All stories by Celia Wren on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

1st Stage's 'Italian American Reconciliation' runs a bit thin by Celia Wren

The characters in John Patrick Shanley's "Italian American Reconciliation" appreciate the minestrone at their local diner. Watching them relish their soup in the version of the play now at N…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:41PM[SHARE]

Spooky Action Theater's 'Kafka on the Shore' suffers from uneven acting by Celia Wren

"This is starting to feel like an Indiana Jones movie or something!" a character exclaims in Spooky Action Theater's "Kafka on the Shore." There is, certainly, a swashbuckling adventure elem…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:55PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 4, 2013

A 'Hat' full of sarcasm, profanity and romance by Celia Wren

Don't be deceived by that expletive basking in the title, or by the profanity-riddled sarcasm and bluster that is the characters' default communication mode: There's an element of romance in…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:12PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Theater review: The Washington Stage Guild's 'Tryst' by Celia Wren

The empty picture frames that hover in the background of the Washington Stage Guild's "Tryst" seem ever more apt as this suspense drama unspools. For starters, George Love, the con man chara…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:48PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 19, 2012

'Les Miserables' at National Theatre is competent version with commercial feel by Celia Wren

Somewhere, a savvy media mogul is surely planning a "Les Miserables" theme park, complete with a Sewers of Paris log-flume ride; a "Look Down! Look Down!" parachute drop; and a "Master of th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:46AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

In 'How I Paid for College' at Hub Theatre, quirkiness abounds by Celia Wren

If you were to ease into a life of benign criminality, you could do worse than to land a guide like Edward Zanni. The hero of "How I Paid for College," an amusing but unmemorable monologue-w…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:53PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 10, 2012

Charmingly tongue-in-cheek 'Altar Boyz' is equal parts backsliding and Backstreet by Celia Wren

Is there room on your smartphone for a soul-sensor app? You might hanker for one after attending "Altar Boyz," the musical that's larking about at 1st Stage in Tysons Corner. The show's char…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:30AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 5, 2012

'Night,' 'Life' offer two takes on Christmas: Cynical and optimistic by Celia Wren

Snapshots of families you barely know tumble out of the red and green envelopes in your mail. Hackneyed carols cloy the air in supermarkets. The average Starbucks smells like a nutmeg empori…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:48PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Easy to get lost in lively, crowded 'Seussical' by Celia Wren

Things are getting busy in the Jungle of Nool " and we're not just talking about the selfless missions of Horton the Elephant, the mischief of the Wickersham monkeys and the meddling antics …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 26, 2012

In children's theaters, colorful figures from America's past by Celia Wren

Plucky pioneers, medicine-show hucksters, a Union Army balloonist and other colorful figures from America's past are bustling through two local children's productions. Over in Glen Echo, Adv…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:23PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 21, 2012

'Jekyll & Hyde' musical thrilling, ominous and way too obvious by Celia Wren

Would you like a side of pseudo-profundity with your serving of lurid melodrama? If so, I have the theatrical repast for you: "Jekyll & Hyde," the overheated and nuance-free musical by c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:50PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 12, 2012

In 'The Comfort Team,' an affecting look at the many griefs of war by Celia Wren

You have to take solace where you can find it. For Chandra, a Navy bride whose honeymoon was interrupted by the U.S. military's surge in Iraq, there's consolation in waving sage-and-lavender…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:32AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 7, 2012

At Keegan Theatre, 'All My Sons' is a family circle of secrets by Celia Wren

A white picket fence is all very well, but that emblem of middle-class aspiration can't shut out the past. And it's no defense against moral accountability. Those thoughts might fleet throug…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:55PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 5, 2012

'Atheist's Paradise' from The Edge of the Universe Players 2 by Celia Wren

At one point in local writer Bill Goodman's new play, a kindly flying instructor tells an anxious new student that her first-ever solo flying stint was graceless and inept. Would that one co…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:25PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 2, 2012

A puppet show for the dybbuk in all of us by Celia Wren

The adroit and tangy puppet show "The Dybbuk Between Two Worlds" tells of a spooky tug-of-war between the natural and supernatural realms. But the "two worlds" of the title could also be the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:14PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 31, 2012

