelly McCorkendale

Sometimes it is just easiest to say it up front as clearly as possible: I loved The Ice Child—an old-school-esque “once upon a time” fairy tale about very real-world, right now issues …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:54AM

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