All stories by Nelson Pressley on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

More than 50 premieres will take over D.C. in fall's Women's Voices Theater Festival by Nelson Pressley

Eight years after D.C. pulled together for the six month, 100-show Shakespeare in Washington festival, the city is at it again. The Women's Voices Theater Festival is set for the fall, with …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:15PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 30, 2015

Signature will kick up its heels with "West Side Story," "La Cage" and "Road Show" by Nelson Pressley

You knew one day we'd get another look at Stephen Sondheim's long-evolving musical "Bounce," as it was called when it appeared in 2003 at the Kennedy Center, which originally commissioned it…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:36AM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 29, 2015

Another bite of the Apples for Studio's upcoming season by Nelson Pressley

"Four buoyant and moving plays," Post critic Peter Marks wrote of Richard Nelson's "Apple Family" series when the first two " "That Hopey Changey Thing" and "Sweet and Sad" " were produced s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:33PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 26, 2015

Aggressive diversity at Woolly, all women at Rep, and the brand-new Fringe by Nelson Pressley

The 2015-16 theater news is pouring in: Woolly Mammoth has settled on its slate of six characteristically edgy plays anchored by a Sheila Callaghan world premiere, Columbia's Rep Stage has p…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:27PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Early Kushner and a play on domestic violence, now playing in little rooms by Nelson Pressley

Tony Kushner's epic "A Bright Room Called Day" takes place in a living room, but can you actually perform it in a living room? That's the gambit by the upstart Nu Sass Productions as it trie…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:59AM[SHARE]

Backstage with Jesus and Hitler in Ruhl's epic 'Passion Play' by Nelson Pressley

The temptations of Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play" include cameos by Elizabeth I, Adolf Hitler and Ronald Reagan, each briefly swanning through with a stateliness that keeps them well above the …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:42AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 24, 2015

True to the quest, STC delivers a noble 'La Mancha' by Nelson Pressley

When Anthony Warlow squares up and sings the title song in "Man of La Mancha," you won't find many people in Sidney Harman Hall complaining that the 1965 musical about fighting unbeatable fo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:20PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 23, 2015

The apocalypse comes to the Lower East Side in the new musical 'Soon' by Nelson Pressley

The songs in Nick Blaemire's pleasantly quirky new musical "Soon" are driven by guitars and a keyboard, but it's not quite a rock score. The music is full of strums and easygoing pulses; the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:04PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 20, 2015

Impossible dream: young director brings musicals to Shakespeare Co. by Nelson Pressley

When the Shakespeare Theatre Company expanded into the 775-seat Sidney Harman Hall in 2007, there was no way Artistic Director Michael Kahn could have known that a 22- year-old intern on a n…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:45PM[SHARE]

Scalia and the intern, punching from right and left in 'The Originalist' by Nelson Pressley

Is the bulldog conservative justice we see parading up and down the stage in "The Originalist" the Antonin Scalia? That's a verdict for the Supreme Court justice's intimates and close observ…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:45PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 19, 2015

Ageless Lansbury puts fizz in "Blithe Spirit" by Nelson Pressley

Who is Angela Lansbury to you " Jessica Fletcher? Mame? Mrs. Lovett? Mrs. Potts?The 89-year-old wonder is currently Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's chestnut "Blithe Spirit," and if a supporti…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:58PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Renee Calarco on the jailed 'Indian Jones' rabbi and her new play at Theater J by Nelson Pressley

Rabbi Menachem Youlus was known as the "Jewish Indiana Jones" for his adventurous tales of rescuing Torahs from European sites that included prison camps. The sagas lent alluring cache to th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:51PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 16, 2015

Classic antics of 'Laugh' an uphill climb in Beth Henley's latest by Nelson Pressley

Forget pratfalls and pies in the face, though Beth Henley's oddball new "Laugh" certainly goes in for both. The bizarre-o sights in the premiere production at Studio Theatre include a corpul…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:19PM[SHARE]

Olney Theatre Center lands new Moises Kaufman project by Nelson Pressley

The Olney Theatre Center has a major catch for next season: the premiere of "Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical" by Moises Kaufman, ringleader of the Tectonic Theater Project ( renowned for …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:30AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 13, 2015

After "The Jacksonian," Beth Henley recharges with slapstick "Laugh" by Nelson Pressley

Beth Henley, where ya been?Henley won a 1981 Pulitzer for the loopy "Crimes of the Heart," and it felt like a long overdue reemergence when she scored an off-Broadway hit two years ago with …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:55PM[SHARE]

