All stories by Nelson Pressley on BroadwayStars

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]
Monday, April 29, 2013

No Rules Theatre's 'The Personal(s)' a gloomy, quirky play by Nelson Pressley

"Funny" is a word the characters murmur from time to time in the "The Personal(s)," a gloomy but gripping new play from No Rules Theatre Company. They say it because they're past laughter, s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:14PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 26, 2013

WSC's 'No Man's Land': A rare show from three directors by Nelson Pressley

The current predicament of the perennially cash-strapped classical troupe WSC Avant Bard is no joke, yet its scrappy response sets up an obvious one-liner. Q: What play sounds right for a su…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:19PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 24, 2013

'Boeing Boeing,' a sometimes bumpy ride through extra-friendly skies by Nelson Pressley

No thinking: that's the empty mind-set of the swinging '60s bedroom farce "Boeing Boeing," even though this peppy French artifact is fundamentally a math problem. Follow the numbers. The pla…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:40PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 19, 2013

Dinner theater, taken seriously by Nelson Pressley

"This is the story," declares a feisty Toby Orenstein, co-owner and artistic director of Toby's Dinner Theatre, which is celebrated and berated in what sometimes seems to be equal measure. "…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:31PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 16, 2013

In moving, borderline simplistic 'Bible,' Jesuit priest analyzes family, mother's death by Nelson Pressley

Can a play have a halo? "How to Write a New Book for the Bible" arrives at Bethesda's Round House Theatre with an almost holy glow: It's the deeply autobiographical account of a Jesuit pries…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:30PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 12, 2013

A deeply personal '4000 Miles' marks playwright Amy Herzog's breakthrough moment by Nelson Pressley

Playwright Amy Herzog has arrived in a hurry. First New York: she has conquered off-Broadway with three acclaimed productions in the past 12 months, starting with the Lincoln Center Theater'…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:28PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Signature Theatre's 'The Last Five Years' is worth a close listen by Nelson Pressley

Jason Robert Brown's 2002 song cycle "The Last Five Years," about a young couple's romantic flameout, was written in the heat of divorce, and it shows. It hurtles with energy: The story-rich…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 8, 2013

Folger Theatre's 'Shrew' wins Helen Hayes Award for outstanding resident play by Nelson Pressley

The Folger Theatre's wild west "The Taming of the Shrew" rode a field-topping nine nominations going into Monday night's Helen Hayes Awards at the Warner Theatre, Washington theater's annual…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:12PM[SHARE]

The 29th Annual Helen Hayes Awards Recipients by Nelson Pressley

Outstanding Director, Resident Musical Serge Seiden Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris MetroStage Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:12PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 7, 2013

Theater review: 'Neville's Island' cheerfully skewers middle management by Nelson Pressley

What do the words "middle management" bring to mind? If you picture a man halfway up a tree in his underwear, then the jolly "Neville's Island" won't take you by surprise. Playwright Tim Fir…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:56AM[SHARE]
Friday, April 5, 2013

Hansberry's long shadow in 'Raisin Cycle' by Nelson Pressley

How inescapable is "A Raisin in the Sun"? It's not actually being performed as part of the bold two-play "Raisin Cycle" beginning Wednesday at Baltimore's Center Stage, but Lorraine Hansberr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:55AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 22, 2013

'4000 Miles' star Tana Hicken: 'This may be my last play' by Nelson Pressley

It was a lifetime ago that actress Tana Hicken rejected the obvious path leading to New York and the bland rags of ingenue parts. "I wanted to be an actor," Hicken says. "I wanted to do tran…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:37AM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 17, 2013

Theater review: 'Mud Blue Sky' at Center Stage is a beautiful story about scraping by by Nelson Pressley

Let's remember Marisa Wegrzyn's name. The Chicago-bred playwright, 31, has earned prizes and commissions across the theater world, so, of course, she has already split for the commercially g…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:27PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 8, 2013

Remember the time when Washington saved 'Hello, Dolly!'? by Nelson Pressley

Well, hello again, "Dolly!" It has been nearly 50 years since Carol Channing and a dazzling cluster of high-stepping waiters found their footing in the pre-Broadway tryout of a shaky new mus…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:42PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Theater review: 'Home' at Rep Stage by Nelson Pressley

