Friday, December 11, 2020
It’s always an awkward situation when leadership of an organization transitions. The smartest model, of course, is for the outgoing leader to separate cleanly and to fade quietly into the …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:32PMFriday, June 26, 2020
“If the performance sucks, it is 100% your fault, divided by the number of people here.” So the audience was informed toward the end of #txtshow (on the internet), which I experienced la…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:03PMThursday, March 19, 2020
“You might be isolated, but you’re not alone. You are an art maker. Let’s make some together.” -Mo Willems Willems is the author of some of the most popular books for young audienc…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:02PMSaturday, February 1, 2020
There are a few ways to handle the often reviled, increasingly prevalent form we know as the “jukebox musical.” Sometimes (Mama Mia!, as an example), the music catalog of a popular artis…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 04:36PMWednesday, December 11, 2019
We few; we happy few. Six performances times sixteen seats comes to fewer than 100 people who will see The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers, which is a very early one-act by Tennesse…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:18AMTuesday, December 3, 2019
As A Christmas Carol is to the theatre, so is The Nutcracker to the dance. It’s the perennially performed ballet that defines the holiday experience for many families — and provides a de…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 01:03PMTuesday, November 26, 2019
If you think you hear the gloriously ingenious cackling of delighted children, it may be emanating from the Family Theater at The Kennedy Center. If it is mixed with some lower-pitched guffa…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:06PMFriday, November 15, 2019
“I think that anybody coming in will go, ‘Oh wow: look at those people; look at that time in life; look at that relevancy to now. That man is being so horrible to that other person; why?…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:33AMTuesday, October 22, 2019
Mark Twain’s 1881 novel, The Prince and the Pauper, receives an engaging update (with a “digital, Hip Hop-infused twist”) at Kennedy Center’s Family Theater with the world premiere o…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 03:03PMFriday, June 7, 2019
I expect that, if you’ve found your way to this review, you will love the national tour of the recent Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, newly ensconced at Kennedy Center’s Opera House. …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 02:03PMFriday, May 17, 2019
“What’s wonderful about this play is: it really should appeal to any lover out there.” Vivienne Benesch was speaking with me as her production of Love’s Labor’s Lost was nearing it…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PMFriday, March 29, 2019
Michael Hollinger doesn’t want you to be misled by a thumbnail description of Ghost-Writer, his three-character play about an Edwardian-era writer, his wife, and his secretary, the latter …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 08:27AMThursday, March 21, 2019
You’re never too young to be taken to the theatre. And you’re never so young that you shouldn’t expect a lot from the theatre that is aimed toward you. That seems to be the proposition…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:06AMWednesday, March 20, 2019
I had a wonderful time at The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, a Theater for Young Audience’s world premiere Kennedy Center commission, on stage at the Center’s Eisenhower Theater thro…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 09:39AMFriday, March 1, 2019
I asked three actors, all playing female royalty in Richard the Third at Shakespeare Theatre Company, to talk about what might convince wavering potential audiences to see this production…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:58AMFriday, February 22, 2019
“I hope it is funny and sexy — and moving, too.” I had asked playwright Joe Calarco about Separate Rooms, his newest work; in particular, what about it would pique the interest of …
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 10:56AMWednesday, February 20, 2019
Double Dutch equals freedom. A character in She A Gem, on-stage at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater through Feb. 24th, says that, or something to that effect, early in the hour-long sho…
Linked From DC Theatre Scene at 11:02AMThursday, 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 02:12PM 