After Broadway heights of "Glory Days," back home with "Soon" by Nelson Pressley

It's been seven years since the musical "Glory Days" catapulted from Signature Theatre to Broadway and went down in a blaze of, you know. The show, written by two 23-year-old local lads, clo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:31PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

April's Hayes Awards to be at Lincoln Theatre by Nelson Pressley

Two bits of news about the Helen Hayes Awards on April 6:It won't be an open bar party like last year's event in the National Building Museum's atrium. Back into the theater, everyone! In th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:03PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 6, 2015

Enter, stage (far) right: new play about Justice Scalia in production at Arena by Nelson Pressley

In the case of Scalia v. Gero, Antonin Scalia stared down Edward Gero as the actor visited the Supreme Court to observe the justice at work."We locked eyes for about 15 seconds," says Gero, …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:21PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 3, 2015

En garde! Swashbuckling and Shakespeare coming soon from Synetic by Nelson Pressley

Shhh! More "silent" Shakespeare is on tap from Synetic Theatre, which is bringing back two hits and creating a new wordless take on the Bard for its 2015-16 season. The year in DC theater is…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:58AM[SHARE]
Monday, March 2, 2015

Life after a teen kidnapping in new Kander-Pierce musical 'Kid Victory' by Nelson Pressley

The wind comes sweepin' down the plain in that famous song about Oklahoma, but the breeze will chill your blood in the emotionally fractured Kansas of the new musical "Kid Victory." The flat…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Avast! Sunny pirates, a frosty 'Frozen' and a forecast from Shaw by Nelson Pressley

By the time we get to the year 3000 Baghdad is the capital of Britain, at least according to George Bernard Shaw's astonishingly futuristic "Back to Methuselah." But the setting is Ireland, …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:50AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 20, 2015

D.C.'s women's theaters, emerging on the cheap by Nelson Pressley

There's no argument: Women are dramatically underrepresented on Washington's stages. So sayeth the overwhelming majority of D.C. area troupes, which will coalesce en masse this fall as about…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:58PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

"Menagerie" and "110 in the Shade" among next season's Americana at Ford's by Nelson Pressley

Ford's Theatre will balance a world premiere and vintage Americana " a musical and a cornerstone drama " in its 2015-16 season (with "A Christmas Carol" as its centerpiece, of course). The f…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:12AM[SHARE]
Monday, February 16, 2015

Fading into the woods with D'Amour's mysterious 'Cherokee' by Nelson Pressley

Civilization crumbled to bits in Lisa D'Amour's "Detroit," the Pulitzer finalist about two struggling couples. Suburban routine gave way to alarmingly primitive impulses that Woolly Mammoth …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:14PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 13, 2015

The '80s are back with a vengeance in Wilson's 'King Hedley II' at Arena by Nelson Pressley

If you've ever seen August Wilson's bleak and angry "King Hedley II," you remember its central image: an ex-con with a terrifying scar on his face trying like mad to get flowers to grow in a…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:33PM[SHARE]

Kander's second act: Kander and Pierce, with new musical 'Kid Victory' by Nelson Pressley

In a Manhattan rehearsal studio, actors are learning songs for a new musical called "Kid Victory." Sarah Litzsinger delivers a brief solo as a sarcastic Kansas teen, and legendary Broadway c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:24PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Why "Chicago" should (and should not) be seen this week at the National by Nelson Pressley

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MIXED EMOTIONS "Hello, suckers!"Chicago" is playing at the National Theatre this week through Sunday, and who cares? This is the fifth stint at the National since 1997…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:03PM[SHARE]

Nottage play and new rock musical among Arena Stage's 2015-16 offerings by Nelson Pressley

A world premiere musical will give Arena Stage's 2015-16 season an early launch this summer, as "If/Then" and "Next to Normal" director Michael Greif brings the brand-new "Dear Evan Hansen" …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Manic poets collide in STC's newly hip 18th-century 'Metromaniacs' by Nelson Pressley

The brainy "Metromaniacs"Is sharper than a thousand tacks.And funny? Man, it shakes the wallsOf Shakespeare Theatre's Lansburgh hall.Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:56PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 9, 2015

Adapting to the times: Mexican lovers, Irish terrorists and James's ghosts by Nelson Pressley

A winter blitz is hitting area stages, with enough on view to blanket every taste. At least nine shows opened over the weekend, and the three I caught included a lighthearted Mexican classic…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:45PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 6, 2015

'Rapture' and revived 'Heidi Chronicles' ride the waves of feminism onstage by Nelson Pressley

"The Heidi Chronicles": Dated or on point? Love it or hate it?Passions have always been heated around Wendy Wasserstein's 1988 play, a panoramic sweep through the women's movement from the o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:57PM[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