Thursday, January 17, 2019
What I remember most vividly about Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly!, some forty years after I saw her performance, are her eyes, and the surprising vulnerability, even neediness, that they ex…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 09:12AMFriday, December 21, 2018
I don’t care if The Play That Goes Wrong has won prestigious theatre awards named Olivier and Tony. I don’t care how much the ticket costs, and that there is an intermission, and that it…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 03:42PMWednesday, December 19, 2018
“In mid-August, I did the audition and, the very next day, I got the call from my agent that I had booked it; and then, six days after that, I started rehearsal; and then, six days after t…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:12PMFriday, November 30, 2018
The jukebox musical is the red-headed step-child of contemporary theatre. The worst reviews you could ever read in, say, The New York Times will be of jukebox musicals. (Okay; maybe King Kon…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 01:32PMTuesday, November 27, 2018
The ever dependable Adventure Theatre MTC has unveiled its Christmas show for this year, Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas. Based on a book (part of a series) by Jane O’Connor an…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:12PMI once saw Edward Albee speak on a panel with Robert Wilson. Albee described his disappointment when he re-watched the Werner Herzog film Aguirre, Wrath of God. There was a particular sequen…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 01:06PMWednesday, October 31, 2018
When Rick Foucheux retired from acting, he did so as one of the most popular, award-winning, one might even say beloved performers in town. Many bemoaned the prospect of no more Foucheux o…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:48PMThursday, October 4, 2018
Editor’s note: Carrie Coon was an unknown Chicago actor before landing the role of Honey, the “pliant and sweetly sozzled soul” in Steppenwolf’s Whose Afraid of Vir…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:06AMFriday, September 7, 2018
Last year, I spoke with Naomi Robin (as she was leaving her longtime gig as Casting Director at Theater J) about her time there and about her career more broadly. I also asked her about the …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PMMonday, August 27, 2018
Neil Simon has died. As a playwright, a book-writer of musicals, a gag-writer for the golden age of television, a screenwriter, and a legendary “play doctor” (his ability to fix problems…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 03:54PMThursday, August 16, 2018
School was out. Daddy had some days off. Seemed like a good time to take the kids up to New York City — and then to go back again the following week to see some theatre not suitable for (t…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:18PMSaturday, June 30, 2018
The DC theatre community lost one of its most admired, respected, and beloved members on June 9th. Elizabeth Kitsos-Kang was only 53 years old when she succumbed to cancer. The outpouring of…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:36AMWednesday, June 20, 2018
“I mean, actors — it’s hard for us to judge whether we’re good in something or not, because we’re probably not a good judge of it. We go by how it feels. “If you discover somet…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AMThursday, May 17, 2018
Let’s begin with Fernando Hechavarría, who plays Petra in the Teatro El Público production of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, which opened last night, the first of a mere two perform…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:12PMFriday, May 4, 2018
The RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) has breezed into town (for a few days only) with its fresh, strikingly handsome, and wonderfully creative production of Hamlet. Simon Godwin, the play’s…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:04PMFriday, April 20, 2018
Kennedy Center’s “Bergman 100 Celebration” continues with (through Sunday only!) a Toneelgroep Amsterdam production: stage versions of two screenplays by the great man whose centenary …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:12AMMonday, April 2, 2018
If this was the concert version, what on earth will they add to a fully-staged version? Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert was the latest in the string of musicals being broadcast live o…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:52AMTuesday, March 27, 2018
Everybody loves a day at the beach, especially kids. In these DC days of a snowy Spring, Kennedy Center is providing an opportunity for seashore fun (no airfare needed) by hosting, in its Fa…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 04:50PMFriday, March 9, 2018
Elaine May’s play Adult Education, currently in previews in a production by The Klunch, “is pretty delightful. It’s kind of a porno Pygmalion sort of play, in terms of porn stars sudde…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PMThursday, March 8, 2018
It was a divinely beautiful sequence. Down the aisles of the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater strode the Bowie State University Pep Band. They spread out in front of and on the stage an…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:54AMThursday, February 1, 2018
You have until February 11th to see The Way of the World at Folger Theatre. Playwright Theresa Rebeck has rewritten the Restoration classic and directs a cast led by Kristine Nielsen. In par…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:01AMWednesday, January 24, 2018
Theresa Rebeck, Kristine Nielsen, and The Way of the World “Are you twins? Sisters?” Theresa Rebeck and Kristine Nielsen were heading past a guard’s desk at Folger Shakespeare Library …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 01:47PMFriday, January 19, 2018
“Are you kidding? I’d dance in a parking lot to do this play!” Pamela Reed was explaining to me her reaction to the offer of the role of Deirdre in The Humans. The 2016 Tony winner for…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:34PMFriday, January 12, 2018
“Do you have long knees?” The question came to me from the gentleman of a certain age who had the seat in front of mine at On Your Feet! The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:39AMWednesday, December 27, 2017
’Tis the season when many a pair of tiny eyes are concentrated northward, preoccupied with the denizens of the arctic and their yearly trek. Ears listen to that London-based tale that is t…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 03:33PMThursday, December 7, 2017
As part of the Bergman 100 Celebration, an event marking the centenary of the iconic Swedish filmmaker and stage director Ingmar Bergman, The Kennedy Center is presenting a stage version of …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:33PMWednesday, November 22, 2017
One of the most poignant moments I’ve recently seen at the theatre occurs (no spoiler alert needed!) at the end of Me…Jane: The Dreams & Adventures of Young Jane Goodall, which opene…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:36AMTuesday, November 21, 2017
One of the most beloved classics of children’s literature is Charlotte’s Web. E.B. White’s 1952 novel has seen stage and film adaptations over the years. I can’t imagine (pun intende…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:24AMFriday, October 27, 2017
“It’s almost as much a political event as an artistic one,” Al Jirikowic (my companion at Thursday night’s performance of Burning Doors from Belarus Free Theatre) said to me. He al…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 01:18PMTuesday, October 10, 2017
Another top-notch offering for young audiences began this past weekend: Blancaflor, the latest in the GALita series of theatre for children. GAlita is the arm of GALA Hispanic Theatre that c…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:54AMWednesday, September 27, 2017
We were in the closing moments of my talk with Michael Kahn, then in the midst of directing two Pinter one acts. Given his recent announcement that he will leave Shakespeare Theatre Company …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PM 
