All stories by Lisa Traiger on BroadwayStars

Monday, June 25, 2018

Review: ‘#poolparty’ by Ally Theatre Company by Lisa Traiger

“No diving. No running. Absolutely no cannonballs,” the pre-show announcement at Joe’s Movement Emporium orders. But get ready to dive deep for the world premiere of #poolparty as it u…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:26AM
Saturday, June 16, 2018

Review: ‘Portraits’ by Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company at the Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

The portraits hang solemnly, unmoving at the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery. Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess breathes life and movement into these two-dimensional works of art with a t…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:02PM
Saturday, April 28, 2018

Review: ‘Goldberg Variations – ternary patterns for insomnia’ with Andersson Dance and Scottish Ensemble by Lisa Traiger

Making the extraordinary ordinary appears to be a notion we can’t shake. If it isn’t dumbing down, it’s taking down, mashing up or just plain copying. Thursday, April 26 at the Kennedy…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:48PM
Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Review: ‘Works by Balanchine, Martins, and Peck’ by New York City Ballet by Lisa Traiger

In this era of #MeToo, a review of the New York City Ballet can’t begin without noting the allegations of abuse against now-retired Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins. Late last year, th…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:02PM
Friday, March 23, 2018

Review: ‘Layla and Majnun’ by the Mark Morris Dance Group with the Silkroad Ensemble by Lisa Traiger

A tapestry of poetry, chant, music, and dance drawn from a swath of the ancient Silk Road has provided vivid inspiration for influential choreographer Mark Morris. His re-envisioning of Layl…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:01PM
Sunday, March 18, 2018

Review: ‘Quartet’ at The British Players by Lisa Traiger

Growing old isn’t for sissies. In South-African-born, British playwright Ronald Harwood’s smart 1999 comedy Quartet, he gently wrestles with the indignities of aging in a British senior-…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:03AM
Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Review: ‘American Ballet Theatre: Ratmansky, Robbins, Millepied and Wheeldon’ at the Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

As parts of the nation settled in to hear 45 read the script of the State of the Union address, and other parts assiduously ignored the same, balletomanes and ballet goers in the Washington …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:47PM
Monday, December 4, 2017

Review: ‘ink’ at The Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater by Lisa Traiger

In ink, choreographer/dancer Camille A. Brown’s final installment in her trilogy examining African-American identity, an entire history of a people is written indelibly on the bodies of h…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:57AM
Friday, October 13, 2017

Review: ‘The Red Shoes’ at Kennedy Center Opera House by Lisa Traiger

Generations of budding ballerinas have lusted after the shiny crimson satin pointe shoes in the classic 1948 film The Red Shoes. Who can resist those shoes, they make the wearer dance, and d…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:38PM
Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Review: ‘Lotus’ at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater by Lisa Traiger

Tap dancers are family. As family they gather together, catch up, trade stories, reminisce, honor their forbears and simply, yet profoundly, enjoy each others’ company. Saturday evening’…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:30PM
Sunday, September 10, 2017

Review: ‘In the Heights’ at Olney Theatre Center (in a co-production with Round House Theatre) by Lisa Traiger

In a week that began with the repeal of DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – what better way to end it than with a musical about dreamers. For those children – many now …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:40PM
Friday, July 21, 2017

Review: The Kinsey Sicks in ‘Things You Shouldn’t Say’ at Theater J by Lisa Traiger

There’s virtually nothing a drag queen won’t say, or do, in public or private, say the Kinsey Sicks. The San Francisco-based beauty shop quartet that puts the show into show business, th…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:16PM
Saturday, June 24, 2017

Review: ‘Ballet, Brass & Song: Chamber Dance Project’ at Sidney Harmen Hall by Lisa Traiger

Baseball players take the winter off. Football players do the same in the summer. Ballet dancers are of a different breed. When their companies go on hiatus, typically in early June, they fi…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:20PM
Sunday, April 23, 2017

Review: ‘Ballet Across America’ at The Kennedy Center Opera House by Lisa Traiger

What does 21st-century ballet look like? For The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America program, principle dancer and celeb ballerina Misty Copeland, 34, and 29-year-old New York City Ball…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:56AM
Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Review: ‘Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo’ at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

Men in tights and pointe shoes ballet super seriously and have fun doing it. The all-male comic ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo returned to the Kennedy Center March 21 w…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:38PM
Monday, March 6, 2017

