All stories by Susan Galbraith on BroadwayStars

Saturday, November 6, 2021

GALA’s flamenco festival begins with a dramatic gem in ‘Salvador’ by Susan Galbraith

Choreographer/dancer Edwin Aparicio mines his own childhood memories of war and migration.

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:00PM
Sunday, October 10, 2021

A performance of magnitude and nuance: David Strathairn as Jan Karski by Susan Galbraith

At Shakespeare Theatre, this one-man play about a hero who bore witness to the Holocaust packs a wallop.

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:57PM
Friday, September 17, 2021

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ‘The Amen Corner’ returns in glory by Susan Galbraith

The acclaimed production of James Baldwin's classic is back for two weeks only.

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:28PM
Sunday, September 12, 2021

Lorca’s ‘Doña Rosita the Spinster’ is pure pleasure at GALA by Susan Galbraith

Spanish actress Mabel Del Pozo brilliantly creates a portrait of a woman who struggles with but finally eludes how society would fix her. 

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:02PM
Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Dispatch from Glimmerglass on the Grass: ‘Songbird’ and ‘Il Trovatore’ by Susan Galbraith

The famous opera festival in Cooperstown, New York, now in its 46th year, has been reimagined as a whole new adventure.

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:43PM
Monday, May 3, 2021

‘Blindness’ in darkness at Shakespeare is a brilliant beacon of theater by Susan Galbraith

On this Kentucky Derby weekend, wondering what theatrical “horse” will nose ahead and augur well for a new world of theater when we can emerge from the pandemic, I’m placing my bet on …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:54PM
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

I took Natsu Onoda Power’s ‘Okinawa Field Trip’ and came back with questions by Susan Galbraith

In a world where our lives are bounded by pandemic restrictions, performance and travel alike have been reduced mostly to private viewings and stay-cations. The situation has spawned experim…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:50PM
Monday, April 26, 2021

Live at last at GALA, a boldly comic ‘Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter’ by Susan Galbraith

Trudging up the two flights from the rainy street-level pavement to GALA Hispanic Theatre’s auditorium entrance felt like a pilgrimage. (Yes, I could have taken the elevator, but who would…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:57AM
Friday, November 13, 2020

Review: El Perro del Hortelano (The Dog in the Manger) from GALA Hispanic Theatre by Susan Galbraith

February 8, 2020 I sat in GALA’s historic entertainment “palace” to review Nilo Cruz’ Exquisita Agonia. It was the last time (pre-Covid) I enjoyed live theater. Nine months later, Ma…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:54PM
Friday, November 6, 2020

Review: The interrogation of Alberto Gonzales hits its musical mark in Gonzales Cantata by Susan Galbraith

Election night 2020 IN Series opened a cantata-as-opera based on the Senate Judiciary hearings of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It was bold enough that Artistic Director Timothy Nelson …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:36PM
Monday, October 19, 2020

Review: Synetic’s Joy! Maria Simpkins balances defiance with cheeky humor by Susan Galbraith

I click on the link and settle in for the new show, Joy!, delivered into my living room by Synetic Theater. A special surprise “Joy” box at my side ready to be opened. Check.  Glass of …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:24AM
Saturday, September 26, 2020

Opera Review: Miranda: A Steam Punk VR Experience, LUMA’s bold experiment by Susan Galbraith

Steam Punk as a style launches viewers into a futuristic universe while it casts a glance backwards nostalgically to a simpler, more elegant world. Miranda: A Steam Punk VR Experience create…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Monday, September 21, 2020

Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Susan Galbraith

Ruth Bader Ginsburg well earned the sobriquet “Notorious.”  Everything about her seemed to live in happy contradiction. She followed her mother’s “dueling” advice: always to be a …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:06PM
Friday, September 11, 2020

Opera Lafayette heads to Colorado cattle country for live open air performances of The Blacksmith by Susan Galbraith

Learning about performance companies leaping into bold adventures and rediscovering the impulse of sharing their art in new creative ways has never been more welcome. Opera Lafayette, a comp…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:06PM
Monday, July 20, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 10. It’s a wrap! by Susan Galbraith

We have come to the end of Synetic Theater’s series of short videos based on Giovanni’s classic “in-the-time-of-the-plague” entertainments. Like one of those imported Masterpiece The…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:54PM
Saturday, July 18, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 9. Imaginings run wild by Susan Galbraith