New funding program brings avant-garde 'Amarillo' to U.S. by Celia Wren

Sand spills from a jug held by a whirling woman. Sand sluices over the still, prone body of a man. Sand cascades from dozens of plastic bags that dangle in the air like broken hourglasses. A…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:13PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 18, 2012

In Hugh Masekela's 'Songs of Migration,' a fantastic voyage by Celia Wren

Hugh Masekela's trumpet becomes a mining drill in "Songs of Migration," the tuneful, quietly stirring musical tribute running through Saturday at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. True, …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:47PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

15th International Festival of Hispanic Theater: T'is both here and there by Celia Wren

Forget the green-eyed monster: Othello should look out for the guy with the red clown nose. Dominican theater artist Claudio Rivera dons such a nozzle for "Otelo . . . Sniff,"…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:54AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 12, 2012

Review | Spooky Action Theater's 'Reckless' turns Christmas tree upside down by Celia Wren

The Yuletide season was not designed to bruise and batter the human spirit, but sometimes it has that effect. Just look at Rachel, the chirpy wife and mom who flees her home in terror on Chr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:56AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 4, 2012

In 'Holly Down in Heaven,' dolls begin to toy with teen by Celia Wren

Saint Simeon spent years living atop a pillar, the story goes. Saint Anthony of Egypt withdrew to the desert. Could they have chosen those routes to holiness because they lived prior to the …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:27PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 17, 2012

Theater review: 'In Spite of Love' at GALA Hispanic Theatre by Celia Wren

They're not quite Beatrice and Benedick, or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Still, an appealing antagonism waxes and wanes between Carlos, count of Urgel, and Diana, princess of Barcelona, t…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 12, 2012

'Taking Steps' at Source Theatre by Celia Wren

You wouldn't want him vetting texts for libel, or drafting your will. You certainly wouldn't want to find him near a courtroom. Pale and tongue-tied, with a precariously knotted bow tie and …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:14PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 9, 2012

Sizzling 'August' settles in at Keegan Theatre by Celia Wren

The folks at 1-800-FLOWERS must be grateful there aren't more Violet Westons. Violet is the flakily savage matriarch at the heart of "August: Osage County," Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winn…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:31PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 27, 2012

'A Year of Giving' at Capital Fringe Festival engages and satisfies by Celia Wren

You'll find a photograph on your chair when you walk into "A Year of Giving," an engaging and often funny play based on the blog of local thinker and philanthropist Reed Sandridge. Each phot…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:36PM[SHARE]
Monday, July 23, 2012

Fringe Festival: 'Tent of Dreams: An Occuplay' by Celia Wren

The road to Fringe is paved with good intentions: Witness, for instance, "Tent of Dreams: An Occuplay," mounted by Nu Sass Productions. A collaboratively generated piece written by Emily Cro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:16PM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 22, 2012

Parsing Hamlet's brain by Celia Wren

Oh what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The 90-minute, six-actor "Hamlet" mounted by We Happy Few Productions practically invites theatergoers to join in Ophelia's lament. For it is the pre…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:43PM[SHARE]

A family scrapbook writ musically by Celia Wren

The old-fashioned garments dangling from a laundry line, on the set of "Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame," appear to have been washed, and hung to dry, with loving care. …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:40PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 20, 2012

'Big Love' at The Hub Theatre: Madcap matrimony on a large scale by Celia Wren

It's the kind of hoopla "Brides" magazine doesn't warn you about. The room is seething with people in formal attire " dancing, eating wedding cake, cracking open the gift boxes that stand in…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:01PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Review: 'Madame: Helena Rubinstein in America' at the Capital Fringe Festival needs more than a little makeup by Celia Wren

A little primping " a dab of radiance-renewing serum, an exfoliating scrub " will not suffice. With stiff dialogue, disjointed storytelling, awkward pauses, multiple wooden acting turns and …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:13AM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 15, 2012

'Flight of Fancy (A Steampunk Ballet)' at Capital Fringe Festival by Celia Wren

Let's hear it for the corset, garment of personal liberation! You can almost imagine that cheer resounding through the world depicted in "Flight of Fancy (A Steampunk Ballet)." This charming…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:54PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Contemporary American Theater Festival grapples with theme of kinship by Celia Wren

Blood is thicker than water " but how does it stack up against the power of thought? That question is getting a satisfying theatrical workout at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, t…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:02PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off