All stories by Peter Marks on BroadwayStars

Sunday, September 27, 2015

A "Spring" Reawakening on Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Their hands fluttering up to form what look like little arches, the cast members of Deaf West Theatre's "Spring Awakening" offer an initial glimpse of how American Sign Lang…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:40PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 24, 2015

A theater export from D.C. that turns out to be a late bloomer by Peter Marks

If you don't believe in life after death, then you aren't acquainted with the fate of "Glory Days."The modest musical, born in early 2008 at Signature Theatre, about four high school buddies…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:45PM[SHARE]

Signature Theatre Wants Your New Musical by Peter Marks

There's another place for you in Arlington to hone your new musical.Signature Theatre revealed details on Thursday of its new SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab, a project that begins ne…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:40PM[SHARE]

D.C.'s secret export: theater by Peter Marks

As word of mouth steadily grew in early August and tickets started to fly out of Arena Stage's box office, Stacey Mindich knew that the musical she helped nurture, "Dear Evan Hansen," would …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:34PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Most Produced Plays In America include "Mr. Burns" and "Stupid F"ing Bird" by Peter Marks

American Theatre magazine surveys the country annually for the most frequently produced plays at the nation's regional theaters. Lo and behold, two of the top 10 originated at Woolly Mammoth…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:02PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Review of 'Chimerica': Good characters, forbidding cities by Peter Marks

The mystifying success of Lucy Kirkwood's "Chimerica" grows only more puzzling with its American premiere at Studio Theatre. After three-hours-plus of lumbering exposition, you leave the pla…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:39PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 14, 2015

by Peter Marks

Warning: That dish placed before you that goes by the name of Caesar, Waldorf, Chopped, Cobb or Kale may be hazardous to your psyche.Yes, you'll learn courtesy of "Women Laughing Alone With …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:09PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 11, 2015

Challenging the gender status quo in American theater by Peter Marks

Given the raw data, you would think that every day in the theater would be a women's festival.Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:30PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Misty Copeland brings star power to 'On the Town' by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Re-electrifying a show in its dying days, ballet sensation Misty Copeland brings considerable charisma and elegant physicality to her Broadway debut as a gamine beauty queen in th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:57PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 13, 2015

Dear Evan Hansen: You're going to New York by Peter Marks

"Dear Evan Hansen," the new musical that opened to excellent reviews earlier this month in its world premiere run at Arena Stage, is moving to New York in spring 2016.Second Stage Theatre an…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:59PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 6, 2015

'Hamilton': Making ecstatic history by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Thomas Jefferson was honored with a majestic memorial, George Washington by the name of our capital city. But lovers of show tunes know that among the Founding Fathers, Alexander …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:29PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 3, 2015

'Dear Evan Hansen' radiates charm and wit, and that's no lie by Peter Marks

If your upcoming vacation plans allow you any flexibility, then by any means possible add "Dear Evan Hansen" to your itinerary. The heart-piercingly lovely new musical, receiving its world p…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:50AM[SHARE]
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015

An actor of note seeks to unlock the mysteries of a hero of the Holocaust by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " David Strathairn can't get the Georgetown professor out of his system.It is a purely professional attraction, however, one that over the past year has propelled the Oscar-nominate…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:38PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 10, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015

It shouldn't be Patti Lupone's job to call out inconsiderate texters at the theater by Peter Marks

News reaches us that Patti LuPone is mad as hell and isn't taking it anymore. Wednesday night, during a performance of the off-Broadway play she's appearing in, "Show for Days," she spied a …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:10PM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 2, 2015

Little Shop of HURRAHS! Greene & Gyllenhaal are sublime in concert version of Ashman-Menken show. by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"The decades melted away at City Center Wednesday night, as the astonishingly ageless Ellen Greene returned in all her glory to the role she made famous"the doomed, cutey-pie-voiced …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:57PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 22, 2015

"Bombshell" For Real? by Peter Marks

So "Bombshell" really may be a thing.The musical-within-a-musical on NBC's defunct "Smash" is now being developed by the network as a full-fledged stage musical. This may eventually mark the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:18PM[SHARE]

Who Are the New Welders? by Peter Marks

The playwrights who banded together in 2013 to form The Welders built an unusual mandate into their company's story: term limits.  Not by setting an expiration date for the overall concep…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:30PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Steve and Edie (Martin and Brickell) bring a musical to D.C. by Peter Marks

Steve Martin is a man of many media. In movies, he's played a jerk and an amigo and the father of a bride. On TV, he's been a wild and crazy guy. For museum exhibitions, he's lent pieces fro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 10, 2015

No more champagne for 'Gigi' by Peter Marks

"Gigi" faced tough odds from the start. Although the new stage version of the 1958 Oscar-winning movie musical boasted a popular young star in Vanessa Hudgens, the show itself had a…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:43PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Live from New York, It's "Bombshell"! by Peter Marks

NEW YORK""Bombshell" lives!Well, kind of.Less a musical-for-television than a musical-made-up-for-television, "Bombshell" existed as 20-odd numbers scattered across 32 episode…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:29PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 8, 2015

The 2015 Tonys: The play's not the thing by Peter Marks

Bravo to the Tony voters, all 700 of them. The four productions named Sunday night as the best of the season were truly deserving. As for the awards show itself, well, everyone deserved bett…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:30PM[SHARE]

The 2015 Tonys: The play's not the thing by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"Bravo to the Tony voters, all 700 of them. The four productions named Sunday night as the best of the season were truly deserving. As for the awards show itself, well, everyone…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:10PM[SHARE]

'Fun Home' takes home five Tonys, including for best musical by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " "Fun Home," an emotionally searing musical about a gay woman's sexual awakening in a troubled Pennsylvania family, walked away with Sunday night's most coveted award, best musical…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:34AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 5, 2015

Summer theater: Five opportunities to see something special by Peter Marks

Don't think of summer as theater's cooling-off period. Nowadays there's too much heat on too many stages to consider it the slow season. For more evidence that July and August aren't time to…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:12PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 1, 2015

'Zombie: The American': An unholy spectacle by Peter Marks

Well, kids, sorry to tell you, but the future here in the homeland doesn't look like much fun. Floods, civil wars, invasions by foreign powers, stonings, beheadings. And, oh, yeah, zombies i…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 29, 2015

A Tonys wish list by Peter Marks

Jake, you were robbed!I know, I know, this doesn't rise to the level of war crime. It's simply another of those entertainment-world injustices, perpetrated like clockwork at awards-show time…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:13PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 28, 2015

Hi, God. It's me, Jim Parsons. Oh, wait: I AM God? by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " In the beginning was the word, and that word (inevitably) was posted on Twitter. When God saw that the tweet was good, it begat other tweets, which begat a flock on Twitter number…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:13PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 25, 2015

Chess at Signature Theatre: musical theater more musical than theatrical by Peter Marks

Almost any time a mouth opens and notes spill out, the newly slimmed down Chess is a gateway to musical-theater nirvana.

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:58PM[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