All stories by Celia Wren on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

NextStop Theatre’s ‘Middletown’ ponders life’s mysteries by Celia Wren

Partway through dramatist Will Eno’s quirky, philosophical and nearly plot-free “Middletown,” an eccentric couple who have opted to tour a run-of-the-mill small American community expl…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:32PM
Sunday, December 20, 2015

Savion Glover, and his feet, tapped out a show as if the audience wasn’t there by Celia Wren

A muse and a band seemed to battle it out for Savion Glover’s affection Saturday night. At times during the now-rapt, now-meandering “Dance Holiday Spectacular” performance at George M…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:52PM
Thursday, December 10, 2015

Chicago’s Neo Futurists courses with punk rock energy in ‘Too Much Light’ by Celia Wren

Somewhere in clothesline heaven, assorted long fibers are giving thanks for the existence of the Neo-Futurists. Because the adventurous Chicago troupe has elevated the status of the entire s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:14PM
Monday, December 7, 2015

A zesty iteration of ‘Bad Jews’ at Studio Theatre by Celia Wren

The words “belligerence” and “banana” may not usually appear in the same sentence. But among the noteworthy traits of Daphna, the opinionated, fervently Jewish 22-year-old at the hea…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:25PM
Thursday, December 3, 2015

‘Entertaining Mr Sloane,’ by the Edge of the Universe Players 2 by Celia Wren

No chess set appears in the 1960s living room that’s the setting for director Stephen Jarrett’s staging of “Entertaining Mr Sloane.” But you could almost swear that the board game wa…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:27PM
Thursday, November 19, 2015

David Arquette falls flat as Sherlock Holmes at the Warner Theatre by Celia Wren

“All this rushing around — I feel quite giddy,” the evil mastermind Professor Moriarty remarks at one point in “Sherlock Holmes,” running at the Warner Theatre through Sunday. The …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:15PM
Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Sound effects star in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ by Celia Wren

Among the stars of Washington Stage Guild’s latest production: a comb, a metal bucket and a tray of cornflakes.Sure, there are also human performers in “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live R…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:04PM
Friday, November 13, 2015

Oregon’s theater trail to Washington by Celia Wren

ASHLAND, ORE. — The princely title character in “Pericles” sails from country to country, meeting with shipwreck and human villainy, devastating loss and unexpected joy. The version of…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:27PM
Wednesday, November 11, 2015

A gender-bending ‘Henry IV’ by Celia Wren

With apologies to Falstaff, the better part of valor is not always discretion. You have to be glad that Brave Spirits Theatre has flung caution to the wind and staged an almost entirely re-g…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:57PM
Monday, November 9, 2015

Who gets to decide what’s normal, and why? by Celia Wren

With its pill-dispensing stations and trim, backless sofas, this hospital lounge doesn’t look like a stomping ground for cannibals. But cannibals do lurk here, as do space pirates, lizard …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:08PM
Wednesday, October 28, 2015

‘Avenue Q’ remains true: Still off-color and impolitic by Celia Wren

It is a relief to report that there has been no ruinous gentrification of Avenue Q. It was back in 2003 that the thoroughfare gave its name to a gleefully irreverent, puppet-enhanced musical…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:34PM
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Spoofing cellphone addiction, to hilarious effect by Celia Wren

Is Google making us stupid? Maybe, maybe not. But the wired lifestyle has certainly dimmed the acumen of Amelia, Barnaby, Chantal and Dagobert, the principal characters in Emilio Williams’…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:38PM
Tuesday, October 20, 2015

‘Gimme a Band’ delves into Carmen Miranda’s all-too-colorful story by Celia Wren

A big tip of a tropical-fruit-bedecked hat to Pointless Theatre for its distinctive and ebullient contribution to the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Many young theater companies might qu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:30PM
Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Review: ‘Trish Tinkler Gets Saved’ and ‘The Long Way Around’ by Celia Wren

Is there something about mini-marts that prompts soul searching? You might almost think so after watching Jacqueline Goldfinger’s “Trish Tinkler Gets Saved” and Julia Starr’s “The …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:08PM
Thursday, October 8, 2015

Synetic’s sweeping, sinister ‘Alice’ by Celia Wren

Lewis Carroll, who was an Oxford University mathematics lecturer, might have delighted in calculating the speeds that cascade through Synetic Theater’s darkly hallucinatory “Alice in Won…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:13PM
Friday, October 2, 2015