The voyage from the rural South to the urban North and back is long and twisted in "Home," the 1980 road-trip-of-the-soul drama by Samm-Art Williams. The itinerary of Cephus Miles, a modest …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:07PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Review: A toothless 'Berlin to Broadway' at Source by Nelson Pressley

"Oh the shark has Pretty teeth, dear "" Which is more than can be said for the blandly cheery revue gliding around toothlessly at Source. "Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill: A Musical Voya…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:57PM[SHARE]
Saturday, March 2, 2013

Theater review: Dante's 'Inferno' by Washington Stage Guild by Nelson Pressley

How in the H-E-double hockey sticks can you act out Dante's "Inferno"? For the one-man adaptation with the Washington Stage Guild, Bill Largess takes a reverent approach. He cleaves to the 1…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:15PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Civil War anniversary spurs artistic collaboration by Nelson Pressley

An ambitious National Civil War Project will be unveiled Thursday at Arena Stage as major universities and flagship theaters in four cities team up to create new performances and campus prog…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:11PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 21, 2013

At Kennedy Center, 'Metamorphosis' turns Kafka's tale on its side by Nelson Pressley

Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is the famous tale of alienation in which the protagonist, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning as an insect. It's a creepy fable, and the magn…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:48PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 15, 2013

Danai Gurira's 'Convert' and the long view of Zimbabwe's history by Nelson Pressley

Danai Gurira from A to Z: well, mostly Z. As in Zimbabwe. That's where the increasingly visible, Iowa-born Gurira was raised, and it's the subject of her new historical drama currently at Wo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:48AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 14, 2013

A rousing 'Spring Awakening' at Olney Theatre Center by Nelson Pressley

There are shows that let you know almost immediately that the night may be a satisfying knockout. Steve Cosson's staging of "Spring Awakening," drawing young and hip-looking crowds to the su…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:48AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A splendid 'Hughie' at Shakespeare Theatre Company by Nelson Pressley

There's this guy shuffling around on the stage of the Lansburgh Theatre " just a guy. Small-time. Beige suit, kind of rumpled. Talks in slang about horse races and crap games. A loser, but w…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:26PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 8, 2013

Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses" at Arena Stage by Nelson Pressley

Here's what happens when your stage is a pool, which is how it is with playwright Mary Zimmerman's famous "Metamorphoses " Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:11AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 7, 2013

Taffety Punk gives Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' a new wave staging by Nelson Pressley

Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" goes "Little Mermaid" in a whimsical new staging by Taffety Punk Theatre Company that's goofy and buoyant. Occasional bubbles suggest everything's underwater .�…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:04AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 1, 2013

Richard Schiff returns to Washington to star in the Shakespeare's 'Hughie' by Nelson Pressley

Richard Schiff is having a Toby Ziegler moment. "There are so many stories," murmurs Schiff, who played angst-riddled White House communications director Ziegler on the game-changing TV seri…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:52AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 28, 2013

'Color Purple' musical earns eight nominations at Helen Hayes Awards by Nelson Pressley

The dish from the Helen Hayes Awards announcement Monday night: the most nominations for a musical went to a show from a dinner theater. The Toby's Dinner Theatre production of "The Color Pu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:37PM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 27, 2013

Terri White sings show tune classics with emotional force by Nelson Pressley

The bar is set pretty high for the Barbara Cook Spotlight Series at the Kennedy Center. Yet during an exhilarating 90 minutes Friday night in the Terrace Theater, Broadway vet Terri White ki…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:31PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 24, 2013

Rorschach Theatre brings intelligent but self-conscious 'Minotaur' to Atlas by Nelson Pressley

The folks at Rorschach Theatre are practiced fantasists, so they have no problem conjuring a minotaur for the new play "The Minotaur." Costume designer Lauren Cucarola provides actor David Z…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:04PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Israeli tensions spill onto the stage in new 'Enemy of the People' by Nelson Pressley

Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" is proving to be a play for all political times. During the fall election season, "Enemy" was on Broadway starring Richard Thomas, while a separate pr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:47PM[SHARE]

'August: Osage County' is fitting opener for Everyman Theatre's new space in Baltimore by Nelson Pressley

Can you really dare to open a new theater these days with a 31 / 2-hour marathon? Can you risk producing a play " not a musical " that requires 13 actors? Can you bet all your chips on somet…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:47PM[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