Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Florence Foster Jenkins " the socialite-turned-soprano " has a solemn warm-up routine. Looking religiously intent, she flexes and massages her jaw. She touches her fingers delicately to her …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:43PMMonday, February 10, 2014
She seems a fragile support for an ambitious family canvas: this slender barefoot woman in a white nightdress, often seen huddled in a wooden rocking chair. Yet, in "La Señorita de Tacna …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:16PMThursday, February 6, 2014
One of the most powerful moments in NextStop Theatre Company's "Richard III" contains no audible words. It's near the end of the play; at Richard's behest, the sinister ruffian Tyrell has mu…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:30PMTuesday, February 4, 2014
Faint shouts and cheers waft periodically from the rear of the stage during the Keegan Theatre's "The Best Man." Gore Vidal's 1960 drama imagines an eventful presidential convention, and the…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:03PMSunday, January 26, 2014
If Brides magazine ever decided to cover "Wedding of Ordos," the editors would have to relegate all other nuptial-related topics to another issue. As seen at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:24PMTuesday, January 21, 2014
Sometimes the sad sack wins the day. During much of Constellation Theatre Company's delightful "Scapin," the none-too-bright servant Sylvestre (Bradley Foster Smith) exudes wet-noodle dolefu…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:42PMAn eye for absurdity can take you a long way: The work of the engaging solo performer Steven Fales is a case in point. His trio of autobiographical one-man shows " "Confessions of a Mormon B…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:56AMFriday, January 17, 2014
If it is possible to execute a full-body leer, actor Jack Boice has mastered the trick. A scene in the campy entertainment "50 Shades! The Musical" finds the performer " wearing a skimpy red…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:24PMJeff Calhoun has directed for Broadway. He has directed for regional theaters; he has directed galas; and he directed tours of "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2." The other da…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:59AMThursday, January 9, 2014
When does the exuberantly seedy spirit that animates Pointless Theatre's "Minnie the Moocher" flare into full view? Is it when two sinister figures wearing skull masks caper comically on, th…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:04PMFriday, January 3, 2014
Conventional wisdom holds that January can be a challenging time for theaters, with winter weather and post-holiday fatigue tending to put a damper on attendance. But in Richmond, the period…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:20AMFriday, December 13, 2013
You might expect a drummer to take a leery view of tap dancers. After all, tap dancers create their own crisp rhythms from floor and shoe leather " sort of infringing on a percussionist's tu…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:42AMWednesday, December 11, 2013
There's a point in the second act of 1st Stage's current production " Michael Frayn's beloved farce "Noises Off" " when a character inadvertently aligns with a cactus. The moment crowns a se…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:29PMFriday, November 29, 2013
Holiday parties of all descriptions are in the pipeline around the region. But few festive gatherings will be as zoologically notable as those in two children's musicals, "Elephant & Pig…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:01PMFriday, November 8, 2013
Never underestimate the usefulness of a vampiric fairy. Such a supernatural creature"or, to be more accurate, the idea of one " played a critical role in the birth of "Matthew Bourne's 'Slee…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:37PMThursday, November 7, 2013
A hallucinatory domesticity marks this battle in early 13th-century France. Instead of swords, pikes and longbows, the troops are armed with modern household objects and sporting gear: a ten…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:08PMTuesday, November 5, 2013
"Pay attention!" You won't hear that instruction when you take your seat for Mickle Maher's play "There Is a Happiness That Morning Is," running as part of fallFringe. Still, you'd be advise…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:35PMFriday, November 1, 2013
A playwright's arsenal should include a kind of temperature-sensor-and-homing device. Such, at least, is the philosophy of Yael Farber, the dramatist and director whose adaptation "Mies Juli…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:37AMTuesday, October 29, 2013
It is both fitting and slightly ironic that Charlayne Woodard's first words, at the start of "The Night Watcher," should be "Out of the blue . . . ." Fitting, because that phra…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:01PMPerseverance pays off for the characters in "Goodnight Moon," the sweetly impish children's musical based on the classic picture book by writer Margaret Wise Brown and illustrator Clement Hu…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:14AMMonday, October 21, 2013
You thought airline security was a hassle? The feisty senior citizen named Miche has had a showdown with a body scanner " and she hasn't even reached the airport yet. Her equally elderly fri…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:50PMTo answer the obligatory question: Yes, there were bonobos (sort of). At least twice during the whimsical "Bonobo Milkshake," performed by Sally Silvers & Dancers at the American Dance …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:40AMMonday, October 14, 2013
The environment " initially " appears to be spartan: a couple of benches on a black floor, in front of school lockers, which are also black. But the visual starkness turns out to be deceptiv…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:42PMWednesday, October 2, 2013
Congress did not have Bertolt Brecht in mind when it wrenched the government into shutdown mode early this week. But the politicians did achieve " indirectly " a small Brechtian feat Tuesday…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:25PMWednesday, September 25, 2013
The thud of tools biting into rock. Dripping noises, suggestive of dank subterranean spaces. Early on in director Stevie Zimmerman's lively and absorbing production of "The Pitmen Painters,"…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:19PMWednesday, September 18, 2013
Would you let your beloved talk you into become a toreador? Especially if it meant waging your first-ever bullfight in front of a king? You would if you were Cosme Rana, one of the love-beda…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:48AMWednesday, September 11, 2013
Joan of Arc dared greatly. The prince of Elsinore dared " but did a lot more dithering. That difference aside, the protagonists of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" and Shakespeare's "Hamle…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:13PMThursday, August 22, 2013
If you insist on being literal, there is no subway connecting urban America with Liberia, India, Bulgaria and an arena of transformation that may be Death. But on a metaphoric and acoustic l…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:07PMThursday, August 15, 2013
For a play whose characters spend considerable time standing at attention " or hovering, with disciplined posture, near a testifying witness " there's an impressive physical dynamism to the …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:53PMThursday, July 25, 2013
For an embodiment of anarchy, this whiskered visitor is awfully personable. After strolling into a glum household, sporting his trademark striped headgear, he beams and does a soft-shoe rout…
SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:12PMThursday, July 18, 2013
What's with the uptick in new plays about the Salem Witch Trials? This month, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., premiered Liz Duffy Adams's "A Discourse on …
SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:16PM 