Boccaccio’s world of The Decameron continues as cyber-theater for two more rounds of short videos by Synetic Theater’s company members and close associates. Imbedded in the program is o…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:03PM
Friday, July 17, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Days 7 & 8. Unraveling minds. by Susan Galbraith

In trying to capture the times of our modern plague, the sum of the Synetic artists who have made these short performance works have shown us life as it has been reduced: clowns in cramped s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:24PM
Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day 5, a silent trio of humor and noir by Susan Galbraith

Day 5 brings us three new short works by Synetic Theater members as studies on life in the time of Covid. Kat Cárdenas-Cruz put a smile on my face with her short piece, “An Artist Struggl…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:03PM
Sunday, July 12, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day Three. From somber to sexy by Susan Galbraith

”And how shall we entertain ourselves?” the characters in Boccaccio’s 14th century story collection, The Decameron, keep asking, and each in turn tells a tale. In Day 3 of Synetic Thea…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:32AM
Friday, July 10, 2020

Review: Synetic Theater’s The Decameron, Day Two by Susan Galbraith

In Ronald Harwood’s 20th-century play about the theater, The Dresser, the title character says of his friend who was in crisis due to depression, “What saved him was an offer of work.”…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:32AM
Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Review: Synetic’s artists interpret three stories from 14th century plague novel, The Decameron. Day 1 by Susan Galbraith

When society seems bound together in a single shared experience, that is often the time when a work of art resurfaces, offering itself up as metaphor and speaking directly to the times. Duri…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:54PM
Friday, May 15, 2020

Francesca Zambello: Thoughts on opera in the time of Covid by Susan Galbraith

On May 13th, Opera America launched its first annual conference online, marking the organization’s Fiftieth Anniversary. Over 1200 people had signed in when I checked the count of attendee…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:36PM
Monday, May 4, 2020

There is good news for audiences watching theatre online. And it’s not just that it’s free. by Susan Galbraith

Strange times have given us just that: time. Specifically, all of us have time inside to experience performances on our home screens. Individual artists and companies are scrambling to mater…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:54AM
Tuesday, March 3, 2020

From The Women Composers Festival. Timothy Nelson introduces the women and the music that will “surprise, delight, and inspire” by Susan Galbraith

This first weekend in March brings together works from some extraordinary women working in exciting new directions today in the realm of ‘opera and beyond.’  In Series hosts a Women Com…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:03PM

Opera review: Don Giovanni meets the #MeToo movement by Susan Galbraith

It was inevitable. Don Giovanni would have to face the match of his life against the #MeToo movement. The problem is this production, not two years after the resplendent WNO production direc…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:18AM
Monday, March 2, 2020

Opera review: Samson and Delilah. Modern technicals make this rarely seen story “an opera for the senses” by Susan Galbraith

Opening night came on a Sunday afternoon for Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns. It’s an opera not seen in Washington for ages, and, headlined by the ravishing J’Nai Bridges, the…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:06PM
Friday, February 28, 2020

Opera review: Beethovan’s Leonore from Opera Lafayette by Susan Galbraith

Opera Lafayette has taken on a prodigiously ambitious task in tackling the “reawakening” of Ludwig van Beethoven’s single operatic masterpiece (Fidelio) by giving us the composer’s e…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:42PM
Friday, February 14, 2020

Review: World Stages: Heroine. A disappointing production of a powerful wartime story by Susan Galbraith

I mostly love the works brought to DC by The Kennedy Center’s World Stages. I love the sub-genre of one-person shows. I also take a serious interest and have been involved in working with …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:42PM
Monday, February 10, 2020

Review: GALA’s Exquisita Agonía (Exquisite Agony), visually and emotionally stunning by Susan Galbraith

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz has come to Washington’s GALA Hispanic Theatre to direct his most recent play, and has unleashed from his prodigiously creative mind something l…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:32PM
Friday, February 7, 2020

Review: World Stages: Huff. A dazzling young performer delivers hard truths by Susan Galbraith

A stranger comes to town. He changes things up. He sheds a light on deep darkness.  There are things the people don’t want to see but can’t look away. There is something of the shaman a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PM
Monday, January 27, 2020

Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns at Arena Stage, a harrowing Afghan drama by Susan Galbraith

Carey Perloff’s opening scene of the staged adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s shattering novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, moves with breathtaking beauty. Two women in one direction and a m…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:03PM

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