Review: ‘Cave of the Heart’ By the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Lisa Traiger

“Archaic/Modern” is not only the title of the estimable exhibit of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi mid-20th-century works at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Archaic/mod…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:16AM
Saturday, February 11, 2017

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is looking as strong and beautiful as ever in its annual February visit to The Kennedy Center Opera House. Now in his sixth year as artistic director o…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:00PM
Sunday, December 11, 2016

Review: ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Synetic Theater by Lisa Traiger

Briar Rose. Brunhilde. Talia. Rosamond. Aurora. Over the centuries Sleeping Beauty has been known by many names, but the long abiding folk tale of good conquering evil and love conquering al…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:25PM
Monday, November 14, 2016

Review: ‘What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice’ at Dance Place by Lisa Traiger

Walking into Dance Place for the world premiere of choreographer and dancer Vincent Thomas’s What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice, an homage to Marvin Gaye, the great Northeas…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:34AM
Friday, October 28, 2016

Review: Debbie Allen’s ‘FREEZE FRAME… Stop the Madness’ at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater by Lisa Traiger

Ever since Debbie Allen parleyed a killer look in the 1980 movie Fame into a featured role on the popular television series, this triple threat has been busting open doors in Hollywood for w…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:39PM
Wednesday, October 19, 2016

‘Black Diamond’ by Danish Dance Theatre at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

The choreographic universe Tim Rushton created for his evening-length contemporary ballet Black Diamond is made up of an engaging accretion of enticing, quirky, and oddball moments in movem…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:25PM
Friday, October 7, 2016

Review: ‘The Blues Project’ by Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIG Lovely at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

If you want to know how America dances, don’t tune in to those kitschy television competition shows So You Think You Can Dance? and Dancing With the Stars. Check out Dorrance Dance in The…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:00PM
Monday, September 26, 2016

Review: Martha Graham Dance Company at The Alden Theatre by Lisa Traiger

Heraclitus may have said it first, but 20th century modern dance pioneer Martha Graham followed his dictum: “Change is the only constant.” The company the iconic dancer and choreographe…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:08AM
Thursday, May 26, 2016

Review: Paul Taylor Dance Company at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

The last living – and working – link to the founding generation of modern dance choreographers, Paul Taylor remains true to his values as a consummate dancemaker imbuing his works with i…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:56PM
Friday, May 6, 2016

Reviews: The Washington Ballet’s ‘Carmina Burana’ and ‘Bowie/Queen’ by Lisa Traiger

Going Out With a Bang: The Washington Ballet’s Carmina Burana and Bowie/Queen The standing ovation came before a single dancer took the stage. It lasted about two minutes to honor the fin…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 06:17PM
Friday, March 11, 2016

Review: Monica Bill Barnes & Company: ‘Happy Hour’ at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

Monica Bill Barnes & Company Serving Up Food for Thought … and Cake In life some things that are easy look hard and others that are hard look easy. That’s also the case for choreogra…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:49PM
Saturday, February 27, 2016

Review: ‘Director’s Cut’ at The Washington Ballet at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

Ballet Elevated Earlier this month, the dance world rumbled a bit upon learning of the resignation of The Washington Ballet’s high-energy, effervescent Artistic Director Septime Webre. Sin…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:05AM
Monday, February 1, 2016

Review: Dance Place’s 35th Year Reunion by Lisa Traiger

Dance Place Reunion Celebrates 35 Years When Dance Place marks a milestone, invariably by the evening’s end its Founding Artistic Director Carla Perlo has more people on stage than in the …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:05AM
Thursday, January 28, 2016

Review: American Ballet Theatre’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

Alexei Ratmansky’s newest staging of the great classical ballet The Sleeping Beauty feels like that moment in the classic MGM film The Wizard of Oz when the scene goes from black and white…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:47PM
Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at The Kennedy Center by Lisa Traiger

The Winter’s Tale: Warm Production for a Cold Winter’s Night Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has taken a challenging late Shakespearean play – The Winter’s Tale from 1623 – and …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:48AM
Tuesday, January 5, 2016

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2015 #19: ‘A Look Back at Dance in 2015’ by Lisa Traiger by Lisa Traiger

For reasons that continue to surprise me, 2015 was a relatively light dance-going year for me. That said, I managed to take in nearly a top ten of memorable, exceptional or challenging perfo…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:17PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime