All stories by Nelson Pressley on BroadwayStars

Monday, August 5, 2013

'A Chorus Line' at the Olney Theatre Center is a largely enjoyable re-creation of Broadway hit by Nelson Pressley

The Olney Theatre Center has long staked a claim to musicals, but "A Chorus Line" " surely that's a high kick too far, right? After all, it's a pro's show, forged from the personal confessio…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:25PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 26, 2013

'Waiting for Orson' is bright, but belaboring by Nelson Pressley

Ian Leahy's new drama "Waiting for Orson" is about a young man hanging around public transit urgently expecting an alien encounter. And we've all been there, right? The strength of Leahy's h…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:53AM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 25, 2013

Theater review: Synetic revives its 'Midsummer Night's Dream' by Nelson Pressley

Synetic Theater's sexy and funny "A Midsummer Night's Dream," with its half-dressed heroines and slapstick clowns, was a high point in the troupe's decade of successes when it first appeared…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:16PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Theater review: 'The T Party,' an explicit rebuke to discrimination by Nelson Pressley

Dolphins surface onstage in Natsu Onoda Power's "The T Party," played by actors in sleek grayish body suits and wearing their bathing trunks on the outside. The dolphins couple freely, often…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:12PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 19, 2013

For Equity actors in D.C., nice work if you can get it by Nelson Pressley

Washington's Nanna Ingvarsson won a leading actress Helen Hayes Award playing Janet in "The Rocky Horror Show" with Woolly Mammoth in 1991. A few years later, performing with a Kennedy Cente…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:19PM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 18, 2013

'The No Rules Show' puckishly tweaks the TV talk show format by Nelson Pressley

A late night-style chat show is only as good as its guests, so the random factor is extremely high for No Rules Theatre's "The No Rules Show." Wednesday's entertainers on the intimate Ark s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:41PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 12, 2013

No Rules Theatre Company co-conspirators bring their new variety show to the District by Nelson Pressley

If the daring young No Rules Theatre Company is now showing something called "The No Rules Show," what can audiences expect? "We're calling it half 'The Judy Garland Show,' half Conan O'Brie…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:04PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 5, 2013

Solo artists offer up unique dance-themed pieces at Capital Fringe Festival by Nelson Pressley

Fringe is freedom to do your own thing, as two young D.C.-based performers are proving this month. Brynn Tucker and Emma Crane Jaster are both under 30 and bringing original dance-themed pie…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:29PM[SHARE]

'Book of Mormon' creators discuss the musical by Nelson Pressley

CLEVELAND " The box office miracles of "The Book of Mormon," chapter and verse: The musical has played to over 100 percent capacity audiences on Broadway since opening more than two years…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:23PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 3, 2013

For 3 Capital Fringe playwrights, PTSD is a personal matter by Nelson Pressley

Coming to the Capital Fringe Festival this year: America's overseas conflicts, with at least three shows dealing head-on with the military and post-traumatic stress disorder. Each production…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:19PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 28, 2013

Keegan Theatre company, new owners of Church Street Theater, dreams big by Nelson Pressley

It's hard to weigh the impact of the small Keegan Theatre company's purchase of the Church Street Theater without first doing some, well, "bathroom math." The theater seats 117, and lately i…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:11PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 20, 2013

Woolly Mammoth buys D Street theater facility by Nelson Pressley

The building and home-owning surge in Washington theater will continue Friday as the edgy and acclaimed Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces the purchase of the 265-seat facility that it…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:42PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 14, 2013

Shakespeare Theatre dispute closer to court date by Nelson Pressley

The Shakespeare Theatre Company moved a step closer to trial Friday in its tenancy dispute over the company's longtime theater in the Lansburgh building downtown. The Tony Award-winning clas…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:46PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 13, 2013

Kennedy Center's 'Anything Goes' is a real party full of show-stopping numbers by Nelson Pressley

Even the orchestra laughs along with "Anything Goes," the jubilant, dance-your-cares-away musical comedy that just sailed into the Kennedy Center's Opera House for a month. As the saxophones…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:38PM[SHARE]

D.C. theaters scramble to find new homes by Nelson Pressley

Even producing such slender rock-and-roll camp as "Diamond Dead" and "Cannibal, the Musical," Andrew Baughman and his heavy-metal brethren with the Landless Theatre Companyoutgrew their base…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:58PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Theater review: Source Festival gets underway with flip and poignant playlets by Nelson Pressley