Looking beyond the ecstatic whirling; viewing African artists via their books by Celia Wren

The dervish ethos goes way beyond whirling.That’s likely to be one takeaway from “Dervishes and Their Belongings,” an exhibition of about 300 historical artifacts at the Turkish Americ…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:00PM
Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Inaugural offering from Convergence Theatre is whimsical, resourceful by Celia Wren

Launching a career is tough. And the last thing an ambitious young professional needs is a chatty ghost elephant seeking to transform the 9-to-5 landscape into a mythological killing field.T…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:27PM
Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Playwright and psychotherapist addresses mental health issue by Celia Wren

A messy office is an ominous signifier in “The Point,” a play with the good intentions, and much of the bluntness, of a public-service announcement. Currently on view in a stiffly acted,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:23PM

The four faces of Queen Elizabeth by Celia Wren

A dignitary should know how to make a proper entrance, and Elizabeth I — all four of her — gets the business right in “texts&beheadings/ElizabethR.” Created and directed by the a…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:23PM
Friday, September 25, 2015

Estonian musician finds her voice digging in the library stacks by Celia Wren

Not many young musicians find their muses in a university archive, but fiddler and singer Maarja Nuut is indebted to the University of Tartu’s Viljandi Culture Academy, in her homeland of …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:10AM
Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Play explores when your soul mate isn’t your husband by Celia Wren

In one of the funnier moments in “Whenever You’re Near Me I Feel Sick,” Jennie Berman Eng’s slender rom-com variation, an airport’s recorded-announcement voice starts functioning a…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:38PM
Friday, September 18, 2015

Filmmakers waylaid by sheep and sanctions by Celia Wren

Here’s one thing you don’t learn in film school: sheep wrangling. Though the central character in Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras’s latest film is a young girl, the supporting ca…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:33PM
Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Review: Laundry day can be arduous, but at this laundromat, it’s apocalyptic by Celia Wren

Have humans put the universe through the heavy-duty cycle when it really needed a quick spin on delicate? It’s hard not to get carried away with the metaphorical possibilities of the laund…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:19PM

Yearning for a child in ‘Yerma,’ at GALA by Celia Wren

To gauge the intensity of “Yerma,” Spanish director José Luis Arellano García’s latest collaboration with GALA Hispanic Theatre, consider that the production doesn’t even pause at …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:07PM
Friday, September 11, 2015

A playwright’s self-imposed exile by Celia Wren

“Exile saves you even as it shatters you,” said Wajdi Mouawad, a Lebanese-born writer, director and performer who is one of the most-produced playwrights in France and Canada. Mouawad kn…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:10AM
Tuesday, September 8, 2015

In ‘Night Falls,’ a woman’s body becomes a temple of the otherworldly by Celia Wren

The evocation of a massage session is stylized — almost jarringly so. Our heroine, Renee (Jeanne Dillon-Williams), the recovering alcoholic who is receiving the body-kneading treatment, st…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:15PM
Friday, September 4, 2015

Mutual Inspirations Festival 2015 celebrates Czech writer Karel Capek by Celia Wren

Prepare for rebellious automatons, a 300-year-old opera singer, and a pack of newts taking a page from Ira Glass. These and other inventions will unfold locally this fall courtesy of the Cze…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:18PM
Friday, August 28, 2015

A poignant tour of the Azerbaijani capital’s Old City — in 17 minutes by Celia Wren

The invitation came with a catch.An Azerbaijani producer who was putting together a collection of short films asked filmmaker and writer Maria Ibrahimova if she’d be interested in contribu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:38PM
Friday, August 21, 2015

A singer’s pride in Africa by Celia Wren

The singer Rafiya racked up a lot of miles during her childhood. Born in Los Angeles to Congolese parents, the singer (who uses one name professionally) grew up in Congo, Cape Verde, Benin, …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:56AM
Tuesday, August 18, 2015

One play’s weirdness has meaning; the other just seems to be fooling around by Celia Wren

Weirdness that is deep, measured and suspenseful trumps weirdness that is scattered, frantic and jokey. At least, that statement holds true when you’re talking about the double-bill of one…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:59PM
Friday, August 14, 2015

A fairy tale with a real-life grit by Celia Wren

A juvenile delinquent wielding a can of spray paint may not be the kind of character most people associate with fairy tales, but ­Paris-based director Hicham Ayouch says there’s a touch o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:53PM

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