Things have changed around the Source Festival since it first began in 1981. The nighttime sidewalk at 14th and T Northwest teems with hipsters bobbing from bar to bar. It used to be a scary…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:36AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 7, 2013

Kathleen Marshall, Broadway's 'vintage girl' by Nelson Pressley

NEW YORK " Line up Kathleen Marshall's three Tony Awards for choreography in the past decade, and it's easy to spot the trend. "I'm the vintage girl," Marshall acknowledges with a laugh. The…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:59AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 5, 2013

'Becky Shaw' at Round House Theatre by Nelson Pressley

Does this sound too cynical? "Love is the happy by-product of use," says one of the characters in Gina Gionfriddo's dark, delightfully tart "Becky Shaw." The play " a 2009 Pulitzer Prize fin…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:37PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 3, 2013

'Stupid F---ing Bird' is a rude, fitting take on Chekhov's 'The Seagull' by Nelson Pressley

The rude, childish title of "Stupid F---ing Bird" turns out to be smack on the money for Aaron Posner's savvy, petulant blitz through Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull." Posner's new play is less…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:39PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Few giddy thrills in 1st Stage's 'Blithe Spirit' by Nelson Pressley

What can you do with a warhorse like "Blithe Spirit"? Noel Coward's ghostly comedy is snappy and professional at 1st Stage (tucked away in a small Tysons Corner strip mall), and it isn't eno…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:20PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

'Clementine in the Lower 9' melds Greek myth with New Orleans disaster, superstition by Nelson Pressley

Post-Katrina New Orleans is the backdrop for Dan Dietz's new drama "Clementine in the Lower 9," and the hypnotic production at Forum Theatre features a jagged hole ripped through a wide roof…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:54PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 24, 2013

Two D.C. theaters test new models for putting new plays onstage by Nelson Pressley

Theaters keep rolling out new ways to premiere plays, and two fresh Washington initiatives are in full flower " or in full beast mode " right now. Theater J's initiative, called Locally Grow…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:58AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Signature Theatre gets $250,000 grant from Arlington County to get it up to date on taxes by Nelson Pressley

The Arlington County Board approved a $250,000 grant to Signature Theatre on Tuesday as the parties reconsider Signature's lease and tax arrangements. The move, approved in a 5 to 0 vote, co…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:00PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 20, 2013

'Three Musketeers' at Synetic goes full throttle on the senses by Nelson Pressley

Nearly everything Synetic Theater does could be called "Fast and Furious," and the movement-based troupe's relentless new "The Three Musketeers" opens with a tiger pounce as four actors leap…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:37AM[SHARE]

Kennedy Center concert celebrates composer Stephen Schwartz by Nelson Pressley

At 65, composer Stephen Schwartz is indisputably the king of ol' Broadway. Last week "Wicked," nearly 10 years into its gravity-defying long run, was the ­most-attended show on the strip,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:37AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 13, 2013

'The Submission' at Olney Theatre Center: What starts out as sly becomes unbearable by Nelson Pressley

Jeff Talbott's "The Submission" is maddening and smug, but it begins with a fabulous premise. Danny has just written a play he thinks is dynamite, yet he fears no theater will touch it. It's…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:01PM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 12, 2013

Music review: Adam Pascal performs introspective set at Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

Adam Pascal, in skinny jeans and sneakers, suggested Friday night that the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater was "too hoity-toity a venue for me." His introspective 70-minute set " more lite …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:50PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 10, 2013

'No Man's Land' is vintage Harold Pinter, with heart by Nelson Pressley

This season, the small-budget troupe WSC Avant Bard lost its residency in Rosslyn's Artisphere. They're now on the lam. They've stopped briefly at Theatre on the Run, an 85-seat space in Shi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:41AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 6, 2013

Jonathan Pryce shines in 'My Fair Lady' gala concert at Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

Any search for a perfect Henry Higgins might stop happily with Jonathan Pryce. The "My Fair Lady" gala concert Sunday night at the Kennedy Center was satisfying, not stunning, but it often s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:27PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 2, 2013

Theater review: Stylish 'Ghost-Writer' at MetroStage by Nelson Pressley

It is 1919 in the enjoyably bookish drama "Ghost-Writer," and the novelist Franklin Woolsey has just died. Yet his typist, Myra Babbage, continues to type, insisting that she's just finishin…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:43PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wit's End Puppets' 'The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of Kismet' by Nelson Pressley

With enough imagination you can make a puppet out of anything " a kitchen whisk, steel shoe trees, even a leather belt. That's the chief fascination of "The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:07PM[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